LPPT
-
Content Count
28,064 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
46
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by LPPT
-
-
I am out of positives so + 10000
I believe she had good reason for what she did, these contracts are up for review every year.
-
I agree. What happened to keeping the money local? LPPT, they have been talking about doing this audit for many months. Look in to it and see which council members are pushing for it and which ones are dragging their feet. Not to mention the day before Ms. Devy was voted in as Mayor the council decided to go to a City Manager which takes a lot of power away from the Mayor and gives it to the City Manager. So I'm interested to see who the City Manager will be. Ms. Devy is pretty much a figurehead or glorified council member now.
When it comes to spending tax payer dollars on personnel the first qualification should not be that you are a native of Paulding, believe me people have taken notice of that. You and I know exactly the same things about not only Hiram, but the county in general.
Mayor Devey has the right to make whatever decisions she wants to bring transparency and order to the Government of The city of Hiram and she has my support as she goes through the process. She answers to the taxpayers at the end of the day. She didn't run for the position as a popularity contest.
People need to take notice that Hiram and Dallas are cities of Ethics. There are requirements to meet that criteria. If they lose that rating it is time for torches and pitch forks.
It is so easy to criticize when you are on the outside looking in give the Mayor a chance to make her changes and use her judgement before jumping all over her.
-
I only have one issue in these races and that is economic recovery.
For our state and our economy. We have laws that are allowing us to do things that make our state attractive to companies looking to expand or relocate here.
Our county one of the worst effected by the housing collapse and we have needed help.
We pay state income tax, some of that money is ours to help us when needed.
The dredging of the Savannah harbor is going to be a huge economic driver for our state. The counties and areas that need help growing their economy will be in line to accommodate that growth. Some like our area may need help. Such as the reservoir, roads, infrastructure.
We need someone that will help us with our own money rather than selling their vote to the highest bidder at the state level, which might be a corporation in another county that needs the same things.
Honestly this is the only thing I am looking at, will our state representatives work to make life better for my friends, family and community.
We are between a rock and a hard place with this runoff.
I have a belief that you set a goal and all decisions will then be in line with one thing that goal.
This is the best we can do, I honestly believe that the many business owners that supported Curruth have the goal of economic recovery as a priority.
-
The thing is, I don't think the "Good ole boy" system is really out of Hiram. I think that the ex-mayor still has a lot to say about things, especially being against an audit of the books from when she was mayor. I don't know if there was/is wrong doing, but I'm all for open books so that we can look at was done and what is being done.
It's going to take some time for the new way of doing things to produce positive results. I don't think Mayor Devey has any choice but to do the audit because her credibility is at stake. We will see how it goes.
-
Well it seems like you really got your share of the ole blowing smoke job. People in Hiram would be wise to start attending city council meetings and see what is really going on. Makes me wonder why they got an attorney from Decature - not even Paulding County. When the city attorney tells council members that they are not doing things legally, what alternatve do they have but to fire the messenger.
Actually Mayor Devey had nothing but good words for Mr. Stinson. They are changing the way some things are done and those changes require that they hire key personnel to do it correctly and legally.
I did not thoroughly read the bios until I set down to make the statements yesterday.
When I realized that they were from outside of Paulding I thought to myself how brilliant.
This will put a stop to rumors that Hiram is run by a bunch of good ole' boys that show favoritism.
Obviously the council is supporting her decision, she is a sharp lady, she is not native to Paulding. There will be less problems with family and childhood friends even asking for favors. I am not saying that it previously went on, but I know for a fact the friends and relatives do ask placing a lot of un-needed pressure on people in office.
You are going to have a Mayor with a lot less pressure and a lot less suspicion on them in a small town has been plagued drama and rumors for years.
The result is Hiram will go forward instead of in circles.
As you pointed out someone is going to find high drama in all the changes also, but that is fine when the goal is to make their process of running the city legal and efficient.
