Tag Archives: Law

Videos of Open Government Symposium in Macon @ OGS 2014-10-17

Here are videos of last month’s event organized by VDT editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia, and Holly Manheimer, director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, adding to the still picture we already posted.

Opposes Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes County –Lowndes County Commission

Escalating from the Chairman’s letter of 11 April 2014, perhaps after listening to requests from citizens, the Lowndes County Commission passed a resolution wanting no part of Sabal Trail in the county or in the state of Georgia.

Update 2014-11-25: Well, according to Joe Adgie in the Valdosta Daily Times today, “Even though the missive has already been mailed [to FERC], the resolution will not be formally voted on until the county commission’s next meeting in December [9th].”

Filed with FERC in docket CP15-17 on 21 November 2014 as Accession Number: 20141121-5242, but that was a Friday and FERC doesn’t work on weekends, so it actually appeared Monday 24 November 2014.

300x52 Commissioners, in Lowndes County Commission Work Session, by John S. Quarterman, 10 November 2014 RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas has proposed to build a $3.7 Billion, 460mile natural gas line known as Sabal Trail, and;

WHEREAS, The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners has concerns regarding personal property rights Continue reading

LAKE in the VDT @ LCC 2014-11-21

300x169 VDT videographer, Gretchen with the LAKE camera, Chairman Slaughter, County Clerk, in Open Government Symposium, by John S. Quarterman, 21 November 2014 First time ever the VDT mentioned LAKE, so far as I can recall. And we’ll see if the new VDT editor’s honeyed approach works this time with the Lowndes County Commission.

Joe Adgie, VDT, 23 November 2014, Watchdogs use open government laws to the fullest,

Not everyone at the Open Government Symposium on Friday were affiliated with a government.

Some of them, like John and Gretchen Quarterman, serve as watchdogs for the government. These watchdogs attend the open, public meetings held by governing bodies, acquire the documents and records of these meetings and other governmental affairs, and serve to make sure our local governments behave like they should.

The Quartermans run the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), a repository of Continue reading

Sabal Trail’s eminent domain argument applied to FPL headquarters

300x72 Between the Atlantic and the canal, in FPL Headquarters, by John S. Quarterman, 24 November 2014 The alleged “Project Need” in Sabal Trail’s Friday FERC docket CP15-17 permit application to get eminent domain for its 100-foot-wide gouge for a yard-wide hazardous fracked methane pipeline is: Sabal Trail claims it has contracts to sell the gas. Let’s apply that logic to Sabal Trail co-owner FPL’s headquarters.

This is FPL headquarters at 700 Universe Blvd., Juno Beach, Florida, in the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s map: Continue reading

Board Packet @ LCC 2014-11-11

Here is the board packet for the 11 November 2014 Regular Session and 10 November 2014 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Although the County Clerk once again provided this packet only on paper and only in black and white, we got via CD-ROM color maps for REZ-2014-17 Grand Bay Estates and REZ-2014-18 White from County Planner Jason Davenport in response to a separate Open Records Request. The request to the County Clerk also asked for electronic copy, but once again she chose not to honor that part of the request.

But who can say? Perhaps things will be different after the Open Government Symposium this Friday, 21 November 2014.

Meanwhile, I have already filed an Open Records Request for the board packet for the next County Commission meeting, which is in December.

-jsq

Pass a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline –Michael Noll @ LCC 2014-11-11

10. CWTBH - Michael Noll Repeat speaker Dr. Michael Noll asked the Commissioners to do what Dougherty County has done and pass a resolution against the unnecessary and hazardous Sabal Trail pipeline, in the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Video. Like the previous speaker, Dr. Noll asked everyone there about this topic to stand up, and about 30 people did. Continue reading

People are concerned and you have a voice –Robbie Dixon @ LCC 2014-11-11

10. CWTBH - Robbie Dixon A first-time speaker against the Sabal Trail pipeline demonstrated there was opposition and reminded us all we have a voice, and asked the Lowndes County Commission to speak up as well, in the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Video. Robbie Dixon said he had been approached by their contractors asking to reroute the pipeline onto his property, which would take about half his property. He asked anybody in the audience who was there about Sabal Trail to stand up. About 30 people did. He said he did that because there are a lot of rumors that only a few people were concerned. He said there was no local benefit to landowners, and any potential tax benefit to the county shouldn’t be considered without consideration of the ill effects to landowners. Continue reading

Why should we let this foreign corporation, Sabal Trail, run roughshod over us? –Jim Parker @ LCC 2014-11-11

10. CWTBH - James J. Parker “Why do we have to kneel before their wishes? How is it that a single foreign corporation can have greater power and say than the hundreds of property owners and their supporters?” asked Jim Parker in the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. Continue reading

Pipeline, road repair, Bailey, water, and Commercial Tax Schedules @ LCC 2014-10-28

They finally made a decision onG the Bailey rezoning: the one the applicant liked least. They accepted the Creekwood Subdivision detention ponds; and the Glen Laurel infrastructure; will all that be maintained any better than the one at Hamilton Circle? Dr. Michael Noll spoke for WACE against the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

Agenda item 6.i. is changed in the county’s online agenda from Rural to Commercial without the agenda being marked as amended.

See agenda, the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session, and the board packet obtained via open records request by LAKE and scanned and posted on the LAKE website. Here are videos of events as they transpired, followed by a video playlist.

Continue reading

Board Packet @ LCC 2014-10-27

Surprisingly, when asked for this packet Monday morning, the County Clerk agreed to provide it later that same day, and did. However, she delivered it on paper. Processing time for that interleaved with other tasks took LAKE until now. Here is the board packet for the 27 October 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. It answers many questions that the public board meeting left hanging, such as what land does the county plant to acquire for that booster pump. If the county would put these board packets on their own website before their meetings, the citizens who pay their salaries would be able to see what they were talking about.

-jsq