That headline is starting to remind me of the teachers union and politicians favorite line: “It’s for the children”. It’s the bullshit they fall back on to waste mountains of money and if you ask any questions about the details, you are an asshole who hates children.
Well, I don’t hate children but I DO hate the Business Pork. So I will continue to point out uncomfortable truths about that disaster of a project.
One City council member actually pushed back a little on the LEDC’s request for tens of thousands more dollars to waste next year. Zac Morris actually asked our Economic “Director” about one of her line items [go to 1:28:00 mark]:
Zac: “With the travel and training, I see that that goes up, what, $4,000 this year in the request?”
[Note: last year it was $6,000 and they now want $10,000 – a 66% increase]
Mandy Walsh: “Correct. Yes…we increased it to $10,000…I’m assuming we’ll probably do more travel [unintelligible] to make sure with the Business Park and meeting people face to face as part of recruitment efforts.”
[Recruitment efforts??? I thought you already had all those many, many (about four) prospects ready to move in – at least that’s what you told us when you were begging for money back in February]
Randy “Speedbump” Clark: “Are you still getting calls?” [about possible tenants who want to move into the Business Pork]
Mandy: “I am…especially now that there’s movement out there” – Mandy then proceeds to list zero businesses she has “gotten calls” from about moving into the Business Pork. Mandy is well trained in The Lie That Keeps on Giving and she uses it once again here with Randy.
So, to summarize the current state of the LEDC budget and Business Pork Project:
(1) They want $5,000 more for advertising the Business Pork Project, even though they have spent close to $50,000 over the last 10 years doing that very thing with zero results.
(2) They ALSO want $4,000 more for “Travel and Training” so they can go out and “meet people face to face as part of recruitment efforts” for the Business Pork. This is despite the fact that the LEDC and Mandy have told us many, many, many times that they have “serious prospects” already. Clearly they don’t.
(3) The LEDC has not even been able to fill their tiny 5.6-acre “Industrial Park” and has been strung along for almost a year on that, but they STILL sling shit about filling their 155-acre Business Pork. Yes, that is as preposterous as it sounds.
Bottom line: these people STILL have no idea what they are doing but are willing to waste millions more thrashing around like a blind squirrel hoping to find a nut.
Here is a list of just a FEW of the failed promises we’ve heard in the last 18 years from the LEDC about ‘prospects’:
A $20 million medical center (2004)
A “second tier supplier to the new Toyota plant in San Antonio” (2004)
LAMCO (2017)
AWI (2017)
The development of the Santa Fe Depot property – where the guy strung Mandy and the LEDC along for most of 2019. LOL.
A “recreational insurance and lending company out of Austin that would EACH bring 15-25 high-wage positions to Lampasas” (2018)
Craft brewing company (2018 and many other times)
“A prospect from Bastrop” (2018)
Mike Irvin’s 5,000 sq ft Steel Fabrication Shop in the “Business Park” (2018)
A “prospect out of Abilene” interested in relocating their business to Lampasas but they “can’t give out details yet” (2018).