leesburg Archive

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Is Lee County Commission Calloway Trip justified?

Before getting into the meat of this post, I want to thank Lee County Clerk Christi Dockery for being so responsive to my requests and being pro-active in making sure I get all announcements sent to the local media. She, Alan Ours, Bob Alexander, Marshall Wilcox, and the rest of the county staff have been GREAT whenever I’ve called with a question, and I really appreciate it.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail announcement that was sent to the local press that the county commissioners would be retreating to Callaway Gardens for two days “discuss goals for 2010″.

I’ve got two issues with this:

First, why do the Commissioners need to have a taxpayer-funded weekend vacation AWAY from the taxpayers to discuss their goals for 2010? Why couldn’t that discussion happen as part of the regularly scheduled work session meeting that was held Tuesday night? What are their “goals” that they are so afraid of the public knowing about?

Second, there are a number of facilities much closer to Lee County that would be much cheaper on the county budget (re: taxpayer dollars) than Callaway Gardens. This includes one facility they bought – Grand Island! Chairman Duffy continues to praise county staff for doing more with less, but apparently he is not interested in saving money when spending it means he gets a taxpayer funded weekend vacation.

Not only would these facilities be cheaper, they would also allow the public to attend, due to their closer proximity to Lee County. But the ommissioners aren’t interested in genuine public input, apparently.

My final point is directed at a single commissioner, who announced in this week’s Lee County Ledger that he intends to run for re-election this year. Commissioner Dennis Roland continuously haggles county staff over the smallest penny, and has stated repeatedly that he would not vote for the new library because it was over his arbitrary limit. But where was his opposition to this taxpayer funded vacation to one of the prime fishing spots in Georgia?

Written by Jeff Sexton. Jeff Sexton co-owns the political blog SWGAPolitics.com and is a candidate for the Leesburg City Council.

Tags: leesburg
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Wanted: Meaningful reform of ethics code

At the very front of what I’m about to say, let me note that this is just an idea I’ve been thinking about that may or may not work. Based on my own thinking right now, I think it might, and it is certainly a different approach than what we’ve got right now, which is largely a paper tiger. Obviously, the point in writing this at all is that I would like public discussion on it, so feel free to have at it!

Sam Olens told me a couple of weeks ago that if the Cobb County Commission violates the State’s transparency laws, they can be fined a whopping $100 per occurrence, and suggested that for the laws to have any real teeth, there needed to be an extra zero on that number.

That was the quote in particular that has stuck with me since that interview, floating in the back of my mind. As with many of my solutions, after percolating back there for a while, it finally comes to me, as this one has:

What if we take off a zero?

But when we take off that zero – making the fine a maximum of $10 – we also switch out how often it can be levied. Instead of per occurrence, let’s make it per registered voter affected per occurrence. For example, if the City of Leesburg violated the State’s Open Meetings law, instead of being fined $100 for the meeting that violated the law, they could be fined $10 x ~ 1600 voters, or $16,000 for every meeting that violated the Open Records law. If the Lee County Commissioners violated the Open Records law, the fine could be up to $10 x ~18,000 voters, or $180,000. Dougherty County Commissioners would face up to a $10 x ~56,000 = $560,000 fine for every violation of the Open Meetings law.

Even a $1 per registered voter per occurrence fine would be a dramatic deterrent in the current economic times, as the elected officials would not want to have to raise taxes because they violated an Open Meetings law – talk about a political gold mine for their opponents!

But wait – we can go even further with meaningful transparency reform! If we could force all county and municipal boards to meet when the majority of the public could actually attend all the meetings (say no earlier than 6 p.m. on a weekday?), more people would have the opportunity to be at the meetings, and thus more sunshine is allowed in via people becoming truly informed, active citizens in their communities.

Furthermore, if we forced local governments to be more proactive about letting the public know about special called meetings – say by announcing them in the legal organ of the county and on the organization’s website (if available) for at least one week prior to the time of the meeting – we could add some further sunshine in there. Obviously, any violations of these provisions would be subject to the same per registered voter, per occurrence fine as described above.

