“Daaaaad, I’m bored.”
“Well, here then, take this piece of shit and I’ll see you in nine hours.”
Damn, the 70s Were Awesome
Author: admin
Hostess House Debacle – Running Total of Expenditures (Updated)
** Last updated 7/21/23 **
Feb 14, 2018 – City pays Lamco Construction $19,270 for “Hostess House repairs” [page 76]
October 2019 – City takes over Hostess House from DRT. They told us it just needed a ”few minor repairs”:
November 19, 2019 – Council votes to spend $5,850 with All Seasons for a new 5-ton AC unit [Dispatch front page news].
August 10, 2020 – Council votes to spend $2,500 with Hendrix Consulting Engineers (HCE) to evaluate the Hostess House [Council minutes page 7 item 7.3]
February 15, 2021 – HCE report is huge and repairs look expensive. Council debating what to do. Council member Cathy Kuehne is quoted in the Dispatch as saying they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more” [Council packet pages 26, 27, 28]
March 8, 2021 – Council votes to spend $6,600 with Reliance Architecture to draw up a “master plan” [Council packet page 10].
August 16, 2021 Dispatch Article – Project now estimated to cost $1,380,000.00 (page 39) – up from $200,000 five months earlier a SEVEN-FOLD INCREASE!!!
October 25, 2021 – Council votes 5-2 to approve$130,570payment to Reliance Architecture to plan the Hostess House “upgrade” – representing roughly 10% of project cost.
January 18, 2022 – Reliance Architecture$8,460for “Predesign”
September 12, 2022 – Reliance Architecture$14,775for “Construction docs”
August 22, 2022 – Reliance Architecture$32,012and$12,312for “Design dev”
October 10, 2022 – Reliance Architecture$10,342for “Construction docs”
October 24, 2022 – City council meeting – project now estimated to cost $1.88 million!
February 27, 2023 – City council meeting packet – lowest bid is RKJ Construction at$2,973,738.00!!!!!
July 21, 2023 – City council dinged for another $38,000 in fees to change the scope of the project and re-bid.
Current total fees for project – $168,570
Total spent thus far before any building or renovation is done: $200,270
Revenue from Hostess House to City: approximately $1,200 between Oct 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020.
Projected revenue for FY 2022/2023: approximately $10,500 (revenues $16,000 and costs of $5,500 anually)
Council Approves Ludicrous $38,840 Payroll Software – Same Company Currently Hoses Them On Other Software
Unsurprisingly, council approved the overpriced software to “track employees’ time off” that Forrest Gump Ward requested. In a shocking display of naivety, Gump told us the “recurring software charge” from Tyler Technologies would only be $8,339 per year.
What Gump DOESN’T say (or more likely, doesn’t know) is that the software fees for all this shit goes up like clockwork every year – a LOT more than the rate of inflation. It is a massive rip-off.
Tyler Technologies ALREADY takes care of the City billing software – it’s called “Incode”…and they make sure to jack it up every single year. You’d think they’d give Assistant To The City Manager Ryan Schrute Gump a deal on the NEW software, since we’re already throwing $50,000 per year at them on the other stuff.
Yes…$50,000 per year. Of course, it started out as only $33,939. No doubt back in 2014 some other Gump-like dummy stood up there to sell council on the new billing software and said “Look! It’s only a recurring charge of $33,939! And it saves us some time!”
Tyler Technologies also severely screwed the pooch in 2019 during the Great Ransomware Attack – then-assistant City manager Cox was extremely pissed at them for their bungling during the Ransomware Recovery process.
But Tyler still rams it up the City’s ass every November:
- 2014 – $33,939.65
- 2015 – $35,540.42 (+4.70%)
- 2016 – $37,984.99 (+6.87%)
- 2017 – $39,820.80 (+4.83%)
- 2018 – $41,762.43 (+4.87%)
- 2019 – $43,816.63 (+4.92%) – this is AFTER Ransomware disaster!!
