Not two, but three public hearings on the LCBOE higher millage rate,
10 AM and 6 PM on July 15, 6 PM on July 22.
That rate still puts Lowndes
in the middle of school millage
for counties statewide.
And they published a budget summary before the hearings.
What’s the county’s current millage, and how does it compare to other counties?
Indeed county employees are mostly underpaid, but are none overpaid?
And where’s that employee compensation study the county paid for?
Three curious omissions in an otherwise excellent VDT story.
From: Tim Carroll <tcarroll@valdostacity.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 14:33:35 +0000
Subject: FY 2015 Budget
Hey everyone,
It is that time of year when your city government prepares its’
budget for the upcoming fiscal year. As we have experienced over the
past four years, this year’s budget presents many challenges.
Revenues continue to decline while expenses keep going up. Fuel
alone for the city now runs around $1.7M per year and the power bill
to run the city for a year is now at $3.4M. Like you have seen in
your homes and businesses, these and other costs continue to rise.
Major revenue sources such as the LOST tax (our largest revenue
source for the General Fund) continue to decline. And the list goes
on. The city has now tapped over the past several years all the
reserve funds in or der to balance the budget. Those reserve funds
are now gone.
I say all this to illuminate the difficult choices that are present
in this year’s proposed budget. While Continue reading →
The most interesting developments were not on the agenda.
Commissioners approved dollar amounts
for two purchase orders
that were completely different
from the ones they were quoted the morning before, with no discussion:
the County Attorney quoted the new figures, asked for approval,
and immediately got it.
Commissioner Richard Raines still didn’t want to enforce
a neighborhood covenant
yet it was Commissioner Raines
who made the motion last fall to let
an Exclusive Franchise
with
Advanced Disposal Services;
a covenant the county is now trying to enforce
by having the County Attorney
sue local business Deep South Sanitation.
They said nothing about
that 100 foot wide pipeline barrelling through the county.
They could have the County Attorney investigate that, but they aren’t.
They approved meeting for millage rate approval 8:30 AM Friday 26 July 2013:
that’s for the property taxes they collect, which presumably
partly go to pay the County Attorney.
And the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak on a technicality.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 8, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
County Manager Joe Pritchard reminded Commissioners they were required
to set a date to set tax millage.
Finance Director Stephanie Black said:
You can have it as early as the
26th of July,
but it has to be done and ready for the tax commissioner by July 31st.
County Manager wanted to know if there would be a quorum present for
26 July 2013 at 8:30.
Chairman asked for a show of hands, and got two, which is not a quorum.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall checked his calendar and said he could
also attend, and three is a quorum.
Commissioner John Page asked if this was the day they previously
had been advised in an email.
Answer: no, that was Thursday, and this date is a Friday.
County Manager also clarified that they couldn’t set their millage
until the School Board did.
Commissioner Marshall noted he had previously been told the 25th,
and once again staff admitted that was so.
Three days later, there is still nothing on
the county’s online calendar
for 26 July 2013.
Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s
theory behind all those industrial parks.
And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy.
Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually
bring in new businesses….
Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County
Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the
foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the
Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And
because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to
better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic
development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is
that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have
the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking
at the community, where would we put them?
Here are the rest of the videos from the Hahira City Council meeting of 2 August 2012, including the very interesting scheduled agenda items in which each Council member, the City Manager, and the Mayor give their thoughts on issues relevant to the City of Hahira.
Regular Session, Hahira City Council (Hahira), Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 August 2012.
Here’s a video playlist of most of the Hahira City Council Regular Session of Thursday 2 August 2012. Hahira City Council (population about 2,800) spent more time in open public discussion about each of
several individual agenda items than the Lowndes County Commission (population 111,000+) typically spends on an entire “open meeting”.
Near the beginning they still have Citizens to Be Heard. Maybe they’re not afraid of their citizens? Citizens mostly wanted to talk about the police chief’s proposal to fine people who didn’t mow their lawns.
A few more videos will be added, probably today, (now available as
Council Comments)
of the votes on cost of living increases (yea), SPLOST VII (yea), the consent agenda (yea), and council comments at the end of the session.
The agenda is below after the videos; thanks to City Manager Jonathan Sumner for sending it. Here’s the video playlist:
-jsq
Video Playlist Hahira City Council Regular Session, Hahira City Council (Hahira), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 August 2012.
Back to their old tricks! The Lowndes County Commission was already approving minutes a minute before the announced start time of their Work Session this morning. After that, it was another brief session. They vote Tuesday 5:30 PM 24 July 2012.
Here's the agenda. Below are some notes on some items.
5.a. Adoption of Millage County Manager Joe Pritchard reiterated that there would be a Public Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012. See other post for more details.
5.b. Acceptance of Proposal for Repair of Cat Creek Road County Engineer Mike Fletcher said what the project was for! See previous post for details.
5.c. Cameron Lane widening for industrial park @ LCC 2012-07-23 The Langdale Industrial Park rezoning REZ-2010-15 of 14 December 2010 was back this morning as a request to turn Cameron Lane into a boulevard entrance. See other post for details.
5.d. SPLOST VII Resolution and Agreement They somehow got an agreement between the cities and the county in time to announce a referendum for SPLOST VII. See other post for details.
Videos: Two taxes, Library bid, and two road repairs Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
At the Monday morning Work Session, County Manager Joe Pritchard reiterated that there would be a Public Hearing on Millage 5PM 24 July 2012. He added that the millage is “less than calculated rollback”, Two weeks before, at the previous Work Sessioni and Regular Session, he already said staff did not anticipate any increases in millage.
This time he added these details:
Millage
Recipient
7.31
Lowndes County
1.00
Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
1.25
Parks and Recreation (VLPRA)
9.56
Total
Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know whether the school board was only the unincorporated area. He got two answers: “yes”, and “it’s not the city of Valdosta.” Those are not the same answer, since people from some of the cities, such as Hahira, Lake Park, and I think Dasher, go to county schools and are taxed for that. I don’t know about Remerton. Valdosta has its own school system and its own school tax. All the school taxes are separate (and greater than) the county taxes in the table above.
Announcement of Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.