At some later date maybe I’ll post a retrospective about my neighbor
Ashley Paulk, but for now I think the many posts in this blog will serve,
and meanwhile I look forward to seeing what the new Commission will do
with new Commissioners Demarcus Marshall (District 4), John Page (District 5),
and new Chairman Bill Slaughter.
Farewell Chairman Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 December 2012.
So why does
Augusta have the second highest high tech job growth in the country?
I can only speculate, but local government transparency could be a factor.
If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,
would you go for a place where you couldn't tell what the local governments
were up to, or one where you could easily find out?
Augusta's combined City Council and County Commission meetings
(it's a consolidated government)
are on video, online.
Their agendas are available in either HTML or PDF,
with attachments.
We could have slipped down this slippery slope with
that proposed CCA private prison,
down to where Casa Grande Arizona is, inviting CCA’s
guards and dogs into our schools to collect our children as
private prison customers.
Drug sweeps of schools are not uncommon occurrences in the recent
past in America, much to the chagrin of civil rights advocates, who
see such sweeps as an efficient means of diverting certain kids to
prison — in some cases, even before they make it to
adolescence, via the much-criticized
“school-to-prison pipeline”.
What was unusual about this particular raid, however, is that, among
the team of law enforcement personnel and canines put together by
the local Casa Grande police department, there were prison guards
employed by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the
country’s largest for-profit prison company, which owns and operates
several prisons in the area. CCA was also kind enough to provide
their sniffer dogs for the raid.
What’s even more unusual about this is that pretty much nobody in a
position of authority in and around Casa Grande seems to think
there’s anything wrong with that.
That’s where “jobs, jobs, jobs” with no consideration of the consequences
leads you.
Some jobs are not worth having.
Private prison jobs are among them.
The state of Georgia spends a billion dollars a year locking people up,
many of them for minor drug offenses, and around 85% of them for
drug-related offenses.
What if instead we spent a fraction of that money on drug counselling
and mental health care, and the rest on public education?
Then we’d have healthier people more prepared for real jobs.
If Lowndes County owed $0 (zero dollars) on the county palace in November 2010,
why are we paying on
$8,965,000 in bonds for it in December 2012?
If that palace was “100% Paid by SPLOST” in 2010,
why in 2012 is the county pledging our property tax dollars to pay those bonds?
In November 2010:
$22,380,000
Judicial Building Cost
$6,728,000
Administrative Building Cost
100%
Paid by SPLOST
$0
Balance Owed
So says a double-page flyer about “the Lowndes County Judicial &
Administrative Complex”
produced by the Valdosta Daily Times for Lowndes
County in 2010 and signed “Highest regards, Joe Pritchard, County Manager”.
There’s no dateline, but it invites the public to a dedication of the Complex
“on Friday, November 12, 2010.”
The Bonds are payable solely from payments to be made by Lowndes County,
Georgia (the “County”) pursuant to an Intergovernmental Contract,
dated as of December 1, 2012 (the “Contract”), between the Issuer
and the County. Under the Contract, the County has agreed to levy and
collect an annual tax on all taxable property located within the County
as may be necessary to produce in each year revenues which are sufficient
to make the payments required by the Contract.
Moody and the Chamber won, rural residents got wasted,
and taxpayers still didn't get to see a single thing the Lowndes County Commission
voted on last night in 45 minutes (very long for them)
in front of the biggest audience I've ever seen there.
You missed all that and more at yesterday's Commission meeting.
Here's
a video playlist of the Regular Session,
followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.
Update 2014-04-09: Fixed embedded video link.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 December 2012.
The city of Valdosta was approved for a CWSRF loan of $18,500,000 to
finance phase two of the Mud Creek Water Pollution Control Plant
project, which includes increasing capacity from 3.2 million gallons
per day (GPD) to 5.7 million GPD, and additional improvements and
modifications to the facility. Valdosta will also design a new
solids treatment system. The city of Valdosta will pay 3 percent
interest on the 20-year loan for $18,500,000.
So why is the County of Lowndes having to float bonds?
And are bonds on the commercial
bond market really a better financial deal for the county?
From: “Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board ” <chamber@valdostachamber.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:47:01 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Alert: Chamber needs your help to protect Moody!
Dear Chamber Member,
Our Chamber recognizes the $448 million economic impact Moody Air
Force Base has on our regional economy each year. We meet with Air
Force officials at the Pentagon annually and ask them, “What else
can our community do to protect MAFB from the next BRAC?” The
answer, every year: prevent encroachment, and the best way to do
that is by protecting the Military Activity Zone (MAZ).
