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Windmills For Thee But Not Me. More Liberal Hypocrite Scumbags

In the latest display of elite hypocrisy, former president, climate change scaremonger and green energy promoter Barack Obama is installing three propane tanks at his $12 million Martha’s Vineyard property—with a whopping 2,500 gallons of storage capacity.

Earlier this month, the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts received an application for an underground propane tank installation at Obama’s estate, consisting of two 1,000 gallon-tanks and one 500-gallon tank, to be used for “residential purposes.”

***Owner has never had real job in his life. Freeloading scumbag and hypocrite.***

“We’ve never had a private propane tank come to us,” said a member of the town’s review board. Typical residential storage for back-up generators is 100 to 500 gallons.

At a time when his successor’s economic war on Russia is wreaking havoc on the world and the U.S. economy teeters on the edge of an abyss, Obama’s 2,500-gallon scheme suggests he wants his 6,900-square-foot, seven-bedroom house to be ready for many weeks of energy independence at a time.

As president, Obama declared, “I am a firm believer that climate change is real and that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. As a consequence, I think we have an obligation to future generations to do something about it.”

Of course, to Obama and other ruling elites, “doing something” means imposing expectations on society they don’t apply to themselves. From Obama’s fossil fuel indulgence at his 29-acre vacation estate, to lockdown enthusiast Gavin Newsom dining in maskless comfort with 21 guests while he limited indoor dining for others, to gun control-advocating politicians who live under the protection of “assault rifles,” examples abound.

Indeed, this isn’t even the first display of elite hypocrisy at Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard mansion.

Last August, while Democrats and liberal elites were still relentlessly shaming Americans into embracing a dystopian “new normal” life of social isolation and promoting hysteria over the Delta variant of Covid-19, Obama threw a celebrity-studded 60th birthday party for himself, with hundreds of guests.

Sounds like a guy who needs to check his privilege.

More Raises Given During Low Inflation Years…

We already covered a lot of the generous increases in salary and benefits enjoyed by City workers in those years when inflation was nearly non-existent.

Since we are going to see the same argument from the school system soon, let’s go over some of the raises THEY were given before inflation got out of control.

Now, before I shit all over the LISD, I DO realize that if you absolutely cannot fill a teaching position, you CLEARLY have to dangle a higher salary. That is simple economics. However, that money doesn’t have to come from the taxpayer – it can come from the firing of useless slugs like Kathy Staruska who suck down over $80,000 in tax dollars but educate nobody. The school is there to EDUCATE your kid. Not to provide ‘free’ therapy sessions to your kid that you messed up with bad parenting.

Without further ado….

4/6/18 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a general pay increase for all the district’s teachers, administrators and auxiliary staff. Each teacher will receive a $1,500 increase, a raise of about 3 percent will go to administrators,and an increase of about 5 percent will be given to aides, clerical and auxiliary staff. The pay raise will add about$800,000 to the budget, which will be covered by attrition. CPI in 2018 was 2.4% – raises were DOUBLE the inflation rate.

7/5/19 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees approved teacherraises totaling $1.5 million for the coming school year. CPI in 2019 was only 1.8%

3/3/20 – “This evening, our school board approved a compensation plan for next yearthat includes a 7% general pay increaseof the midpoint for Teachers, Clerical/Aides, and Auxiliary. Teacher salaries will reflect a minimum starting amount of $47,000. A general pay increase of 5%of the midpoint for administrators was approved as well. CPI in 2020 was 1.2% – raises were therefore 5.8 times higher than inflation.

[So over those three years, inflation was roughly 5.5% while raises totaled about 15% – or almost TRIPLE inflation]

Also don’t forget, school was cancelled for the rest of the year (shortly after that big raise) due to Covid…giving everyone two months off, fully paid.

Once again, job security is the phrase you are looking for.