I believe Mayor Devey is going to bring dignity to Hiram Government, with the exception of being in the Dunk tank Tuesday night, but it is for a good cause
I do not like that man...
A lot of people don't like him because he is terse, but many of his peers respect him professionally.
-
1
-
-
Where is this place?
Cleburne and 278 were BW use to be. It has been renovated and the new folks are great!!!!
Yes where might this be??
You are quite familiar with this place. Does rainy night in Georgia come to mind
-
I will have to build up my strength, I have not danced since our last dance.
:wub: -
Your going to love it JJ
Lots of live music dancing
-
WOO HOO.....WELCOME!!!
Kay says Hi!! we are waiting for her to validate. the place is amazing, clean fresh and ready for some peep parties
\ -
Buds Sports BarNow Open:) Buds Sports Bar! TOnight we will have an Oyster special For a dozen of oysters it will be $9.95 For a 1/2 it will be $7.95. Our beer specail for tonight is if you order a Blue moon Draft you'll get a prize cup.. Also tonight is our Karaoke night we have a 8 week contest for the best singer at the end of the 8 weeks we will have a $500 winner:) So come and join us at Buds!!!!!
Please check our website for the full menu and hours of operation.
Mod Note, they are members, LPPT
-
See post 1 for update.
-
The City of Hiram called a special council meeting last night the agenda items was personnel issues. They have dissolved the use of all services from Glen Stinson as both City Attorney and City Solicitor.
I finally got around to visiting with Mayor Devey yesterday to ask her about the details of the council meeting.
She wanted me to clarify that a special meeting was not called just to dissolve the services of Mr. Stinson.
They had many things on the agenda mostly pertaining to budget. There was prior discussion with Mr. Stinson before the meeting.
The issue was pretty much drama free.
The news coming from The City Hiram is all good. They are simply changing the way they do business.
They will now have a city Attorney and a Solicitor both from the firm of Henderson &
Hundley from Deacator Ga.
Respectively Laurel E. Henderson and Mr. Kelly Hundley.
The city will also now enter into a service contract with the office of the District Attorney, Paulding County Judicial Circuit that will provide 2 experienced municipal court prosecutors to perform all the duties of prosecuting attorney.
The city of Hiram has also hired a new auditor James L. Whitaker, certified Public Accountant from Snellville Ga.
The city is still interviewing for the job of city manager.
Now for my editorial
We had a long conversation and I was quite impressed with Mayor Devey.
We talked about the city council at length and her efforts to help create a cohesive team there with mutual goals for the City of Hiram.
She does seem to be going about running a city like a large corporation.
I sensed that she is more of a business person than a politician which I found refreshing. After all we pay taxes to have our government to serve us in an efficient and business like manner. I predict positive changes and attitudes at the City of Hiram in the future were the boundaries will be clearly drawn for all the employees as they go about their daily business of running the city of Hiram.
While the headline may have been somewhat misleading in that it indicated high drama of a special meeting to dismiss Mr. Stinson which it was not, it did bring enough attention to the changes in Hiram to prompt me to make my first official visit with the new Mayor and learn more about the current positive changes in the City of Hiram.
I hope to have a sit down Soon with Mayor Devey on camera to let the rest of Paulding get to know her.
By the way we are also seeing the return of the family oriented activities in Ben Hill Strictland Sr. Memorial park.
-
I don't think I said that.
You didn't, I just had no idea what to expect from the link. I am not overly surprised Glenn Stinsion has all their money.
-
You should have it now. You can verify however you choose. I've stated from the beginning that I don't know the background on these FiFas. I just know they are real and add up to a significant amount of money.
Ok I thought it was a tax lien, I would have been disappointed because I was told there weren't any. They can address this however they want to when they see it publicized. Since they are from the first of the year they may have cleared the matter up.
-
I tried to attach it, it said it loaded.
I can email it if you prefer. I just hated that mysterious was being questioned when I had actually seen the documents.No, that's a late filing, which is technically an ethics violation, but according to the article, she's going to fix that.
