The little-known Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan drives development in Lowndes County. With no public notice and no public hearing. the Commissioners voted on it Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Probably you only heard that would happen if you looked at their agenda late last week, or you happened to read what I wrote about it Monday.
Obtained through open records request, it’s on the LAKE website now.
Like the 2009 plan, Continue reading
Gretchen made an Open Records request Monday morning and
it was available Tuesday 4:37 PM: mostly on paper and less than
an hour before the Commission voted.
The rezoning material from the Planning office was sent by electronic mail. The rest cost $9.40 to retrieve on paper. Nevermind in the email earlier Tuesday of the old ordinance from 1992 the county staff demonstrated they can put a paper document on their copier and produce a PDF. They could have done that with the rest of the board packet. Why didn’t they?
The Work Session was Monday morning at 8:30 AM 10 Aug 2015. Gretchen was notified by telephone about 4:30 PM Tuesday 11 Aug 2015. The County Palace closes at 5PM. The Commission met at 5:30 PM Tuesday to vote. So none Continue reading
Speaking up in a public meeting should result in violations of
someone’s rights under the First (“peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”), Fifth (“nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”), or Eighth (“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”) Amendments.
Anti-fracking activist Alma Hasse is seeking legal redress.
This could be a nationwide trend, with one local bully apologizing to Nydia Tisdale to avoid jail in Forsyth County, Georgia,
after settling for $200,000 for being ejected
from the Cummings, Georgia City Council for videoing.
Nydia hasn’t filed charges yet for the
case of the six missing screams, in which she was forcibly
ejected from a public campaign event headlined by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal
for videoing.
Maybe if you advertise a public meeting, you can’t throw someone out for videoing,
and you can’t arrest somebody for speaking up in public government meeting.
Alma Hasse was arrested for Continue reading
Here are the rezoning items from the
board packet for the
9 February 2015 Work Session
and
the
10 February 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
For the maps from the Engineering Department items, see
separate post.
The County Clerk once again provided this information only Continue reading
Arrested for standing silently in the back of a public meeting,
Alma Hasse refused to cooperate with booking or to eat,
instead helping prisoners with grievances.
After a week, the Payette County, Idaho jail ejected
her on her own recognizance with no bail.
She says they still plan to charge her with something.
Meanwhile, she’s back to filing open records requests,
presumably about the Planning and Zoning Commission that
had her arrested and that has a record of not divulging
information even in response to FOIA requests.
I smell a lawsuit, and not by P&Z.
Maybe they should have gone to
the VDT’s Open Government Symposium in Macon Friday.
Maybe some of our local elected and appointed officials
have learned that this isn’t the answer:
So it’s just if you disagree you’re disruptive.
Alma Hasse’s husband Jim wrote on her facebook page 16 October 2014, Alma is FREE!!!! PLEASE SHARE!!, Continue reading
The Payette County, Idaho Planning and Zoning Commission
accused somebody of having previously provided false information
and had her arrested for responding in a public hearing to
a direct accusation by name.
It appears that it was a Commissioner’s information that
was misleading, and the same Commission has a history of not
revealing relevant information even in response to an open records request.
There is video of the Thursday event.
She is still being held in jail, and permitted no outside communication.
Jerry Nelson wrote for Epoch Times 12 October 2014, Alma Hasse, Idaho Fractivist, Arrested in Public Meeting, Continue reading
Why did the Lowndes County Commission make
this exclusive franchise
with a Florida or Alabama or New York company
and then
sue a local Lowndes County company after
the VDT reported the previous spring that any contract
would be non-exclusive and wouldn’t put anybody out of business?
Here, obtained by LAKE through an open records request,
is the
contract with ADS of Middle Georgia, LLC.
The
the agenda item for the 11 December 2012 Commission meeting at which
this contract was approved
says ADS of Central Alabama, Inc.
The contract says ADS is “a Florida corporation”,
and we know ADS is owned by
Highstar Capital of New York City.
Once again,
why is granting a cheap monopoly to an out-of-state company
more important than either letting local companies compete for the service
or having the county continue to provide a public service directly to
its taxpayers and citizens?
The termination clause I pointed out to the Commission after an ADS executive made excuses for nonperformance is Paragraph 18 of the contract:
Continue reading
Lowndes County: voice mail.
GA EPD: written response within minutes about that wastewater spill
into the Withlacoochee River that turns out to be from a Lowndes County
sewer line (not Valdosta’s).
After I called Lowndes County and got referred to voice mail, I filed an open records request with the county. I then called GA EPD in Albany and talked to Mary Sheffield. She said that compliance issues are handled from the Atlanta Office and provided the number.
I called GA EPD in Atlanta and asked for the Lowndes County Compliance Officer. She kindly told me that there had been some confusion about what government was responsible for the spill, because Valdosta called first but then Lowndes County did call and take responsibility for the spill.
She said that the spill had been 1.32 Million Gallons and that so far they had had a verbal report from the county and that the county has 5 days to make a written report.
Further, she said she would e-mail me any information that she had at this time, although the verbal reports are not “official”. And before I finished typing this up, she sent this response:
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:34:19 -0400
From: Kim Hembree
Subject: Lowndes County Spill
Ms. Quarterman,
The Lowndes County spill was originally reported to the Environmental Protection Division by the City of Valdosta on 4/25/2013. After responding to the spill, the City of Valdosta determined that the spill was coming from a portion of sanitary sewer collection system that belonged to Lowndes County. Lowndes County (County) responded to the spill on 4/25/2013. This morning, the County reported that the spill was approximately 1.32 million and entered the Withlacoochee River.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
To which I replied:
Thank you.If I understand correctly, Lowndes County now has 5 days to file a complete spill report. I’ll be interested in that when it is available.
Gretchen
Also, has Lowndes County put up a sign at the spill site to replace the Valdosta spill sign?
-gretchen
In addition to
calling Lowndes County, I also filed this Open Records Request:
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:56:39 -0400
To: Paige Dukes, Mike Allen, Phyllis Judge
Subject: Open Records Request – 20130426 – Waste Water
Hi,Please find attached an open records request for the following:
1) All written reports to EPD about waste water spills for the last 3 years
2) All year long monitoring programs/results after each spill
3) published notices in legal organ of all spills for last 3 years
4) a copy of the Overflow Emergency Response ProgramI would prefer electronic copies of these documents if they are available.
Thank you,
Gretchen
Gretchen Quarterman
I attached a scan of the paper Lowndes County Open Records Request form I filled out.
-gretchen
The AJC has noticed
Sounds like trouble is brewing down I-75. —Jim Gallowaythat the VDT is getting serious about open records requests:
The Valdosta Daily Times’ Open Records request concerning violent incidents in the Valdosta State Prison was denied Monday.Kay Harris wrote that in the VDT today.The Department of Corrections (DOC) denied all requests in the Times’ Open Records filing, stating that, under Georgia law, the documents do not have to be released.
After receiving phone calls from concerned individuals who have knowledge of recent violent prison attacks, the Times submitted the Open Records request to Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens.
Curiously,
the state doesn’t even
provide a picture of the prison.
It’s enough to make you wonder what they have to hide.
Apparently the VDT wonders: Continue reading