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No Mention Of Pool Gassing “Incident” At Last City Council Meeting

Well, looks like we’ll have to sit and wait while the Goldfish swim at the “mezzanine level” to discuss “capital improvement” away from the prying eyes of the taxpaying citizen. “Capital improvements” are the very expensive and usually huge wastes of money like the Old City Hall remodel, the Hostess House, the Mountain Bike Trails and shit like that. Not surprising they do it all hidden away from the camera.

So, I’ll kill a little time by going over the incident a few weeks ago that sent three pool-goers to the hospital after being overcome by fumes.

You’d think an incident that sent three pool goers to the hospital might be mentioned at City Hall in an open forum. Maybe Finley could explain to City council what exactly happened. You know – in the interest of “transparency” an all.

Health | Dozens sickened by chlorine gas in public pool in Utah - Utah

You’d be wrong. Not a peep about it at the last council meeting (which I had to suffer through after the fact, as I was on vacation)

We DID get some headlines from the Dispatch – which came from a “news release” that was “provided by the City”. In other words, they gave their one-sided story. A story that paints an inaccurate picture, I might add.

From the 6/29/21 Dispatch:

Three patrons of the Hanna Springs Swimming Pool were overcome and/or complained about an odor that could have been chlorine. Pool staff immediately contacted emergency personnel, who responded to render aid to those affected.

[False. Emergency personnel did not show up for at LEAST 15 minutes. I’m guessing the staff freaked out and hoped the kid would be alright on his own after puking a few times and failed to call 911 immediately. If they DID immediately contact EMS, then it took EMS 15 minutes to travel an entire 4 blocks or so to the pool. Highly doubtful. It is FAR more likely the pool staff hesitated. But I don’t expect Finley to tell the truth about that. I had friends who were at the pool during this entire ordeal, which is how I know what really happened]

All three patrons were examined further at Advent Health Rollins Brook and released by 7 p.m.

[Ouch. Three swimmers sent to the emergency room. I’ve been to the emergency room before. It costs about $3,000 just to walk in the door – add another $1800 if the ambulance brought you. Who paid for all that? The City? I’d sure demand it if it was MY kid who got gassed!]

City officials said the pool’s pump and motor were off temporarily for repairs and restarted approximately 20 minutes prior to the incident, however it is undetermined whether any correlation existed between the repairs and the odor incident.

[Why in hell would you schedule repairs during swim time? The pool is only open 35 hours a week (out of 168 hours), thanks to Finley causing a labor shortage with his shitty $7.25 wage. The pool is closed ALL DAY on Sunday and Monday. What was being repaired? Finley doesn’t tell us. What I DO know is the workers were still there when the fumes hit – because they came running out of that wooden gate to the left of where the poisonous chemicals are kept.]

[It is “undetermined” whether any correlation existed between the repairs and the odor incident? LOL. Well, then it is one hell of a coincidence, isn’t it?? Again, this is typical Finley-speak to cover his ass. He said the same horseshit during the Great Ransomware Attack of 2019 when he was “unsure” whether every City computer going down at the same time was related or not]

Parks & Recreation staff and Lampasas Fire Department personnel inspected all mechanical areas and found no indication of mechanical failure or leak, according to the news release.

[This is meaningless. It was likely human error. If you accidentally back over a kid in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, you don’t tell the cop “I don’t get it! There was no mechanical failure of my vehicle” and then drive off. It doesn’t work that way.]

Protecting Swimmers from Accidental Chlorine Gas Exposures – Water Quality and Health Council

The city staff also discussed the incident with Commercial Swim – a Central Texas pool contractor – to seek any additional insight on what might have precipitated the incident. Pool mechanical systems were inspected overnight and early Friday morning, and all were found to be operating normally, city officials said. The pool water is filtered and disinfected using liquid bleach.

[Again – human error wouldn’t show up as “mechanical failure”. Also, why does Finley tell us the pool water is filtered and disinfected with liquid bleach?? Is it to draw suspicion away from the “chlorine” smell everyone said they sniffed? Are they all supposed to think the “chlorine smell” wasn’t actually from the pool but maybe some freak deposit of naturally-occurring chlorine gas located right near the pool? Sorry, but the pool DOES use chlorine….AND sulfuric acid. It says so RIGHT ON THE DOOR of the chemical closet there].

Hey! They spelled “liquid bleach” wrong!