Speaking of ethics violations, Michael Ray James has failed to disclose the source of his campaign funds.
She hit send and she did not get any indication if it was received properly.
Obviously it was not.
-
LPPT, I PM'd them to you.
The links didn't show.
-
I'm not being "cloak and dagger". I have them in a PDF. I'm not sure those can be posted here. And, I don't know the background on the FiFas.
You can link them from here just copy and paste the HTTP for the PDF.
-
I can email them to you or send you a PM of the site where they are located.
Do I need a password to see the site, if so I will pm you my email.
-
For all of you who want to trash Paulette because of her liens.......another District 19 politician is rumored to have a lien against them as well.
Why has nobody posted about this?
The title should have read....CANDIDATE, not politician. Can a mod please edit it for me? Thank you.
There is no document, if feel comfortable spreading a rumor that there is one go for it.
I have seen the documents (there are two) and they are accessible to any one who wants to see them.
Where do I look?
I'm game.
-
:drinks:
:clapping: I have never met you, But I think we could be friends fast. Very well said radiohead.Did someone give you your job because you needed it? or because you were qualified.
A lot of the new jobs pay well and you will have to be qualified. We have thousands of jobs in this county that pay minimum wage, they are willing to train folks.
There is absolutely no way to respond to his remarks with out insulting a lot of people and giving away a lot of things.
I don't particularly appreciate the insinuation that others don't deserve what they are getting paid. It comes down to a changing of the guard, the new guard is going to be making the same money and have the same power. If we choose wrong we simply get less for our money.
People are welcome to think less money will be spent, I doubt that it is true,we will be spending on different things.
It is very hard for people to get their minds around how deep of a hole we are in as a bedroom community. This hole made a lot of money for some people, people that now are not making money.
There is no manipulation at any level to help them make money.
If we filled every vacant home in Paulding in the next month, we would have to raise the millage rate. How much I do not know, the people that did well back then have no work, some of our gov. employees don't have enough work without the housing industry. People have been left behind because all the eggs were in one basket.
What we have been doing is not sustainable without spending tax dollars just to maintain what we have.
We need to take a long hard look at why people want what they want, and who they hope to help.
Small business is having a very hard time competing in this economy small business only needs one thing to thrive and that is people walking in the door with money in hand.
You can pay their overhead, remove the taxes, but the bottom line is you can't tell me were to shop, or eat, what plumber or other contractor to use.
They have to compete in the current market to survive. Nobody is killing them, the economy is killing them.People are not spending and you can't make them.
You can't make the housing market come back no matter how much you try to manipulate things. This county as is, without balanced economic development can only sustain so many small businesses and retail. Someone has got to pay taxes, we have 2 sources homeowners and businesses. If you break their backs because you won't pursue balance because someone gets left behind we all go down together. The people of this county do not owe people that made money off of one sided development a living.
What they do owe is leadership that stands strong and does not cave in to those crying for the good ole days when the streets of Paulding flowed with housing development money.
You can choose to believe that people out there aren't trying to manipulate to get the county back into the building business,meaning people that make money off of retail development rather industrial. Many in our local construction industry are left behind when it comes to industrial building. We have prime real estate with good infrastructure. You better believe there are plenty in the county that would want to zone for retail and restaurant. They don't care one bit that it produces low paying jobs and additional tax burden to the county.
Just like they did during the housing boom, they are going to take the money and leave the residents of Paulding to carry the tax burden once again.
So now you understand why economic development is under attack and the focus of this election. I have talked to multiple small business owners in this county that are beyond thrilled with what is happening. They don't need anyone to give them anything they need people to stay in this county and spend their money in this county.
The people that need all the so-called help are the people that were left behind when the developers left Paulding county.
If tax paying citizens are prepared to squeeze a little bit of life back into to development out of pity for those that were left behind, it's fine, just be prepared to pay dearly for it down the road because it will never be self sustaining as manufacturing. I have the studies to prove it.
