Tag Archives: Paige Dukes

Tipping fees vs. host fees from Veolia

What is this contract involving tipping fees that Lowndes County declined to produce a copy of? How can it be “adequately maintained in the future”, as former Commissioner Lee put it, if the county doesn’t know what it is?

The minutes for the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Work Session 11 October 2010 say:

Resolution-Proposed Amendment-March 2007 Greater Lowndes Solid Waste Management Plan, County Planner, Jason Davenport, presented the resolution, adding that the amendment was drafted due to a proposed expansion and reconfiguration of the Evergreen landfill. Mr. Davenport added that the amendment had been reviewed by staff, the Regional Commission and the Deep South Solid Waste Authority. Mr. Davenport further stated that Mr. A.J. Rodgers, of Veolia Environmental Services, was present to answer any questions the Commission might have regarding the project. Commissioner Lee stated that he was concerned that the contractual relationship that has been in place for quite some time be accurately reflected and adequately maintained in the future. Commissioner Lee then asked Mr. Rodgers if a new cell had been created yet. Mr. Rodgers answered that construction had begun in a cell that had already been approved.

Veolia spelled his name [Andrew] AJ Rogers and identified him as “area manager for Veolia ES Solid Waste Southeast, Inc.” in a 22 March 2011 press release.

But what is this “contractual relationship”? According to a letter from Walter G. Elliott, Lowndes County Attorney, Continue reading →

Lowndes County says it doesn’t know who’s on a board to which it appoints members

If you were a county government appointing members to an Authority, wouldn’t you know who the other members were, and what that Authority does? Lowndes County doesn’t seem to know those things about Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SWA).

Here’s the open records request from Brett Huntley of 7 June 2013:

Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SWA)
– List of members of the board, officers, and staff of SWA, who appointed each, and their terms of office
– Charter, bylaws, resolutions, and any other SWA organizational documents
– Agendas and Minutes for the past five years for SWA, and future meeting schedule
Please provide as much in electronic form as possible.

And here’s the response from Paige Dukes 12 June 2013:

Regarding information related to the Deep South Solid Waste Authority, you may contact Regional Commission Representative, Julia Shewchuk, at 229-333-5277. Lowndes County is not the custodian of the records you have requested.

This is the same SWA for which the county’s adopted GREATER LOWNDES 2030 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SHORT TERM WORK PROGRAM (STWP) FY 2012 -2016 says:

4.3.1 –Maintain involvement and membership on Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SWA).

Our county government doesn’t know what this SWA is that it’s a member of?

-jsq

Now with sound! @ LCC 2013-06-10

After the soundless 10 June 2013 Lowndes County Commission Work Session, Gretchen requested, County Clerk Paige Dukes promised and a few days later delivered, sound recordings on CDs of both that meeting and the next day’s Regular Session. LAKE thanks the County Clerk for those recordings. Gretchen has integrated the county sound with the LAKE video recordings and I have updated the Work Session blog post. But what about state open records law?

Two CDs of sound recordings

These CDs demonstrate the county does make recordings of the Commission meetings, at least of sound. The County Clerk told Gretchen the recordings are erased after the Clerk is finished with them. Hm, since such recordings are records of public meetings, wouldn’t that make them public open records? And if they are, wouldn’t destroying them be illegal?

According to state law on the GA Secretary of State’s website:

Continue reading →

Tipping fees: no contract, no list of fees, no details of expenses

No copy of the contract for tipping fees from the landfill it privatized some years ago, no list of what those fees were, and no detailed accounting of what they were used for: that was the answer from Lowndes County’s Open Records Officer. She also took more than 3 days to produce this non-information, answering the day after the recent County Commission meeting. Here’s her answer:

2008 CAFR page 38 From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com
Subject: Open records requests
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:42:16 +0000

Good Afternoon,

In response to your open records requests of June 6, 2013, please find the following:

For the contract or agreement addressing tipping fees, you may contact Regional Commission Representative, Julia ShewChuk, at 229-333-5277. Lowndes County is not the custodian of this information. You many find fee amounts in Lowndes Countys Comprehensive Annual Reports located on the countys website, www.lowndescounty.com. To access these reports, go to the Government tab at the top of the homepage, then County Manager, then Finance, then Financial Reports. Fees are located on page 38 for 2008, page 38 for 2009, page 38 for 2010, page 39 for 2011 and page 36 for 2012.

