Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

How to read Comprehensive Plan documents

I’m always getting a civics lesson, learning more and more about how our local and state governments work. Most recently, I had the opportunity to have explained two documents related to the Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan: the Short Term Work Projects (STWP) and the Report of Accomplishments (ROA). In the spirit of information exchange, I share what I learned with you.

The state of Georgia requires a Comprehensive Plan and collects and approves them through the Department of Community Affairs (DCA). The current plans for all of Georgia are available at the DCA Planning Site.

The current STWP documents that are being reviewed locally are the projects that the local governments and agencies expect to actively work on in the next five years. The ROA documents report on what was done in the past five years: what was completed, or will no longer be pursued. Many municipalities and counties file separate reports. Locally, because there is significant cooperation among the cities and Lowndes County there is one document with all the projects included and a place that indicates which agency is participating in the project. However, their input documents are filed separately, and LAKE has collected them on the LAKE web pages. Also, each local municipality holds its own public hearings.

Reading the STWP and ROA can be a bit tricky but once I understood the format, the process became much easier. The overall topics are prescribed by the state and are in general categories like “Population”, “Economic Development”, “Housing” and “Land Use”. There are sub-categories in each of the ten major categories, like “Secure High-Wage Jobs” and “Address Workforce Adequacy” in the “Economic Development” major category. Then, under each of these items are one or more specific projects that will be done in the next five years to help achieve each goal.

One reason the draft STWP is complex is that it redlines projects that were performed in the previous five years and are now being removed or modified for a variety of reasons. Many projects were completed, some moved from one stage (investigate) to another (implement or market), and still others simply lacked the staff or funding resources to continue being pursued.

The ROA document is in a similar format but the focus of it is to report the status of the STWP for the previous five years. An Explanation Column gives details on the status of each previous project. For example, it says that the “Feed the Elderly Senior Citizen Nutrition Program” has been discontinued because “Budgetary constraints have limited Lowndes County’s role in this supporting action.”.

The STWP and ROA documents are meant to be read as a pair, giving the reader an understanding of where we have been, where we are going and how we are going to get there as a community.

-gretchen

Video playlist, GLPC 28 November 2011

Here’s a video playlist for the entire Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) Regular Session of 28 November 2011. We’ve already blogged a couple of them separately: And we’ll probably blog more of these videos separately. But you don’t have to wait.

Here’s the playlist:


Video playlist, GLPC 28 November 2011
Comprehensive Plan,
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 November 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

We’re not done working on this —Jason Davenport @ GLPC 28 November 2011

Continuing the Comprehensive Plan Short Term Work Program (STWP) updates, the chairman asked if the board was ready

Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport responded:

We’re not done working on this. But if you think it’s time to bring it before y’all.
Later, at about 11:40 in, Davenport clarified:
And the only that’s different right now is Lowndes County. Because Lowndes County did not hold a public hearing as required, so we’re on a different timeline. And if Mrs. Quarterman would have given me about until December 13th she would have seen that.

Because our initial resolution was not the same as the other communities. We’re on a little bit of a different timeline because we have to address that issue. That’s one thing; the county in this instance will be handled a little different than some of the smaller cities and Valdosta.

That would be the initial resolution the county did not provide in response to an open records request about the draft the county did not publish as required by the state. If the county had answered questions weeks ago, instead of waiting until they had to do makeup homework, nobody would have had to ask about it at that GLPC meeting….

Anyway, the County Planner has said there will be a public hearing. However, remember it was the County Chairman who said that the public hearing item on the agenda was not really a public hearing. It’s the Chairman, not the Planner, who sets the agendas for the County Commission. We’ll see what’s on the 13th December County Commission Agenda, and whether it really is handled as a public hearing in that meeting.

Then GLPC Board Member John Page expressed his concerns: Continue reading →

Don’t we still need farmers to feed us? —Gretchen Quarterman @ GLPC 28 November 2011

What was it that the Lowndes County government didn’t want its citizens to see in the draft it didn’t publish and didn’t provide in response to an open records request, and the hearing it didn’t hold about its updates to the Comprehensive Plan? Could it be the many items the county is deleting, having to do with feeding seniors, health care, transportation, work ethics and life skills, environmental impacts, agriculture, wells, wetlands, and many other topics, some of which Gretchen Quarterman detailed to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission yesterday?

After Valdosta and Hahira City Planner Matt Martin explained how all the local city governments had or were going to have hearings about their Comprehensive Plan Short Term Work Program updates, the GLPC Chairman asked if any citizens wanted to speak on that topic. One citizen did, Gretchen Quarterman. She apologized for missing the September GLPC meeting because she would have raised some of these issues then.

I have an appointment with [Lowndes County Planner] Jason [Davenport] tomorrow to address some of my questions.

But I want to let you know that at the County Commission did not hold a public hearing after the changes. I was at the [Valdosta] City Council meeting, and the City Council did hold a public hearing, but the County Commission did not.

