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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.

TVs TVs Everywhere!! City Council Will Actually Have SIX 70-inch TVs…and a 55-inch For Good Measure

It was bad enough that IT Director Monica Wright signed off on a $100,000.00 face-raping of the taxpayers with her ridiculous city council A/V system (for which she only got one bid – Azbell Electronics)…..but it just got worse:

Hidden away in the 20-page bid sheet were several more turds, I’ve discovered. It’s apparently not enough that our august ruling body have access to FOUR 70-inch TV screens in the main council chambers at a cost of $8,595.80. No, they need several more TVs as well – which will be bought by the city!

Below is a screen shot of the council chambers layout from the bid sheet. The upper left corner is labeled “Executive Session” – which is where they can be hidden away from us peons and privately discuss $100,000 single-bid deals, no doubt.

Below that on the left is “Break Room” and right next to that is “Meeting Room”. If you think that all sounds quite redundant, you are correct. They need a break room from the Executive room and the meeting room? Which are both themselves separate from the main council chambers? Very confusing – but they all have TVs in them! It would be barbaric not to!

Azbell Electronics will be providing the FOUR 70-inch, wildly overpriced TVs in the main chamber. But we can’t expect our august leaders to be without a TV if they move into any of the other three rooms! So the Executive Conference Room will have “a city provided 70-inch TV”….the Meeting Room will have another “city provided 70-inch TV” hung on the wall.

And of course, the Break Room will have a dinky, shitty little “city provided 55-inch TV”. The kind of shitty, dinky TV that most taxpayers wish they had in their house. Oh, and the break room TV can be switched to show cable TV.

Sound too crazy to believe?? Here are screen shots from the bid sheet:

So we’re up to SEVEN mighty large TVs for city council! I bet those assholes in Marble Falls don’t even have that many! Lampasas wins again!!!

Monica Wright Busy Destroying Evidence of Herself Goofing Off on Facebook During Work Hours

Monica Wright, our super hard-working IT Director who screwed the taxpayers out of $100,000 last month, has been a busy little bee! One of the questions I submitted to Jo-Christy Brown was “are there specific rules banning government employees from using social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc) for personal reasons during work hours? If so, what is the punishment for violating those rules?”

There was a reason for this seemingly random question. You see, I suspect most of these wildly overpaid government parasites do very little work during the day. They sit there and waste the taxpayer dime posting pictures of their cat on Facebook.

Apparently word must have gotten out to Monica and she is slightly smarter than she looks. She has been busily deleting any Facebook post that was made during working hours – and believe me, there were a lot of them. Luckily for you, dear reader, I took a screenshot of one of them a month ago – because I know that when you turn on the lights, the roaches go scurrying for cover. I was right…she is running for cover and deleting all the evidence.

As you can see in the photo, she posted personal photos on her page at 11:19 am on Monday July 16th. If you go to her FB page now (go ahead and do it now, I’ll wait here….) that post is now gone. Which means she knew damn good and well she shouldn’t have been wasting taxpayer time on that crap. I found at least TEN instances of this last month as I went through her posts. Looks like she scrubbed them all. A sure sign of a guilty mind. Makes you wonder what other things she has been up to.

So in addition to being wildly overpaid and being too lazy to get more than one bid on a huge job, she apparently has plenty of time to sit around and post personal photos on her personal Facebook page while sitting at her government job. Must be nice! She’s worth every penny, isn’t she?

The Twisted Logic of Councilman Mike White

During a 30 minute phone call (screaming match) with Mike White last month over the $100,000.00 Azbell Electronics debacle, other issues came up. Like how overpaid our city employees are and how they seem to get an automatic raise every single year, when those of us in the private sector (who pay their bloated salaries) do not.

Now, before I begin shitting on heads, I’ll say I’ve always considered Mike to be one of the sane voices on city council. He actually runs a successful business and understands the value of a dollar. Thus, he is always voting NO to the plethora of moronic ideas coming out of that group. Hopefully he will vote NO on the latest idiotic idea of a city recycling program, but I digress.

When I was bitching about the fact that we spend a LOT of money on a city manager AND and ASSISTANT city manager, he started laying into me that “we need to pay a lot because if we don’t, the city down the street will!!”. I heard this same bullshit argument when I complained about the massive amount of money being spent on Christmas lights a few years ago. The explanation I got was “they spend a lot more than that in Marble Falls!”

I don’t care what they spend on Christmas lights in Marble Falls. Nor do I care what they pay their policemen or firemen or their city manager. Lampasas is not Marble Falls. Not even close. So to justify bloated salaries because “Marble Falls does it,” is the height of idiocy.

The cost of living is much lower in Lampasas and the employment opportunities are much worse. Ergo, you pay what you need to attract a person who can do the job – not what Marble Falls is paying for that job.

Here is your proof:

Cost of living and employment opportunities in Lampasas

versus

Cost of living and employment opportunities in Marble Falls

The average person in Lampasas earns about $27,000 per year and 21% of the city lives below the poverty line. There is no excuse for paying city “workers” $70,000 or $100,000 per year. Many of these “workers”, like Monica Wright, would be scanning groceries at HEB for $25,000 per year if she wasn’t “working” at city hall.

