We learned in yesterday’s Dispatch that the City is considering several new positions. I warned about this almost two months ago:
Finley Laying Groundwork For Bigger City Government
Finley is nothing if not predictable. Of course, the guy who wants to add three positions (and thus hundreds of thousands of dollars of expense) to the City payrolls is the SAME guy who refuses to pay the CURRENT lifeguards at the pool a penny more than minimum wage to attract MUCH NEEDED workers.
But I digress.
From yesterday’s Dispatch:
Combining two roles sounds ludicrous at first glance. What’s next? A combination golf pro and grave digger? Maybe a combination firefighter and library assistant?
But I suspect I know why they did this. There is NO WAY the IT Department needs another person. Somebody (Finley) realizes that is a ridiculous overreach – so instead of imposing a massive new expense on the IT Budget where it will look ridiculous to have FOUR people doing the work that two easily do now [yes FOUR – here is why], they instead make it a “combo” position so it sounds like they are doing a lot more – and they can stick the expense into another department.
Part One of this post will be dismantling the argument that we need a “communications” position at all. Then in Part Two, I’ll get into why we don’t need a FOURTH IT position in a town as small as ours.
PART I – COMMUNICATIONS POSITION IS AN UNNEEDED JOKE NERF JOB:
The Dispatch article tells us “the need for such a position surfaced during Winter Storm Uri, which kept the (IT) department busy informing the public with updates 24 hours a day for eight days while also handling the city’s fiber-optic infrastructure”
So much nonsense in one paragraph! Where to start??
[First of all, Uri was probably a “once-in-100-years” storm that we are unlikely to ever see again. To hold THAT up as a reason to fork over $100k for a new position is the height of idiocy]
What did the IT Department have to “inform the public” about for 24 hours per day? Closed roads? That’s the Streets Department or Police Department. Frozen pipes? That’s the Water/Wastewater Department. I’m guessing most of City Hall was sitting home due to the City being essentially shut down – just like the rest of us. To try and show the IT Department as working tirelessly “24 hours a day” to “inform the public” is a ridiculous joke. It did not happen.
Also, there are ALREADY about a DOZEN ways that City information is currently disseminated to the public right now. Let’s list a few of them:
The City website, the City Facebook page, the City TWITTER page (yes we have one), the Chamber of Commerce website, the Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, Lampasas County Breaking News Facebook page (they have 22,000 subscribers!), the Mayor’s Facebook page (Misti had this back in Feb 2021 during the storm – TJ Monroe can’t be bothered), Lampasas ISD Facebook page, Lampasas ISD website, Lampasas Dispatch Record website, Lampasas Radio Facebook page, local TV and the LEDC Facebook page AND website!!
What’s that, like a DOZEN different places all telling us the same things? I think we all knew early on that “the power is fucked up and failing a lot”. Having Monica Wright post it over and over on the City website is a prime example of time wasting “busy work”.
Hell, the LEDC Facebook page ALONE pretty much just copies and pastes posts from ALL those other pages. Mandy “Copy and Paste” Walsh’s entire JOB is pretty much doing just that. If anything, we have a MASSIVE duplication of effort and time wasting. If you need 15 different people to tell you the power is fucked up, then you are either brain dead or named Bruce Haywood.
Here is just a tiny sample of the hundreds of “reposts” Mandy does all the time – taking a post from somewhere else and then “copy paste” to the LEDC page:
And Mandy ALREADY costs the taxpayers over $100,000 to do her copying and pasting. The taxpayers need another Nerf job like “communications” director like we need a colostomy bag on our hips.
As for “handling the fiber-optic infrastructure”? I am reminded of The Big Lebowski when he was spewing bullshit to the kidnappers while “driving, talking on the phone and handling the money“
A great way to sound like you are busy when you aren’t really doing shit. THAT’S the IT department “handling the fiber“. But what does that mean, exactly?
The City didn’t have an answer for me except this: “I would refer to the Dispatch with regards to the meaning of the article” – so I guess I’ll email the reporter and ask what it means to be super busy “handling the fiber”!
Stay tuned for Part II