Manufacturing was told to hit the road years ago in Paulding, and we have paid dearly for that mistake. Manufacturing no longer happens by accident, counties just like ours that are not sustainable are out there competing every single day to offset the cost of an entire state that was one of the worse hit by the housing crash.
You can stick your head in the sand and believe that people out there aren't trying to find away to make residential and retail development pay for them.
People have short memories, about the tax dollars we paid to build infrastructure and roads for housing development, the impact fees that were never paid. The schools we had to build, the fire and law enforcement. Parks and libraries. We were forced to build that and pay for it. Now we pay to maintain it because it sold houses.
All I can say is follow the money who benefits when you stop manufacturing from coming in here. Follow the money on the movie studio, there is no single person or entity profiting, it is an economic pump to benefit every business in the county.
No single person is getting rich, it's no different than the county buying a piece of machinery that pumps water main leaks from under the street. The airport is the same thing. They pump outside money into our county.
Everything that economic development is doing is using existing infrastructure, at this point we are not being ask to pay for it.
Believe me when I tell you that there are some that would rezone that land in a New York minute for retail.
You have people trying to get back in the game because they smell money with the possibility of snuggling retail up next to the business parks, they want to maneuver themselves into position to take advantage of it.
Housing and retail circulate the same dollars around and around, people leaving to work somewhere else literally pump money out of our local economy.
I have heard twice from people running for office if they get in economic development in this county will be the first to go.If they go you will see retail development explode in this county. You will see our small businesses fighting for their lives for every dime that residents spend in this county.
If your small business is not dependent on the construction business you will be pushed out while they once again rev up the development machines.Once again millions of dollars of tax payer money will go into 100's of minimum wage jobs.
As I have heard from some of those folks that like retail development, jobs the residents need to be thankful for we are luck that they made money building it. yeah right. The same amount of money spent on infrastructure for manufacturing can generate 100's of jobs for people making $40,000 a year. Small independent businesses almost never focus on paying great wages and providing the most jobs. They are sole proprietors and seek to make a good living for themselves. It does not make these businesses bad, but they don't want the responsibility of being the economic engine for a county this big.
People that don't even own small businesses are deciding what small business needs and wants. It has become the political catch phrase, like do it for the children.
Small business people aren't children.
Economic development has provided for small businesses, they are called opportunity zones. The word is spreading as more areas and businesses come under the zones.
People are blatantly lying about this county not doing anything to help small business.
What they are saying is this county is not doing anything to help the small construction person. That is because we can't afford to continue in that direction and to zone and provide the infrastructure for them to make a living.
They simply don't care if it is detrimental to the taxpayer anymore than housing developers did.
-
Of course I see the difference, and your condescending tone is not needed.
I actually have a very nicely paying job (after being unemployed for 7 months).
Still standing my ground on my beliefs tho. You can keep puffing the dragon but it is all make believe until the jobs are posted.
I am not the least bit worried about eating crow on this one. No matter what happens in the election the contracts have been signed nobody can retroactively put a stop to this these jobs will stand. you know the good paying ones. I am sure that small business will hire more minimum wage folks in the meantime. We will all have a big celebration over that. This conversation has made a dramatic turn with your help for people to find something evil in good paying jobs coming to Paulding. It's not a get rich quick scheme like housing development.
I can tell you that across the board businesses want to hire positive hard working, qualified people. We have that here, now we have good opportunities for those people.
Ps I wanted to ask if that good paying job is in Paulding? and what you consider good paying?
-
Pubby I agree the 30,000 home communities do sound like a fairy tale in this economic climate. But it is a fact hell asks Glen Richardson he was speaker of the House, when the measure was passed.
Fact is it was posted right here on Paulding.com when it was discovered that the General Assembly passed the law.
The law provides for a community of several different complexes which included a business park, Homes, Retail etc. All self contained that would provide their own utilities and also would collect the taxes and some developement cost up front. All this was in the Goldmine lake Airport area.