But wait!! It gets worse!

Because when a city “worker” says they ‘only’ make $45,000 per year, they are conveniently leaving out all the benefits. The city also pays their health insurance, which can be up to $15,000 per year. They also put away another $15,000 or so for their pension! So they are not costing the taxpayer $45,000 per year. They are costing us more like $75,000 per year. All to sit on ass in an air-conditioned office and tell people like me, by email, to buzz off when I ask too many questions. Great work if you can find it! Who do I fellate for that job??

But that’s not enough. They think they should get a 2% raise every single year. This goes along with their overtime pay, “longevity pay” (yes, they get paid a bonus just for being there a long time), and weeks of paid vacation. Add it all up, and a lot of these clowns are making over $50 for every hour of ‘work’ they spend dicking around on their computers.

*NOTE*: All of the above guesstimates of employee cost are taken from the city budget. Of course, they refuse to tell me what anybody actually makes so I have to deduce these numbers from the budget. I DO know that a year or two ago, they wanted a 1% bonus, which a city council member said would cost the taxpayers another $60,000 – which means the city employee total employee salary number was somewhere in the area of $6,000,000.00 per year. That’s SIX MILLION. How many employees does that cover? No idea. They refuse to say.

City Dragging Feet Answering Questions About Employees – The Employees YOU Are Paying For

After last month’s bombshell about city council and IT Director Monica Wright wasting $100,000.00 on FOUR 70-inch LCD TV screens and fancy electronic equipment for city council (then refusing to meet with me), I typed up a list of questions I felt the taxpayer had a right to have answered. I submitted these to a city council member on August 7th….and the next day, City Human Resource Director Christina Marez assured me that she “has started work on your request”.

That was a month ago.

I waited two weeks, then gently prodded Christina Marez by email….asking her if the information I requested under the Texas Open Records Act was available yet.

Did Christina Marez answer me? No she did not. She dragged her feet for two weeks then sicced the Lampasas City Attorney on me – one Jo-Christy Brown! Yes, Christina Marez strung me along for two weeks then didn’t have the courtesy to even answer me – much like Monica Wright did. Apparently a LOT of employees at city hall can’t be bothered to lift a finger for the taxpayers.

Jo-Christy Brown informed me that I would need to pay almost $500 to see the answers to my questions! That’s right – the lazy, do-nothing city employees who sit around all day on Facebook, need ANOTHER $15 per hour to put my request together. Funny…when I dropped off the check at 4:15pm on Monday August 27th, half of the offices were already empty…including the office of Christy Marez. Must be nice to be a city employee and just cut out at 4pm on a Monday. Very nice indeed.

So I have paid the exorbitant and ludicrous fee JUST to get to the bottom of this. The fee was paid on August 27th (9 days ago now). We’ll see how long it takes to get my answers.

Here are the questions I submitted:

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?

2) What is the official job description for IT Director for the city of Lampasas? What education or training is needed to be hired for this position, if any?

3) What education and training has Monica Wright completed in the field of IT?

4) How many hours per week does Monica Wright spend in the office as Director of IT? Is her job description “9am to 5pm Monday – Friday”? How many weeks of paid vacation does she receive every year?

5) How many total full-time employees does the Information Systems Department of Lampasas employ? Does IT Director Monica Wright have any underlings reporting to her as IT Director?

6) Does Monica Wright, or any other employee of the Information Department of Lampasas have a city-provided vehicle, car or truck? If not, why did the city pay $480 for “vehicle maintenance” in the 2015/2016 budget (budget item 505-5420)? Is a government car one of the perks of being IT Director for the City of Lampasas?

7) Are there specific rules banning government employees from using social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc) for personal reasons during work hours? If so, what is the punishment for violating those rules?

8) The budget for 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 shows $2,500 allocated for “Training and Travel” (budget item 505-5452). What training/travel has the City of Lampasas paid for for Monica Wright over the last five years? Please include copies of certificates or other proof of training completed and copies of hotel or airfare paid for by the City of Lampasas, if any.

9) The budget shows allocation of $15,000 and use of over $11,000 for “supplies” (budget item 505-5270) – please provide a breakdown description of items and expenditures on each over the last two years. Provide receipts for these items.

10) The budget shows large increases in “office equipment and maintenance” (budget item 505-5425) – please provide a breakdown of equipment purchased and ‘maintenance’ performed for the last two budget years. Provide receipts for these items.

11) The budget shows nearly $10,000 allocated for “other services” (budget item 505-5399) – and this item has grown over 400% in two years (from $2,300 to $9,750). What are these “other services”? Provide a breakdown and cost for each.

12) Employee insurance (budget item 505-5115) was around $11,000 in 2013, $17,000 in 2015 and $28,000 in 2017 – a whopping 250% increase over 4 years and 64% increase over the last two years. What caused this? What is covered by this insurance?

