Haven’t been able to do THIS in a while. Tonight the budget will be adopted. The “proposed budget” that is not available to be seen on the city website – and hasn’t been since 2016. There were also rumblings in a Radiogram issue that the Goldfish will be in “executive session” talking about “economic incentives” with a “prospect”.
Mike Cour? Guess we’ll see!
5:30pm – there are FOUR of us watching!
Chamber of Commerce chick is talking, I think.
Quick fact: the Lampasas Chamber of Commerce has about 280 current members. If they all kicked in $500 a year, that would be $140,000 to run The Chamber of Commerce, which is a nice chunk of change. Seems to me you wouldn’t need to take City money! Just a thought. I never understood why the City pays the Chamber one red cent for their operations. Of course, I feel all Chambers of Commerce are now obsolete and redundant. We have Yelp!, Google, Facebook, etc, etc. But that is a topic for another time.
5:40pm – I remember why I usually drink during these things.
5:40pm – Rickie Roy is talking!!! Ugh. Covid bullshit. I just KNOW that deep down, Rickie is the kind of guy who thinks this Covid stuff is 100% bullshit. I have no proof of this, but I’d be surprised if he was a TRUE Branch Covidian believer.
5:45pm – Finley putting all 7 of us on-line watchers to sleep. He’s going on about the $120,000 the City wasted on Halff Associates to “consult” for the City. Yeah – that is STILL going on a year later. I gotta hand it to Halff. They bleed the City $4,000 or $5,000 at a pop with small installments over a long period instead of slamming them with a $120,000 bill all at once. You can shear a sheep many times but only skin him once. Right, RKJ Construction?
5:54pm – Finley still babbling. I am seriously rethinking sitting through this. I guess when you cost the City about $175,000 in salary and benefits, you figure you better spew out a lot of words.
5:56pm – Is 3.5 points enough to take Kansas City tonight? Tough call. Maybe a tease with KC +9.5 and the under 61.
5:58pm – Chuck Williamson doing some navel gazing now. Hopefully he’ll be gone after the next election – which is quickly approaching.
6:oopm – Rickie Roy up there again! Two visits in one meeting. Listen to him purr. He’s talking about streets and waste water but it sounds almost Shakespearian when Rickie does it. Go Rickie! Rickie’s southern drawl makes “cement” sound like “semen”, by the way. I was momentarily taken aback when he talked about semen being poured all over the ground.
Falling asleep during the wastewater stuff. Sorry RR. Boring me to tears. THIS is the stuff City should spend time on. NOT wasting another $1.9 million on the “business” park.
6:30pm – I am daydreaming what it would be like inside the secret Goldfish chambers as they discuss “incentives” with their economic “prospect”:
6:51pm – Fire prevention week! Yay! Great proclamation, Misti! Only 2,800 people died in house fires in the U.S. in 2017? That’s not that many, really. Back when I was a kid, it was over twice that and the population of the US was probably HALF what it is now! I bet most of those were at Christmas time – we had those big, fat colored Christmas tree lights that got hotter than hell and we’d melt tinsel on them at age 7. Remember those? People sure have become pussies in the last 50 years.
“Keep anything that can catch fire away from stove tops”. Thank goodness the government is here to tell us these things. You should also never smash your balls with a sledgehammer.
6:58pm – Mandy Walsh PCED is talking and showing a cheesy video. Must be softening up the Goldfish for a huge request.
7:00pm – Mandy now telling us how the LEDC saved the day during Covid by reposting Facebook posts from restaurants so we’d know when they were open. I am not joking. Because restaurant owners are too stupid to do that themselves? Mandy, you should DEFINITELY open a restaurant after you pile up $300k in salary earnings from the taxpayers as Economic Director. It’ll only be a few years.
NOW she is hoping to have the goat pasture ‘business’ park EDA CARES grant done “by October”. LOL. I remember when it was going to be done on July 31st. Maybe they are still hoping for shitty sales tax numbers in two weeks to prove their “economic injury”?
Mandy tooting her horn about passing an economic development test! Hint hint: gimme a raise!
Now we get to hear how the LEDC is going to hand out free money for “life safety grants” to try and spur some of the owners of those unsightly empty buildings on the town square to develop them! Free stuff!!
She’s telling us how there is a “well known reality show” filming in town – and thus, these people are “eating in our restaurants and shopping in our stores”. Funny. I heard the opposite last week. I heard they can’t leave The Best Western and have food catered to them from one location. Because of….wait for it….Covid! So I rate that statement “very likely false”.
7:10pm – are these people not aware the biggest football game of the year is starting soon??
7:12pm – Finley back at the dais. Yawn.
7:20pm – Baltimore has the first possession. Baltimore marches down and scores a FG immediately. What idiot was thinking of taking KC +9.5 and under 61?
7:21pm – Goldfish adjourning into Executive Session to talk about their “prospect”. Seems ridiculous these meetings are hidden from the public. Not sure if they will be back. I may have to resume this tomorrow.