City Finally Admits There Are “No Responsive Documents.” LEDC Lied.

Well, they waited until 4:46pm on a Friday (a day after the deadline) but finally caved in and admitted the LEDC lied. From the City secretary:

“The City and LEDC have searched, and as you were previously advised by email from me on June 28, 2023, responsive documents to that particular EDC Matrix entry do not exist, at this time.“

Thank you for your interest in the City and LEDC.

So the line that says “jobs announced” and is filled in with “20 – 35 jobs” and $700,000 in capital investment was made up out of thin air, apparently. The “responsive documents” they supposedly used to come up with that “20 to 35 jobs” DO NOT EXIST.

So – where did you get that “jobs announced” number? I don’t know. There are “no responsive documents” and we made that shit up. OR they have nothing but an oral agreement from their secret business pork prospect. But the fact remains, there is nothing agreed to in writing, since there are “no responsive documents” according to the City.

Most likely Stacey Ybarra did this. LEDC President Misti Talbert gets paid nothing for her position and is likely not smart enough to make a spreadsheet like that. Ybarra, on the other hand, gets paid over $100k in salary and benefits and needs to look like she’s keeping busy to justify that ridiculous salary.

Next up: an Open Records Request for the line that says “Announcements/project wins: 1” which looks like yet more bragging about jobs that nobody has put down on paper yet!

It’s Almost Budget Time. Comparing Lampasas Government Expenditures To Other Towns Our Size.

Pretty soon, City Manager Finley deGraffenreid will kick off the budget process. He will tell us how everyone is underpaid and needs fat raises, even though this has been demonstrably false for many years now. The AVERAGE salary and benefits package for a City of Lampasas employee is now over $90,000 per year.

I have written about it pretty much every year.

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

Finley Preparing To Tell Us How Underpaid Government Employees Are – Don’t Believe It

And every year, City council gives Finley everything he wants. Finley has lucked out with millions in “Covid relief” being dumped in his lap as well as surging sales tax receipts due to raging inflation. Those facts have papered over reckless spending. But those gifts are over now. Time to sober up.

Here is a fun game anyone at home can play:

First – find a city that is close in size to Lampasas. The list of them is HERE.

Then, Google the name of that City + 2022-2023 budget. For instance, “Kirby Texas City budget 2022-2023″

Then read through the budget and be flabbergasted by how much money Lampasas spends to run the government compared to pretty much every other city our size.

One thing you will notice with about 90% of those other cities is that they do not have an IT Department. Or if they do (like Cureo, Texas) they spend a fraction of what we do. For instance, Cureo spends $114,000 per year. We spend $407,000 per year.

I have written about this IT money wasting before:

Side-By-Side IT Comparison: How Overpaid Are Monica and Kristy?

Lampasas City IT Department Should Be Eliminated and Outsourced – May Save the City Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars PER YEAR.

Some of these cities only have 55 or 59 full-time employees (Kirby and Hitchcock) – we have around 115.

Kirby, Kaufman and Cuero all spend about $1.6 million to $1.8 million on their police. Aubrey TX spends $2.03 million Floresville spends $2.5 million. We spend $3.62 million.

The fire departments? Kirby is at $1.33 million and Cuero is around $750,000. We spend $2.6 million.

Medical insurance? Most towns I looked at spent around $6,000 to $7,000 per city employee. We spend more like $12,000.

Many of these cities don’t even have an “Assistant City Manager” – we do. Not only that, we started our ACM at $113,000 last January (about $25,000 OVER the average starting salary) and gave him a quick 6% raise. DESPITE the fact they had FIFTY-FOUR people apply for that job.

Retirement benefits? Lampasas matches employees at a 2-1 ratio – something even our late City councilman Randy Clark said was “very generous.” Other cities? Not nearly as generous.

People out in the real world are PLENTY pissed off at their taxes this year. They see government workers who are paid more than them, get WAY more vacation time than them, can never get fired (even if they allow hackers into the City’s computer system to destroy it), and who get overly generous retirement matching that THEY don’t get but they are sure paying for.

