Did you know that City employees are NOT required to live within the City limits? It’s true!
Section 3.07: The city does not require its employees to live within the city limits, but city residency is encouraged. The city may require certain employees to reside within a reasonable work commuting range, as determined and approved by the city manager, particularly those employees who may be required to serve on standby duty.
Why do I bring this up? Well, it appears that our new Economic Development Director doesn’t exactly live here in town. In fact, it appears she may live in Cedar Park or north Austin! That’s quite a commute.
Now, normally I wouldn’t give a good crap WHERE she lives. But think about this delicious bit of irony:
The Lampasas Economic Development Corp has spent the last 20 years and over $7 MILLION dollars on their Business Pork project. Mandy Walsh (our previous EDD) was heavily involved in this project, and I assume Mrs. Ybarra will be as well.
The purpose of this Business Pork is to “bring high-paying jobs to Lampasas”, is it not? That’s what I’ve heard for the last 12 years. That’s what Misti Talbert said when she pilfered $971,000 from the City coffers last February for this project. We heard it from dozens of City council members and other assorted Big Wigs for 20 years now…
“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015
So for them to waste that many millions in a desperate attempt to BRING JOBS to this town, it stands to reason that there must be dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of highly-skilled Lampasans sitting around idly twiddling their thumbs just itching to work, right? There must be a mountain of workers and barely any jobs around here if the LEDC needs to spend $7 million on a Business Pork Project to “bring high-paying jobs” to Lampasas.
Not exactly, as it turns out.
Here we had ONE high-paying job out there for Economic Director for the last three months….and THEY COULDN’T EVEN FILL THAT locally! They had to cast their net ALL the way down to Cedar Park and Austin to fill that position!
The fact is, local businesses are STILL trying to fill positions and having trouble. There are STILL “help wanted” signs all over the place. If THEY can’t find workers, how is the fabled “good employer with high-paying jobs” going to find any workers?
I’ve brought this up repeatedly, but it falls on deaf ears. Talbert and City council just keep throwing good money after bad into the black hole known as the Business Park. The fact we couldn’t even find ONE person to fill the EDD position here proves I’m right.