Update 2022-05-23: Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23.
Appeared on lowndescounty.com/calendar a few days ago:
No agenda. No draft budget on the Finance Department web pages (the most recent is the one about to expire).
The budget meeting is after the 8:30 AM Work Session. Continue reading
Kelley Saxon wants to be reappointed, and Carlton Richard is applying for a vacant position on the board of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), on the agenda for this morning’s Lowndes County Commmission Work Session, to be voted on Tuesday evening.
![[Maps: Decorative Lighting, beer and wine, Language Access Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-02-21--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
Maps: Decorative Lighting, beer and wine, Language Access Plan
Two subdivision developers want to add to their Basic Decorative Street Lighting Districts: that’s a special tax district for each.
Two beer and wine licenses are up for consideration, and a Language Access Plan and Resolution for Federally Funded Grants and Programs.
First, staff get a budget award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).
Here is the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website, received in response to a LAKE open records request. Continue reading
Update 2022-02-06: Board’s Pleasure should be Deny: Miller Bridge Road rezoning @ LCC 2022-02-07.
It’s almost enough to make you wonder why the Lowndes County Commission does not want the public to know what it is doing?
A state-funded road restriping with the list of roads not revealed to the public for three months, and no minutes for the relevant meetings on the Lowndes County website (but LAKE kept a copy from their old website).
A petition with 300 signatures the County Planner just took out of the board packet so even County Commissioners did not see it.
Two board packets (for Planning and County Commission meetings) not returned for more than the statutory three days, and then one of them only partial.
No board packets on the county’s website, even though other counties larger and smaller in Georgia and Florida have been doing that for years.
No minutes (except one) before 2014, or maybe some hidden. Not even any agendas before 2012.
![[Lowndes County Agenda Center for 2013]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-02-02--lcc-secrecy/2022-02-02--lcc-agenda-center.jpg)
Lowndes County Agenda Center for 2013
County Commission staff do take videos of the Commission meetings, but they only post videos of the Regular Session (not the Work Session), and not even those between October 2020 and October 2021. This is despite spending more than $100,000 for new audio visual equipment for the Commission Chambers, while the Valdosta City Council has livestreamed through the pandemic using an employee’s iPhone.
I could go on about the stealth reapportionment of Commission Districts and the half million dollar bailout of a developer, both at the same January 25, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meeting, both not revealed to the taxpaying public before the voting Regular Session.
But just items related to the Miller Bridge Road rezoning requests are enough to raise questions about the secrecy of Lowndes County Commission and staff.
Why don’t they want the public and the taxpayers to know?
What don’t they want us to know?
As expected, the Lowndes County Commission at its Regular Session passed the half million dollar bailout for a developer.
Not expected, they changed the agenda at the beginning of the meeting to approve new Commission district maps and a resolution supporting them, for immediate transmission to the state.
One citizen wishing to be heard spoke about the never ending noise from the 15 month old Arglass factory.
![[Amendment, Commissioners, New Districts]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-01-25--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
Amendment, Commissioners, New Districts
For 5.k. Property Purchase – Building Valdosta, LLC County Manager Paige Dukes said staff acted at the direction of the Commissioners, seeming to distance herself and staff from this action.
I’m guessing the added agenda item was 5.l..
Vice Chair Joyce Evans, presiding over the meeting in the absence of Chair Bill Slaughter, introduced the agenda change for district reapportionment indicating the Commissioners all already knew this was going to happen. Continue reading
At yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session, there was no discussion by the Commissioners about 5.k. Property Purchase – Building Valdosta, LLC, but new wrinkles did come to some small light.
County Manager Paige Dukes said “This is a follow up on the Building Valdosta purchase of property we have discussed with you several times…” In what public meeting did those discussion take place? She also said the county attorney had worked out an agreement with Building Valdosta, yet that agreement was not in the board packet. And she remarked, “Any other claims related to this will continue through, um, any process with ACCG that they may have for lost profits.” She immediately called for an Executive Session for “Client-privileged communication regarding potential or pending litigation and for the purchase of property.”
Sounds like the county got sued by a developer, or was threatened with a lawsuit, and is resolving that by bailing out the developer with half a million of our tax dollars.
How can any developer who did the slightest due diligence not know that the subject property on GA 122 east of Bemiss Road is in the Moody Activity Zone (MAZ)? If that’s not their beef, what is?
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item with a few notes by Gretchen, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading
Update 2022-01-25: Discussion of court grants and Loch Laurel Road project, little of property subsidy @ LCC 2022-01-24.
The $568,971.00 for 5.k. Property Purchase – Building Valdosta, LLC is a markup of $323,971 over the price that property sold for last year, supposedly to protect Moody AFB, even though how is not said and it’s 2.4 miles away. The developer is the same as for the 5999 Val Del Road rezoning last October. And there appear to be more previous subsidies from the County Commission to the same developer.
