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Monica Wright Defended in the Comments Section….by Monica Wright

Why dont [sic] you move your sorry ass out of here if you hate it so bad. Youre [sic] a damn disgrace attacking Mrs Wright like you have. And by doing so you show what a moron you really are. You obviously have no understanding of how anything works. Theres [sic] plenty to be pissed at the city, i.e. the city manager and the council about, but cursing and degrading monica wright is Not [sic] only wrong, it’s completely misguided. You are irrational, hot headed, foul mouthed and apparently unhinged, you are stalking her on FB and apparently have a vendetta against her, why on earth would or should she meet with you? You need to get back on your meds and chill out. First of all the equipment was bought through a cooperative purchasing agreement with buyboard….look it up its [sic] a state law that you can do that. Secondly she went through months of meetings with council memebers [sic] and admin about what they wanted in the building. She only specified what she was told to put in there. Stop blaming her for doing her job.

When I first saw this comment on this post, I thought for SURE it was Monica Wright. Who else would babble about the “buyboard”? Who else would then say “she went through months of meetings with council memebers”[sic]? Who else would pass the buck with a face-saver like “she only specified what she was told to put in there”? LOL. Only Monica Wright would do that. [P.S. she also threw the city manager and city council under the bus in her comments! You catching all this, Finley?? Theres [sic] plenty to be pissed at the city, i.e. the city manager and the council about]

Or maybe that was a weak attempt to throw suspicion away from herself?

Little does Monica know, but this blog records the IP address of all comments.

Luckily, there are plenty of little chirping birdies at City Hall who apparently have had enough of Saint Monica. The IP address of that comment is 107.77.217.155 – which, when traced backwards, looks like Monica Wright’s cell phone. You might think a big, important IT Director would at least know to mask her IP address, no? Here is a free hint for next time, sweetie: download IP Vanish.

This is just a very tiny example of her incompetence. I’m sitting on a mountain of evidence and my cup runneth over. What to print first?? The money she wastes on the city website hosting with CivicPlus? Her lack of credentials? The whole fiber optic line thing that cost $20,000 but was never hooked up? The ‘road trip’ with a certain former Mayor to Dallas and Austin and Round Rock to try and copy their bigger and more expensive City Council Chambers (which finally explains how you were dumb enough to sign off on a $100,000 A/V system). Hmmmm….so many choices.

Or maybe we jump straight to Tyler Technologies and how they actually do your work for you, at great cost to the taxpayer?? My, my. So many choices.

Oh, and to the moron who commented HERE that “I hear your name, address, and business will be made public very soon. You want to be the big dog saving Lampasas then own it“?….your IP address shows up starting with 174…..which seems to be a City of Lampasas IP address – their mifi Verizon account. Somebody over at City Hall better put the clamps on computer use for personal reasons (Finley?). It is against the rules. To wit:

City of Lampasas Personnel Policies 1.03: The city manager is responsible for the administration of the personnel policies and procedures.

AND

Policy 2.15 City computer systems, including Internet access and electronic mail systems, are to be used for city business…..all computer systems are city property…there is no expectation of privacy for an employee using these systems.

So, dear Finley and City Council, Monica and others have been repeatedly caught violating this rule. What’s the punishment?? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?

Oh…and one more piece of evidence: Monica babbling on Facebook several times at around 2:05 pm on a Friday at work (Oct 6th, 2017)….she was yammering multiple comments to Misti, Delana and Mandy while they were at the Texas Municipal League Annual Conference last October in Houston (yes, we need three people to go to a conference…we can afford it). Is that city work? See photo evidence below:

Busily kissing the butts of the Mayor and a city council member. No wonder nobody ever reins her in! MUCH more to come soon.

UPDATE** -New comment HERE! AGAIN from the same 174 IP address (174.207.21.252) belonging to the City of Lampasas.

“Transparency is required of those who govern. Privacy belongs to those who put them there.”

What Does Monica Wright Actually Do?

