admin

Reviewing Business Pork Project Prospective Tenants

After I asked several times for the names of the “about four” business pork project prospects who were “serious”, I was finally given the following list:

Eco-Flex Recycled Rubber Solutions, Lawson Implements, Nextlink Internet, Legacy Awning and Shade, and PhoLicious.

We were told by Mandy Walsh herself that “three of the four are manufacturing companies”, but from the above list, I really don’t see how that is possible. You can MAYBE make the case that two of them are.

Then again, when you are asking City council for more millions for your Business Pork project, it sounds FAR better to say “manufacturing” than “a small place that sells awnings”.

As luck would have it, I have knowledge of all of these companies. Even though City council has already committed to the (in my opinion) fiscally reckless course of throwing more good money after bad at the Business Pork project, I am going to review each company here in the next few posts and see if the LEDC excitement about each of them is warranted.

Let’s start with the obvious turd in the punchbowl: Eco-Flex

ECO-FLEX: the CEO (Alan Champagne) is a proven liar and scumbag. His associate here, Mike Cour, is also a slimy con man who was involved in Triton Financial – who was sued for defrauding investors in Austin, TX.

They were the “secret prospect” for the Business Pork back in 2020 and apparently blew up the deal when they asked for not only free land, but an outright handout of $1.75 million dollars. Not even the LEDC is that stupid.

Eco-Flex has already proven to be a dud and I can’t believe they are actually STILL placed on a list of serious prospects for the Business Pork. The LEDC must truly be scraping the bottom of the barrel to include these scumbags. Chances they actually move in and become a viable tenant that produces any kind of return for anyone is 0%.

LAWSON IMPLEMENTS: It just so happens I bought my tractor from Lawson in Hamilton back in 2014. Nice people. They also have a place in Goldthwaite. I currently use Mustang Equipment in Marble Falls when I need service – and it is a very similar setup: a place on the side of the road with a small sales shop, a shop in back for mechanical work and some acreage to display the machines and implements like shredders and tillers.

This is definitely not the type of place that needs a $7.1 million dollar infrastructure to exist. Just go drive by Mustang Equipment in Marble Falls to see what I mean. I’m guessing Lawson managed to open their places in Hamilton and Goldthwaite without any help from any “economic development corporation”. They have been around over 80 years. If they want a nice spot to display their wares and put in a storefront, why doesn’t the LEDC offer them that lovely 5-acre eyesore they call the Industrial Park??

I guess Misti forgot about the Industrial Park property they own when she said “there is no more commercial space in Lampasas…the Business Pork is it”:

Lawson basically needs to throw up a metal building to start operations. Lookie there! There is even electricity right there already! No need for $7.1 million in new roads and waster/wastewater. Maybe I’ll call Lawson myself and suggest that!

I’m guessing a place like Mustang in Marble Falls (or the Kuboda dealer across the street) employs maybe 10 or 12 people TOPS. Again, nowhere near the “hundreds of jobs” nonsense we hear out of Talbert’s mouth when she touts the Business Pork project here. There is PLENTY of commercial space out there on 580 east for Lawson to put in a storefront.

More coming soon…..

LEDC/City FINALLY Coughs Up Names Of Prospects For The Business Pork Project. Color Me Unimpressed.

Right around the time LEDC president and former mayor Misti Talbert went in front of her former council chums to beg for nearly a million dollars, Mandy Walsh (Economic Development Director) told us publicly that the LEDC had six prospects and that “about four are serious”:

My bullshit detector always rings very loudly when bureaucrats say “about” when describing a tiny number like four. Either it’s “four” or it’s “three” or it’s “five”. If it was five, I guarantee you they would be trumpeting “FIVE!” to show how in-demand their business pork project is. Since they can’t even admit it is “four” but it’s “ABOUT four”, you can bet your ass the real number is three.

Maybe.

The fact that even SHE admits that two of them are NOT serious means they are definitely 100% bullshit. Like, Mike Cour and Eco-Strong level bullshit.

She also tells us that “three of the four are manufacturing companies”.

OK…manufacturers of what? What are their names? I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request considering they will have wasted over $7.1 million dollars on this farce before all the debt is paid off. Not to mention they got burned by local charlatan Mike Cour and Eco-Strong the LAST TIME they claimed they had a solid prospect.