Everyone was ALSO given TEN DAYS of “Covid-related time off” for the NEXT school year! That’s TWO WEEKS paid vacation in addition to regular sick days, Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas holiday, spring break, etc.

Nice perk:

1/14/21 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees voted Monday night to extend Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe’s contract, which now is set to expire in June 2024.Trustees also granted Rascoe a 7% raise, bringing his salary to $169,864 as of July 1. CPI for 2021 was 4.7% – Rascoe’s raise was 1.5 times the rate of inflation. Rascoe now makes more than the governor of Texas.

9/3/21 (Dispatch) – On Monday, the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $35.9 million Fiscal Year 2022 general fund budget that includes a 2% salary raise for all staff [that includes all the useless Staruska Slugs infesting the LISD]. The district’s new budget will take effect Oct. 1. Of the total, salaries amount to $27.2 million (76% of budget).

**UPDATE 4/7/23**

4/7/23 (Dispatch) – The plan recommended by Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe includes a general pay increase of 4% from the midpoint salary for administrators and teachers, and an increase of 10% from the midpoint range for aides and clerical staff. Auxiliary staff earned the largest pay rise, a general increase of 13.5% from the midpoint salary.

The increase will raise the average teacher salary to $51,000 in LISD. According to the Texas Association of School Board’s statewide 2022-23 District Personnel Survey, the overall median salary for a new Texas teacher is $46,550.

But wait! There’s more!!

Don’t forget that teachers ALSO get the summers off. Why, just look at our own teacher/City council member Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne! She makes about $67,000 per year (plus bennies) AND has her summers free to work another job! With wages and labor demand what they are now, a determined teacher could easily make another $10,000 to $12,000 over the summer – bringing that total up to nearly $80,000!! Cry me a river!

City Big Wigs Want Raises For Everyone Because of Inflation. Conveniently Forget All The Big Raises When Inflation Was Negligible

ACM Ryan Ward got up on the dais last night and said we need an immediate 3% COLA for everyone working for the City. That will supposedly hold them over until they can hand out much larger “adjustments” in a few months when budget talks start.

[I’m not going to hold my breath that any of the supposedly “overpaid” positions like Police Chief and Librarian get ‘adjusted’ down to normal]

But let’s take a look at the recent past and some nice fat raises and benefit increases that were implemented when there was basically NO inflation. Here are a few examples:

June 24, 2013 council packet – Proposing a three percent (3%) global increase which would be $117,000 budget impact. The new health premiums increased three percent (3%) and would like to budget $71,000 to assist employees with 25 percent (25%) of dependent premiums. Possible staffing adjustments and modifications: one (1) Water/Wastewater employee; one (1) Firefighter (shared cost with County); possibly one (1) full time Economic Development Coordinator (shared cost with Lampasas Economic Development Corporation “LEDC”). CPI for 2013 was only 1.5%. Raises are DOUBLE rate of inflation.

July 25th, 2014 – Initial budget assumptionscall for a 4 percent increase in total salary expenses, although deGraffenried said that does not necessarily mean an across the-board 4 percent raise is suggested. In the budget approved last year, total salaries increased 3 percent. Mayor Pro Tem Wanda Bierschwale said she would like to see employees get “a goodly raise”and for the city to pay a portion of retiree health care costs. Mrs. Bierschwale also said she would like to increase the dependent cost share. White said he supports a 50 percent health care cost share for retirees and a 4 percent raise for all employees. Councilman Chuck Williamson also said he favors 4 percent raises.

[That idiot Bierschwale certainly was generous with other people’s money, wasn’t she?? White and Bierschwale are long gone…but that fat 50% health care cost share remains…as does that fat raise – every year for the last 8 years. So – we see a huge raise AND a ridiculous bump in benefits: increasing the share the taxpayers pay for employees’ dependents AND for City retirees who have ALREADY gotten tons of benefits over their careers. CPI for 2014 was only 1.6%…raises are therefore 2.5 times the rate of inflation.]