After looking at the structure of the IT “Department” and reading Monica’s ‘qualifications’, this is very much how I imagine the review would go if she had to explain what she does all day. We will dive into these ‘qualifications’ and her job description in a few days. I have LOTS of new info to compile.

Mad Dog on the Loose – Get the Muzzle

I don’t have a Facebook account, so I only know what people tell me or screenshot for me…but apparently there is a complete howling loon on the loose! Threatening any local businesses that let me walk in their door. Lol. I think he also threatened to shoot someone. If I was that person, I’d be taking screenshots and calling the cops. But I digress.

It is very entertaining to watch you chase your tails trying to figure out who I am and where I live. A few days ago, I apparently lived in Austin. Then Round Rock. Now I supposedly spend all my waking hours getting extremely drunk right in the middle of Lampasas town square and driving around town looking for innocent children to run over before I go home to kick my dogs and burn the American flag.

Very, very amusing. But like they told me in the Air Force: if you are taking flak, you must be over a target. So this only encourages me to keep going.

But I WILL do you the favor of listing all the local businesses I have frequented in the last 10 years so you can steer clear of them. You may as well leave town after you see all the places your’re going to be boycotting, you complete and utter yam bag:

[My apologies in advance to the owners of all these fine businesses who will no longer be patronized by this jabbering clown horn of a person]

HEB, Wal-Mart, Schlotskys, Larry’s Lube, Hooten Plumbing, Family Medicine Clinic (no more lithium for you!), McDonald’s, Taco Bell, The Donut Shop, The Corner Store, Lucky Ranch (gone), The County Seat (gone), Brodi’s BBQ (gone), Twisted Oak (gone), Tractor Supply, El Rodeo, Alfredos, The Cake Lady, Putters and Gutters, Isom vets, First Texas Bank, Copy Cats, Toupsies, Brown’s Feed Store, Stripes, M&M Meats, Eve’s Cafe, Hoffpauir Feed Store, Nocked and Loaded, the gym (guessing you don’t go anyways), Advanced Window Tint, Dairy Queen, Paceline, County Inn, Mamma Jeans BBQ, Hart’s BBQ, Pizza Hut, Lampasas Inn (under new ownership but screw them anyways, right?), Best Western, Bush’s Chicken (yummy), Auto Zone, O’Reilly Auto Parts, ACE Hardware, Spring Dry Cleaners, AT&T Store, Verizon Store.

I have had the audacity to spend money in every single one of these places. It was extremely difficult to do, seeing as how I’m an outsider who should be keeping his mouth shut about local government.

Oh and one more thing about the “he doesn’t even live here” ‘logic’ you keep throwing out: it states clearly in the Lampasas City Personnel Manual that city employees do NOT have to live in the city! Can you believe that??Not that I care at all, but I wonder how many of Lampasas’s 100 city employees technically live outside the city? Might want to go yell at them as well, you ignoramus.

Document Dump – Part III (Monica’s Salary and Benefits)

Every paper-pusher government employee (and their parents) naturally think they are overworked and underpaid. They labor under this delusion because a lot of them have LITERALLY never worked in the private sector. They have no clue what it is like to be under the pressure to perform value-added functions for a profit-driven firm. They are tax TAKERS and not tax PAYERS.

Now, there are plenty of city employees who bust their ass and are probably underpaid – like the poor bastards who have to wake up at 3am and fix a broken water main or a downed power line. The people who DO something tangible and have a valuable skill. Monica Wright is not one of these people.

Monica is in Pay Group 30. Which, according to the Texas State Auditors Office, means she earns between $101,630 and $171,881 per year. A range you could drive a truck through, but for sure more than the $100,000 I have been claiming from my very first post (and for which her mommy called me a liar). We must go to the budget to narrow it down further.

Monica is “Director” of the IT Department. The IT Department consists of one person – the network administrator….who I suspect is some poor schlub who actually does the hard work of crawling into attics and walls to lay Ethernet cables. I know that the Network Admin starts in Pay Group 15 (which is a salary of between $33,000 and $52,000).