To be clear, Continue reading →

VDT should dig deeper into county trash

The VDT should dig deeper into the finances of Lowndes County trash collection. Nobody has ever seen an accounting of where where the money went for the county’s former waste collection sites, so nobody knows whether the county was really losing money or how much, and the county’s version of how those sites had to be paid for doesn’t match state law.. Sure, Bill Slaughter defending a decision made when Ashley Paulk was chair is amusing, but instead of transcribing what county officials tell it, the VDT could find lots more under the county’s garbage with a little digging.

Jason Schaefer write for the VDT Thursday, Concerns continue over garbage agreement: Business owner argues case against County

The County is not required under Georgia law to issue RFPs to any company for waste disposal services, according to Slaughter. 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.

Is that the point of county government, to act like Wal-Mart? Is money the only value the county government can name? Everyone I talked to about the trash issue in 2012 who already had a waste collection card said they’d be willing to pay more to keep the sites open. Maybe if the county had held public hearings they would have learned that.

And does anyone believe ADS’s rates are going to stay that low? Look at Wakulla, Florida, where it’s $196/year. But the bigger question is why did the county privatize trash collection anyway?

Continue reading →

Trash lawsuit on WALB

WALB found the Lowndes County government sticking to the letter of its own recently-passed ordinance and contract, and Deep South Sanitation concerned about the county trying to put it out of business.

Lydia Jennings wrote for WALB yesterday, Lowndes Co. files lawsuit against solid waste company,

Lowndes County leaders are going to court to try to stop a sanitation company from picking up trash for some county residents.

County leaders say Deep South Sanitation is in violation of a new ordinance that only allows Advanced Disposal to contract with county residents.

And if the cease-and-desist order is successful, the owner of Deep South Sanitation worries he’ll go out of business.

Cary Scarborough owns Deep South Sanitation, a family owned and operated business he started in 2011 when he saw trash pickup problems in unincorporated Lowndes County.

In two years, he has seen his business grow with 800 Lowndes County resident contracts. But his days of picking up trash could be coming to an end.

“It could shut me down,” said Scarborough.

So why did the county give him a business license? And why is it a good use of taxpayer funds to sue him? The county’s answer:

Continue reading →

Lowndes County sewer spill may contaminate Suwannee River

WCTV went downstream to Suwannee County, Florida, to see further effects after the Valdosta PR that revealed what happened with the Lowndes County sewer leak. One of their interviewees recommends escalating this ongoing problem (first Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant flooded, and now this) to the state governors’ level.

Eames Yates wrote for WCTV 27 April 2013, Suwannee River Could be Contaminated After Lowndes Sewer Spill,

Travis Luttrell also vacations in Suwannee County. He said “it’s a pretty big administrative challenge between the two governors. And is something that needs to be worked out between state to state and hopefully we can overcome the administrative challenges it might take to fix these kinds of problems.”

The Florida Department of Health also issued the advisory for Hamilton, Levy, Lafayette and Madison counties.

Here’s the WCTV video:

-jsq

Lowndes County (sort of) takes responsibility for sewer spill

Lowndes County notified the VDT that it was actually their sewer line (not Valdosta’s) that broke this week, but there’s still nothing on the Lowndes County website, not on the front page, not under Utilities, and not under County Clerk. So the Lowndes County government did sort of come clean about its sewer problem, but you have to know where to look to see them washing. And they actually fixed the problem by dumping county sewage into Valdosta’s sewer main, which presumably means it ends up in the same Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant that the county has seemed to mostly regard as the city’s problem and not theirs.

In the VDT 26 April 2013, Lowndes County Notification of Sewer Spill, Lowndes County Commission,

Continue reading →

Valdosta blamed in Florida for Lowndes County sewage spill

Lowndes County Public Information Officer Paige Dukes Maybe Lowndes County should come clean about its sewage spill so Florida will stop blaming Valdosta.

Gainesville.com staff report today, Health dept. urges public to avoid Suwannee, Withlacoochee rivers,

This is the second time in two months that state health officials have had to warn residents of North Central Florida to avoid contact with the water flowing in the Suwannee — and both instances involve sewage contamination involving a spill in Valdosta.

Or maybe it’s normal for GA EPD to be more responsive than our local elected government. What do you think?

-jsq

Open Records Request – 20130426 – Waste Water

Wastewater spills open records request 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 Program

I 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