On the LAKE Front

I kind of like transparent government —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012 02 28

It's good to know County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk supports transparency. However, if he considers certain details important enough for the public to know, how about if the Commission puts them in its own minutes? Or publishes its own videos of its own meetings? Or even publish a list of changes that it approves when it changes an ordinance?

At the 28 February 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I kind of like transparent government.

He proceeded to tell VDT reporter David Rodock that

Not killing the messenger, but it was written in your paper the other day that the alcohol ordinance was kind of rushed and people were not aware of it. If you would go back to your story of May the 11^th we discussed that in great depth.

Here's the video:

I kind of like transparent government —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012-02-28
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Lowndes County Commission,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

He recommended that the VDT editors research their own archives. Fair enough, but how about if we look at the Commissions own archives of its own minutes?

First let's see what the reporter wrote that the Chairman was objecting to:

Rezoning on Old Pine Road again: is anything different this time?

Has anything changed since the contentious Glen Laurel rezoning on Old Pine Road? Maybe yes.

The new case decided yesterday (REZ-2011-05 - Laurel Brooke), was also represented by Bill Nijem, who got up and started speaking for it, and after a bit said:

First let me introduce myself, there are new faces up here. Bill Nijem. I represent the applicant.

Assuming that Commissioners should just know who he is may not sound like a good start, But, as he already said, nobody was speaking against this rezoning. Why is that?

I would like to note when the applicant first submitted this application, it was submitted as planned development, and worked with Mr. Davenport, we did tweak the site plan somewhat, made larger lots, and now it's R-10.

And that's what the opponents of the Glen Laurel rezoning asked for. At least a couple of them were present this time. Gretchen talked to them later, and they told her that since this subdivision had what they asked for last time, they had no objections this time.

Bill Nijem even discussed traffic and accidents, which you may recall