Aug 14, 2015 – The council is considering a 5 percent increase in city employees’ salaries. The original suggestion submitted to the council was for a 4 percent pay boost, but Mayor Pro Tem Misti Talbert [the original Drunken Sailor] and Councilman Robert McCauley proposed giving a 5 percent raise. CPI for 2015 was 0.1%. Raises are therefore FIFTY TIMES LARGER than rate of inflation. This was the beginning of the profligate Toups administration.

Let’s pause here a moment. CPI is up 3.1% over those three years and employee raises totaled about TWELVE PERCENT over that time. Nobody bothers to mention all of this. That doesn’t even include the generous INCREASE in benefits covering employee dependents and City retirees.

Here are some more random raises from before inflation went haywire:

Aug 4, 2017 – Mike White also warned the trend of rising insurance costs will continue – which he said will impose a greater burden on the city each year. Last year, the city’s cost increase was 4 percent, the finance director said. CPI for 2017 was 2.1% –therefore benefit increases were almost TWICE inflation rate.

8/3/18 (Dispatch) – Chamber of Commerce salary. TJ Monroe says $45,000 isn’t enough. Needs to be $65,000 to $70,000 [National average is $49,000] – Ergo, TJ Monroe wants a 48% increase in Chamber of Commerce salary…the CPI in 2018 was 2.4%

7/27/19 – Lampasas County Appraisal District Commissioner’s Court voted 4-1 to approve their new budget – which includes a 4% increase in salaries. Previous year’s salary increase was 11% – for a two-year increase of 15%! CPI for 2019 was 1.8%

8/16/19 – The council discussed salaries Monday, and multiple council members said “market adjustments” may be needed to make Lampasas’ pay more competitive with the compensation in nearby entities (sounds familiar?) CPI for 2019 was 1.8%.

8/10/20 council meeting: budget proceedings – Finley asks for 3% raises for everyone once again. CPI in 2020 was 1.2%. ONCE AGAIN, raises are DOUBLE the inflation rate.

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for IT Director Monica Wright increased 7.8% from $73,397 to $79,115. CPI for 2020 was 1.2% – or SIX AND A HALF TIMES HIGHER than inflation. She possess NO network certifications!

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for Network Administrator Kristy Acevdeo jumped 9.4% from $52,674 to $57,639. CPI for 2020 was 1.2%. Her raise was therefore 7.8x higher than inflation

[Also don’t forget, the IT Department workload DECREASED greatly when the police department decided to take the police servers out of the hands of Monica and Kristy and pay someone else to do it. Also don’t forget that TSM Consulting does a LOT of their work for them, at a huge cost to the City]

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for police chief Sammy Bailey jumped from $92,493 to 103,387 – an 11.8% increase! CPI was 1.2% that year – almost TEN TIMES the rate of inflation.

[I’m sure that huge bump had NOTHING to do with artificially increasing her ‘average salary’ for pension purposes right before retirement, right?]

In 2020 – Finley deGraffenreid got a raise of 15%….from $130,000 to $150,000. Inflation that year was 1.2% – a raise that was about 12.5 x faster than inflation!!! Don’t forget that Finley also has an assistant now (that was Misti Talbert’s idea years ago) – so his workload is actually LESS as he makes MORE. See how that works?

9/20/21 – City handed out “paid quarantine leave” to public safety employees of the City (front page Dispatch). Nice little perk!

So I say this to ACM Ward and City Manager deGraffenreid: Gimme a fucking break.

My advice to anyone with the City making $90k or $100k or $200k in salary and benefits is that you should have saved more during those ridiculously generous years instead of taking four annual vacations and buying a brand new $60,000 vehicle every 3 years. THAT’S how it works in the real world.