So, now that we know there are only TWO people in the entire IT Department (a worker and a chick who ‘directs’ him to work) we can look at the budget figures and pin down the salary and benefits further.

In the 2017/2018 budget, the following was printed:

Full time salary: $119,394 (this number has jumped almost 14% in last two years…meaning Monica appears to have gotten a nearly 7% raise in each of the last two years. WTF??)

Extra pay: $1,418 (I believe this is called “appreciation pay” and is essentially a bonus of one week’s salary paid in December – it is mentioned on page 29 of the employee manual)

Longevity pay: $644 (Monica gets $550 and it will jump to $700 in 2 years)

Then come the big fat benefits they never talk about!!

Retirement: $18,255 (according to the Employee Manual, city employees pay 7% into the Texas municipal workers retirement fund, and the city pays in TWICE that amount. Must be nice.)

Employee insurance: $28,097 (this number has jumped 40% in two years – nobody said why in my records request.)

Three weeks of paid vacation. Two weeks of sick days (10 days) which can be rolled into the next year if not used. All twelve holidays off, plus any other granted by city council. Life insurance payout of one year’s salary in the event of death (paid for by city). She may or may not have a city car…they won’t tell me. Oh…and around $800 stipend to pay for a phone.

The amount budgeted for “benefits” has risen 16% in the last two years.

Add all this up and the “salary and benefits” section of the budget, for two people in the IT Department, is close to $180,000. There is no way Saint Monica makes less than her underling – so I’m guessing that $120,000 in salary is split right about $80,000 to her and $40,000 to the network admin. Add in all the bennies and you’re talking well over $100,000 in total cost to the taxpayer.

For what? How competent is Monica (besides the Azbell debacle, I mean)? Does she come anywhere CLOSE to being worth $105,000 to the city?? Future posts will delve into this matter.

Document Dump – Part II (Unethical or Incompetent?)

Between the 88-page “Personnel Policies for the City of Lampasas” and the last few budgets, I was able to piece together a VERY close estimate of salaries in the IT Department.

And, I’m sorry to tell Monica’s mommy, but I was quite right about her being overpaid. I was far too conservative with my $100,000 salary and benefit guesstimate. Despite you calling me a liar repeatedly in public online forums, I was nearly spot on. But we’ll get to that next – after this little nugget from the Employee Manual:

2.01 General Employee Responsibilities: The city is a public tax-supported organization. Its employees must adhere to high standards of public service that emphasize professionalism, courtesy, and avoidance of even the appearance of illegal or unethical conduct. [emphasis mine].

Now, I guess ethics are in the eye of the beholder, but to ME, signing off on a one-bid, $100,000.00 contract with a company that the city has never before used and who is charging $2,150 for a $900 TV sure looks very fishy. But does it rise to being unethical or is it merely gross incompetence? Tough to say.

What IS certain is that at least NINE people signed off on this and thought it was perfectly normal. First was Monica Wright…then her direct supervisor, Finley deGraffenreid, and then the seven people that comprise city council and the mayor. That is ONE BIG RUBBER STAMP. I have to assume they all read the bid sheet in its entirety and that nobody raised a peep about getting another bid or two. Which boggles the mind.

At this point, as taxpayers, there is nothing we can do to undo this debacle. Everyone in the chain of command has signed off on it. Finley runs the city and city council runs Finley and that is that. The only way any heads will roll is if it can be proven that this contract was steered to Azbell (and no other bids taken) because of the personal connections of somebody in that chain of command. I cannot prove that, but I am definitely looking at that possibility. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. I just can’t believe that NINE people thought this was a good deal. But maybe I underestimate the incompetence.

Of course, if it COULD be proved, it would violate a number of items in the Employee Manual.

2.07 Gifts and Gratuities: A city officer or employee may not accept any gift or free services from contractors, vendors, or other persons that might tend to influence his or her official actions or impair his or her independence or judgement in performance of duties for the city.

