SWGA Politics

Lee County Board of Commissioners Meeting Tonight – with Library!

The agenda for tonight’s meeting is up, and because it is the voting meeting, it is largely the same as the Agenda from two weeks ago.

Bob Alexander is requesting approval of the proposed design of Westover Rd Extension from Ledo to Fussell. On the Ledo side, the road will join west of the road IHOP is on, possibly right beside the skating rink. This end of the road is to line up with the proposed Westover Extension that is currently being proposed for Dougherty County. On the Fussell side, the road will pass close to the Grand Island property before meeting with Fussell just east of the 7th Day Adventist Church – causing two stop signs within a few hundred feet of each other. He also is proposing another sign ordinance moratorium (that still only affects permitted signs, even though it is another section that is in violation of State law) and hopes to have a new Ordinance to propose next month.

Mike Sistrunk, director of Public Works, has a proposal to buy a Bat Wing Mower using money that was allocated in the budget for another purchase which he does not need at this time.
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Lee County Sign Ordinance Meeting TONIGHT

Tonight, the Lee County Planning Commission will meet at 6pm at the T Page Tharpe Building – in the Opal Cannon Auditorium where the Board of Commissioners meets, I think.

From what I have been told, the only thing on the Agenda (which is not online at this time) is the “final draft” of the new proposed Lee County Sign Ordinance, which you can see for yourself in .docx form here based on a scan from a printed copy I was given.

One issue is that retailers are not allowed to cover more than 25% of their windows – which means some pretty drastic changes for convenience stores and other businesses. The Institute for Justice has already tackled a similar ban in Dallas, TX.
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Called Meeting Gets Contentious

The Albany Herald’s Carlton Fletcher has a great summary of the meeting here.

I thought this meeting could get “interesting”, and I knew its subject matter was very important, so I went through considerable effort to make sure we got video of the meeting, even though I personally could not be there.

And here it is: (For those mostly interested in the fireworks, that appears to be mostly in Part 5)

Part 1:

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Lee County Board of Commissioners Calls Daytime Meeting

Today at 2pm there will be a Special Called Meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners at the Leesburg Library to discuss the current situation with the overbid Library project.

Some speculation says that one possibility that may be discussed is scrapping the Conference Center part altogether, or at least asking the architect to design the building in such a way that the Library could be built now, and the Conference Center added on at a later time when more funds are available.

I am hoping to have video of this meeting, but since I will not be able to attend myself, this is not guaranteed.

I highly recommend all citizens of Lee County, as well as anyone who owns property in Lee County (and thus pays Lee County property tax) attend this very important meeting.

Lee County Board of Commissioners Meeting August 10 2010

Less than 12 hours after the meeting began, I have the full video online for your viewing pleasure. Talk about turnaround!

Special Called Meeting:

Regularly Scheduled Meeting:
Part 1:

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Lee County Transparent As Mud

Last week, the Lee County Board of Commissioners appointed Al Crace of Roswell, Ga as the interim County Administrator. Per both Crace and Lee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Ed Duffy, this is to be a temporary position lasting roughly 5 months or so. In other words, he could well be gone before the end of the year, though before Spring Break 2011 is more likely.

My problem, which I will be discussing with the Board at their meeting tonight and have already privately emailed them about, is the secrecy involved in Mr. Crace’s appointment. In the email I sent the Commissioners, I did a very basic google search on nothing more than his name, and I found references to some form of trouble in two of his jobs within this decade (he has held at least 3, possibly more). Specifically, apparently he was fired by the Mayor of Athens, and he resigned his post as Jackson County Administrator barely 24 hours after telling the local paper that he had no intentions of doing so.

Because the Board met in closed executive session (and daytime meetings to boot) for the discussions on who to hire, there is no record of what was discussed. Therefore, we have no way of knowing what was said and no way of knowing whether these issues were thoroughly discussed. On this issue, the Lee County Board of Commissioners has worked in a way we in Southwest Georgia typically expect out of the governing authorities of Albany and Dougherty County – they have been transparent as mud.

Fortunately, I have no intentions of allowing Lee County to be as transparent as mud. We, the citizens of Lee County, have a right to know what our government is doing, and Georgia apparently has some of the best sunshine laws in the nation – laws which I intend to work to make even stronger. JD Sumner had an excellent piece on this a couple of weeks ago in the Herald, and a friend passed along some more relevant information that I intend to use.

Here are the documents JD referred to:
Sunshine Laws: Red Book – Meetings
Sunshine Laws: Blue Book – Law Enforcement
Sunshine Laws: Green Book – Schools

After the jump is the email I sent to the Commissioners with everything I found in my very cursory google search mentioned above. So far, there has been no response from any Commissioner.
[See the Email]

Lee County Board of Commissioners July Meetings

July 13 (Work session):
Part 1:

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Lee County Board of Commissioners Meeting June 22 2010

Part 1

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Lee County Board of Commissioners Meeting June 8 2010

Part 1

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Leesburg City Council Meeting July 2010

Pay attention around the 5 minute mark. Mr. Alvarez asks for a liquor license, and the Council gives him the run around. When either Syndney Johnson or Bob Wilson says that a citizen would have to request the referendum to allow the liquor license, your’s truly raises his hand and says he will request it right now. The story from the Council then changes to say that it would need to be a petition.

As a matter of fact, OCGA 3-4-90 says (emphasis mine)
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