These idiots need to go and re-read the fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

The City is infested with grasshoppers – mostly at the top. You want to give raises to the guys doing actual work? The guys fixing water pipes and sewer mains and electric lines and the guys mowing lawns for $12? Maybe bump them to $18 or $20? I’m fine with that – they deserve it. All these other Nerf jobbers making six figures to sit in an airconditioned City Hall? Fuck that.

Time to say NO to ever-increasing salaries.

Total expenditures for the 2015/2016 City budget were $9.462 million. For the 2020/2021 budget it was $12.175 million – a 29% increase. Increase in the CPI during those 5 years? Under 10%. Expenditures increased roughly TRIPLE the rate of inflation!!

The Finley School of Thought? Big raises during boom times but also big raises during the shitty times too! No time is a good time to tighten the belt in government spending. The taxpayer can go suck a big one.

Next up: a review of teacher raises during the low inflation years!

Skate Park Approved…But At What Cost?

Yipee! Yay! They approved the skatepark! This will turn all kids in town into high-achieving children who never get into trouble or turn to drugs. They will develop confidence in themselves as they learn the half-pipe. They will all excel in school and master calculus at an early age! It is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Tons of people from ALL AROUND will come here for the skate park and spend tons of money at restaurants and antique stores! It will even rake in more sales tax dollars than the giant metal LTX sign in the City square!!

Well, that’s what I hear on Facebook anyways.

What I DIDN’T hear on Facebook was the final cost of this debacle. As you recall, this thing went from $200,000 (yes it did, Finley!) to $300,000 to $470,000 over the course of 16 months.

A skatepark that is a great idea at $250,000 is a very stupid idea at $800,000, for instance.

It’s a shame that LEDC prez Misti Talbert stole that $971,000 from the City back in February, or we might not be worried about the cost of this.

Oh, and don’t forget that ACM Ryan Ward (who makes over $150,000 per year in salary and benefits) is banging the drum VERY loudly for huge raises for every government employee this year.…And he wants them NOW…like, starting next month! That’s a 3% hit now and a lot more later this year, during the budget process.

I wonder if his boss Finley deGraffenreid (salary and benefits of over $200,000) will get a raise too! The poor guy hasn’t gotten anything since that 15% increase (bi-weekly paycheck went from $5,000 to $5,769) he got in 2020 during the ‘pandemic’. You don’t REALLY expect him to survive on $12,500 every month, do you? (Plus free gas and phone and healthcare and 2-1 matching pension contributions by the taxpayer).

That’s the ‘pandemic’ where the government ruined the livelihoods of many, many people. I’ll bet you $100 that not a SINGLE CITY EMPLOYEE missed a SINGLE PAYCHECK during that entire year.

Any takers? That’s called “job security” and it’s something most gov employees take for granted.

Let’s take a look at his current paychecks, shall we?

Finley-Paychecks Download

No worries! Even though we are very likely entering a bad recession right now, they can just shake the money tree out back to pay for all this stuff.

Clayton Tucker: World’s First Virtual Rancher/Farmer/Cowboy

When you have a low IQ, you make a lot of dumb mistakes.

For instance, you forget which lies you previously told in newspaper interviews, you forget what your current fake job supposedly is, and you completely forget to put fake jobs on your resume and have to go back and do it later.

Here is his resume as shown in March 2021 – ZERO mention of “ranch manager” in 2016:

Here is his resume NOW. He had to go back and insert “ranch manager” to cover for his previous lies:

It must be exhausting.

He also listed his occupation as “political organizer” when he applied to run for City council back in March of 2021. I guess he forgot he was a “rancher” then too!

**You spelled “rancher” wrong, dip shit.**

Of course, since local socialist Clayton Tucker spends all day sitting at his laptop in mom and dad’s upstairs bedroom, that’s the most exhausting thing he does.

Apparently, the Internet went out for a little while yesterday. I didn’t know this because I have Viasat satellite Internet that only really goes down in a huge thunderstorm every now and then.

