Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Three appointments, a rezoning, and 2 wastewater but no solid waste @ LCC 2013-06-10

No names for appointments (KLVB, VLCCCTA, ZBOA), and nothing on the agenda about solid waste collection or the public hearing they didn’t hold or why they picked Veolia’s highest bid or ADS buying more companies when its spokesman said that wasn’t forseen or how much the Commission forsees waste collection fees going up or suing a local company at the Lowndes County Commission. Wasterwater is on the agenda twice, which is good after that sewer spill into the Withlacoochee River, but nothing about a five-year action plan. Let’s listen to what the preacher Commissioners pray about: that’s usually a clue to what’s on their minds, even if they proceed to do the opposite.

Here’s the agenda.

Continue reading →

Videos of morning of budget discussion @ LCC 2013-06-05

Here’s a video playlist of Wednesday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Budget Discussion Meeting.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 June 2013.

They broke for lunch shortly before noon, and Gretchen had another appointment, so the video ends there, although the Commission apparently continued te discussion in the afternoon. Hm, if they had real discussion at their other meetings, they wouldn’t have to save it up for long marathon sessions like this….

-jsq

Budget hearing public notices @ LCC 2013-06-05

Yesterday’s County Commission meeting was billed as a Budget Discussion Meeting, and apparently it was not a public hearing on the county’s budget, because state law requires such a hearing to be advertised in the newspaper or published as a news story, a week in advance. This is different from public notice for other Commission meetings: for budget hearings the notice has to be not just sent to the newspaper: it has to be published, and not in the legal notices section, and it has to appear at least a week before the hearing. It’s also illegal to refuse to provide a copy of the submitted draft budget to the public or the news media:

O.C.G.A. 36-81-5.(d) On the day that the proposed budget is submitted to the governing authority for consideration, a copy of the budget shall be placed in a public location which is convenient to the residents of the unit of local government. The governing authority shall make every effort to provide convenient access to the residents during reasonable business hours so as to accord every opportunity to the public to review the budget prior to adoption by the governing authority. A copy of the budget shall also be made available, upon request, to the news media.

LAKE is a news medium, according to federal law.

Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts has Georgia Law on Local Government Budgets: Continue reading →

How much will trash collection rates go up in Lowndes County? @ LCC 2012-10-09

Speaking of Veolia winning its high bid for garbage collection, here’s a clue to how much more its rates may go up.

Remember ADS Veolia was bought hardly a month later by ADS, owned by Highstar Capital of New York City? Look at ADS’s bid for Proposal D: $18.39.

That’s $220.68 a year. Which is even higher than Wakulla County, Florida’s $196 a year, which Gretchen warned us all about more than a year ago. And more than double the $100 a year for the former county waste collection sites.

Want to guess how much ADS’s monthly rates will rise? Maybe Continue reading →

Budget Discussion Meeting 8:30 AM Wednesday @ LCC 2013-06-05

Popped up since 3PM today on the Lowndes County Commission online calendar:

Budget Discussion Meeting (6/5/2013)

On June 5, 2013, at 8:30 a.m., the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet for a budget discussion, in the Executive Conference Room on the 3rd Floor of the Lowndes County Administration Building. For more information, please contact the Office of the County Clerk at 229-671-2400.
That’s tomorrow morning, the morning after the Georgia Supreme Court decision about LOST was expected today.

-jsq

County picked the highest bid from Veolia for trash pickup @ LCC 2012-10-09

The facts don’t match County Chairman Bill Slaughter’s assertion (according to the VDT Thursday):

That decision was made in a good-faith effort to find the lowest possible rate for garbage service for the citizens of Lowndes County, he said Tuesday.

Commissioner Richard Raines moved and the Commission voted to approve 9 October 2012 Proposal D and awarded it to the lowest bidder for that specific proposal, which was Veolia. But that wasn’t the lowest-priced proposal, according to the sheet of choices they were using in that meeting:

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Exclusive franchise on photographing County Commission? @ LCC 2013-05-28

Does the county ordinance that adversely affects Deep South Sanitation and no other company follow a pattern already set by the county? The VDT posted pictures clearly taken not from the media box during last night’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission: this one shows Gretchen videoing for LAKE from that media box. Has the Lowndes County Commission granted an exclusive franchise to the VDT for photographing, like the one it granted to ADS for trash collection? Or has the Commission admitted its anti-videoing ordinance was actually an illegal bill of attainder directed at LAKE alone? If so, why is it still posted on the door? And why is the county still planning to sue Deep South Sanitation on account of an ordinance and contract that directly adversely affects no other business? Hm, could that also be an illegal bill of attainder?

In case you had any doubt the VDT’s pictures were taken during the actual Commission meeting in session, this one is of Steve Parker speaking in Citizens Wishing to be Heard.

Even the Cumming City Council, which illegally ejected Nydia Tysdale for videoing an open meeting, realized its error and she now videos from the front row. Only Lowndes County, Georgia continues to post a sign on the door saying all videoing and photographing must be from the back of the room. And then it lets one news organization violate its own ordinance, but not another.

To quote former Chairman Ashley Paulk: Continue reading →

Videos: trash, appointment, GEMA, juveniles, mowing, and wellness @ LCC 2013-05-28

Trash wasn’t on the agenda, but it was the biggest issue. Like last Regular Session a Commissioner who happens to be a Christian minister prayed for one thing while the Commission does the opposite. Commissioners and staff also seemed confused about a mowing contract but we don’t know why, since none of us have seen what they were looking at. A Board incumbent was reappointed without discussion. In good news, county employees have lost 600 pounds.

Here’s the agenda, with a few notes and links to the videos. See also the Work Session of the same morning.

Lowndes County Commission LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
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Losing our individual freedom of choosing –Carl Johnson Jr. @ LCC 2013-05-28

A veteran said he was concerned about losing our freedoms right here in Lowndes County because of the Commissions’ recent trash collection decisions, in yesterday’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Excerpts from what Carl Johnson Jr. said:

Carl Johnson Jr. As I drove into town today I drove by… Brown’s produce. Right across the way was Mr. Carter’s produce. Both of them same business. Why not just take Mr. Carter’s business, and say, well, we’re going to give it all to Mr. Brown…. We think it’s in the best interests of the county. That’s not the American way of life. Competition in everything is the strength of America….

[Applause]

Walter Elliott, Attorney for Lowndes County He said he didn’t know the intricacies of the law, but he asked the Commission to reconsider. Attorney for Lowndes County Walter Elliott looked on stone-faced. County Manager Joe Pritchard, as usual, paid no attention to citizen speakers.

There’s more in the video: Continue reading →

A county that eats its own –Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-05-28

“Stop wasting taxpayer money” said Gretchen Quarterman in yesterday’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Gretchen Quarterman I sort of wish that I had been able to observe the executive session where you discussed the pending lawsuit against Deep South Sanitation. I wonder who asked the question “Is it beneficial to all concerned?” I wonder which one of you said “This will really attract people to start or relocate business in our county when we sue one of our local business owners.”

If I were considering a business move, I wouldn’t move to a county that eats its own.

I ask that you drop the lawsuit and stop wasting taxpayer money. Thank you.

[Applause]

Bill Slaughter and Gretchen Quarterman were inducted into Valdosta Rotary on the same day (12 September 2012); that’s John Page, already a member, standing behind them. County Attorney Walter Elliott is also a member. The Rotary Continue reading →