If TV cameras show up for football, why don’t they show up
“when the people come together on issues such as this,
not just black folk, not just white folk, but all Americans
are here tonight because of our concern”?
George Boston Rhynes made three points: Continue reading
After dancing around the issue and muttering about “ugly turns”, the VDT finally gets to the point in its editorial of today:
Most of those questions do have answers: Continue readingWe still believe in school unification, but we can no longer support the current effort.
For the past several weeks, readers have asked us how unification would work. Would it change millage rates? Would students be bussed cross-county? Who would lose or keep their jobs? When would Valdosta City Schools dissolve its charter and the Lowndes County School System take over? What are the estimates on cost savings? Would it be more efficient? What happens Nov. 9, the day after the election?
We’ve asked these questions, too. No one can answer them.
The organization that worked to place the issue on the ballot has not offered satisfactory answers. Community Unification for Educational Excellence has admirably spent time proposing ways to increase academic performance if the systems are unified. But CUEE has yet to present a recommended plan for how the merger would work.
If the referendum passes, the school boards will decide how unification would proceed. And both school boards are opposed to unification.
It is this prevailing sense of the unknown that has spurred The Times to oppose the Nov. 8 referendum.
There are too many unanswered questions. There are too many uncertainties at this point. There has to be a better way to present this to the voters.
A vote for unification in this climate is a vote for chaos.
Personally, I thought he was not all that bad as mayor, even though
he never did anything I asked him to.
Given that I don’t even live in Valdosta, there is of course no
reason that he should have, and he was always courteous when I appeared
before the Valdosta City Council or met him elsewhere.
Yes, I am well aware of many of the downsides,
many of which I have written about in this blog,
and Valdosta can do better.
If Valdosta is going to do better, somebody better needs to run. That’s why at the moment I’d prefer to write about the open race for mayor: qualifying is still open today and tomorrow (see next post).
I will say that whoever wins I hope will have less of this attitude:
“If they don’t say they’re against it, they’re for it.”I think all citizens, but especially elected officials, should be willing to say what they’re for.
If people around here are too frightened to do so, then we’ve got a much bigger problem than who is mayor of Valdosta.
-jsq
Azadeh Shahshahani wrote for the AJC 11 June 2009, Private prisons for immigrants lack accountability, oversight
That’s in Lumpkin, west of Americus, south of Columbus.On March 11, a 39-year-old man held in detention at the Stewart Detention Center, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in southwest Georgia, died at a hospital in Columbus.
To this day, the immediate cause of Roberto Martinez Medina’s death remains unclear (a press release pronounced the cause of death as “apparent natural causes”).That’s in Alamo, GA, between Macon, Tifton, and Savannah.
Last month, Leonard Odom, 37, died at the Wheeler County Correctional Facility in south-central Georgia.
Both facilities are operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to operate the Stewart center and one with the Georgia Department of Corrections to operate the one in Wheeler County.So, what happened? Continue reading
5.a. Change Order to Snake Nation Road ContractWe heard last time from Joe Pritchard that the county had received some estimates for resurfacing on Snake Nation Road, but he needed some time to organize funding before presenting details. OK, fair enough, but why is it a Change Order? Didn’t they just vote on realignment of Snake Nation Road in June? Why two months later a Change Order, which usually means have to do it right now with no competitive bids?
Here’s a backgrounder from the VDT about
a sinkhole being discovered on Snake Nation Road last December.
And here’s the VDT in May on
costs for fixing it:
“We are purchasing the property to the north, 5.22 acres, for $40,000 to reroute the road,” said County Manager Joe Pritchard.Rerouting the road will cost approximately $300,000 versus at least twice that amount to reinforce the hole, put in concrete supports, and fill it to prevent the road from collapsing again.
Here’s the agenda for this morning and tomorrow evening.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Why do you have to take the one politician that actually works for us?
Well, some farmers in Tifton didn’t take kindly to
the main idea Kingston was pushing yesterday.
Said a farmer:
I have tried working with probationers and I’ll just say that it was a very inconsistent supply of workers.Hm, the VDT previously was of a similar opinion, an opinion that got quoted in the AJC. Maybe the VDT didn’t know Kingston was pushing HB 87, even though they sat down with him yesterday morning?
We don’t need an ALEC-organized private prison law like HB 87 to profit private prison company CCA, and we don’t need a CC private prison in Lowndes County. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.
-jsq
“You won’t receive an open-records request if you answer questions honestly and in accordance with the law.” What an honest statement; perhaps some of this too.
GEORGIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE IX. COUNTIES AND MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS
SECTION II. HOME RULE FOR COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
(c) The power granted to counties in subparagraphs (a) and (b) above shall not be construed to extend to the following matters or any other matters which the General Assembly by general law has preempted or may hereafter preempt, but such matters shall be the subject of general law or the subject of local acts of the General Assembly to the extent that the enactment of such local acts is otherwise permitted under this Constitution:(1) Action affecting any elective county office, the salaries thereof, or the personnel thereof, except the personnel subject to the jurisdiction of the county governing authority.
(2) Action affecting the composition, form, procedure for election or appointment, compensation, and expenses and allowances in the nature of compensation of the county governing authority.
(3) Action defining any criminal offense or providing for criminal punishment.
I commend the VDT for its persistence in pursuing requests for information on many subjects. However, as John mentioned some subjects such as CUEE don’t seem to elicit the same due diligence in pursuing true facts. The VDT continues to support CUEE agendas even though it has been well established that the CUEE committee did not follow true priority of law when it ignored the 1983 GA constitutional law requiring all involved systems in a consolidation action be allowed to vote. CUEE still persists in following a 1926 statute that says only city voters are allowed to vote & the VDT continues to support their efforts. It seems to me a failure to acurately report all facts exists for both the CUEE committee members & the VDT staff.
Since a costly voter referendum action has been activated & supported by both entities in spite of & in the face of priority of law objections it is my opinion a crime or crimes have been perpetuated upon the citizens of Lowndes Co. & a Grand Jury investigation should be convened to address these criminal actions.
-Barbara Stratton
But there are still those who don’t understand the purpose of a newspaper, and it’s clearly not to be a marketing tool for the community. In addition to reporting the news of the day, a newspaper’s job as a member of the “fourth estate,” so deemed by Thomas Jefferson, is to hold public officials accountable for their actions.Now let’s see them apply the same standard to CUEE, or can the VDT not see through the bogus claims of an organization it supports?
To The Times and its editorial board, it’s far worse for the community’s image to have public officials knowingly lie, illegally withhold public documents and try to bully those who are only after the truth.
“When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are.” When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are. You can’t be accused of lying if you don’t lie. You won’t receive an open-records request if you answer questions honestly and in accordance with the law.
Companies looking to settle in a community are understanding when it comes to crime, as it happens everywhere. But far more interesting to them is the honesty and integrity of the community’s officials.
If an entity will lie and withhold information from the local news media and the citizens, why would industry expect any different?
There was an old game show called Truth or Consequences. Too often, some entities ignore the truth and are surprised by the consequences. Sadly, the public too often feels the consequences when it could use a little truth.
-jsq
Well, it’s good to know somebody’s in charge at the Authority.“It’s forthcoming. I can’t tell you anything because quite frankly, lawyers have their own schedules. I literally do not know specific details because I’m not privy to that information as of this moment.”
My mistake in thinking they just elected you Chairman.
Much more in David Rodock’s story in the VDT today, Decision still looms for future of once proposed biomass plant site.
-jsq