Zero doubt in my mind this was human error. The only other explanations are

Mass sensory hallucinations of smelling chlorine by dozens of people all at the same time….OR
Some wacky prankster smuggled a tank of chlorine gas into the pool area and released it as a joke. That seems unlikely.

Now, do I think someone should be fired over this? Probably not. Hell, the IT Department let ransomware hackers into the City network to ruin about $42,000 worth of equipment a couple years ago. This is small potatoes compared to that. Nobody died or anything. Just some poor kid puking his guts out all over the place in front of dozens of people. Just rub some dirt on that.

But we’ll never know what REALLY happened since Finley couldn’t bother to mention it at the City council meeting to explain the situation….and Mayor “Transparency” Monroe is probably just fine with that.

The Goldfish Swim Tonight: 7-12-21 Council Meeting

A weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way, a weem-a-way

In the fish bowl, the pricey fish bowl, the Goldfish swim tonight!

Oooooh, oooooh eee-ooo-wam-a-way.

Join us on Gab.com – for live commentary. Find us at The Original Lampasshole.

Back to normal this week, as I was on vacation during the last council meeting. It appears I didn’t miss much – including a lack of discussion over the poison gas incident at the Hanna Pool a few weeks ago! Guess Finley doesn’t want to “get to the bottom” of that one…kinda like the Ransomware Attack of 2019. Just sweep it under the rug and shrug your shoulders, eh?

14 Fish Tank Castle Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images — Monroe and Williamson – artist’s rendition

City Budget Talks Start – Finley Will Try to Convince Council How Underpaid Government Workers Are. That Is a Lie.

It’s that time of year when budget talks commence and Finley stands there with his hat in hand, telling City council how everyone at City Hall is underpaid.

Don’t believe it.

First, let’s take a look at some numbers from the City’s OWN comprehensive plan [see page 9]. They paid $120,000 for this “plan”, so it must be high-quality and full of accurate information. Here is a chart showing income for the average Lampasshole versus the county and the state:

As you can see, Lampasas median income is FAR lower than both the state of Texas AND Lampasas county when it comes to household income. I have added a red line running from the top of the bar over to the income number. It’s just over $40,000.

[Remember also – every City employee is supposed to live within the City limits – so that “median income” number for City of Lampasas INCLUDES all of our wildly overpaid City workers like Finley himself – thus inflating it. If you were to pull all “City employees” out of that group, the number would be even lower for “non-government employees”!]

I added another line at the $60,000 mark – that represents the average salary for a City worker. According to Finley himself, back in 2019, a 1% COLA adjustment for City payroll represented $64,000 [see page 3]. That means the City payroll was $6,400,000 back then – and has increased a few percent by now. Call it $6.6 million today divided by 110 full-time employees = $60,000 per employee, on average. Or roughly 50% HIGHER than the average schmuck of a taxpayer.

I then added another red line up around the $80,000 mark, as you can see. That is where the average City worker sits, in terms of salary and all the benefits (health, dental, life insurance, workmans comp, and retirement) they receive.

Again, according to Finley himself [see page 3] a 2% savings in health insurance costs saves the City $45,000. This means the entire insurance nut must be $2,250,000. Since $2.25 million x .02 = $45,000. Take that $2.25 million and divide it by 110 full-time workers, and you get $20,454 average cost PER City employee.

We can check this figure another way. Finley has ALSO stated in the past, that benefits are roughly 40% of salary. So we take the $6.6 million salary number and multiply it by 1.4 and get $9.24 million total for salary and benefits. Divide by 110 employees and you get $84,000 PER employee.

If all THAT isn’t enough, consider that the U.S. Census data shows the exact same thing: the typical state and local government worker is FAR better paid than the average taxpayer who foots the bill.

Hopefully, now that we have some PRIVATE sector people on City council, they will understand this better and tell Finley to pound sand on any raises this year. Any City employee making over $65,000 per year should have their salaries frozen for the next five years at LEAST. That would be a great start.

Government pays bureaucrats 32% more than private-sector workers earn | Fox Business

Covid Mask Snitch and Lockdown Lover Now Wants To Grab Your Money at Wool & Vine. Don’t Let Her.

Ahhh – what a difference a year makes. Local Covid rat and Wool & Vine lemonade stand owner Julie Landrum was busy snitching out fellow businesses last year when she felt they were “lax” with mask mandates:

Memorandum: you are not an actual restaurant, lady. Granola bars and cheese plates don’t count.