2.08 Conflict of Interest: A member of city council, the mayor, or an employee of the city shall neither have financial interests, direct or indirect, in any contract with the city, not be financially interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale to the city of any land, materials, supplies or service.

3.08 Employment of Relatives (Nepotism): Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward a relative. The city forbids the practice of nepotism in hiring personnel or awarding contracts. A person who is related within the second degree by affinity (marriage) or within the third degree by consanguinity (blood, including adopted relatives) to any member of the city council or to the city manager may not be hired.

That’s it for the boring stuff. Now, lets move on to HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE PAID TO MAKE THESE BAD DECISIONS!!!

Document Dump – Part I (Azbell Contracts)

I have perused 335 pages of information provided by the City of Lampasas as per my records request. What follows for this post and the next few are my summary…slogging through the junk (100 pages of receipts for printer ink cartridges) and bringing truth to the taxpayer:

Question #1 was not answered. The question was this:

How many times has the City of Lampasas contracted Azbell Electronics to do work for the city in the last 3 years? What were the total sums paid to Azbell Electronics for these other jobs and what was the description of the work to be done (include copy of bid sheets)? Were any other bids solicited for those jobs?

I thought that perhaps this was an oversight (ho ho ho). Surely $483 would get me the answer to question #1! So I emailed City attorney Jo-Christy Brown, as well as Finley deGraffenreid (city manager) and Gary Cox (assistant city manager) telling them I saw zero mention of Azbell Electronics in the entire 335 page pile of paper. I asked JC Brown point blank “just to be clear, the City of Lampasas is refusing to answer question #1 about any other Azbell contracts, correct?”

Jo-Christy’s reply was a typical lawyer answer telling me that they are, in fact, not answering that question.

To wit: “Repsonses made to ORR’s are to provide publucalky [sic] available documents only, not to generate replies to inquiries, as per the correspondence provided to you explained. “

OK. The city lawyer refuses to answer. Next up was Finley and Gary. I asked them the same question.

Finley and Gary both answered in a polite and timely fashion…and gave me the info nobody else would: NO, we have never used Azbell Electronics before.

Of course, it also begs the question of why a never-before-used contractor is trusted with a $100,000.00 project when they are the only bid and the bid sheet’s very first item is clearly wildly overpriced. Or why we need SIX 70-inch LCD TVs for city council…but I would like to thank the city manager and assistant city manager for a timely and informative response.

City of Lampasas Coughs Up Requested Docs…After Demanding Another $83.50

Total paid to city to get “public” records: $483.50

Before I even pick them up, there is a disclaimer in the email they sent last night (told to me AFTER I paid the first $400 two weeks ago) that “the City notes that several of your requests seek information that does not fall within the parameters of the Texas Public Information Act. Additionally, the TPIA does not require a governmental body to “answer general questions” in response to an open record request”

Translation: we’re going to leave a ton of stuff out and if you don’t like it, too bad.

It’s hilarious to see tiny little Lampasas, which is supposed to be all about community and open government, hiding behind this legalese and doing everything it can NOT to answer the questions of the taxpayer. Again – makes you wonder what they have to hide, doesn’t it??

I am heading to city hall right now to pay the final installment of $83.50. Here is how they came up with that ridiculous amount:

Personnel charge to locate/copy documents: $15/hr for 25 hours: $375

Overhead charge (i.e. extra ‘screw you just because we can’): $75

Copy charges for approx 335 pages: $33.50

So, some useless doofus down there got paid twice to do their job. First time with their bloated annual salary and then another $15 per hour to “retrieve” my documents. You gotta love it.

I’ll be going through this big turd pile all day and will post as any nuggets become available. I predict there will be no answers to any big questions.

Monica’s Melons

“Do not stoop to tie your laces in your neighbor’s melon patch” — Old Chinese proverb.

This was always one of my favorite sayings. Simple…clever…and requiring a tiny knowledge of melon growing. Do you understand the meaning? I’ll explain and simplify, so that even the ENTIRE Sullivan family can understand it.

