Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. —Gretchen Quarterman

I repeatedly apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport about an earlier misunderstanding about the "public hearing" agenda item, which the Chairman stated was not really a public hearing and for which no citizens were allowed to speak:

7.b. Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates - Lowndes County Report of Accomplishments (ROA) and Short Term Work Program (STWP)

Then I said:

Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. And I think that people trust the government more when we can see the business done in public. And I really appreciate when you do things in public and you ask questions in the work sessions so everybody can hear.

The VDT's version was:

The lone citizen to be heard, Gretchen Quarterman, thanked commissioners for their observance of open government and apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport for things she said to him prior to the meeting, due to a “misunderstanding,” she said.

After the meeting adjourned, Chairman Ashley Paulk apologized to me in public

(although not on camera) about our on-going misunderstanding about this issue. He seemed to indicate that the draft Comprehensive Plan updates that he had refused to provide in response to an open records request would be forthcoming. Weeks later, that still hadn't happened, and I obtained the draft through another channel. And it turns out state guidelines say there was supposed to be a public hearing before that draft was submitted to the state, plus the draft was supposed to be made available to the citizens before that hearing: neither of those things happened.

Here's the video:

Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. —Gretchen Quarterman
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-gretchen