This law was passed shortly after the construction of the airport began.
Secrets have a way of being exposed and this project was exposed right here on P.com
Sorry Pubby no bunk here just some facts of what everyone tried to keep secret that had anything to do with the airport.
Just for my information is there any way to do a search on p.com beyond the two years that seems to be the cut off?
Okay... I presume that Carmichael had no knowledge of any of the events surrounding the airport. Then that begs this question what did he do for the eight years that he has served on the Airport Board? Was he serving as just a yes man?
JSYK the surveying is being done right now to connect to the sewerage
Whitey everyone that serves on the board brings an area of expertise. I believe Blake Swafford deals with the land acquisitions.
-
Come on over to the other side of City of Dallas, close to the Hospital. There has been No money spent here but yet we pay city taxes.
You want the city or county to spend money in an area where the businesses wouldn't put a dime back into buildings no matter how much they made.
Take a look around next time you drive through there. Very few of those businesses care about their appearance. Many are not open to the public so the facade is not important.
The city and county can not force people to maintain a building. The roads and sewer through there come under the jurisdiction of the local GOV and they seem well maintained to me.
Pubby or anyone else that is supporting the projects such as the fountain and sidewalk:
Please tell me why it is ok for politicians to spend money on something that is NOT NEEDED just because the money is there? So what if the money was a federal grant? If you pay federal taxes, that is still your money!! And it is being spent (especially in the case of the sidewalk) on something that has no benefit! I drive by that sidewalk every day, and I have seen about 12 people on it over the past 6 months.
You people act like if we don't take the money it will just be forever locked up in the grant. It won't. Eventually the funding mechanism creating the grant will expire, and that money will go back into general funds that might be used for something productive.
And the freakin argument "If we don't use it someone else will", really? What are we in third grade? Maybe if more citizens held politicians accountable instead of picking one side or the other in an ideological battle of wills all that money that is just "waiting" to be spent would be focused on things that government actually has some business providing. (There really aren't that many)
-PM
The facts are the facts on grants, why attack people for telling you how it is. Go yell at your congressman.
-
The sidewalk to nowhere
You do know that that was stimulus money that did not cost local taxpayers a dime and that had we not taken it someone else would have because it was earmarked and could only be spent one way on those type of projects
All the sidewalks did were to give jobs to the Mexicans. If you were watching all the workers were not from Dallas or Paulding county. This was t total waste.
The fountain on the Square
You do know that that was stimulus money that did not cost local taxpayers a dime and that had we not taken it someone else would have because it was earmarked and could only be spent one way on those type of projects.
Ok so the fountain looks good. How many new jobs did that create? Who pays the maintenance cost to keep it up and to provide water when it gets low? That spot could
have been used for a business or even a parking lot. Also if you were watching it was all Mexicans who built it.
We kept people working, house notes and other bills paid, rather than unemployment and food stamps.
The New Courthouse
You do know that Jerry Shearin and his BOC which are no longer in office bought that with bonds, we can not stop payment on those bonds. We also continue to have to spend because of some issues with the construction.
As long as Jerry is no longer involved with our local government we should not have any other problems like that.
The court house should have been voted on and there should have been open records as to who was doing the work. Until there is more open records in this county anything
like this. I have seen the credit card records for now, and there are so many things that should have not been bought, like all the trips out of town (Jekyll island etc).
The Airport
The airport was also done under the Shearin team. To help you understand what is at stake there are certain things that have to be done to have it payback the citizens of the county what they were forced to put in it.
But lets just be blunt about the airport situation. That some folks either want the progress stopped and want to be bought out to the tune of millions because the airport is disturbing them.
They believe that the taxpayers money should first be spent to buy them out, then the airport can proceed to make money to pay back taxpayers investment.
When you look at the potential for jobs and tax base, look at Mccullum,commercial property backs up right to the hangers on all sides. It is a huge boost to economy. the land out there will only grow in value for tax base and jobs.
