Comparing Salaries – Police Chief Edition.

We already compared salaries for City manager and assistant to the City manager (ATCM) Ryan “Dwight Schrute” Ward. We find them to be overpaid by roughly 35%.

Now let’s look at police chief. If this “4% raise for everyone” goes through,his salary will be $107,374(up from $81,540 in 2019). Let’s take a look at some other cities close to our size and see what THEY pay their chiefs.

Burnet, TX: $73,544 (right down the street…similar population)

Gatesville, TX: $82,306 (population 16,000 – over 2x Lampasas)

Los Fresnos, TX: $71,124 (population 8,250 – comparable to Lampasas)

Hitchcock, TX: $71,524 (population 7,400 – comparable to Lampasas)

Keene, TX: $98,618 (population 6,500 – comparable to Lampasas)

Jasper, TX: $98,112 (population 7,500 – comparable to Lampasas)

Cuero, TX: $89,833 (population 8,150 – comparable to Lampasas)

River Oaks, TX: $89,774 (population 7,300 – comparable to Lampasas)

City Secretary Shirks Duties. Refuses To Answer Simple Question On Budget Vote. Why?

I have been asking some pointed questions to councilman Zac Morris and City secretary Becky Sims about the recent 4% raise that ACM Ryan “Dwight Schrute” Ward was crowing about on the radio the other day.

Specifically, I asked what the vote was when it came to this universal raise. Was it unanimous? Which council members voted for it? Did anyone vote against? I never saw this vote take place during the last council meeting.

Becky Sims didn’t like this. She has been quite snarky and uncooperative about the whole thing. I’m wondering why. Is she afraid I’ll blow up HER 4% raise? I mean, she DOES make over $95,000 in salary and benefits. Her 4% raise would mean another $2,700 per year. Is she denying me information out of pure self interest?

Let’s take a look at the exchange:

Lampasshole: “I see a 4% COLA was agreed to. What was the vote on council? Unanimous?”

Secretary Sims: “This is not a separate item, this is part of the budget. The first reading of the Ordinance to approve the budget will be at Monday’s Council Meeting.” (this is four days from now).

Lampasshole: “According to Ryan Ward today on the radio, employees are getting a 4% pay increase. Are you saying this is not true yet?“

[No answer for the entire day. I re-sent the question AGAIN today.]

Lampasshole: “According to Ryan Ward today on the radio, employees are getting a 4% pay increase. Are you saying this is not true yet?“

Secretary Sims: “No, I answered your question.”

Lampasshole: “Sounds to me like none of this is approved yet. Which would include the 4% raise. Is that correct??“

No answer AGAIN.

Lampassshole: “The question wasn’t really answered. Is the raise a done deal or not? Sounds like not. I’d like a copy of budget they are going to vote on.”

No answer AGAIN.

So, the City secretary, whose JOB it is to answer questions and push paper like this for over $95,000 per year cannot be bothered to answer.

Why?

My guess? She doesn’t want me rocking the apple cart and fucking up HER raise as well. My guess is that it ISN’T a done deal yet. If she admits that, I’ll redouble my efforts to influence City council and deny some of these overpaid clowns another $5,000 in their pocket. So she figures if she ignores me long enough, it’ll all go away.

Just to be clear: for the guys who work for the City and actually do manual labor and who FIX THINGS and keep the water and power running – I have no beef with raises and retaining talent. If you’re the poor sap who gets up at 2am in a rainstorm to restore power and you want a raise to make your pay competitive with other linemen in the area – hey, pay that man.

But this “four percent for everyone,” including people like Ryan Ward, Finley DeGraffenreid, Stacey Ybarra and Jody Cummings who are ALREADY overpaid to push paper? That is bullshit. If you’re making $225k or $175k or $150k in salary and benefits, you don’t need a “cost of living adjustment” implying you can barely afford groceries or gas. Screw all that.

[Oh, speaking of gas, Finley and Ward BOTH have car allowances. So gas prices don’t really affect them either]

So – here we are…it’s 8pm and City Hall has long since closed. And STILL no answer from Sims. That tells me all I need to know.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

ERCOT Asking For Conservation As Shitty Unreliable Solar and Wind Fail AGAIN

Funny how it always happens between 5pm and 9pm – when the sun is going down. Crazy, right? But to hear morons like Clayton Tucker tell it, we just need to “fix the damn grid.”

You’re right. We SHOULDN’T have to live like this – but you assholes have assured it with your pinwheels and solar panels!

Oh, what’s that now? Low wind and “declining solar generation” – which is fancy talk for “the sun is setting.” Which it has done every night for about 4.5 billion years.

Oh, but a bunch of pussylibs have the answer! Just look!

“We need to fix it!” Fix it how? The grid is perfectly fine. The problem is more demand than supply. YOU NEED MORE SUPPLY!!!!