Finally, what if we subjected all politicians to this same type of fine – up to $10 per registered voter in the district, per occurrence – for all ethics violations, including failure to file required disclosures on time? Would this not send a clear message to politicians at all levels that if they didn’t shape up, they would pay dearly out of their own checkbook?

The “solutions” we have are being shown to have failed us. It is time we go back to the drawing board and come up with new, more stringent ideas, and I think the ideas I’ve proposed here are a good step in the right direction. As I said at the beginning, I’d love to hear what you think.

If you are a legislator reading this and I’ve caught your eye with some of it, I would love to talk to you about the possibility of introducing one of these bills this session – I’ve got bill proposals already written for at least one of the ideas I’ve discussed here (the after hours meetings), and I can write the others up if I can find anyone willing to actually sponsor it in the General Assembly.

If you are just a concerned citizen reading this, and want to help, talk to you legislator about these ideas. If you let me know who you’ve contacted, I will also contact them directly and make my case.

Who knows, we might just be able to pass meaningful ethics reform in Georgia in 2010!

Written by Jeff Sexton. Jeff Sexton co-owns the political blog SWGAPolitics.com and is a candidate for the Leesburg City Council.

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Leesburg has a sign ordinance?

Apparently so, and on the night of my defeat, a new war began.

Not much happened at the Leesburg City Council meeting this week. It started out with a public hearing on a $500K grant the city got to repair some stormwater drainage from the Stonegate apartment area out to Robert B Lee drive. One property owner in the area asked if it covered improvements along the other side of the railroad tracks and was told it did not.

During committee reports, Councilman Bob Wilson asked the chief of police to say a few words about an arrest they made last week. A married man from Alpharetta was busted at McDonald’s after an Internet sting where he thought he was coming down here to meet and have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Also during committee reports, the city engineer asked the council to consider creating a stormwater utility that upon first glance appears to be a back-door way to raise our taxes. I’ll need to look into this a bit more, but that was my honest impression when I was sitting there listening to him.

Next, Councilwoman Debra Long asked the council to consider moving its regular meeting time to 6 p.m., which was unanimously adopted after being motioned and seconded by other Council members. This will go into effect with the next meeting, Dec 1.

Finally, three people spoke during the public forum at the end of the meeting. I was up first fulfilling the one campaign promise I made – mentioning some problems people in Indian Oaks were having with stormwater flowing off the parking lot at the high school and creating mini-lakes in their yard. Mayor Quinn said that this is a known issue with the council, and that there was nothing the Council could do about it.

Next, the owner of Leesburg Barber Shop stood up to inquire about Leesburg’s own sign ordinance. I wasn’t even aware we had one – and not only do I think they are completely illegal and immoral, I’m honestly not sure why the city of Leesburg even thinks we need one. The Barber Shop is struggling, as are most other businesses in this time, and the owner has had to drop his prices twice recently. He paid $6,800 for this sign three years ago, and it has yet to pay for itself.

At that time, he called someone with either the city or county government – he’s not sure who now, three years later – and was given verbal approval before he bought it. Apparently, in recent weeks this sign has brought him a bit of business, and he hopes this continues. But he also has employment opportunities over at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, and if he is forced to remove this sign he may well have to close his shop and leave town. Mayor Quinn and several Council members spoke in favor of the sign ordinance, with Quinn in particular telling this business owner that his sign was “clearly illegal”.

Tom’s issues with the Albany sign ordinance are well known, and now it appears that I have a similar fight of my own. The Barber Shop’s sign is nothing to be concerned about – it is a simple scrolling LED message board (roughly 6-inches tall by call it 6-foot wide?) placed inside his window facing out. You basically have to be staring right at it to even know it is there – even when waiting on the traffic light to turn on to Walnut Ave from the Courthouse at night, as I have done.