The airport was voted out three times, and it was still built. All funding should be dropped and let the airport make it's own way. If it can't then it should be closed, or
at least made private. It is on the top of a mountain with all the trees cut in all directions, there is always going to be a problem with wind if there is no windbreak.
Several NEW parks
New Library
Back at square one the Shearin team appropriated the money for this, you do understand about appropriation right? Then proceeded to spend almost 1/2 of those funds on planning and moving dirt. They put no limits on cost over run giving the selected builders a blank check to finish the job.
The newly elected BOC rebid it and had new plans saving the taxpayers millions of dollars that they had been obligated to spend.
Has anyone looked at the shape some of our parks have gotten in since we built the new parks. Just go look at Paulding Meadows and it draws more out of
county people then all the rest combined for the arts and crafts show.
What we needed was.............
A water resevoir
And once again we are back to Shearin and team, there is a rumor of a pissing contest lost by Paulding county that resulted in a hell would freeze over before there is funding for this. It was shelved during the last administration.
The dust being blown off a year later caused us to incur huge expenses to finish the studies for it.
And who caused the pissing contest?
Textbooks for the students
We spend the least of any county in Georgia to educate each student, I believe the taxpayers in the county are satisfied with that.
NO AND A BIG NO! How can a student study at home if they don't have textbooks? Ok you say CD's My kid went to PHS and there
was no textbooks, and no cd's All the money was spent on a big new gym that wasn't needed. For the amount that was
spent on the gym there could have been textbooks for all the students.
NO furlough days for county employees.
It was furlough, layoff, or raise millage. We are all free o contact the commissioners and tell them how bad we feel for the county employees and ask them to raise our millage rate. It was my understanding that they did not receive any messages of this type from taxpayers. Probably because many of them were laid off and barely able to pay their mortgages.
There wouldn't be layoffs etc if the money was spent for the right things. Trips out of town for David and Steve to all over the place didn't do anything
for the county except spend the money and give them a place to go.
AND....hold on to your hats................JOBS.
Over 200 new jobs have been created in Paulding in less than a year. We have had many areas with existing businesses declared opportunity zones. Existing businesses here in the county will get huge tax breaks for adding employees.
The millions that the movie studio and new companies are pumping into the economy monthly will result in small and existing business hiring more.
80 of those new jobs will pay around 40,000 10,000 above the average 30,000 currently.
My understanding is that there is a huge amount of international companies looking to locate here. If we can do this in one year, with a new economic development plan, I am excited to see what we can do in the second year.
I am hearing so much excited chatter from small companies about the new jobs and tax breaks it is incredible.
Ok so how many people did the movie studio hire from Paulding county? Tell me what 80 jobs you are talking about and how does one get one of these jobs.
I thing one of the major problems in this county is the economic development team. How much is their salary compared to the common workers that
keep the county going? It's time to rid ourselves of a lot of the top heavy people and get back to running the county for the people not for the politicians.
Your argument would absolutely be credible if you knew any of the details of the economic plan.
It does not take long for me to figure out someone is punching holes in something they don't have a single factual detail on. But thanks for playing.
Hiram City Council meeting *UPDATE*
in Paulding County NEWS
Posted
You might try to be patient, as the new folks need to get their feet up under them.
I was talking to friend today about when people have a problem with something that everyone clearly sees is wrong, they want folks to act like a dictator.
The bottom line is that some things could have been done wrong, it may not have been clear that they were being done wrong at the time they were done. It is a little late to shut the barn door after the horses are out. My understanding is that there is no need for a witch hunt, but to look at things and go about doing them correctly from here on out.
Let them have some time to feel things out before you ask new people to take on this huge task. This is a difficult situation for the people that have worked there for years also. you don't throw the baby out with the bath water either.
I hear your concerns, and I am not afraid to ask someone at city hall or to take a camera to a council meeting to satisfy concerned folks if they ask me too. I am not blindly supporting Hiram government, I am just making some practical points about your concerns.