“Work as a team” to do what, exactly? Go outside and blow on your pinwheels? Shine flashlights on your solar panels? You imbecile.

“Get it done!” – get what done? Put up more pinwheels in the windless night? Put more solar panels out in the darkness? You absolute MORONS. The most embarrassing part of those three quotes above is they are all made by “men.” I expect a stupid 18-year-old chick to say crap like this. Men know better than to spout useless idiotic cliches. Cliches don’t keep the AC on, you fucks. Nuclear and natural gas do.

If there is more demand than supply, we need to increase supply. Period. Forget about decreasing demand and living like a caveman in the dark with no AC – because this is America…not Haiti or Venezuela. Texas sits upon a SEA of gas and oil. If you pussylibs want to turn off everything in your house to “help out,” then be my guest. Not me.

How to increase supply, you might ask a libtard? Well, if the sun is down and the wind has died, you can add a MILLION pinwheels and a million acres of solar panels and still get ZERO power, you DUMB BASTARDS.

Texas needs to build another 6 to 10 nuke plants and add more nat gas turbines. Anyone who thinks pinwheels are the answer should be nailed to one and left to die in the 106-degree heat.

Lampasas Sales Tax Receipts CRATER!!! DOWN 9.13%. HOLY SHIT!!

Well, my long-predicted economic pain appears to be here at last.

While the state of Texas saw sales tax receipts UP 3.29% year-over-year, the City of Lampasas got dinged hard: DOWN 9.13%

[See row 585, as always]

Last year receipts were $249,953 and THIS year, they are $227,121

OUCH.

This not only the biggest pain I think I’ve ever seen for Lampasas, but it also marks FOUR MONTHS IN A ROW of declining receipts. For our year-to-date comparison, we are now only up 2.63% for the year to date compared to last year.

Now, since I am intellectually honest (unlike some City employees and hack lawyers), I will point out that although this is the August number, it is for receipts in July. What happened in July in Lampasas? We had a major water main break and quite a few businesses had to shut down for a day or two. That may account for a lot of this.

We can test this by looking at towns close to us who DIDN’T have a water main break.

Burnet: DOWN 2.62%

Hamilton: DOWN 1.0%

Marble Falls: DOWN 2.84%

I’d venture to guess our “real” number was more like down 2 or 3% and the rest is due to the water main break.

Other cities of interest:

Round Rock: DOWN 27.65% (!!)

Austin: DOWN 4.04%

Dallas: UP 1.9%

Comparing Salaries – City Manager Edition.

Well, we already compared salaries for ASSISTANT to the City manager and found that ours is overpaid by roughly 35%

Now let’s take a gander at the Head Cheese himself. Finley will be pulling down $162,240 after the latest round of 4% raises for everyone.

A quick search of salary.com gives us some answers:

Uh oh. Whoopsie! Finley appears to be overpaid by about 35% as well! Just like his side-kick Dwight Schrute.

What are the odds? Quite good, as it turns out. You see, when Finley hired Schrute on for $110,000 (which was $25,000 OVER normal) what he essentially did was make sure HIS salary would be too high as well – because we can’t have the MANAGER making only a teeny bit more than the ASSISTANT, now can we?

Such a sneaky little shit. Such are the tactics of the life-long bureaucrat.

Let’s take a look at some of the MANY cities listed on Salary.com and see what they pay their managers compared to Finley’s $162,240:

Burnet, TX: $117,863 (population 6,800 – comparable to Lampasas)

Floresville, TX: $72,244 (population 8,050 – comparable to Lampasas)

Lake Dallas, TX: $125,008 (population 7,830 – comparable to Lampasas)

Jasper, TX: $150,970 (population 7,500) – NOTE: this is for a COMBINED position of City Manager AND Finance Director. We pay OUR finance director ALONE over $96,000. Ergo, Jasper pays $150,970 for both positions and we pay over $258,000 for the same two jobs – 72% MORE.

Kirby, TX: $98,427 (population 8,100 – comparable to Lampasas)

Navasota, TX: $141,677 (population 8,500 – larger than Lampasas)

Los Fresnos, TX: $123,000 (population 8,215 – comparable to Lampasas)

River Oaks, TX: $117,790 (population 7,500 – comparable to Lampasas)

Of course, we cannot forget to add in the generous health insurance, retirement and other benefits. Bringing Finley’s cost to the taxpayer up to over $225,000 per year. Every year.

Also, keep in mind that MANY of the towns listed above do NOT have an assistant manager position! In other words, these managers don’t have a lackey like Ryan Ward to dump their shit work onto. They run the City BY THEMSELVES.

The dynamic duo of Finley and Schrute total cost to taxpayers to run Lampasas, a town of 7,500? Over $400,000 per year.