Clayton Tucker predictably went insane about it (as he always does). During his usual petulant tantrum about how “the Internet is a RIGHT” and “should be a utility” (as if utilities don’t sometimes fail as well), he slipped up once again talking about his ‘job’:

You work virtually? I thought you were a rancher!!

So is it like one of those “virtual” ranches? Like on Facebook or something, where your fake friends visit your virtual ranch and feed the fake goats digital hay or something? Fascinating.

Oops, Clayton. Huge oops.

You must be the ONLY ‘rancher/farmer/cowboy‘ who spends SO much time sitting at his laptop, that he just happened to be on the computer all three times the Internet has failed over the last 12 months.

Tucker then whines that due to the Internet being down, he can’t use credit cards, “debt” (I think he means DEBIT cards) or Apple pay! The horror!

First off, only girls and douchebags use Apple Pay.

Secondly, back in the old days, we had NONE of those things. Literally none of them. We went REAL old school and carried CASH, you wuss. Hell, your parents’ house (where you live) is LITERALLY three blocks from First Texas Bank.

What a lazy asshole. Then again, he IS a socialist. Kind of comes with the territory.

Instead of REAL old school, Clayton goes “old lady” old school and carries his checkbook around with him. I bet his checks are imprinted with Bernie Sanders or Tweety Bird images too.

Naturally, two or three of his fellow losers commented on his post, saying “we need to end this monopoly!”

Ummm…there is no monopoly, you retards. You have a TON of choices now. Hell, Nextlink is supposedly doing 130 to 170 installs PER WEEK. Call Viasat. Or Hughesnet. Or Suddenlink. Or use your cell phone as a mobile hotspot.

Bunch of fucking babies.

Local Socialist Comrade Clayton Tucker Apparently Growing Obligatory Moustache

If history has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t be a good little commie/socialist weasel without a moustache.

Stalin, Maduro, Marx, Guevara, Hitler, Castro – all had the ‘stache (plus beard, for many of them). Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Kim Jong-un are the only commie scum I could think of who DIDN’T have any facial hair, but that’s because Asians suck at growing facial hair.

Well, apparently local socialist shit worm Comrade Clayton Tucker has finally noticed this, because he too, is attempting to grow some facial hair. It is only in the “pubestache” stage now, but don’t worry – in 40 or 50 years it’s gonna look amazing!

Maybe he thinks the facial hair will make him look older and make people forget he is a 31-year-old boy who still lives in Mom and Dad’s upstairs bedroom…

[Pictured above with the young and vibrant members of the Medina County ~~Marxists~~ Democrats]

Hey, that old guy with the beard looks familiar. Wasn’t he hanging around another meeting looking for free soup or something? I think he was…

I’m In The Wrong Line Of Work

Working in the private sector is truly for suckers. The only way to get ahead these days is:

(1) get a Nerf job like Assistant City Manager or Superintendent of a school system or a government IT Director with no credentials

OR…

(2) run a company that wildly overcharges that same government for a dogshit product that actually costs 25% of what you are charging…like Azbell Electronics or the company that is currently selling Hanna Springs Elementary a $67,404 intercom system.

And they wonder why there is “no money for teachers”. I did about 15 minutes of research and emailed three companies – and found one that offered me a wireless school intercom system for $1,800. No joke. Roughly THIRTY TIMES LESS EXPENSIVE.

Here is the latest joke – the skatepark plans:

I don’t think the bozos in government have the first clue as to how easy it is to whip up something like this nowadays with CAD software and a 22yo intern. SPA and NewLine likely have DOZENS of saved templates and they drag-and-drop different features onto the “plans”.

The above joke apparently took OVER a year to produce, cost $18,000 and took a SECOND company to come in and finish, apparently (NewLine Skateparks).

Money well spent! Almost as impressive as the ‘plans’ for the Hike & Bike trail that never came to fruition. Those guys have the right idea too!

Time to Admit Our Nation is Being Run by Domestic Terrorists and Traitors.

