Not long ago, Mandy Walsh (Economic Development Director) told the media that the LEDC had “six prospects for the Business Park and four of them are serious”.
So two aren’t serious, apparently. Whatever that means.
Then, two nights ago, LEDC President Misti Talbert (who was appointed, not elected to that position) went before her former City council buddies (conflict of interest much?) and mayor TJ Monroe (who ALSO sits on the LEDC) to beg for another $971,000 for their ill-fated Business Park. This would bring the total wasted up to well over $7,000,000.00
As she rattled her tin cup in front of council, Misti assured us there were a plethora of companies just DYING to move into the park! Manufacturing, entertainment, medical research, you name it. She dazzled City council with piles of bullshit in her attempt to pilfer City coffers for yet another million bucks.
It worked. City council bought it and approved unanimously. Nobody bothered to ask the names of any of these prospects to see if they were legit. So I did. Here is what I was told by the City secretary:
To answer your question the Lampasas Economic Develop Corporation (LEDC) has adopted a policy under which it maintains the identity of all potential prospects for Economic Development Projects with the LEDC as confidential, until the time that either the prospect indicates to the LEDC Board that it desires to “go public” with information related to its future plans for its project, or at the time when an agreement between the prospect and the LEDC is formalized…..Accordingly, at this time, pursuant to the LEDC policy and State laws, neither the LEDC or the City will be disclosing the names of any potential prospects for the future Phase 1 Industrial Park Project
It’s like deja vu all over again! I figured this would be their answer. After all, they told me the same thing the last time they had a “prospect“.
I’m not asking for their plans. I’m not asking for any “proprietary information”. I’m not asking for the deal you’re giving them. I’m just asking for a NAME. But according to their own rules, they can’t tell us anything. Just hand over the million bucks and trust us.
Yeah, sure.
Maybe they could change that rule and give a name or two as a good faith gesture in exchange for another million? What reason could they possibly have for keeping everything a huge secret until the last second? I’ll tell you why:
They don’t want guys like me picking apart the “deal” ahead of time and exposing it for a massive scam – like I did with Mike Cour and Eco-Strong.
Yeah, THAT Eco-Strong. The scumworms that strung Mandy Walsh, Misti Talbert and the ENTIRE LEDC along for almost a YEAR with their ridiculous scheme to recycle tires! I even got my lawyer involved to try and find out what was going on.
Turns out Eco-Strong didn’t want much: just a bunch of free land…and $1.8 million in tax dollars. Needless to say, the entire scam blew up and their Super Secret Prospect that was held out to City council as proof they needed to spend another million was COMPLETE SMOKE AND MIRRORS!
Some might even call this fraud – using an obviously nonviable “secret prospect” to grab more money from the City. You see, if guys like me (or a slightly skeptical City council) had gotten to see the Eco-Strong bullshit AHEAD OF TIME, we would have seen it was OBVIOUSLY nonviable nonsense and the LEDC would have been back to square one with NO prospects – and their begging would have fallen on deaf ears.
Instead, with their self-made rule about not disclosing anything, they can make up anything they like about their “prospects” to grab another million from a council that is kept in the dark. Which is EXACTLY what Misti Talbert did two nights ago. Truly, scumbaggery of the highest order.