Up next….Police Chief comparisons.

Comparing Salaries – Assistant To The City Manager Edition.

One of the “brilliant” arguments for the ever-increasing salaries of City Hall Big Wigs is that “we need to keep jacking up their salaries or they’ll leave for greener pastures – why just look what Marble Falls pays!”

I don’t care what Marble Falls pays. It’s apples to oranges. We might be the same size, but we are NOT the same kind of city. Let’s go to salary.com and type in “assistant City manager” and see what comes up….

Keep in mind, our own Ryan “Dwight Schrute” Ward will be making over $125,000 after this last round of largesse by City council:

Burnet, TX: $81,198 (population 6,700 – comparable to Lampasas)

Richland Hills, TX: $77,567 (population 8,450 – larger than Lampasas)

Lake Dallas, TX: $65,811 (population 7,850 – comparable to Lampasas)

When Schrute was hired in January of 2022, The Dispatch even pointed out that the nationwide salary range was $72,000 to $96,500

There were PLENTY of applicants for this cushy job. So of course, Finley decided to start him out at $110,000 – or $25,000 OVER the mid-point.

Now his salary has jumped 14.4% in less than two years – all the way up to over $125,000,

Add in the benefits, and Ward costs the City $175,000 per year. Every year. For an ASSISTANT position, mind you.

Assistant To The City Manager Ryan Ward Says ALL City Employees Will Get 4% Raise. Absolutely Outrageous.

Once again, City council gives Finley exactly what he asks for. Apparently no wheeling or dealing or discussion. Just ANOTHER raise – one that is in excess of inflation.

Sales tax receipts are DOWN for three months straight, bankruptcies are RISING and layoffs are happening at a rapid rate out here in the real world.

We are on the cusp of a very ugly recession. People are going to be getting laid off left and right, and these government worms like Ryan Ward (who ALREADY have 100% job security) are getting MORE RAISES?!?

Disgusting.

I can’t see how this is anything other than a massive failure of City council. There are MANY positions in our City government being paid FAR higher than average. Ward HIMSELF admitted our police chief is overpaid by 8%. But he will instead get ANOTHER 4% on top.

From today’s Radiogram:

This morning the Assistant City Manager of Lampasas Ryan Ward visited Lampasas Radio studios to visit with Ronnie Witcher about goings on in the city. They spoke briefly about the Public Hearing tonight (see story). Mr. Ward stated that the city is trying to keep the tax rate down but the property appraisals have increased so residents will see an effective tax increase.

The Assistant City Manager shared thatemployees of the City of Lampasas are in line to get a 4%pay increase this year, there will be salary adjustments and the city is looking at hiring a few more full time employees.

[Current “Truflation” number is 2.64%]

#1 – “The property appraisals have increased, so all you taxpaying suckers will unfortunately see an increase – nothing we can do about it!” This is a complete pile of shit and a lie, of course. The City can set the tax rate lower – down to a “no new revenue” level to keep everyone’s taxes similar to last year. But they aren’t. They need to squeeze MORE from the average citizen so that Finley’s salary can go from $156,000 to $162,240 –and Ryan Ward’s salary can go from $121,000 to $125,840.

Reminder: Ward has not even been with the City for two years, and his salary will have risen 14.4% (from $110,000 to $125,840)

I’ll repeat that again: Ryan Ward, who was hired at $110,000 in January of 2022 (despite the average salary for his position nationwide being $85,000) has gotten SEVERAL RAISES AND COLAS pushing his salary up OVER FOURTEEN PERCENT in 21 months.

Jody Cummings salary would go from $103,245 up to $107,374. Pretty good chunk of change considering the police chief of Burnet only makes about $74,000.

#2 – “There will be salary adjustments” – so the 4% universal raise isn’t enough. Other people will see MORE than that. Because “adjustments” are never in the downward direction.

#3 – Stacey Ybarra, one of the more useless appendages in City government, would see HER already-bloated salary go from $85,719 up to $89,147. Almost NINETY GRAND to waltz around with her clipboard and make up fake job creation numbers every month! Great work if you can get it.

Oh, and don’t forget about the BENEFITS!! The awesome health insurance plans that many in city Hall enjoy are going to increase in cost by THIRTEEN PERCENT this year. The City eats most of that cost.

As an example:

Old rates for 2022/2023: employee insurance costs $1,348.69 [City pays $969.61 and employee pays $398.88]

New rates for 2023/2024: employee insurance costs $1,548.58 [City pays $1,110.32 and employee pays $438.26]

That’s the Big Wigs at Lampasas City Hall for you: You can have an IQ of 85, make high six figures, never EVER get fired no matter how badly you fuck up, get 2 for 1 matching in retirement funds AND get gold-plated health insurance for about 70% off.