13) Salaries appear to have increased over 7% per year over the last two years in the Information Systems Department. Is this correct? Budget item 505-5000 was $103,000 in 2015/2016 and was $119,000 in 2017/2018.

Azbell Electronics pillaging Lampasas for $100,000.00 – City council OK with that!

Most suckers (I mean taxpayers!) see city council wasting money and just figure they can’t fight City Hall. They don’t have the time or the energy. They have real jobs, after all. Jobs that require them to get up at the crack of dawn and weld, or pour concrete or work the ranch in 100-degree heat.

Or maybe they don’t want everyone to get mad at them for pointing out the emperor has no clothes…they don’t want to be a jerk for making a big stink when money is clearly being wasted on idiotic ideas by city government.

For instance, they might not want to be seen as a jerk for pointing out we are spending ONE MILLION DOLLARS to RENOVATE City Hall.

(That’s $1,000,000.00 to RENOVATE an existing structure)

Or maybe they feel stupid and don’t want to be considered mean for calling out city council and IT Director Monica Wright for wasting ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TAX DOLLARS on an audio/visual system for council chambers.

Yes…you read that right. City council and IT Director Monica Wright think it’s perfectly normal to flush $100,000.00 down a toilet for some TVs and microphones in city council chambers.

Well, one sucker has had enough. Me. I’ll be the Original Lampasshole. I’ll channel your rage. I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll get yelled at by city council and moron government employees. I’ll spend hours of my own time dogging these clowns about every penny they fritter away.

This website was started out of rage over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS being wasted on an audio/visual system for city council. But there are MANY more instances of waste, fraud and abuse. Please check back often to see the latest ways you, dear reader, as being screwed by a bunch of lazy, overpaid, government buffoons.

Azbell Electronics Charging Lampasas an Arm and a Leg!!!

As reported by the Lampasas Dispatch, city council has recently approved a nearly ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR EXPENDITURE on an A/V system for council chambers.

How is this possible? I wondered the same thing. After all, you can buy a HOUSE for that kind of money. How can a few microphones and speakers cost this much?

I contacted several council members and gave them a chance to explain the inexplicable. The verdict?

“Well, what can you do? Government always gets screwed”, they told me.

“It seemed about $20,000 too high to me”

“Yeah, it’s a boatload of money”, said another.

Seriously?? Sounds like they’re REALLY trying hard to save money, doesn’t it?

I asked how many companies bid on the job. Do you know what IT Director Monica Wright told me? They don’t need other bids. One bid will suffice: Azbell Electronics – who does a lot of military work out at Fort Hood. I’ll let you in on a secret you probably already know: companies who deal with the military are used to wildly overcharging them and having zero oversight.

ONE BID? For a ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR job?

I asked city council for the bid sheet. Guess what the VERY FIRST item on the sheet is? They are going to get FOUR 70-inch BIG SCREEN TVs at a cost of $2,150 each. Yes, you read that correctly. City council, which meets twice a month in the tiny little town of Lampasas, needs FOUR 70-inch BIG SCREEN TVs in their chambers….and they are willing to pay $8,600.00 of your tax dollars for that luxury.

I don’t have a 70-inch TV…do you, dear reader? They didn’t even exist until a few years ago. Gee…how the heck did city council get along for the last 10 or 20 years without this extremely vital equipment???

Furthermore, a 30-second search on the Internet found a Vizio 70-inch TV for sale at $900. Therefore, Azbell Electronics is charging $2,150 for a TV that could be had for $900. And they are doing it FOUR TIMES. That’s $8,600 in TVs just for starters. ARE YOU INSANE????

Since city council didn’t seem to care about this colossal waste of money, I emailed IT Director Monica Wright about this immediately. I asked for a meeting to talk about this. Maybe give her a chance to explain the inexplicable. Do you know what she said? She copied and pasted a couple sentences from the bid sheet! She couldn’t even be bothered to write a response telling me to buzz off!!

“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 2nd and 4th Monday of each month at 7pm.”

This response was COPIED and PASTED straight from the bid sheet. Not even an original response! Monica Wright, the city IT Director who appears to make over $100,000 per year in salary, pension and benefits, essentially told me she can’t be bothered to meet with the chumps who pay her salary. Guess she’s super, duper busy working those government hours! Must be nice to land a cushy government job and apparently make $100,000.00 in salary, benefits and pension in a town where the average salary is around $24,000 and over 21% live below the poverty line. Very nice indeed! And air conditioned, to boot! Where do I sign up??

SO….here we are. City council will do nothing. City IT Director Monica Wright thinks this is all quite normal. She can’t be bothered to lower herself to meet with the peons like me…or to pick up a phone and get another bid on a ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR A/V system. What is a squeaky wheel to do??

The average citizen would just give up. Not me. I told these buffoons I will be starting a blog JUST TO EXPOSE THEM. I will also be filing several Freedom of Information Act letters requesting details on the profligate spending in the Information Systems Department of Lampasas.

More to come soon…..

The Original Lampasshole