By Wayne Allyn Root

Stop trying to pretend this isn’t treason. It is. Stop trying to pretend this isn’t the purposeful, intentional destruction of America. It is.

Stop trying to pretend this is “politics as usual” or a “political disagreement.” It’s not. Stop trying to pretend everything is going to be all right. It’s not.

America is in a dire situation. I believe we are in the worst situation in the history of America. We are hanging by a thread. It isn’t over just yet. But it’s the 9^th inning and we’re down 8-0, with two outs. The situation is that dire.

We are dealing with radical communist traitors. Domestic terrorists and suicide bombers out to destroy the greatest country, economy and middle class in world history.

The time to act is now. Or we will never make it to 2024.

The GOP leadership is blind, deaf and dumb. They can’t see the forest for the trees. They can’t read the tea leaves. This isn’t right vs left. This is love of God, country and capitalism vs. radical communist traitors, hell bent on the destruction of America. This is sanity vs insane, wild-eyed, radical nutjobs.

Plain and simple, this is TREASON.

90% of GOP candidates running for office across America right now, have no clue how dire this situation is. Some are pure frauds. Some are RINOS. Some are dumb as a tree stump. Some are clueless and delusional. Many are bought and paid for by China- just like their Democrat counterparts.

It turns out Joe McCarthy was right, he was just early. The communist traitors are everywhere in government, political leadership, public education, universities, unions, the mainstream media, social media, Hollywood, judges, lawyers, even in the leadership ranks of the military and police. Communist traitors have infiltrated every level of government, society and industry.

And I know their plan. I learned it at Columbia University, Class of 1983. My classmate was Barack Obama. I believe Obama is now the leader carrying out this plan. He is the “shadow president of the United States”- ie operating from the shadows, while dummy dementia puppet Biden serves as decrepit front man.

And who is giving Obama the orders? The enemies of America – globalist, billionaire, meglo-maniac, psychopaths George Soros, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates and the Chinese Communist Party. Schwab, by the way, is not just a globalist who wants to make us all serfs, but also allegedly the son of one of Hitler’s right-hand men. That’s right, the billionaire son of an alleged Nazi is now trying to conquer America. My guess is he’s obsessed with finishing the job of his father. And George Soros is reported to be a Jew who handed over Jews to the Nazis as a boy. As a Jew myself, I can’t think of anything more repulsive.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. You couldn’t sell this in a Hollywood script. Hollywood would call it “preposterous and unbelievable.” But real life is stranger than fiction.

The “Cloward-Piven” plan was named after two Columbia communist professors. Their plan was getting everyone in America on welfare- thereby overwhelming the system, exploding the national debt and collapsing the economy. That would end capitalism.

Look around. It’s happening. Biden and Democrats are using open borders to fill our nation with millions of poverty-stricken illegal aliens with no skills or education- who will require cradle to grave welfare. As a bonus, this changes the entire demographics of America- with foreigners on welfare out-voting American citizens.

Worst of all is hyper-inflation. All communist dictators want to steal the people’s money and make them slaves, dependent on government. But with massive hyper-inflation they don’t even need to raise taxes. Inflation is a horrific invisible tax.

Soon the middle class will be starving and begging government to save them. That opens the door for government to pay for all your gas, home heating oil, groceries, rent and college tuition. Take it and you’re a slave for life. That’s the end of the middle class, the end of capitalism, and the end of America.

Throw in the purposeful destruction of the energy industry, supply chain dysfunction, and vaccine mandates that cost middle class Americans their jobs, and have made many Americans too sick to fight back, and soon we’re guaranteed to see massive food shortages, mass starvation, food riots and a breakdown of society. In the middle of all this, they want to take our guns away.

I repeat: We’re not going to make it to 2024.

This is TREASON. Biden and his handlers are radical communist traitors. They are domestic terrorists and suicide bombers. It’s time to take the gloves off. These people want us banned, censored, silenced, bankrupt, stripped of all property, stripped of all guns, imprisoned for our political beliefs, or dead. You can’t compromise with people who want you silenced or dead.

