On the LAKE Front

VLCIA to sue Sterling Power about biomass site?

I'd heard a rumor that some sort of lawsuit about the biomass site was the subject of some of the Industrial Authority executive sessions for real estate discussions. VLCIA has finally said in public what their position is.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today, Authority weighs suit for biomass land: Slow progress leads to default, contract argument

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority plans to send a petition to Lowndes County Superior Court to sue Wiregrass Power, LLC, for a clear title on the land purchased for the development of a biomass energy plant.

The Authority believes Wiregrass defaulted on a lease agreement to build the plant, placing ownership of the 22.22-acre tract back in their hands, but Wiregrass denies the allegations. This denial casts “a cloud” of suspicion on the Authority that may prevent it from re-marketing the property, according to the petition, leading to the suit.

Sounds like they're publicizing their intent to try to scare Sterling off without having to sue. I'm for that.

This may explain a flurry of special called meetings they had in May and June 2011.

Videos of VLCIA 14 June 2011 meeting

These videos are not all labeled, which is unfortunate, since some of them reflect quite well on some things the Industrial Authority is doing. But after all, they have paid staff who could be taking, labelling, and posting their own videos, and their new executive director says she wants transparency, so who knows? Maybe VLCIA will do this kind of thing themselves. They meet again tonight. You could go ask them.

A few of these videos have already been posted. Here's a playlist of all the videos of that meeting.

Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

VLCIA gets around to updating its meeting schedule: after the meeting

Last week the Industrial Authority held a meeting on 14 June 2011 that it called its regularly scheduled meeting. Except the date for that meeting on VLCIA's own web page said "June 21, 2011". I checked just before going to last week's meeting.

Today VLCIA's Meeting Schedule web page now says:

June 14, 2011**
**Please note date change**

Well, some of us did note the date of the 14 June meeting because the VDT published that date. However, nobody said at that meeting whether there would be another meeting this week.

And we still don't know

"I'm obviously here on one issue." —Karen Noll @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Karen Noll asked the VLCIA board to put a no-biomass clause in any purchase agreement regarding the proposed biomass site.

She began with these words:

I'm Karen Noll. I hope some of you already have seen my writing and have read my letters to you in the past. I'm obviously here on one issue. I hope that in the future I can be talking to you about other issues. But right now I'm talking to you about biomass. And we celebrated that it was dead and it was gone and now it's not. Because we really don't know ... what the plan is.

By "we" I'm guessing she meant WACE. Some of us who are not members of WACE warned that it ain't over until it's over, and it only took a week to discover that VLCIA already knew Sterling Planet wanted to buy the proposed biomass site.

Karen Noll made a pitch based partly on saving taxpayer money. In addressing health concerns, she handed the board a letter from local doctor Craig Bishop. She handed the board a petition with "at least 700 signatures" and she said for each signature there was probably at least one more that didn't sign. Some of what she said appeared to be drawn from a letter that is appended in this post after the video.

Here's Part 1 of 2:

How does the hierarchy work? —Mario Bartoletti

Mario Bartoletti, the first to carry a protest sign into a VLCIA board meeting, said that as a member of WACE he wants to know the hierarchy and to whom does VLCIA report.

Sticking to their current policy of never answering directly anything said in Citizens to be Heard, the board did not answer. (My opinion follows in a separate post.)

More about Dr. Bartoletti in this writeup in the VDT by David Rodock of 25 April 2011.

Here's the video:

How does the hierarchy work? —Mario Bartoletti
Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

For the children —Matt Flumerfelt @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Matt Flumerfelt put down his trumpet to speak for the biomass protesters. He recommended responsibility on behalf of the children and grandchildren. He also said he looks forward to the new VLCIA executive director, since her background in hotel marketing fits with his vision of the area as a retirement community.

Here's the video:

For the children —Matt Flumerfelt
Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Nominated VLCIA Officers for FYE 2012

Chairman Jerry Jennett asked Tom Call for a report from the officer nominating committee, which was that the nominated officers for FYE 2012 are: Roy Copeland Chairman, Mary Gooding Vice-Chairman, and Norman Bennett Secretary/Treasurer.

Roy Copeland pulled a very sour face at the news. Mary Gooding asked Roy Copeland if he was willing to do it, and he said,

I'll let you know next meeting.

They clarified that they elect officers next meeting. I don't know when the next meeting is, but since their fiscal year ends 30 June 2011, presumably some time before then. Given that nobody else seems to want especially the hot potato of the Chairman's job, it seems a safe bet that Roy Copeland is it.

Musical protesters @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

When I got there at 5:30 the biomass protesters were breaking up so some of them could go inside and speak. Matt Flumerfelt is visible heading in the door with his trumpet. Videos of his and other remarks to the board will follow.

Here's the video:

Musical protesters @ VLCIA 14 June 2011
Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Transparency and leadership for the local good —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Noting that I was there on behalf of the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), which takes these videos and puts them on the web, I recommended to the Industrial Authority board that they put their agendas on the web, since they give those away at the door and they don't contain any of the details that they're concerned about revealing to competitors.

Recalling that I had previously had the audacity to read their own charter to them, or at least the parts about the general good and welfare of the community, I reminded them that some areas that had successfully attracted industry, such as Raleigh, NC, Austin, TX, and Portland, OR had said what kinds of industry they wanted. Expanding on the example of Austin, TX, I noted that they emphasized clean industry, music, and arts, and that helped attract the kinds of knowledge-based workers that our local Chamber of Commerce wants for knowledge-based jobs.

Then I noted that I had complimented Mayor Fretti

Why all those VLCIA special meetings?

Here's the VlCIA board approving minutes for some of those recent meetings, although you can't tell what they were for, since they were listed on the agenda like this:

Minutes

• Special Called Meeting, May 17, 2011
• Executive Session, May 17, 2011
• Regular Meeting, May 17, 2011
• Special Called Meeting, May 20, 2011
• Executive Session, May 20, 2011
• Special Called Meeting, May 21, 2011
• Executive Session, May 21, 2011
• Special Called Meeting, June 7, 2011
• Executive Session, June 7, 2011

That's right: no indication of what the meetings were for.

I was told outside afterwards by one board member that the special meetings were for