So I asked them last week to just provide me the NAMES of the four companies but instead the ever-transparent City Hall told me to take a hike:

“…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.” [email dated 2/16/22]

Well, I didn’t take that too well. Especially since we have already been through this once when they were keeping Eco-Strong a secret. I pressed on:

In regards to my request for the names of current business park prospects:

We already had a ruling on that 552.131(a) stuff a year ago (March of 2021). The Assistant AG (James Coggeshall) sided with me on a good chunk of it, actually (see attached, page 3). Since there is no “financial information”, or “negotiations” or “trade secrets” or “competitive harm” or “information about financial or other incentive” being asked for by me, it seems to me that you should produce the basic information I am requesting.

Mandy Walsh mentioned PUBLICALLY (see attached snapshot) there are four “serious” prospects for the biz park and three are in manufacturing. I am formally requesting the names of the four companies and nothing more about them. Just the names.

If I am denied this information, I’ll get my lawyer involved yet again, and this time since this has already been decided on and it’s costing me $$ to go through it again, I am not against also suing the City to recover my attorney fees.

This can all be over quickly and painlessly (and will save thousands of dollars with JC Brown) by just typing out those four names for me. Thanks!

Pretty simple request. It could be answered in 5 minutes. But it wasn’t. Instead I get more vague hints as to what it may be. From the City secretary:

I can provide you the following that have shown interest.

Communication, Technology and Regional Training Center
Food Manufacturing, Packaging and Distribution Center
Road and Construction Material Manufacturer
Agricultural and Equipment Sales & Servicing
Home Furnishings Merchant Wholesaler

Well, first of all, that list is five items long, and Mandy says there are only four serious prospects – she also says that 3 of the 4 are in “manufacturing”. So that means three of the four items on the above list are nonsense if we use logic. Either that, or Mandy is lying. Or Misti is lying. Considering the history of the LEDC and the Business Pork Project, anything is possible.

Secondly: “food manufacturing, packaging and distribution center“? You mean kind of like Ajinomoto Foods which is ALREADY HERE in town? The VERY SAME Ajinomoto Foods that offered to bring the City 200 jobs AND $300,000 in cash and the City TURNED THEM DOWN back in 2016?

In fairness, Mandy was not around in 2016, but Misti Talbert and TJ Monroe sure as hell were. So was Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson. All three of those idiots are now sitting there today approving the expenditure of $7.1 million for phantom jobs from secret companies two years from now when they could have had 200 REAL jobs at no cost back in 2016.

Anyhow, the City has FINALLY coughed up their “serious prospects” and there are apparently five of them:

Lawson Implement, Inc.

PhoLicious, LLC

Legacy Awning & Shade

Eco-Flex Recycled Rubber Solutions

Nextlink Internet

Over the next few posts I’ll dissect these prospects and why they all fail a basic smell test for the $7.1 million dollar business pork project.

Justice of the Peace Handicapping

I’ve lived in Lampasas almost 11 years now and never once heard anyone utter the words “justice of the peace” but apparently this particular race is really riling up both sides. I’ve never heard so much chatter about anything.

If only those same people would get fired up about the LEDC wasting $7 million dollars or City council wasting $1.4 million for the Hostess House “facelift”.

Ah well.

I have no horse in the JP race and can’t vote anyways since I’m outside the area – but here is my total semi-pro guesswork handicapping for the race:

Mercer -150

Wakeman +120

Munn +300

Clayton “Baby Seal” Tucker Taps Out. Will Not Run For City Council

I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. Our local socialist seal has apparently had enough clubbing for a while.

In the infamous words of Roberto Duran: “no mas!”

This is confusing to me, because just a few months ago, Tucker was talking tough about bringing his shitty, Marxist/commie nonsense to rural areas:

“We ain’t scared of no one!” No one except, of course, the hundreds of voters who would no doubt reject Comrade Clayton’s brand of bullshit for the fifth time in a row (Texas senate, Texas House 54, City council election last year PLUS his attempts to weasel onto City council by appointment AND his attempt to get onto the LEDC board recently).

After being clubbed those five times, it is no wonder his baby seal corpse will be lying motionless during this City council election.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 5c4226dfb53623af.jpg

Clayton will be showing that “we are here and we are present” by hiding in his parents’ upstairs bedroom (where he still lives at age 31) for the duration of this City council election.

What a shame.

In more bad news, incumbent City councilman Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson will be running unopposed.