This could be the year that City council steps up and restores fiscal sanity. The question is: will they?

City of Lampasas Now In Violation Of Public Information Act. They Must REALLY Be Painted Into a Corner.

Such a simple request: the LEDC has PUBLICLY bragged about “20 to 35 jobs” being ‘announced’ – not to mention $700,000 in “capital investment.” I filed an Open Records Request asking the name of the company back on June 28th (as well as several times weeks earlier in an “unofficial” capacity).

That’s it. Just a name. Not details of any deals. Not trade secrets. Not proprietary information. Just spit out the name of the company that YOU brought up PUBLICALY in order to brag and make yourselves look like you were doing something amazing by creating all these jobs.

Boy has that backfired.

You think maybe Stacey Ybarra or Misti Talbert or whoever it was who invented the idiotic “Economic Development Matrix” wishes they had just kept their mouths shut?

Because now somebody has been trapped in a lie. Either the LEDC or the hack attorney JC Brown. Only a matter of time before we find out which. My money is on the LEDC but I sure hope it is JC Brown because that would be a HUGE professional embarrassment for her: lying to the Attorney General of Texas about there being “no agreements or contracts.”

The City has 10 business days to respond or to request an attorney general ruling. That deadline was yesterday. They have done neither. I’ll now be filing a complaint with the Open Records Division of the Texas Attorney General’s office.

I hate to call out a City council member publicly but I am left no choice in making a thorough retelling of what happened: I also informed Zac Morris (who is second in command over there as Mayor Pro Tem) by email over a week ago that the City was ignoring requests and playing games. He didn’t bother to answer either.

Not a good look.

Anyways, I would suggest the City do a little research on recent cases involving citizens suing Texas municipalities. Maybe ask themselves if they want to go down this road and waste even MORE tax dollars on this nonsense. Because I’ll never, ever stop until I get the answer.

Texas Lawsuits Set New Precedent on Public Information Law Requests

“Bidenomics” Has Supposedly Cured Inflation!

The dummy socialist is out with his in-depth analysis of the economy:

Joe is saving us all! Thank you Bidenomics!

But wait! Just three months ago, this same idiot socialist was blaming “greedy corporations” for all the inflation. It had nothing to do with Joe back then!

I guess all those greedy CEOs flipped their “greed switch” to the OFF position all at the same time? How does that work? Is it like how gas went up because of “Putin” but then went back down thanks to “Bidenomics” even though the war in Ukraine is still going strong – costing us $150 billion?

Of course, all this “inflation is dead” shit is quite premature. The 1970s were the same: that moron Carter thought inflation was whipped and then his shitty policies stoked a second round of raging inflation. Kind of like this headline from this morning:

Auto Insurers Hit By Worst Crisis In “30 Years,” Sends Premiums Skyrocketing

Inflation is only 3%! Oh, except for that 10% increase in your property taxes…and that 35% increase in your auto premiums…and that 9% increase in your health insurance premiums…and that 20% increase in your home insurance.

I am about to re-paint the entire interior of my house – and let me tell you, the paint guys didn’t get the message either:

Price of paint has skyrocketed.

Just look at Bidenomics at work there right after 2020 when Joe took office! That line going vertical means it’s good, right Comrade Clayton?? You dolt.

I’m guessing Comrade Clayton is unaware of any of that since he lives with his mom and doesn’t help with her bills. Stupid asshole.

P.S. Does anyone really believe medical care costs were -0.8% like the BLS does last year? Medical services are 7% of the CPI, if you plug a real number in then the overall CPI should be at least 1% higher than reported. That’s just ONE layer of bullshit.

S2M2 Is Going To Fail To Meet Their Economic Incentives Obligations. Will The City Do Anything About it??

Well, S2M2 is finally working on house #7 – and they promised 22 houses by the end of this year. I’m going to go ahead and say they aren’t going to make it (as I have said many times before).

