Burton Fletcher
3533 Cherry Creek Road
Valdosta, GA 31605-5842
Email: Burton@BurtonFletcherFoundation.org
Cell: 229.560.8180
September 26, 2022
Emailed to: belinda@lowndescounty.com, peggym@lowndescounty.com
Ms. Belinda C. Lovern
Lowndes County Clerk
327 N. Ashley St.
3rd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601
Tel: 229-671-2400
Email: belinda@lowndescounty.com
Ms. Peggy Moore
Office of the Lowndes County Clerk
Tel: 229-671-2400
Email: peggym@lowndescounty.com.
Subject: Open Records Act Request, Number 2
Dear Ms. Lovern & Ms. Moore:
Under the Open Records Act Request Laws of the State of Georgia, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70, we request to receive copies of the following documents regarding the Lowndes County Animal Shelter (hereafter, “LCAS”).
We request to receive the documents within three (3) business days. Should any of these documents not be currently available in preparation for the ordinary business course, we would appreciate being informed.
We understand that under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, we may be charged administrative and copying fees for the cost of searching, retrieving, copying, and supervising access to the requested documents. This fee represents the hourly rate of the lowest paid full-time employee with the necessary skill and training to respond to our request, with no charge for the first fifteen minutes it takes to respond to the request. The charge for copies is 10₵ per page for letter or legal-sized documents and the actual cost for nonstandard documents or electronic media. However, higher fees for certified copies or another specialized record may be charged if provided by law.
We understand that we will be asked to prepay all costs associated with retrieving the records before the request is processed if the estimated cost for producing the documents exceeds $500 or if we have failed to pay for the requested records in the past.
We agree to pay all copying and administrative costs incurred with fulfilling our open record request; however, PLEASE DO NOT PRODUCE ANY RECORDS WITHOUT INFORMING US OF THE ESTIMATED COSTS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF EACH REQUEST.
If there are any questions about our request, we may be contacted at the telephone number and email shown within this document.
Records may be emailed or sent to us as the U.S. Mail is no longer reliable.
For those records that exist in electronic format, we would be happy to receive them in either a pdf email attachment or a CD.
If our requests are denied, in whole or part, please justify your denial by referencing a specific provision within the Act. O.C.G.A § 50-18-71.
EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE INDICATED, WE REQUEST RECORDS FOR THE YEARS 2019-2022.
- Produce a single document that provides the square footage of the current Lowndes County Animal Shelter.
- Produce a single document that provides the square footage of the new building for the Lowndes County Animal Shelter.
- Produce in as few documents as possible the anticipated benefits of constructing the new building for the Lowndes County Animal Shelter.
- Provide a document explaining the anticipated manufacturing costs for the new shelter.
- Produce the ordinances, policies, and rules regarding when animals are to be euthanized by the Lowndes County Animal Shelter.
- Produce all ordinances, policies, and rules that establish how animals will be evaluated for aggression and consequent euthanasia at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter.
- Produce the documents that reveal the animal rescue organizations pulling animals from the Lowndes County Animal Shelter and provide the numbers pulled by each organization from 2019 through the present.
- Produce the record summary, by breed type, of animals euthanized by the Lowndes County Animal Shelter from 2019 through the present.
- Produce all ordinances, policies, and rules that establish Lowndes County Animal Shelter does not euthanize animals for “convenience” or because the Shelter is full from 2019 through the present.
- Produce documents that indicate who the Director of the Lowndes County Animal Shelter was for every year from 2000 through the present and indicate the turnover dates for each director.
- Produce documents that indicate the ordinances, policies, and rules regarding how owner surrenders requesting euthanasia are handled.
- Produce the statistics for euthanasia, live outcomes, et cetera for the Lowndes County Animal Shelter from 1990 through 1999.
Thank you for your community service, and best wishes for providing an open government.
Sincerely,
/S/ Burton Fletcher
Burton Fletcher, J.D., MBA
President & Founder, Burton Fletcher Foundation for Animals, Inc.