It’s too bad nobody came to Valdosta’s two public budget hearings,
because the city prepared
183 slides with details for each
department, including goals and accomplishments.
On
the LAKE website is that presentation sent on request by City Clerk Teresa Bolden,
and
converted to HTML by LAKE.
Plus the actual budget.
No open records requests were required.
Oh, and Valdosta runs garbage collection on a balanced budget
without any exclusive franchises.
The Valdosta City Council approved the fiscal year 2014 budget for
the City of Valdosta at the June 20 City Council meeting, after
having the opportunity to hear the proposed budget at the hearings
on June 11 and 12. City staff presented the council with a balanced
budget, as required by the City Charter, possibly one of the most
challenging and difficult budgets prepared in years.
City leaders decreased the overall city budget from $86.2 million to
$77.3 million, a result of Continue reading →
A call to arms, I wanted to share with you a e-mail I received from
Nolan Cox. I find his message offensive and seem as if he has a real
issue with low income residents. It would mean a lot if you can make
it to the Council meeting (5:30 p.m.) as I plan to address this
during Council Comments and hope that we can get input from the
community regarding this statement below. Your presence will help
us get the point across that our community mean something.
I have also included my response to Mr. Cox
Nolan Cox- Tea Party/Republican Party President
“As I listened to your discussion at the City Council work
session about the “need” to give away $800,000 of
taxpayer’s money through the Federal Home Loan Bank Program grant,
I was thinking that only about half of Americans pay federal income
taxes, and 43% of every federal dollar spent is borrowed, with the
interest on the nation’s $17 trillion debt soon to be larger than
the nation’s defense budget. Defense spending is a legitimate
constitutional function of the federal government, but repairing
houses, like most welfare giveaway programs, is not a legitimate Continue reading →
Valdosta’s proposed SPLOST list will be presented Tuesday
at the city’s Work Session 5:30PM Tuesday 9 July 2013:
be there, or be blindsided by what’s on that list.
Scan by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2013.
You know that if you read to the middle of the
ad in today’s VDT about the Work Session and Regular Session.
That’s in the paper paper;
ads in the paper don’t get put online.
There’s no agenda online for the Work Session.
The agenda for the Regular Session says nothing about SPLOST.
There’s nothing on the city’s calendar about SPLOST.
There’s no PR about this on the city’s website.
There’s nothing about it in any of the city’s TV videos that I can find.
Don’t be surprised if nobody shows up….
Portland, Oregon, is also internationally renowned for its
commitment to sustainable development. The Portland metropolis has
an expansive public transit system and an urban growth boundary to
control development at the urban periphery. The city boasts a
green investment fund
to provide grants for residential and commercial building projects.
Now the city is striving, like Copenhagen, to reap the economic
rewards of sustainable development through business formation, firm
expansion, job growth and private investment. In February, Portland
released its first regional export plan to double exports over five
years by building on the region’s distinctive economic and physical
attributes. A critical pillar of this strategy involves increasing
the export orientation of firms in the burgeoning clean technology
sector to serve growing markets in Asia, Latin America and
elsewhere.
“Hopefully” there will be four town hall meetings before
the final SPLOST lists are settled, said
Lowndes County Commissioner Joyce Evans (District 1)
at last night’s
Lowndes County Democratic Party Annual 4th of July Barbecue.
We’re beginning to put things together for the SPLOST.
Hopefully we’ll be able to do several….
I know the mayor has stated that they were going to do
two town hall meetings and the county’s going to do
a couple of town hall meetings and then we’re going to come together
with the information that we’ve received from the community
and go and put together an overall SPLOST
for the city and the county.
So please, take time, think about it, and be involved.
We shall see.
At least it’s a small change in the old boy backroom behavior so popular among elected officials around here
that the famously reclusive commissioner said this in front of a video camera.
Four SPLOST town hall meetings –Joyce Evans
July 4th BBQ, Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Dennis Marks (Vice-Chair / Elections),
Amanda Hall (Vice-Chair / Membership), Richard Saeger (Vice-Chair / Qualifying), Jerrell Anderson (Secretary), James J. Parker (Treasurer),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 July 2013.
White said the encampment under the overpass had been growing
for some time, and people in her district, which contains
the overpass, were increasingly concerned
yet had had little success in dealing with the situation.
So I contacted many people in the community,
homeless advocates, churches, governmental, civil,
nonprofits; anyone that I’ve ever come across who has ever
worked in any capacity helping with the homeless situation.
And in a very,almost seemingly the stars all lined up a couple
of weeks ago.
Many people came together to do something
about the specific eleven homeless persons who were living
under the James Beck Overpass.
A private citizen donated property and said
that they could stay on this property for a temporary time
until we find a permanent solution.
Members of the homeless coalition immediately
began identifying potential employers….
From July 1 to August 15, 2013, the City of Valdosta Neighborhood
Development Division will be accepting applications for owner-occupied
home rehabilitation grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.
Valdosta home owners who qualify as low to moderately-low income
residents (according to HUD FY 2013 Income Limits) may be eligible to
use this grant funding to make much-needed home repairs.
Grants are limited to home repairs which cost under $10,000, and each
applicant must meet the following criteria: Continue reading →
Local Lowndes County and city officials are awaiting breathlessly
the news from Atlanta today about new rules on LOST negotiations.
Currently, negotiators have to choose one of the positions submitted
by the contending parties. The GA Supreme Court may decide to let
negotiators pick some other division of LOST funds.
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle cancelled a meeting here yesterday
so he could be in Atlanta for this court decision.
Lowndes County Commissioners are
rumored to be planning a meeting tomorrow morning after the decision.
On June 4th, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear the case between
Turner County and three cities over the distribution of Local Option
Sales Taxes. Below is the entirety of the facts in the case as
released by the court:
In this dispute between the governments of Turner County and three
cities over how Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) proceeds should be
distributed, the county is appealing a superior court ruling which
picked the cities’ plan for distribution over the county’s.
The Valdosta City Council approved the fiscal year 2014 budget for the City of Valdosta at the June 20 City Council meeting, after having the opportunity to hear the proposed budget at the hearings on June 11 and 12. City staff presented the council with a balanced budget, as required by the City Charter, possibly one of the most challenging and difficult budgets prepared in years.
City leaders decreased the overall city budget from $86.2 million to $77.3 million, a result of Continue reading