As you may recall, Chuck was stomped in his last election, but a stroke of Covid luck removed his victor (Gordon Nelson) from council and the woman who pulls his puppet strings just went ahead re-appointed him to council anyways – thus bringing him back from the dead yet again.

With nobody running against him, he will be free to sit next to TJ Monroe as her ventriloquist’s dummy for another two years. Brutal.

Final slate:

Office of Councilmember Place 3

Name: Chuck Williamson (incumbent) unopposed
Occupation: Retired
Date filed for re-election: January 19, 2022

Office of Councilmember Place 4

Name: Cathy Kuehne (incumbent)
Occupation: Teacher/Business Owner
Date filed for re-election: January 19, 2022

Name: Myles Haider
Occupation: Business Owner
Date filed: January 19, 2022

Office of Councilmember Place 5

Name: Bob Goodart (incumbent)
Occupation: Retired
Date filed for re-election: January 19, 2022

Name: Davis Keele
Occupation: Probation Officer
Date filed: February 18, 2022

Talbert Wrong Again

A week ago, LEDC President Misti Talbert stood before her former City council buddies with her hat in hand and begged for almost $1 million for her ill-fated ‘business’ park project. A project that is 18 years old and about 6 million over budget.

It has produced zero jobs.

While she was rattling her tin cup, she made all sorts of outrageous statements. One of them was “there is no more commercial development space in Lampasas…that Business Park is it”

Patently absurd. I could drive around town and take photos of at LEAST 10 spots that have been sitting empty for years and years.

But don’t take my word for it….just ask the Internet:

Lampasas Commercial

Not only that, there is a TON of open space around here. All City council has to do is wave their magic wand to rezone. Voila: more space.

Furthermore, if this is the ONLY game in town, it should be extremely valuable and in-demand….yet it has sat empty now for 18 years.

I remember when they put up their sign that said “open for business! Fourth quarter 2015!” – which was 6.5 years ago.

Whoopsie!

Synopsis Of Huge Cost Increase For LEDC ‘Business’ Park

Last May, the LEDC told City council they needed ANOTHER$1.974 millionto REALLY finish the job they started back in 2004 (and claimed to have completed in 2015).

The cost totals for “Phase I” (which is actually Phase II) can be seen on pages 14 and 15 linked HERE – and here are the snapshots:

**Water/Wastewater totals $577,607 WITH 10% contingency**

Remember: that $1.974 million total is WITH a 10% contingency ALREADY BUILT IN.

The water/wastewater total is $577,607 and that is also WITH a 10% contingency already built in.

(Don’t forget that the Toups administration ALREADY wasted$678,000for “water/wastewater” with Qro Mex back in 2015/2016):

Of course, that “Phase I” estimate above was from February 5th, 2020 (as you can see from the top of the page). I said repeatedly a few months later when the LEDC came to council for money (the $1.5 million loan from Bancorp) that there was NO WAY that amount was still valid considering the inflation that the Brandon Administration has unleashed.

Fast forward a mere nine months, and LEDC President Misti Talbert decided they need a LOT more cash and goes begging to her FORMER chums on City council in what is a CLEAR conflict of interest. TJ Monroe (current mayor) ALSO sits on the LEDC board – in another massive conflict of interest. TJ Monroe is, in essence, asking herself to approve the grabbing of $971,000 in City money.

Unsurprisingly, TJ Monroe the mayor voted to hand TJ Monroe’s LEDC board the cash:

***At the VERY LEAST, Monroe should have abstained from this vote.***

Misti first buttered up her FORMER COUNCIL BUDDIES with a lame joke about spending Valentine’s Day with them. She further buttered them up by telling them she understands what it’s like to “sit on the other side of that desk” and make these decisions. This is known as “conflict of interest” in most places. Not unlike a piece of shit former Congressman lobbying his former colleagues for millions of dollars for his new company.

Then she drops the hammer. Costs have increased DRAMATICALLY. Why? Well, why not?? This is what Misti does: incinerate massive amounts of tax dollars. It is her calling. She got bored doing it as mayor – so she is now doing it for the LEDC.

The water/wastewater is no longer the $577,607 they assured council they needed 9 months earlier. It is now $971,000– a 68% increase in 270 days:

But that’s not all! They want to add another road in there – the “alternate” plan which adds $610,887. This brings the NEW total up to$2,747,544.50:

So they need another million bucks or so. Don’t worry! Misti has a plan! It had “come to her attention” that the Federal government tossed $1.9 million dollars into Finley’s lap from the American Recovery Act Fund a few months ago!