- Average over five years: +5.82% per annum
- 2020 – $45,693.33 (+4.28%)
- 2021 – $47,463.11 (+3.9%)
- 2022 – $50,382.67 (+6.15%)
- 2023 – $53,176.24 (+5.55%)
- 2024 – $57,243..42 (+7.7%)
Expect the EXACT same thing with Gump’s new software. It will cost more than advertised and work worse than advertised. Bank on it.
Approximately 30% Of Mandy Walsh’s Old Duties To Be Replaced By Inanimate Facebook Page “DoLampasas” – For Zero Cost
Amazing what the free market can do!
Before she abruptly resigned, former Economic Director would spend a decent chunk of time copying and pasting dozens of OTHER Facebook posts to the LEDC Facebook page. If that sounds like it was highly duplicative…you are correct. We saw THOUSANDS of these re-posts over the last couple of years…
But guess what? Only 19 days after she resigned, the free market has a solution!
No way! You mean the people with the most to gain (business owners) actually figured out a way to get the word out all on their own?? Without help from the City government?
Incredible!
As I’ve said on these pages a million times: the best thing the LEDC can do is to disband and let the free market take over. Even better would be the City getting out of the way too, with all their ridiculous red tape and onerous codes which add massive and unnecessary expenses to anyone trying to start a business around here.
The Goldfish Swim Tonight: 10-24-22 Council Meeting
A weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way
A weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way
In the fish bowl, the pricey fish bowl, the Goldfish swim tonight!
In the fish bowl, the pricey fish bowl, the Goldfish swim tonight!
Oooooh, oooooh eee-ooo-wam-a-way.
Join us on Gab.com – for commentary.
Tonight we will get to hear Finley explain why the Hostess House is now going to cost $1.88 million dollars – and we’ll hear if anybody objects to this ridiculous 44% increase in costs.
Ryan “Dwight Schrute” Ward Wants To Waste $38,840 To Save a Few Grand.
Assistant to the City Manager Ryan “Dwight Schrute” Ward has come up with yet another brilliant idea. If you thought the “lose-weight-to-get-time-off” scheme was a good one, wait til you hear this!
To say that Ryan Ward writes incoherently is putting it mildly. Sometimes I consider changing his nickname to Forrest Gump. If you ever heard him speak at City council meetings, you’d understand why.
Here is his suggestion:
You can see this on page 141 of the latest council packet.
Let’s ignore for a moment that the very first sentence makes zero sense grammatically. I have no idea what he’s trying to say. Then again, what do we expect from a guy who costs the taxpayers a paltry $155,000 per year? If you want someone who can write and explain at an 8th-grade level (and knows how to use apostrophes properly), that’s gonna cost you more!
So as far as I can tell, the gist is this: whoever has to keep track of employees’ time off (Dwight himself plus like 6 or 8 other people) is too lazy to spend “numerous hours” every month doing this minor task. Finley and Dwight cost the taxpayer $378,000 per year in salaries and benefits – but apparently spending a little time every month doing some paperwork that is in their job description is beneath them – despite the fact it has been this way for decades.
How many hours is “numerous”? Well, he has a convoluted spreadsheet to explain all this, but I’ll be damned if it makes any sense. These clowns at the top of the food chain are salaried, so breaking down every little task they do on an hourly basis makes zero sense.
So many people needed to record the time off! Staff, managers (plural), HR coordinators (plural), accountant, finance director, City manager and Assistant to the City manager! Whew. Could be as many as NINE people involved in this operation!
If you have nine different people wasting 11.5 hours every two weeks JUST to jot down the “requests for time off” for a few employees, then you are doing it wrong. Rube Goldberg would be proud.
Then again, this is Lampasas City government. The same government that sold a building for $75,000 and then bought it back 15 months later for $229,000. The same government that loses over $10,000 per year on their “recycling” program but then says it provides “tremendous value”.
No, I’m not making that up.
So, in order to save ourselves a few grand of Dwight Schrute’s precious time every year, we must now do the following:
- Blow $30,509 with Tyler Technologies to get the software and touchscreens and all the other shit.