I told you, I will NEVER forget or forgive the rats that snitched out fellow small businesses during the “pandemic”. It’s payback time.

She also got handed taxpayer money by Economic Development Director Mandy Walsh during the scamdemic – even though they employ nobody but themselves and are barely open. Hardly a “small business” in any sense of the word.

More like “hobby lemonade stand” that is open a few days a week and whenever it is convenient to the owners, Julie and Andrew Landrum – who are both far left liberals.

Before, she was petrified of her own shadow and STILL thinks she needs to wear masks in crowds….

So you’ll be all masked up while you sling pricey cans of beer to the filthy masses, right lady?

But now that there will be massive crowds of people gathering on the square later this week with CASH in their pockets, Julie wants to take FULL advantage by selling you overpriced cans of beer. No food (low margin), no mixed or poured drinks (takes too much time) – just coolers and coolers of overpriced beer they can quickly ring up and hand out.

Just the two of you?? Why don’t you hire a couple of local kids and pay them $15 per hour – like you demand of every other business in the nation? Talk about hypocrites!!!

Oh, and she’s too cheap to actually go out and buy coolers! She wants to use YOURS for free – as she rips your face off with expensive cans of beer and crappy t-shirts!

I have an idea! Maybe click a button on Amazon and buy a few big coolers – you could even use the $3,000 Mandy Walsh gave you last year or the thousands you save by not hiring anyone to work at your lemonade stand! Like most lefties, I guess when you are handed shit you didn’t earn enough times you make a habit of expecting it, eventually.

Ironically, it was Governor Abbott (whom both of the Landrums detest, since he is a “right-winger”) who signed the “alcohol-to-go-” law this year, which allows these lemonade stand owners to capitalize on the overpriced “to-go” beer cans! Amazing!

Do yourself a favor: be SURE to bring your own cooler and beer to the square this week! If you find yourself without, then walk on over to Lampasas Beer Market (no, I am not affiliated with them) or stock up at Putters first (also no affiliation). Those happen to be two businesses that actually employ a lot of locals, are open all the time, and who AREN’T far-left liberals who defend Antifa and other Marxist goons.

Personally, I’d pay $50 for a piss-warm PBR from a bum on the street before I put a nickel into the pockets of these clowns.

Oh, and watch out for those fireworks! No fun of ANY kind allowed around Nurse Ratched

There is literally nothing this chick ISN’T scared of. Fireworks, cold viruses, mosquitoes, loud noises, low-flying airplanes. Good god – she’s like a neurotic chihuahua. What a way to live your life!

How dare that young man sight in his rifle out in the countryside! Queen Julie is trying to recover from her HORRENDOUS day of smashing her finger a little bit and then getting her hair done and hiding from a mosquito! Annoying peasants! Stop the fireworks too!!

The Battle of Bunker Hill – June 17, 1775

Men who were not fighters by trade or inclination had stood side by side behind their earthworks and their fences and had waited calmly while some of the most formidable fighters in the world advanced against them in ordered ranks.

A few months earlier the odds against the success of any American military effort would have been overwhelming…Now Americans had met it face to face, and…it could be seen for what it was: an army that commanded great respect, but one composed of men no taller or stronger than any others.

By demonstrating that some rather ordinary American farmers had stood against this formidable enemy, the battle of June 17 proved, as nothing else could, that others might accomplish the same thing. Had they failed, it is conceivable that the rebellion might have sputtered out.

City Sees No Increase In Health Insurance Premiums For Second Straight Year. Odd Considering We Had a “Deadly Plague” Last Year.

Great news for taxpayers, as Baylor Scott White held the line on health insurance costs for City employees. I’m pretty sure this happened last year as well.

Weird, because BEFORE that, the City got jammed with massive increases almost yearly and nobody seemed to care (they saw an 11.8% increase in 2014/2015 – then they saw a 13% increase in 2017/2018).

Then in April 2020, I started asking uncomfortable questions. I asked if we ever looked around for better insurance. I asked for data going back ten years on City employee health insurance claims and why they had DOUBLED in one year! I fought with City attorney JC “Stonewall” Brown in order to get access to that data – data that City Finance Director Moreno had ALREADY talked about in the press.