The second agenda item would
change the zoning ordinance
to allow even more densely settled neighborhoods in the MAZ.
One of the reasons we’ve been able to keep MAFB here
for more than
70 years is because MAFB can be utilized for a number of types of
missions, largely because of the protected activity zone. Both
agenda items, if passed, could increase encroachment into the MAZ
and could very well limit MAFB’s future mission possibilities.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny this subdivision,
and
to deny the proposed changes to the MAZ that would allow more
dense residential development. The County Commission should vote to
deny, too.
The
Chamber’s GAC Executive Committee voted unanimously to oppose
actions that allow encroachment and weaken the MAZ. The Chamber
encourages our members to contact our County Commission members to
let them know how you feel about protecting MAFB. The Chamber
encourages our members to attend the County Commission meeting at
the Dec. 11 meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Administation Building.
Please respond to this email to share your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce
A surprising amount of discussion at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
on ZBOA appointment, alcohol Sunday sales, rezoning next to Moody,
and more.
They said nothing about the solid waste ordinance, however;
maybe they’ll table that loser again.
They vote tonight:
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Here’s
a video playlist of the Work Session,
followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
Here’s
the agenda,
this time with links to the videos and some notes.
More than a million dollars will be saved by refinancing county bonds,
the Chairman and staff indicated at
yesterday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Congratulations!
But who is this shadowy Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
that is responsible for that?
8.i. Refunding Revenue Bonds
County Manager Joe Pritchard said
the county was refinancing two bond packages, for the
Public Facilities Authority
and for the
Central Valdosta Development Authority.
County Attorney Walter Elliott said the
Public Facilities Authority was meeting 4PM tomorrow (now today 11 Dec 2012)
to approve an ordinance similar to what the County Commission was
being asked to approve Tuesday night.
There’s also a purchase agreement with the underwriter,
in the packet only the board gets to see.
Chairman Ashley Paulk said he spoke Friday to somebody named Mr.
Bucky Kensey(?) who wouldn’t tell him a number but said the
bond market had moved in the county’s favor.
The Chairman also said:
I want the public to understand these are not new bonds
these are old bonds that are at a higher interest rate
that are going to be refinanced at a lower rate,
and I believe the last savings was close to a million dollars.
The Chairman indicated Mr. Kensey(?) thought there would be a pleasant
surprise with even more savings than that.
The Commissioners reappointed Antonio Henderson and Harry Sullivan
to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority. Their terms will
expire May 31, 2010. Joseph Stevens was appointed, and his term will
expire May 31, 2009.
The primary purpose of the meeting is for the Authority to consider
a Bond Resolution to provide for the issuance of Refunding Revenue
Bonds for the purpose of refunding in part Public Facilities Authority
Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project), Series 2005,
and Central Valdosta Development Authority Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administrative Complex), Series 2003, to authorize and approve
the execution and delivery of an Intergovernmental Contract with Lowndes
County, and related purposes. The meeting will be open to the public in
accordance with the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
NEW YORK, November 15, 2012 —Moody’s Investors Service has
assigned a Aa2 rating and a stable outlook to Lowndes County’s (GA)
$9.1 million Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administration Complex), Series 2012 and $7.2 million
Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project),
Series 2013, both issued by the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority.
At this time, Moody’s has also affirmed the Aa2 ratings
to $15.5 million of general obligation bonds and $193.7 million of
bonds issued through the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes
County, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, the
Central Valdosta Development Authority and the Lowndes County Public
Facilities Authority…
You know, the county could just tell us all this stuff, so we wouldn’t
have to try to google it.
It is our tax money they are spending, after all.
Refinancing Bonds and the Public Facilities Authority
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
Scoring for library architect selection seems more rigorous now,
at yesterday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
But where are the scores?
And what are the names of the two finalists?
They vote or table tonight at 5:30 PM.
8.h. New Main Library — Construction Manager At Risk Selection
Project Manager Chad McCleod said
proposals had been received from nine firms,
and “using a score sheet with certain grading criteria”
staff narrowed them down to three offers.
Each firm gave a one-hour presentation last Friday to
the selection committee which again
“used certain grading criteria to score each firm”.
The top two scorers were Coffee[?] Construction and
Quillian Powell Construction.
At the county’s farewell reception for retiring Chairman Ashley Paulk Friday,
Attorney General Sam Olens gave him something to hang on the wall,
Paulk said a few words,
County Manager Joe Pritchard
read a letter from incoming Chairman Bill Slaughter,
and
Pritchard said a few words and gave Paulk a rocking chair, in which he declined to sit.