- Blow $8,339 EVERY YEAR for the privilege of using this software. And if history is any guide, this cost will go up 5% a year without fail. Why? Because after they get you reliant on this UNNECESSARY fancy toy, they know the government won’t give it up for a couple hundred extra measly dollars every year. So it will be $8,755 next year, $9,200 the year after that, $9,600 the year after that, etc, etc. I have seen Tyler Technologies do this over and over with the City with every piece of software they sell. It’s a tremendously good scam for whoever owns Tyler Technologies.
- Blow an undisclosed sum on “third-party timeclocks, badges and a badge print device”
As someone who has helped run small businesses, I can also tell you that all these timeclocks and badges and badge printing devices and software will constantly fuck up and require our IT ‘experts’ to waste hours and hours dicking around with them. Did Dwight put THAT into his equations?
Doubtful.
My guess? City council will OK this expenditure with roughly 2 minutes of discussion. I will also predict that the “recurring charge” for the exact same software next year will be about $8,750. Any takers??
I have some ideas for saving the City money! Here they are:
Fire Ryan Ward. This saves the City $155,000 or so every single year.
Second derivative effects: with Ryan Ward gone, the City no longer blows $30,000 or $50,000 on a bunch of stupid ideas every year like $5 greens fees, losing weight for PTO and $40,000 software rip-offs to save a few hours of time every month.
Old City Hall 2.0: Hostess House Costs EXPLODE To $1.88 Million! Up 44% From Last Estimate!!
Hey, what’s another$570,000between friends??
These people are insane.
I warned you! I warned you over and over and over. I laughed when the Hostess House “minor repairs” were first talked about….
That was exactly three years ago. Just some “minor repairs” and “minor decorations”. Yeah, sure. I called bullshit. I reminded you of the Old City Hall debacle and the $1.6 million spent on that vanity project (soon to be $1.85 million) – a pet project of Misti Talbert’s.
THEN it jumped up to “about $200,000”, according to City Manager Finley deGraffenreid in the Lampasas Dispatch in March 2021 – a mere 18 months ago:
Council picks architecture firm for Hostess House upgrades
THEN it ballooned to $1,308,670 – which is a sick joke all by itself. Morons like Cathy Kuehne said they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more”. Why not? It’s not her money! It’s just play money, apparently!
But I knew from years of watching these clowns that it wouldn’t stop at $1.3 million. No way. As of today, the costs have exploded once again…as they ALWAYS DO. That’s what happens when chimpanzees get ahold of somebody else’s checkbook.
The NEW estimate is $1,879,483.55 [see page 67]
Almost TWO MILLION DOLLARS for an “event venue” that will bring in just $10,000 per year, by the City’s own admission. So it’ll only take about TWO CENTURIES to get your money back.
Why the massive increase? Well, inflation of course! Yes, we all know inflation is running at about 44% per year.
So the consulting and engineering firms – who were paid HUGE amounts of money [$130,570 to Reliance Architecture in Oct of 2021] to plan all this – are just NOW realizing “oh wait! We need a fire alarm system! We need a sprinkler system! Oh, and a grease trap and exit stairs!”
Bullshit. They are either monumentally incompetent or this is some kind of kickback scam. There is no way they are that stupid.
[I seem to remember the EXACT SAME THING happening with the Old City Hall remodel back in March 2015 – except THAT time it was JNW Architects that was getting big checks to screw the pooch. Hmmm…wonder why Finley didn’t go with JNW again THIS time?]
Oh, and also “scope creep” – which is a fancy way of saying “we just keep adding shit and agreeing to more because – once again – it isn’t OUR money“. – ALSO known as “change orders”, which is how these contractors fleece their customers. Oldest trick in the book.
Christ, TJ Monroe is making Misti Talbert and her Old City Hall debacle look like a penny-pinching Jew with this outlandish waste of money.
