Chuck Williamson has been involved in City decision making in one way or another (CIP Committee, council) since the early 1990s. TJ Monroe has been doing the same for at least 10 years as a council member and LEDC member.
I would argue it’s time for both of them to hang up the cleats and go play golf or bingo or something. They have both left a trail of money wasting, bad ideas, and idiotic predictions in their wake.
Unfortunately, Williamson just wormed his way BACK into the seat he lost last November, so we are stuck with that clown for another year or so.
BUT, we have a chance to vote TJ Monroe out once and for all this May as she runs for mayor against local businessman Myles Haider.
Let’s take a look at just ONE snapshot from July of 2013 to prove how badly TJ and Chuck have managed things over the years.
From the July 2, 2103 Lampasas Dispatch:
“Also at the recent meeting, the council discussed selling, reusing or moving unoccupied city buildings. The council decided to sell the former City Hall at the corner of Main and Third streets. Mrs. Monroe and Mrs. Bierschwale
said they can envision a private buyer refurbishing the building nicely,
possibly for use as upscale apartments.
Translation: On the advice of the CIP (of which Chuck Williamson was a member at the time), City council – including TJ Monroe – decided to sell the old City Hall building for a measly $75,000!
At the VERY SAME TIME, City council was sitting around saying “gee…we need a new council chambers!” and they were budgeting $250,000 for the project.
From the VERY SAME ISSUE of the Dispatch:
“Several City council members said they would like to consider funding for a new council chambers — estimated to cost $250,000 — in the upcoming fiscal year. “We need it [a larger meeting space] as soon as we can get it — I’ll put it that way,” said McCauley, who serves on the CIP Committee”
So in one breath, these idiots said “we need a place for a new council chambers” and then ALSO said “hey, let’s sell this old building we aren’t using for a pittance!”
What ACTUALLY ended up happening??
There was no “private buyer” to magically turn the building into “upscale apartments” like the monumentally mentally impaired TJ Monroe dreamed about! No…what happened was the morons on City council BOUGHT BACK that very same building for $225,000 just over a year later!!
They THEN spent roughly $1,500,000.00 to “renovate” this building and turn it into a new City council chambers. Thus spending 500% MORE than they were considering spending! ($250k versus $1.5 million).
[Note: the Old City Hall debacle included a $96,000 no-bid A/V system: a screw-up SO egregious it prompted me to start this blog. Not to mention a wildly overpriced elevator that breaks down constantly!]
Did anyone show any regret, remorse or shame for bungling things so horrendously? Hell no! Chuck Williamson was PROUD of his genius idea to sell the old building for a song. He said so in the June 10, 2014 issue of The Dispatch:
“He added that the Capital Improvements Program Committee has shown
foresight with recent plans — such as its suggestion, which the council followed, of selling unused city-owned buildings. The longtime CIP member
said he hopes the committee’s quarterly meetings will help identify both current and future needs for Lampasas.”
We are stuck with Williamson for a short while longer, I’m afraid. But YOU have the chance to get RID of TJ Monroe this May. She has proven over and over that she has no idea what she’s doing, no common sense and NO respect for the taxpayer’s money.
Vote Myles Haider for Mayor of the City of Lampasas.