But the first step is to admit, THIS IS TREASON.

Wayne Allyn Root is known as “the Conservative Warrior.” Wayne’s new #1 bestselling book is out, “The Great Patriot Protest & Boycott Book.”Wayne is host of the nationally-syndicated “Wayne Allyn Root: Raw & Unfiltered” on USA Radio Network, daily from 6 PM to 9 PM EST and the “WAR RAW” podcast.

Finley Tries To Copy Lampasshole Skatepark Timeline To Cover Ass. Omits Important Items.

Well, City manager Finley DeGraffenreid appears to be trying to cover his rear end with this skate park debacle. I went into a detailed timeline on this two weeks ago – and now it appears that Finley is (coincidentally!) trying to do the very same with his OWN timeline to try and explain the mess (see page 10 through 19).

The whole section is titled “Discussion regarding design, costs and progression of the Campbell Park Skatepark” – which would leave you to believe it was an explanation about how the skate park went wildly overbudget and is a year overdue. You’d be wrong, of course. That’s because despite the title, Finley spills a good 60% of his ink babbling about the Pavilion project – which is not what we are talking about, is it Finley?

No, we are talking about the skate park debacle.

This is a classic Finley move I have seen many times – he piles a bunch of other shit onto what is being talked about to obfuscate and confuse the issue. More than once, I have been handed 600 or 800 pages of bullshit (at 10 cents per page) I didn’t actually request from the City, and somewhere in that mess is the truth.

He posted 47 different timeline items (page 10 through 19). Of those 47 items, 27 of them make mention of the Pavilion Project, which is a completely different project – they just happen to be in the same general area of the City: Campbell Park.

Why throw in all that extra nonsense? That is what you do when you are a $200,000 per year bureaucrat who has to look busy, busy, busy.

In fact, I think part of the problem was these two SEPARATE projects got intertwined early on. I have no idea why except to maybe make things more complicated later. Clearly Finley can’t walk (pavilion) and chew gum (skate park) at the same time.

In fact, the geo-tech engineers (Langford at cost of $6,400) drilled TWO SEPARATE holes for the geo-tech report for TWO SEPARATE projects.

The very first timeline admissions Finley makes (July 13, 2020 – page 10) is: “skatepark and pavilion have been on the CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) since 2015…the last two years the estimated cost has been $350,000“

He is ALREADY lumping them together to cause confusion. What he SHOULD have said is “skate park $200,000 and pavilion $150,000”, which is what the estimates actually were.

[Ironically, a few builders in town told me they could have done that pavilion project for WAY under the $175,000 they ended up spending]

Here is proof of that…proof that Finley keeps denying and ignoring. He lied right to Cathy “Pork Chop” Kuehne’s face when she asked if the skate park estimate started at $200,000 and he said “no”:

City Manager Tells Blatant Lie To Council Without Blinking

So already, Finley’s OWN little timeline contradicts what he told council about the skate park NEVER being estimated at $200,000. It most certainly was. If the original skate park estimate was $300,000 (as he keeps falsely repeating), then that would mean the pavilion part HAD TO BE only estimated at $50,000 – because, as he just told us, the TWO projects combined estimate was at $350,000.

[Finley pulled this same stunt with the Old City Hall disaster. To this DAY he repeats the lie that it “only” cost $1.02 million when the true cost was around $1.5 million]

He also previously mentioned SPA Skateparks and Lamco as being the top two selected contractors. What he did again was fail to mention that one of those (Lamco) was selected for the pavilion. He was STILL lumping both of these projects together, which not only makes for confusion but makes it almost impossible to separate out the costs for each from his bureaucratic ramblings.

Both projects should have been discussed and priced SEPARATELY from the first day. They weren’t.