Finley assured me that the City didn’t even ask for it. He said “in my 25+ years of doing this, I have never seen anything even close to this in amount OR LATITUDE” (emphasis mine).

That “or latitude” part means you could stretch definitions to use it for just about anything. Some of the uses are (again, quoting DIRECTLY from the City manager):

“A wide range of projects including City water and wastewater, drainage, broadband and even rain water collection. As you can imagine, we always have a use for infrastructure funds; for maintenance, capital projects, upgrades etc. We do not anticipate returning any of the funds for non-use.”

Yes, I imagine there are a TON of uses for free money from the Feds – we certainly have need for all of that stuff for the City. Especially broadband, if I recall all the talk for the last 8 years.

But you can forget about all of that now, Citizen of Lampasas, because Misti Talbert and the LEDC just grabbed $971,000 of that money right out from under your noses and will instead be wasting it over at the ‘business’ park in return for phantom pie-in-the-sky jobs (maybe) someday.

Those dollars will go there to die a meaningless death, as have countless millions of dollars before them.

Thanks LEDC and City council! Job well done!

Why the Business Park is a Disaster That Cannot Be Fixed

Seven million dollars. That’s a LOT of money. Money that COULD have been used for the City of Lampasas and its citizens. Instead, it is being vaporized by the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation and City council on an ill-fated “business park” project that has promised “high paying jobs” for nearly TWENTY YEARS now.

The jobs are always just around the corner but the cost is NOW…and it just keeps skyrocketing higher. Every year they plead for “just a little more money” and every year, City council throws more money down the rat hole, following that carrot on a stick like a donkey.

In 2003, it was a million bucks to buy the land. In 2015 it was another $1.9 million to make it “shovel ready”. In May 2021, it was another $1.97 million to REALLY make it ready [page 15]. On Feb 14, 2022 it was bumped to $2.7 million [page 11] to “have a home run”, according to Steve Hudson.

In ADDITION to all of that, more millions were wasted on legal fees, surveying the SAME land many times over, brush clearing and even promotion!

**Sample of money wasted in 2014, 2015, 2016**

See the pattern??

And every promise turns out to be a lie. The promise of jobs “about to happen“, the promise of “$250,000 per year in revenue“. All lies. But City council thinks with every step, they’ll finally get a bite of that carrot.

This project has no possible way of EVER creating any kind of return on investment. Former councilman Mike White admitted as much on May 26th, 2020. Current City councilman Bob Goodart called it “a colossal waste of money” just 15 months ago.

The people MOST culpable for this fiscal crime are Misti Talbert, TJ Monroe, Steve Hudson, Neal Leavell and Roland Schaub. Mandy Walsh and Finley deGraffenreid are on that list too, as cheerleaders and enablers – even though they technically work for the City at great expense to the taxpayer (approximately $300,000 per year).

Here are some of the MANY intractable problems with this entire project:

#1 Misti Talbert, Mandy Walsh and the LEDC have ALWAYS refused to divulge the names of any possible prospects for the park. If you are going to keep going hat-in-hand to City council and vaporizing millions with vague promises of “many prospects ready to move in”, then it’s only fair you give a solid prospect or two BY NAME.

The LAST time they had a “prospect” and kept the name hidden, it turned out to be Mike Cour and Eco-Strong – which was a complete and total scam. The LEDC was strung along for almost a YEAR before the scam blew up. Misti, Mandy and TJ have NEVER answered for that disaster….and City council has NEVER called them on it. There is NO WAY that anyone on the LEDC should be trusted after bungling that so badly and falling for such an OBVIOUSLY nonviable scheme.

So they are batting .000 after 18 years. That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

#2 Misti Talbert makes mention of “all the jobs” this will generate, but never EVER says how many jobs we are talking about and at what salary. Therefore, it is all pie-in-the-sky nonsense. You cannot say that spending $7,000,000.00 is worth it for “jobs” if you don’t explicitly define the benefits of that cost. She never does. She claims it will be a great ROI (return on investment) but that is a charade since she never gives the “R” part of the equation.

#3 We lack the workforce: If you want “high paying jobs” from Big Companies, you need an educated workforce. Unfortunately, only 30% of the citizens of Lampasas over the age of 25 have a high school diploma. Only 13% are college graduates. Those are not the numbers that “high tech, high salary” companies are looking for.