This current giveaway on GA 122 is on the agenda for this morning’s Work Session and Tuesday evening’s voting Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Who does it profit? And how does it protect Moody AFB?
![[Building Valdosta parcel, Comprehensive Plan with MAZ]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-01-24--lcc-packet/other.jpg)
Building Valdosta parcel, Comprehensive Plan with MAZ
After I pointed out to the Lowndes County PIO and Clerk that the county was apparently in violation of the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) by not returning the board packet within three days, they sent it at 7PM on Saturday. The packet is on the LAKE website. However, the packet includes no information about this item beyond the agenda sheet, which says:
HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: At the direction of the Commission, staff has worked with the County Attorney to prepare a purchase agreement that will provide for Lowndes County to purchase 41.543 acres of property on Highway 122 inclusive of development costs incurred by the current owners and as reflected in the agreement, for the purpose of protecting Moody Air Force Base from encroachment.
It doesn’t say where that 41.543 acres is. But the Lowndes County Tax Assessors online web pages and map find it as 7404 E HWY 122, 2.4 miles north of Moody AFB. Continue reading
Update 2022-01-24: Board packet and Why should Lowndes County spend half a million dollars to subsidize a developer? 2022-01-24
The neverending Miller Bridge Road subdivision is not in this Lowndes County Commission agenda for Monday and Tuesday. For that, see the Planning Commission agenda for January 31, 2022.
But the County Commission agenda does contain two examples of how taxpayers are subsidizing development in Lowndes Counta. The $45,742.00 for the 5.d. Nelson Hill Lift Station Pump Upgrade is “Due to growth in the area”: growth the county is actively promoting.
The $568,971.00 for 5.k. Property Purchase – Building Valdosta, LLC is a markup of $323,971 over the price that property sold for last year, supposedly to protect Moody AFB, even though how is not said and it’s 2.4 miles away.
![[Agenda, Nelson Hill Lift Station]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-01-24--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
Agenda, Nelson Hill Lift Station
| Cost | What |
|---|---|
| $568,971.00 | Property Purchase – Building Valdosta, LLC |
| $45,742.00 | Nelson Hill Lift Station Pump Upgrade |
| $16,496.88 | AT&T Switched Ethernet Circuit Continuation of Service |
| $631,209.88 | Total |
On the one hand, I commend Lowndes County Utilities for staying ahead of sewer system demand and thus preventing sewage spills. On the other hand, look at why the agenda sheet says: Continue reading
Here are LAKE videos of (most of) yesterday’s Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) Council meeting yesterday in Pearson, Georgia.
For some of the items, I have included photographs of the first sheet of the relevant handout(s). For the rest of each handout, please contact SGRC.
Thanks to SGRC Council Chair Joyce Evans and Assistant Director Chris Strom for inviting me to come speak about the Okefenokee Swamp in my other hat as Suwannee Riverkeeper; see the WWALS blog post.
![[Collage]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/sgrc/2021-12-09--sgrc/many.jpg)
Collage: Audit; New member John Clayton (Nashville); DCA Small Cities Conference; Okefenokee Swamp Resolutions –Suwannee Riverkeeper; Jody Redding, GA Gov. Field Rep.
Here is the complete agenda. Continue reading
All the main items breezed by unanimously, including the Comprehensive Plan and the Hospital Authority re-appointment of Ben Copeland, at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, November 9, 2021.
The only things taking longer than three minutes were the County Manager’s Report and Citizens Wishing to Be Heard about how the Board of Elections is appointed and funded.
![[Comprehensive Plan, Communications Tower, Manager's Report, Electios]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-11-09--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
Comprehensive Plan, Communications Tower, Manager’s Report, Electios
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session, the agenda and Board packet, and, for the rezonings and the tower, the LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission meeting.
For the Comprehensive Plan, see also the LAKE videos of the preceding Comprehensive Plan Update Meeting 2 and the Character Area Maps for it, the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session before that, and the quite lengthy first Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing.
By far the longest item at 33 minutes at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session was a presentation about One Valdosta-Lowndes (OVL).
![[OVL River Camp, Hospital Authority appointment, Godfrey rezoning, VAWA staffing]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-11-08--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
OVL River Camp, Hospital Authority appointment, Godfrey rezoning, VAWA staffing
Second longest at almost five minutes was 8.e. Request For Cash Match Increase For VAWA ASG Salary Supplement, about the Violence Against Women Act. Third at four minutes was 7.c. REZ-2021-24 Barry Godfrey, Mt. Zion Church Road.
The likely re-appointee to the Hospital Authority did attend.
Everything else got little discussion, including the final approval of the Comprehensive Plan Update.
They voted the following Tuesday evening.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few notes, followed by
![[Budget Work Session Notice]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-05-23--budget-notice/budget-notice.jpg)
![[Joyce Evans presiding]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-01-24--lcc-videos/many.jpg)