This is EXACTLY like the Old City Hall debacle a few years ago. A bunch of children acting like it’s Christmas and Santa will give them everything they want. A $59,000.00 canopy? Yeah, why not. A pool changing room for $49,000? Hell yeah – that is obviously a necessity we can’t do without. Some random vague bullshit like “expanded renovation” and “technology” for an additional quarter of a MILLION bucks? Yes please!
Any City council member who votes to approve this shit should be voted out of office when they are up for election next time. This is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe they are even bringing this up publicly for discussion. I’d be ashamed to bungle things up this badly and ask for a 44% increase in the money wasted on this idiotic project.
Socialist “Logic”
So this is making the rounds on Twitter. All the good commies are retweeting the “analysis” of that old, decrepit fossil dummy Bernie Sanders. The guy who has NEVER WORKED A DAY IN HIS LIFE and certainly knows NOTHING about how the energy complex works:
Their “explanation” is, obviously, the “greedy oil companies”. Sanders believes this. Comrade Clayton believes this. A cadre of Twitter morons also believes this – mostly the obese cat ladies and “artists” who comment on Tucker’s Twitter feed.
Let’s see why it isn’t the “greedy oil companies” and is instead completely the fault of greentards and libs.
First of all, taxes are FAR higher now than in 2010.California had an 18 cent excise tax on gasoline in 2010. Now, it’s 54 cents.Other liberal hellholes have done the same. This is 100% the fault of libtards….NOT “greedy corporations”.
Secondly, 1 million barrels a day of refining capacity was mothballed in the US since the start of the 2020 pandemic. Globally this is 1/3 of the total that was taken offline since early 2020. Biden and whoever pulls his strings has refused to increase refining capacity. In fact, thanks to environmental wackos and greentards, there has not been a new refinery built in the U.S. since 1976:
Thirdly, the U.S. population has added about THIRTY MILLION PEOPLE since 2010 and the refining capacity has been reduced. That’s 30,000,000 – or roughly the entire population of Texas that has been added with NO NEW REFINING CAPACITY added to produce gasoline from oil.
One thing you can count on from idiot socialists like Tucker and Sanders is that they will put forth the most childlike (and wrong) analysis available. They are incapable of critical thinking or understanding complex issues. The answer is ALWAYS “greedy corporations” – even though the REAL answer is the very policies these morons push over and over.
Twenty Days Left Until Massive Election Slaughter Occurs…
But…but…but it’s the “greedy corporations” and Putin, according to Bruce Haywire!
All of these blithering idiots who think democrats have a prayer are in for the shock of their lives. Can you imaging being so stupid that you actually sit there and think shit to yourself like “Hell yeah! Things are going awesome now! Biden has really done a great job and Democrats will be rewarded at the ballot box!”
I mean, it’s a mystery to me how people as monumentally dumb as Bruce Haywood are even still alive. Like, the only thing keeping morons like Bruce Haywood from starving to death are checks from the government. He would LITERALLY die of stupidity if he weren’t pilfering the taxpayers’ wallets every month.
November is going to make Clayton Tucker’s run for city council look like a close race.
Nobody gives a shit about “global warming” when they can’t afford rent and food, you complete tool bags. Only the most ardent greentards who live with their parents and have no life (like Clayton Tucker) think that “global warming” is the most important problem we face today. Everybody else knows better – and everybody else is going to vote these retarded clowns out of office in a huge massacre in under three weeks.
Latest Sales Tax Receipts UP 14.3% – Still Trail Texas
New sales tax numbers are out. Lampasas UP 14.3% compared to last September. Yipeee!
But for the entire state of Texas, sales tax numbers were UP 17.2%. D’oh!
We still trail the state. Surrounding “towns” like Kempner (+22.5%) and Hamilton (+19.5%) saw growth well above state average and crushed our nuts. I guess they have REALLY good Economic Development Corporations or something. If Kempner didn’t pussy out and come down hard on the coffee/bikini cafe some guy wanted to open, they’d probably see huge growth for two years!