So what will happen? Workers will commute from the south – Georgetown, Liberty Hill, Round Rock. This means the citizens of Lampasas are getting gouged for over $7,000,000 for a “business park” that very few will be working at unless they are sweeping the floor. But we will ALL get to enjoy the traffic and bullshit that comes with it.

Here is a crazy idea: if you want a “high paying job” move to Austin, Round Rock or Georgetown! Why is that so hard to fathom? There is a tradeoff you cannot avoid: the high-paying jobs are in the Big Expensive City. Period. They go hand-in-hand. Anyone with huge brains will graduate school here, go to college (maybe not, as college is quite useless now) which requires moving away anyways. The LEDC is trying to reinvent the wheel by bringing “high paying jobs” here when they are literally already 60 miles down the road.

Moronic, to say the least. The LEDC would save about $6.5 million by just buying and running a commuter bus from Lampasas to Round Rock for those who want to work there and avoid driving! Sounds crazy but it’s true.

#4 Do we even really NEED jobs??? Like a general fighting the last war, the LEDC acts like we are some worn-out, down-on-their-luck steel mill town desperate for jobs. The reality is quite the opposite! Every single business in town is hiring and cannot find workers. There are something like 4 million more jobs than workers in this country.

So if jobs are plentiful, why is the LEDC wasting $7,000,000 to bring MORE jobs?

Imagine for a moment the LEDC actually gets their pipe dream and company XYZ decides to locate here and provide 100 jobs (this is for the sake of argument – it will never happen). First thing XYZ does is negotiate goodies like reduced property taxes or no property taxes or cheap electricity. That’s a fact Misti also never mentions. The LEDC will give them anything they want in their desperation to ‘prove’ the business park was a genius idea.

So now, Company XYZ has saved a lot of money because the LEDC has handed them a lot of free shit. What does XYZ do? They proceed to hire workers away from EXISTING businesses in this town. Maybe they poach a dozen workers from Ajinomoto, Oil States, etc and end up fucking THOSE existing businesses in the process.

How do you think THOSE existing companies are going to feel after the LEDC makes finding and keeping employees that much harder? And the LEDC did it using THEIR TAX DOLLARS! Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds.

There are many more reasons the ‘business’ park is a structurally unsound idea. I would LOVE to debate LEDC President Misti Talbert on the issue any time she wants. The gauntlet is thrown down.

City/LEDC Refuse to Give Names of Business Park “Prospects”. Again.

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.

Councilman Bob Goodart Is a Liar

Et tu, Bob? Et tu?

I guess Goodart’s new nickname is “Brutus” – after the infamous traitor Marcus Junius Brutus.

Bob joined the crowd a few days ago as City council voted unanimously to pilfer $971,196 from City funds to waste on their ~~goat pasture~~ ‘business’ park debacle.

Bob sang a different tune when he was running for City council and I asked him DIRECTLY about this disaster of a project. Here is a copy of his email to me then in November of 2020:

“The business park has been a colossal waste of money to this point. The citizens of Lampasas voted to not buy the property, but then the City Manager, Mike Talbot managed to purchase the property through the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation, which is funded by the City of Lampasas.”

“The park sat for years until the decision was made to bring utilities to the park, to entice businesses. The cost to taxpayers was over 1 million dollars to bring water, sewer and electric to the property. Those utilities have sat idle for at least 5 or 6 [actually 7, now] years. I have now heard there is a plan in the works to build roads inside the park to attract business. So millions more will be spent to sit idly by until when?”

The return on investment on this property will be measured in decades instead of years at best. The best way I know to recoup any money out of this deal would be to sell it to a developer for a housing development, but the City will still lose money on it. No major business wants to build here because we are too far from the interstate, we don’t have a rail head, we don’t have the workforce to sustain it and we don’t have the things that are attractive to those businesses, such as hotels and restaurants and housing. It is my opinion it should be sold to recoup some of the money or at the very least, stop throwing money into it, until there is a firm commitment from a major business to come there.

Council Meeting 2-14-22: Talbert and LEDC Pilfer $971,000 MORE From City Coffers For Business Park Debacle.

Major topics:

Rain collection system for local idiot Janet “Crazier” Crozier‘s community garden: this has no business being funded by HOT funds in the first place, but it is a turd that won’t die. It was off the menu, but then Randy “Speedbump” Clark wanted it back on there. So now Finley is telling us that due to the shitty economy created by the Brandon administration, the price of the moronic water tanks (which are not needed at all because the Community Gardens get FREE water from the City already) has gone from $10,200 up to $12,750 (exactly 25% increase).

