Manipulating construction contracts landed two former DeKalb County school employees in prison.
Rhonda Cook wrote for the AJC 9 December 2013,
Former DeKalb schools COO gets 15 years:
Judge rejects former superintendent Crawford Lewis’ deal for no jail time,
Prosecutors allege Reid sent work to her husband by presenting new work at Columbia as an extension of what he was already contracted to do and then Pope allegedly overcharged the district.
Prosecutors also contend Continue reading
The Commission’s designated first speaker
confused order with good.
Chairman Bill Slaughter
required a sitting judge to go to the podium to speak,
even though he had not required that for multiple Spectra pipeline reps
the previous morning.
Nottinghill is finally resolved,
after yet more probing questions by Commissioners; more than they
asked the Spectra reps.
A
VSU professor
and
a landowner
asked very good questions about the pipeline,
a
KLVB board member gave a report,
and
Gretchen asked the Commission to post Planning Commission minutes online.
Two people were appointed; one spoke. The two beer licenses, a liquor license, the decorative special tax lighting district for Windstone, the contracts, the resolution to ask the legislature for an additional judge, and the bids were all approved with little discussion. The settlement for back pay it turns out didn’t actually involve employees having to sue to get paid.
Here’s the amended agenda with the two added items, plus links to the videos and a few notes. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
AMENDED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
A local landowner said that with no open access in Georgia,
Sabal Trail Transmission should have no standing to use
Georgia eminent domain law.
And Sabal Trail must comply with local, state, and federal laws and
ordinances, including ones that could be passed by the Lowndes
County Commission, she said at their
10 December 2013 Regular Session.
For example, a depth ordinance, or an ordinance requiring
a minimum distance from homes or schools.
Or a tax on the pipeline easement.
She recommended
PipelineSafetyInfo.com.
She asked for the Commissioners to use their voice.
As WCTV quoted her in their coverage, she said,
I don’t want to have to fear for my children as they sleep at night.
County Manager Joe Pritchard shuffled papers and
alleged County Attorney Walter G. Elliott yawned during these
citizen presentations.
Mindy Bland noted Commissioner Powell had asked for Continue reading
How about a profit-sharing venture the pipeline partners and the County? A VSU professor asked that at the 10 December 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Dr. Hochschild listed a few benefits Spectra rep. Brian Fahrenthold had claimed the previous morning.
Considering the vast profits Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail stand to make from the use of our land, I know they can do a lot better than hotel stays, Big Macs, and temporary jobs. Mr. Fahrenthold claimed the pipeline would be economically beneficial because it will supposedly bring in $460 million in property taxes over the next sixty years.
First I’d like to know if an independent agency came up with that projection, or if Continue reading
It’s curious how the City of Valdosta manages to put agendas and minutes for the Zoning Board of Appeals online, but Lowndes County doesn’t put agendas and minutes for the Planning Commission online. Gretchen Quarterman asked the County Commission to fix that, at the 10 December 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
She noted that to get the minutes of the Planning Commission she had to file an open records request, and what she got was paper.
And I’ll show you one here. I’m relatively certain this wasn’t typed on a typewriter. It was typed on a computer. And I’d really like to get a computer copy of it; an electronic copy. I always just get a paper copy. So, my request would be: could I please get open records requests in electronic form when they’re available? And, even better, could the county put these minutes on the website somewhere?
Here’s the video: Continue reading
The long-deferred rezoning for the Orr Road version of the Nottinghill subdivision
was finally resolved at the
10 December 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
6.a. REZ-2013-11 Nottinghill, Orr Rd R-A to R-21
County Planner Jason Davenport said
“staff has laid out for you background information”, etc.
and staff recommended approval.
Commissioner John Page pointed out that there was still some question of the land being purchased by applicant, and not all the signatures were yet ready.
Davenport said some were word of mouth, others were power of attorney, etc.
The
alleged County Attorney Walter G. Elliott
said Continue reading
We can probably guess who
“Dr. Grow” is
and the general topic of his presentation,
but why does the county make us guess?
The county wants
an architect for a new roof and shower in one jail pod;
it’s considering two interagency agreements,
one for
Valdosta Inspections for Lake Park
and the other for
the county extension,
plus
setting election qualifying fees
and
a Special Assessment Rate for 2014.
There’s a
beer license
and acceptance of
infrastructure for part of Grove Pointe Subdivision.
Here’s the agenda: Continue reading
300,000 people have their drinking water poisoned by a coal chemical in a disaster declared by a state and the federal government. Do we know what’s in that coal ash coal ash in the Lowndes County landfill? Do we trust a pipeline company with a long list of safety violations to dig into our aquifer?
David Jackson wrote for USA Today yesterday, Obama sends disaster aid to West Virginia,
President Obama is sending federal assistance to West Virginia, where schools and businesses are closed after a chemical spill Thursday into a Charleston river.
“The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts,” said an administration statement on Friday morning.
Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency will coordinate efforts with local officials.
Kiley Kroh wrote for Thinkprogress yesterday, West Virginia Declares State Of Emergency After Coal Chemical Contaminates Drinking Water, Continue reading
Do you want foreign corporations to be able to sue the U.S. because your county has implemented restrictions of pipelines feeding liquid natural gas exports? Or because your country hasn’t locked up enough people for unintentional infringement of copyright? Or because your state has implemented a GMO-labeling law? Then you oppose the TPP.
After the November
release of
the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter,
in December Wikileaks released
two documents from the secret
closed Salt Lake City TPP chief negotiators’ meeting
of the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
showing deep divisions between the negotiating countries that have
already caused a U.S.-imposed TPP deadline to be missed.
These documents add potential international treaty enforcement of
“mandates” against restrictions on trade to protect national products
or environment or labor to all the reasons
EFF gives for opposing this corporate-power-grab treaty
and the
LNG export pressures for TPP that would drive up the price of fracked
“natural” gas and push pipelines through numerous states for the profit
of a few fossil fuel and utility executives and investors.
The deep divisions among the negotiating countries exposed Continue reading
The Valdosta City Council votes Thursday on
a contract for flood mapping
related to the
series of secretive Army Corps of Engineers meetings,
plus bids for water and sewer and smoke testing sewers.
They’re also swearing in winners of the recent
election and electing a mayor pro-tem (probably the same one),
along with
a change to the
Entertainment Ordinance
and
public hearings to close an alley
and
abandon part of a street,
and the usual
City Manager’s Report,
Council Comments,
and
Citizens to be Heard.
No detail in the city’s agenda about the flood mapping, but
at the Lowndes County Commission
Work Session 11 November 2013
Emergency Services Director Ashley Tye said
the current agreement wouldn’t obligate any payment, merely to reserve the right to contract at a later date if that seemed to be in the county’s best interests,
and at the
Regular Session 12 November 2013
the county approved getting
LIDAR
data from
NOAA Coastal Services Center.
Neither the county nor the city has published this agreement.
Here’s the agenda: Continue reading