**From YMCA Director nerd to $226,000 in salary and benefits** – **PLUS a car allowance PLUS a free phone!**

Climate “Scientist” Admits To Lying To Get Government Grants.

Finally – someone with the balls to admit what’s going on: you have thousands of otherwise-unemployable “scientists” floating around who need to make their mark and get funds. What better way than to tell the government what they want to hear.

Incredible story:

I Left Out the Full Truth to Get My Climate Change Paper Published

I just got published in Nature because I stuck to a narrative I knew the editors would like. That’s not the way science should work.

The entire article is HERE.

Multiply this by about 1,000 other scumbags all doing the same thing, and you end up with horrible policy like closing down nuke plants and replacing them with fucking PINWHEELS!!

One of my favorite excerpts:

It starts with the fact that a researcher’s career depends on his or her work being cited widely and perceived as important. This triggers the self-reinforcing feedback loops of name recognition, funding, quality applications from aspiring PhD students and postdocs, and of course, accolades.

But as the number of researchers has skyrocketed in recent years—there are close to six times more PhDs earned in the U.S. each year than there were in the early 1960s—it has become more difficult than ever to stand out from the crowd. So while there has always been a tremendous premium placed on publishing in journals like Nature and Science, it’s also become extraordinarily more competitive.

Wind Power a Slowly Unfolding Train Wreck.

Ørsted, world offshore wind leader, needs a giant jump in guaranteed prices or it’s going to abandon its immense offshore wind farms off the US Eastern seaboard.

In order to produce their (wildly fluctuating) power,they’ll need promises of $150-200 per MWh.

Yet Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York just closed excellent nuclear plants making just as much energy,but costing $35-55 per MWh!

And not that shifty crazy fluctuating power like offshore wind makes – but proper, steady, dependable power. The type that cities and factories can actually rely on.

These nuclear plants would’ve lasted FAR beyond the lifetime of these wind turbines being proposed to “replace” them.

**Indian Point nuke plant – closed down by morons**

These losers get massive subsidies on the front end and cripple taxpayers, then get subsidies on the back end in perpetuity crippling the same taxpayers as customers. It’s a goddamned racket.

Once again, wind and solar are nothing but expensive toys.

Texas (Gov Abbott) needs to make plans NOW for another 7 to 10 nuclear plants to be built to supply cheap, plentiful, RELIABLE baseload electricity.

Any clown who claims to be “for” the environment yet refuses to consider nuclear is an ignorant fool.

Community Garden Has Guzzled Down 60,700 Gallons of Water This Year. Taxpayers Have Subsidized 40,000 Of That.

I remember that time that local loon Janet Yoder “Crazier” Crozier told me a very funny joke about how she has never asked the City for anything….

“We have not taken money from the City, nor have we asked for anything other than what was promised to the community garden.”

That was a good one. Yeah, you haven’t asked for anything…except $10,000 worth of rain catch tanks, plumbing and water supplied by the City, over $5,000 worth of sidewalk “modifications” for your hare-brained ADA scheme…but besides all THAT, she hasn’t asked for a dime!

Since people are ready to kill each other over water these days and we are told to conserve as much as we can, I wondered how much water this loon was using over at her hobby garden (which is locked to the public).

The numbers are quite alarming…and make me wonder if some idiots are leaving hoses on over there. After all – why conserve when the taxpayers are picking up the tab for 66% of your water usage?

January of 2023 is one of the most puzzling to me: 8,400 gallons used? That’s 270 gallons a DAY, EVERY DAY. In January. Maybe you had some spinach in the ground or something, but almost 300 gallons a day is insane. To put that in perspective, that is MORE than they used in May (8000), June (8000), July (6600) and August (7300).

COMMUNITY-GARDEN-WATER Download

Also puzzling is April, May and June – 23,000 gallons used. For the same period in 2021, they only used 10,400 gallons. We actually got a decent/normal amount of rain in April, May and June this year. Almost identical to 2021, in fact (yes I keep meticulous records on rainfall here outside of town).

So how did you manage to blow through 8,000 gallons in May when it rained SEVEN different days (for over SEVEN inches!), according to my records??

Lest you think to yourself, she can’t be THAT stupid to waste thousands of gallons of water during a drought, I would remind you that this lunatic is mainly responsible for the City implementing the recycling program that loses about $11,000 per year and does nothing for the environment.

She is also a failed “life coach” and she thinks autistic children are clairvoyant.

So yes – she certainly CAN be that stupid. Hands down.

By my calculations, the taxpayer has gifted her at least 125,000 gallons over the last 2.5 years. But hey, she says they are totally self-sufficient. Only in the mind of a rabid liberal does that compute.

Truly, Lampasas must be a village of surpassing wealth and refinement to boast an idiot of such caliber. The halls of its opulent Council chambers must ring with laughter all the day long!