The irony here is that Janet is a raging libtard and very likely voted for Joe Biden – so she essentially caused this price increase herself. But she doesn’t care, because the money is “free”.

Randy is now arguing that the city needs to “do some investment in rain water collection and conservation effort”. Wrong, Randy. You are now officially in the “dummy” group of City council. From a cost/benefit standpoint it is not even REMOTELY a good idea to spend $12,750 dollars to catch rain when the Community Gardens ALREADY gets water from the City for a total cost of $35 per year. Crazier Crozier could pay for city water for 364 years before she breaks even on that trade.

Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne now jumping in with the idea to only use one tank to save money. It does not occur to her pea brain that perhaps the City should buy ZERO tanks and let Crazier Crozier raise the money herself.

Now Janet herself is up there muttering into the mic and no doubt making a completely incoherent case for wasting $12,750. From what little I can hear (she won’t speak into mic) it is even more elaborate and idiotic than I imagined. Underground pipes?

I can’t believe there is any discussion on this at all. This is PURE virtue signaling – kind of like wearing a face mask to stop an aerosolized virus. No wonder Kuehne is all in favor of it.

It makes ZERO economic sense to waste $12,750 of taxpayer money for an elaborate rain catch system when the City has ALREADY put in EIGHT water spigots for free. Water is water, you dumb shits. You’ll also get plenty of rain from mother nature all year long. It is crazy that this is even on the table.

Goat pasture updates: the ‘business’ parkcontinues to increase in cost. No surprises there with Misti Talbert in charge. Oh wait! There is Misti Talbert at the podium….asking for money! I am SHOCKED, I tells ya, by this development.

Misti and Steve Hudson casually ask for “roughly another” $700,000 – $971,000!!! [32:50 mark].

Insanity.

Talbert: [24 minute mark] “It has come to my attention that the City is blessed with a significant amount of money in the American recovery funds to the tune of 1.978 million dollars, I believe….and thewater/wastewater portionof this project will run $971,000 and the funds can be used for this project...I’m quite certain there’s not another project you can put these funds into that….are gonna bring you the potential ROI that this project is gonna bring you…“

ROI? Less than two years agoformer councilman Mike White admitted this about the ~~goat pasture~~ businesspark project: “I don’t love it, just from a return on investment standpointit’s never…never going to be anywhere close…” [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].

And that was when a much smaller number was being thrown around! Now, here we are less than two years later, and Misti wants ANOTHER $700k? Pure stupidity. Mike White was right. This project will NEVER make sense but they are too far down the road now to stop – because they will all look like the idiots they are. It’s called The Sunk Cost Fallacy and they have all fallen into it.

Furthermore, pardon my impertinence, governor, but you ALREADY SPENT $678,000 on “water/wastewater”back in 2015!

“We have no more commercial development space in Lampasas…that business park is it.”

That is a bald-faced lie. Sorry, but that is an outrageous statement.

In an unsurprising turn of events, Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne gives this colossal waste of money her blessing: “I’ve been filled in on this, and I think it’s a win-win“. [34:45 mark]

Lady, you’re an art teacher. You know nothing about numbers, unless they are maybe paint-by-numbers. You have proven that repeatedly during your time on City council. You also think wasting $1.4 million on the Hostess House so you can rent it out for $12,000 per year is a great idea. So we can safely toss out your opinions on the goat pasture.

This was an insane presentation by Misti and there is a lot to unpack. Not the least of which is her outrageous claims of all the jobs this will bring in. We have heard that bullshit for 20 years now.

I’ll get into it more later when my blood pressure is lower….

P.S.

Don’t ever forget the PREVIOUS lies we were told by these fools. For example:

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — which she said Harrison spoke against publicly. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017 [FIVE YEARS AGO!]

“The LEDC’s new debt service payment will be about $150,000 a year, Mrs. Masonheimer said. The economic development corporation projects annual revenue of about $250,000, which will leave approximately $100,000 for operating costs after making loan payments.” – September 23, 2014

So 7.5 YEARS AGO the head of the LEDC (Kathi Masonheimer) was projecting revenues of $250,000 per year. It has actually been $0.00 per year. So they are only currently off by about $1.9 million on their revenue estimates. No biggie!