Come to think of it, I never DID get all that information. JC Brown (and by extension, Mayor “Transparency” Talbert) was a huge pain in the ass in denying me much of the info, saying:

“as a courtesy to you, the staff searched for data and asked that I provide you with the limited information that remained available to the staff. I provided that to you via my correspondence dated March 23^rd. No additional data will be provided“

This is the attorney that bills the City about $7,000 every month for various little projects, btw – talking to me about doing me courtesies.

Bottom line is that a lot of info was requested of BSW about claims amounts and how premiums are set. Lo and behold! That very same year BSW decides to hold premiums unchanged…then they did it again this year!

It’s almost as if somebody over there realized “uh oh, these guys are starting to realize they are being bent over by us.”

You know what ELSE is funny? Last year was supposedly a deadly pandemic year. I remember Rhonda Witcher clutching her pearls in the Radiogram about how “hospitals were being overrun!” and I remember a tearful Mayor Transparency Talbert crying on Facebook when she caught it herself. I remember daily tearful counting of every person who passed away – including many in their 80s and 90s who actually lived in a nursing home two counties over.

The City has 110 full-time employees – many of them older and very out of shape. According to the non-stop wailing about “the deadly pandemic”, we should have seen more than a few City employees in the hospital and the ICU with Covid – racking up HUGE medical bills, right?

In short, Covid was a perfect excuse to jack health premiums through the roof – as an ACTUAL reaction to the giant hospital bills the City employees were surely running up during the “pandemic”. We should have seen at least one or two City employees drop dead of Covid too, statistically.

Yet none of that happened.

That’s because the math doesn’t lie. I know two people in the insurance industry, both with 25 years of experience – and BOTH of them told me that life insurance premiums have not reacted at all to the “deadly pandemic” last year. All the wailing and gnashing of teeth and kids in masks and morons keeping their kids out of school was ALL FOR NOTHING. The insurance numbers prove it unequivocally.

City Only Gives Out $37,254 To Latest Developer

I’m back from summer vacation and I have a HUGE pile of subjects in the hopper. I took 7 weekdays off and it felt like an eternity. I don’t know HOW these City Hall Nerf Job workers manage to take the 15 or 18 days off a year they get. I guess I just have that private sector drive to work hard.

Anyhow…..on to business.

First it was Deorald Finney and his $72,000 in “free” stuff for his Stone Valley subdivision. Then City council handed former fellow council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and his new employer S2M2 $185,000 for their Brodie Estates project.

This time, the City dialed it back a teeny, tiny bit with the new Hillside Acres subdivision and its developer MD Homes. According to the agreement:

“as an economic incentive to MD’s project, the City will install, at the appropriate time in the Project’s development, at the City’s cost, but not to exceed a total expense to the City of $37,254.36 (“City’s Financial Participation”) certain electrical infrastructure to each platted lot in the Subdivision“

Hillside-Acres-Subdivision Download

Well, I guess it’s a start. Especially since they are going to be adding 27 homes out there on 580 West right near the Sports Complex. You know, the place where they have already been having water pressure problems and where Deorald is already adding 67 more houses.

Maybe someday, instead of handing OUT money to entice people who want to move here already, the City will get smart and CHARGE their pound of flesh to developers so they can pay for the impact down the road for things like greater demand on the water, road and police infrastructure.

I know – crazy, right?

Pool Fans to Pay Price For Finley’s Crappy Lifeguard Wages And Refusal To Accept Labor Reality

I’ve brought it up over and over again for SIXTEEN MONTHS now: in THIS labor market, you have to dangle more than the bare minimum wage to the lifeguards or you were going to come up short. I even outlined how to come up with the money.

But Finley doesn’t hike wages for local high school kids even as he demands they have training and CPR certs. No, he only hikes wages of City Hall Nerf jobs like Economic Director.

This was an OBVIOUS problem months and months ago, but the Talbert Administration and Finley refused to fix it. They were too busy flushing six million dollars down the toilet on a vacant lot – no time to bump lifeguard wages up a buck or two.

Spinley even had the nerve to go on Rhonda Witcher’s radio show and brag about how “pools will be open this summer” as he took a victory lap.

I said at the time “I’ll believe it when I see it”

That was then, this is now:

Of course, pools ARE open in the strictly academic sense – in that you can swim there….sometimes. Just not on Sundays anymore. And you can’t use the slide sometimes (last Thursday) due to lack of staff. Oh, and we’ll be closed this entire Saturday.