But the most damning omission from Finley’s little timeline is to ONCE AGAIN fail to mention New Line Skateparks and why they are involved at all, at this point. Not a SINGLE mention of them in his timeline.

SPA Skateparks was the company selected for this job by Finley himself [December 25, 2020] – NOT New Line Skateparks.

SPA Skateparks is:

“a turnkey, design build contractor of truly successful public spaces through the creation of world class skateparks. Our team of active skateboarders consists of registered landscape architects, engineers, professional skatepark designers, skatepark public planning consultants, skatepark construction managers and specialized skatepark construction crews who have been perfecting site integrated, poured in place concrete skate parks since 2006“

That is straight from the SPA website.

‘Turnkey’ means they do it all. Design, consult, construct….everything.

What SHOULD have happened, is that the City goes to SPA and says “we have $250,000 for a skate park – what can we get for that?”

This is how normal people in the real world operate. If you are in the market for a house, you figure out how much you have to spend, tell a realtor that and they find houses in your price range. Apparently that kind of common sense is absent in Finley’s office, as it is in Misti Talbert’s brain.

SPA has been doing this for 16 years. Don’t tell me that if the City came to them and said “show us our options for $250,000”, they don’t have about a dozen templates to offer up. Templates they have accumulated over the last 16 years of building parks.

Instead, we got a wildly convoluted timeline of delays, cost increases, dropped balls, designs that were never unveiled, and now this “New Line Skateparks” coming out of nowhere to take over the “design” of this thing.

Absolute train wreck. I guess we’ll hear Finley explain it all on Monday night.

More LEDC Hype Fizzles Like a Fart In The Wind

Stop me if you’ve heard this one…

The LEDC hypes a bunch of “interest” in the Industrial Park or Business Park and it all turns out to be pie-in-the-sky bullshit as Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second for the 100th time in a row:

I find it hard to believe that Mandy Walsh keeps falling for this over and over again. Then again, her $107,000 in salary and benefits kind of DEPENDS on her believing this shit over and over again. Otherwise she’d be out of a Nerf job and back working for the Houston Rockets or the Texas Renaissance Festival. All those letters after her name would mean nothing anymore.

Tough pill to swallow. Much easier to pretend that these fake businesses like Eco-Strong are viable prospects and then act surprised when it all crumbles like dog shit in the desert.

The latest football to be pulled? Most likely the “big plans” for the Industrial Park that included a “distillery/microbrewery and barber shop”, lol.

I’m referring to the Grand Plans of Martin Rod & Custom and their supposedly imminent move into the shitty 5.6-acre ‘industrial park’ the City has been sitting on since the earth cooled a few billion years ago:

That was from October of last year. Here we are EIGHT MONTHS LATER and the “deal” still isn’t done. According to the City, Martin’s attorneys are still sitting on the “agreement”. The first (and likely only) part of the “deal” is letting Martin use the “park” to charge people to store their boats and RVs.

Sure doesn’t sound like someone who is champing at the bit to build a “distillery”. Sounds like someone who is maybe about to take a pass on the “deal” to me. Either way, none of this other crap mentioned will likely ever come to fruition.

Ever.

Note that “several prospects were interested early on” – which, as readers here know, is the “lie that keeps on giving”:

The Lie That Keeps On Giving

Here is my prediction: there will be no primary jobs created. There will be no “microbrewery”. There will be no “multiple buildings”. The City wasted time and effort “researching flood plain maps” for nothing, as this is just more pie-in-the-sky bullshit.

I asked the City this week if the “agreement” was done yet. You’d think a simple agreement to let them rent out the spot to store RVs and boats would be pretty easy to negotiate. You’d be wrong. According to the City secretary:

“Staff actually followed up this week and it is still in the possession of Mr. Martin and his attorney. We are hopeful that it will be finalized soon.”

Hope, hope, and more hope. Will it ever amount to a hill of beans?

Don’t get your hopes up.