Let’s go a bit further with this one though, shall we? Leesburg has three gas stations, two of which are directly across the road from each other. The FlashFoods has an LED sign for their gas prices. This is easy to change from inside the store in any weather and at a moment’s notice. When the Chevron across the street asked to be allowed to put a similar sign up, they were told they could not, per the sign ordinance. This means that an employee of the Chevron must manually go out to the sign and change the plastic numbering, no matter what the weather is like when the price change is ordered.

I can tell you from personal experience working in a gas station several years ago that this sucks! Not to mention the fact that it causes a competitive disadvantage on the Chevron vs. the FlashFoods. Thus, local government favors one business over another, even though the two businesses are literally across the street from each other! This should not be! I urge the council to repeal this ordinance at their next meeting, or at a bare minimum revise it significantly.

Finally, Foxie Harper asked the council why the change was made in the billing process to move from a post card to a full envelope with a return envelope, asking for both the reasoning and how much extra it cost the city. Told that it was the result of a federal privacy law, she dropped her objection.

The next meeting of the City Council will be on Dec 1 at 6 p.m. I’ll be there, and if you live in Leesburg I hope to see you there!

jeffsexton

Jeff Sexton.

Written by Jeff Sexton. Jeff Sexton co-owns the political blog SWGAPolitics.com and is a candidate for the Leesburg City Council.

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Leesburg needs openness, professionalism

On Nov. 3, the citizens of the City of Leesburg will have a choice between two competing visions. My vision takes the best of the old ways and implements them using fresh, new methods to achieve the best combination of both old and new.

One great thing about the old days was that people could sit around and talk to each other about ideas and events. Due to a variety of factors, you really don’t see that too much these days – but we can. I’ve been a pioneer of that over the past 10 months or so with my work in creating and operating SWGAPolitics.com, a forum for anyone in SWGA to talk politics in a manner that we try to keep generally civil. As the newest Leesburg city councilman, I will continue to push for this genuine open forum to discuss any issue that arises. I’ve also already begun using my personal site, JefferySexton.com, as a way to discuss campaign-specific issues, and I will continue to use it as my “official” site once in office.

A great thing about the new ways is our commitment to professionalism and openness in government. We now expect council members to be at meetings and we expect websites and other resources so that we can keep tabs on our government. I can honestly say that the only meeting I have ever missed once I committed to doing something was last week’s County Commission meeting that fell on my anniversary – and that is from any position I have ever held, going all the way back to my college days. That is a record I intend to keep intact as the newest Leesburg City Councilman. I also intend to create a new website that has at a minimum the agendas and minutes of every City Council meeting, as well as contact information for every City of Leesburg Department head and other relevant information about City government.

The era of good-ole-boy politics is dead, and it should stay dead. I have been working for openness, transparency, professionalism, and civility since beginning my political involvement one year ago, and I will continue that work as the newest Leesburg city councilman.

jeffsexton

Jeff Sexton.

Written by Jeff Sexton. Jeff Sexton co-owns the political blog SWGAPolitics.com and is a candidate for the Leesburg City Council.

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Child porn nets man, Age 71, for 14 years

Seventy-one-year-old Franklin Eugene Gilmer of Leesburg has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison for possessing more than 5,000 images of child pornography on his home computers.

Gilmer was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography. The sentence must be served in its entirety; there is no parole in the federal prison system. Gilmer was arrested at his Stock’s Dairy Road home in October 2007.

In his plea agreement, Gilmer admitted that he had knowingly downloaded child pornography from the internet onto his personal computers. The investigation began when law enforcement officers in Florida identified Gilmer’s computer as one from which images of child pornography could be accessed via a peer to peer file sharing network.

Agents seized Gilmer’s personal computers on two separate occasions. Forensic analysis of Gilmer’s computer hard drives revealed more than 5,000 images of child pornography.

G.F. Peterman III, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, said that “the United States Attorney’s Office is dedicated to prosecuting all persons involved in the sexual exploitation of children to the fullest extent of the law.”

Assistant United States Attorney K. Alan Dasher prosecuted the case. The case was investigated by agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service.

Tags: crime, leesburg
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