It means, it is wise to avoid even the APPEARANCE of impropriety or theft. Maybe your shoe is untied…maybe it isn’t. Maybe you were about to steal the neighbor’s melon and maybe you weren’t. Perhaps it was an innocent shoelace tying…or maybe it was something more malicious, like melon theft.

(Even more simply, in deference to the Sullivans, melons grow on the ground, and it would require bending over to steal one).

Get it? You wait until AFTER you exit the melon patch to tie that shoe. That way, there are no misunderstandings or appearances of scum-baggery. For a tiny bit of effort (waiting a few minutes to tie the shoe), you avoid a big ugly mess of accusations.

It would also apply to, say, getting several bids on a $100,000.00 project to install a bunch of giant TVs and microphones and fancy iPads and stuff all over Lampasas city Council Chambers. By getting three different companies to COMPETE over a project, you insure that everything is (and looks!) above board. This COMPETITION is how you get the best price. Without it, you end up with something like the post office – terrible product and high price.

So…it makes me wonder why everyone in the city is digging their heels in on this thing. Monica could have picked up a phone and gotten two more bids…which costs the city zero. The downside to that is literally ZERO. The upside is that they may save $40,000. So why isn’t it being done?? The fact that they are all willing to go to the mat on such a horrible decision makes me wonder if melons are being stolen. Know what I mean? They are all doubling down and defending a terrible decision that is clearly wasting money for the city.

Maybe Azbell handed somebody an envelope full of cash…maybe they didn’t. Maybe people were promised their OWN 70′ TV from Azbell for their home…maybe they weren’t. There is no way to prove or disprove that and I’m just giving examples of how something that looks this bad might be construed- but it sure makes the imagination run wild….and it could all have been avoided by picking up the phone for two more bids. But they won’t. So why are they all choosing to “die on this hill” as it were?

Why not get two more bids? I’m still waiting for that answer. Especially from those who are hell-bent on attacking me and defending Monica and her melons.

You Can’t Handle The Truth!!!

Wow…a small group of people (mainly city employees and their immediate family) are going nuts over many FACTS I have posted on this blog. You’d think that I was the one acting arrogant and incompetent and costing the taxpayers $100,000.00 instead of Monica Wright and city council.

For those of you with low IQs, here are the FACTS presented one more time. Go home and chew on them instead of shooting the messenger.

FACT #1 – Lampasas Dispatch printed on their front page that “city council approves quote for audio-visual system at meeting venue” on July 27th. I have the paper right here in front of me, if any of you morons dispute this fact.

FACT #2 – I contacted two city council members privately to express my displeasure and ask how the HELL you can spend almost $100,000 on TVs and microphones in a small town like this? That number seems insane. They didn’t seem too concerned about it. I was extremely curious to see the actual bid sheet and exactly how screwed we were getting. I asked how many bids were received for this huge job. I was at first told there were THREE bids…and then I was quickly told there was ONLY ONE bid….which stinks to high heaven. Anybody with a brain knows that.

FACT #3 – The bid sheet lists obvious screw jobs like paying $2,150 each for four 70-inch TV screens (cost found online is $900). That is LITERALLY the very first line of the bid sheet. I have that here in black and white on paper.

FACT #4 – Monica Wright’s name is ALL OVER this bid sheet and it is her department. Making it HER issue. Don’t believe me? Here is more proof:

I had never heard of Monica Wright before I saw this bid sheet. I had no clue who she was and I don’t have any “vendetta” against her – seeing as I had never heard of her in my life. But since city council shrugged at this waste of money, I took it upon myself to email Monica and ask HER about this gigantic waste of money and why only ONE BID was received for such a large amount of money. God forbid the unwashed masses DARE to question the big, important city employees who pay their salary. Perhaps most of you are meek pussies who bend over and take it, but that ain’t in my blood.

FACT #5 – My email read EXACTLY:

Hi Monica,

I read in the paper recently that city council is about to blow about $100,000 on an AV system for council. As a taxpayer, I have to say I am pretty upset about it. Then I find out that no other bids were requested from any other company, which makes it even worse.