I’ll bet you Finley’s left nut that this isn’t the last time this happens.

Another Day In Biden’s America – Thanks, You Liberal Morons

WARNING: more swearing than usual in this rant

Boy, what a day!

11:17am: No gas to be had at the Circle-K/Valero at the corner of Key and 190. This happens pretty much every day now, but usually later in the day.

11:24am: Drive up to Stripes – they have gas, but the cheapest grade is $2.76 per gallon (I paid $1.90 back in January – a 45% increase in six months)

11:45am: Call buddy in Round Rock to talk. He mentions his family tried to order pizza for delivery last night, but 600 Degree Pizza was unable to deliver…because they are out of boxes and can’t get any more.

1:15pm: Mention the pizza story to a friend in town here and she tells me Mojo’s Coffee is offering double stamps if you bring your own cup there to be filled – since they are running out of cups.

1:30pm: Picked up a Radiogram and front page tells me that there is a “FIREWORKS SHORTAGE!” – and the fireworks you CAN get are going to be FAR more expensive.

1:45pm: Head over to Wal-Mart and notice as I drive by that THEY are out of gas as well.

What is this? The fucking 1970s? Is that asshole Carter back in the White House? No, we have something FAR worse – Biden and a gaggle of socialist retards cheering him on.

We are turning into the old Soviet Union. Shortages, lowered quality of life, and a bungling and intrusive government that wants even MORE power. Shitheads like Clayton Tucker and Potato Head Stephanie Fitzharris aren’t happy that America is only halfway ruined. They want to ruin it the rest of the way. They want to let the fucking idiots in DC to get their hands on EVERYTHING: ALL the health care, ALL of the housing market, ALL of the transportation industry and ALL of the energy sector (Green New Deal).

We have tens of millions of lazy pussies STILL sitting at home not paying rent. The governor of California says “that’s ok, we’ll extend that moratorium and the STATE will pay the landlords for the lost revenue“.

Where does California get all that money? From Biden, of course! The rest of us get to pay for California’s idiocy.

The entire country has lost their fucking minds. It’s very easy to see what the problem is (too much free shit) and very easy to fix (stop the free shit). But moron liberals are having none of it. They will not be happy until we are a third-world shit hole like Venezuela, Cuba or Haiti, apparently.

$66 Billion Spent On Renewables Before Texas Blackouts

Why was $66 billion spent on renewables before the Texas blackouts?

Because Big Wind and Big Solar Got $22 Billion in Subsidies

For every dollar spent by the wind and solar sectors in Texas, they got roughly 33 cents from taxpayers. By any measure, this is an outrageous level of subsidization. And Texans are learning that the tens of billions of dollars spent on wind and solar are not translating into reliable electricity.

On the graphic below, retrieved from ERCOT’s website on Wednesday, the black line shows electricity demand. The green line is wind output. On Monday, when demand was hitting 70,000 megawatts, wind output dropped to about 3,000 megawatts. On Tuesday, as power demand was again approaching 70,000 megawatts, wind energy production dropped to nearly zero.

The Texas oil and gas sector pays about 54 times more in taxes per year than the wind and solar sectors. According to the Houston Chronicle, the oil and gas sector paid about $13.4 billion in state taxes and royalties in 2019. By contrast, the wind and solar sectors are paying roughly $250 million per year in state and local taxes.

The bottom line here is obvious: If Texas is serious about increasing electricity reliability and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it should be building nuclear plants, which proved to be the most reliable generation during the February freeze. For $66 billion, the state could have added another 6,000 megawatts or more, of new nuclear capacity. Alas, that’s not happening.

Adding more wind capacity to the Texas grid won’t do much to help meet demand during hot summer days.

You hear that, Clayton??

The ERCOT grid shows that tens of billions of dollars in tax incentives have resulted in the addition of tens of thousands of megawatts of generation capacity to the Texas grid that does precious little to provide power during periods of peak electricity demand. That’s a bad outcome.

Yeah, but let’s keep listening to idiots like Clayton Tucker, who knows absolutely nothing about anything. Or maybe Hubert Humperdink – who is ACTUALLY Heath Bishop in real life – a 7-Eleven clerk. I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about when he says wind power isn’t to blame. Or maybe local bartender Jennifer Moreno, who also thinks wind and solar are the solution to all our problems.

The math and the charts do not lie. Wind power is a gigantic boondoggle that does NOTHING for the environment.