And I believe that is in violation of DCA’s guidelines. They sent a transmission letter that said they followed DCA’s guidelines. DCA’s guidelines say hold a public hearing. It was on the agenda, the public hearing, but no public hearing was held. So I didn’t have an opportunity to see the document, or to comment, before the county sent it.

She said she would provide written comments to Jason the next morning, and asked if GLPC would like to hear some of them. They said they would, so she read some of them. For example:
In Section 1.3 it was struck from the document:
Ensure supporting senior services such as health care,
Continue reading →

Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. —Gretchen Quarterman

I repeatedly apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport about an earlier misunderstanding about the “public hearing” agenda item, which the Chairman stated was not really a public hearing and for which no citizens were allowed to speak:
7.b. Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates – Lowndes County Report of Accomplishments (ROA) and Short Term Work Program (STWP)
Then I said:
Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. And I think that people trust the government more when we can see the business done in public. And I really appreciate when you do things in public and you ask questions in the work sessions so everybody can hear.
The VDT’s version was:
The lone citizen to be heard, Gretchen Quarterman, thanked commissioners for their observance of open government and apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport for things she said to him prior to the meeting, due to a “misunderstanding,” she said.

After the meeting adjourned, Chairman Ashley Paulk apologized to me in public Continue reading →

GLPC: Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, 29 August 2011

Before any rezoning case gets to the Lowndes County Commission or the Valdosta City Council for final approval, it first goes to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), an appointed advisory body that decides nothing, yet has significant weight in the decisions of the elected bodies.

Here’s a playlist for the GLPC 29 August 2011 meeting. I would post an agenda, but where those used to be there is now this cryptic red comment:

As of July 1, 2011 there will be no more updates to this site. For question contact:
Jason Davenport – Lowndes County
Alexandra Arzayus – City of Valdosta
I would label these videos, but that’s difficult to do without an agenda. There’s a GLPC meeting tonight; maybe they’ll have an agenda for that at the door.


GLPC: Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, 29 August 2011
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

FVCS Final Meeting 15 November 2011

Former electoral opponents met Tuesday as FVCS held its final meeting, with Rusty Griffin, Vice-Chair of CUEE, watching at the MLK Monument as Sam Allen, President of Friends of Valdosta Schools (FVCS) announced the dissolution of FVCS.

Sam Allen, as he has before, called for reconciliation of opponents on the recent school consolidation referendum, and support of the two school systems, financially and otherwise.

In addition to FVCS regulars such as JC Cunningham, Chamber Chair Tom Gooding was there, as were current Valdosta Mayor Sonny Vickers and Mayor-Elect John Gayle, plus re-elected Valdosta City Council At-Large Ben Norton. Valdosta School Superintendent Cason was there. I didn’t see Lowndes Superintendent Smith, although various members of Continue reading →

A community united! —Gretchen Quarterman

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq
In the last few weeks, our community has seen an unprecedented effort from left, right, and center, city and county, town and gown, all working
Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past, but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community, a stronger education system.
together as a community to achieve a goal that the overwhelming majority see as in our best interest. We have an opportunity that we should not squander. It doesn’t take a lot of money. It takes dedicated people, calling their friends and neighbors, canvasing every neighborhood, holding open and honest forums, and answering questions to the very best of their ability.

Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past, but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community, a stronger education system. Let us find opportunities to work together to benefit our students, teachers, police, firefighters, farmers, small local businesses and all the rest of us who call this community home.

We have an opportunity that we should not squander. Let us work as one community for the benefit of all our citizens; students, seniors, family, friends, urban, rural, conservatives, progressives, Wildcats and Vikings.

One community out of many,
with liberty and justice for all.

Gretchen Quarterman
Chairman
Lowndes County Democratic Party

This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011

A gentle reminder to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce of what just happened at the polls yesterday.

Myrna Ballard:

I understand that you have something that you’d like to say?

Occupy Valdosta:

This is what democracy looks like!

Here’s the video:


This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

That’s Sam Allen, president of FVCS holding the front Vote No sign; Vote No for the Children is holding another one. Greg Gullberg of WCTV is standing in front of Myrna Ballard, Jade Bulecza of WALB has a camera in the lower right, David Rodock of the VDT is standing behind Myrna Ballard in the video, Desiree Thompson of the VSU Spectator was there, Valdosta Today was there, George Boston Rhynes of K.V.C.I. and bostongbr on YouTube was there, and LAKE was there.

-jsq

Taxation without Representation —John S. Quarterman @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

As my mother, who used to teach at Pine Grove Elementary School (not a High School at that time), used to say, it takes a big man to admit it when he’s wrong, and Fred Wetherington is a big man
because he thought it was a good idea. He looked at the evidence; he looked at the research; and determined it was not a good idea.

I look forward to the members of CUEE standing up and being big men and women because the research, their own research, and the research that we’ve heard tonight, the research from Tennessee, and the research from Troup County: consolidation is not a good idea.

And I’m still waiting for some CUEE big men or women….

Anyway, my question: Continue reading →