I see that you are IT Director. I would like to schedule a time to meet with you and discuss this. The first item alone, FOUR 70” TV screens at $2150 per TV is absolutely outlandish. Not only do you NOT need 4 TVS and certainly not a massive 70” size…but those same 70” TVs are available for less than $1000 elsewhere. That is just one example.

I look forward to your timely response in this matter.

FACT #6 – Monica Wright refused to talk to me and explain herself. Her EXACT response (which you can see is 90% cut and pasted from the bid sheet photo posted above):

City of Lampasas staff has been working with Azbell Electronics, Inc. since March 2017 to provide a conceptual design for an audio/visual system for the newly renovated 1931 Roy L. Thomas building that will be used as the future City Council Chambers. Staff engaged with this vendor to obtain quote for the design, equipment and installation through State Buy Board Contract #563-18, which means the Texas local and state procurement process has already been completed and met. Buy Board contract is used by local governments to achieve better pricing on products, equipment and services. The equipment purchased for this project, was a recommendation by A/V engineers based off of current and future needs as well as meeting ADA compliance. While I understand your concerns as a taxpayer, I assure that all purchasing policies and state local guidelines were met and with best value kept in mind. If you would like to address City Council on the matter, please feel free to speak at one of our City Council meetings that is held on the 2^nd and 4^th Monday of each month at 7pm.

Translation? Buzz off!! Sorry, but I already spoke to city council members and they were unconcerned about this. I work evenings and REALLY don’t have time to sit through 3 hours of dipshittery council arguing about whether to put a statue or a tree in front of the new $1,000,000.00 city hall. Sorry…I work for a living.

FACT #7 – Since Monica Wright is too busy to pick up a phone and get two more bids, and Monica Wright is too busy to sit and meet with taxpayers, then it stands to reason that Monica Wright must be SUPER busy, right? I tested my theory by going to her Facebook page to see if she spent her days screwing around on Facebook. Guess what I found?

FACT #8 – Monica Wright posted pictures of her kids on her personal Facebook page at 11 am on a Monday morning. A week after I made my Opens Record Request to Jo-Christy Brown (which included questions about wasting time on Facebook) the post was coincidentally taken down by Monica Wright. Luckily I took a screenshot which I posted here. It is now gone. Explain that to me!! Sure as hell looks like someone covering their tracks. I saw at LEAST ten other instances of posts during normal working hours. They are all now gone as well.

This is not “attacking her children” as one moron put it. SHE posted the photo…not me. It is PUBLIC and available to be seen by ANYONE (not anymore, of course…as it is evidence of time wasting). It proved my working theory that Monica Wright is not only incompetent and lazy, but that she has been there SO LONG she thinks she can screw around playing on Facebook all day long. If you are dumb enough to leave a public paper trail of you posting personal stuff during work hours, that is on you…not me.

FACT #9 – A few morons are bitching about me “posting this on Facebook”. I never posted a single thing on Facebook. Somebody linked to it here. You know why it was a popular link??? Outside of a few morons and family members, DOZENS of citizen taxpayers have expressed their outrage to me about this and have encouraged me to keep digging. I have personally paid $483.50 in fees to the city in order to do so.

So…instead of belly-aching about me attacking some poor girl, you should be thanking me and smooching my butt for exposing extreme incompetence and arrogance (not to mention possible malfeasance) in city government.

Or maybe some of you morons LIKE getting ripped off. You DO realize that if $100,000.00 is pissed away on something like this, that’s $100,000.00 that can’t be spent on something actually needed by the city, right?

Furthermore, this “poor girl” has been a city employee for THIRTEEN YEARS and should know enough to get multiple bids on a job this size. EVERY SINGLE ITEM I have referenced and discussed is public record and my freedom to bitch about it is protected by the First Amendment. It’s kind of what this country was founded on…pointing out the British were financially screwing us in the ass and making a stink about it. You all sound like a bunch of liberal twats who CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!! And that just ain’t American.