So what will happen? Well, after watching Martin Rod & Custom take a shit on Finley’s head with THEIR agreement (costing the City $45,000 and delivering zero jobs while violating every term of the “agreement”) I am guessing nothing at all.

The City will NOT claw back the $185,000 they handed over to S2M2 after believing all their bullshit. Nor will they get back the tens of thousands they spent to bury power lines for the ill-fated development.

Here is the Brodie Estates agreement for those of you who love reading mountains of bullshit.

0002915-Lampasas-Brodie-EstatesDownload

I’m guessing the City’s hack attorney JC Brown made about $10,000 in billing off of THIS useless agreement, too.

What a great racket she has going!!

But don’t worry. Just because the City got shit on by Martin AND S2M2 doesn’t mean they won’t strike a shrewd deal with the secret Business Pork prospect. After all: Misti Talber is in charge!!

Ruh Roh! Lampasas Sales Tax Receipts Fall AGAIN. That’s Two Months In A Row.

Could it be that the recession is finally showing up? Methinks the answer is yes.

The state of Texas saw sales tax receipts GROW by a fairly healthy 6.4% compared to last June – but a big drop from LAST June’s 16.4% YoY number.

Lampasas sales tax receipts were DOWN for a second month. Falling 1.02% YOY (last month saw a 1.5% decline). Receipts were $231,245 versus last June’s $233,645.

Don’t worry though. The LEDC has announced “20 to 35” fake jobs created and a phantom $700,000 in capital investment by a secret company in the Business Park. We’ll turn the ship around in no time with wizards like Misti Talbert in charge of things.

Chairman Of Lampasas Democratic Party Comes Out In Favor Of Exposing Little Kids To Porn.

First, the Chairman of the Lampasas Democratic Party Clayton Tucker SDEC-24 TX came out in favor of child mutilation. Now he’s in favor of exposing 6-year-olds to porn?

Lib scum is angry that parents don’t want their little kids exposed to porn.

Yes, keeping shit like THIS from little kids is “banning” books. Sure it is….

What kind of organization lets a “man” like Clayton Tucker hold the title of “chairman”? Disgusting. Reminds me of another disgusting liberal pervert in town named Grady “Man Gravy” Lucas:

All he needs is a windowless van to complete his look.

What’s really weird, is that Comrade Clayton Tucker doesn’t have any kids. He has never even had a girlfriend that I have seen, for that matter – so he will likely NEVER have kids unless he figures out a way for science to allow Beto O’Rourke to breed him.

Unlikely.

Kind of makes you wonder about his keen interest in little kids, doesn’t it?

Then again, the guy he voted for and worships ALSO has a penchant for little kids, doesn’t he?

Economic Director Stacey Ybarra Attends Nerf Conference – City Pays To Learn Obvious Facts I Have Written About Here For Years (For Free).

Well, better late than never.

Unfortunately, the City had to pay over $1,100 to send Economic Director Stacey Ybarra (starting salary $85,000 plus retirement and medical benefits of over $30,000 per year) on a junket to the Texas Economic Development 2023 Mid-Annual Conference in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

I have written about these ridiculous Nerf vacations before:

Nerf Job = Nerf Workshops + Nerf Travel

Stacey came back with all SORTS of nuggets of wisdom! Just look:

No way! The world needs people willing to work who have skills, and the colleges are churning out idiots majoring in social justice and gender studies? Who knew???

She got some fancy buzzwords for her money, too. Like “little emperors” – which is a fancy term for “lazy assholes who think they are above getting their hands dirty to earn an honest living.” Like Clayton Tucker.

Oh wait. Everyone has known that for years now. If Stacey had ever worked in the private sector (or even lived in Lampasas) she would have seen it with her own eyes, like the rest of us. The only difference is Stacey Ybarra gets paid $85,000 per year (plus over $30,000 in retirement and medical insurance benefits) to go to Nerf conferences and be told the obvious – and we don’t.

Those of us who run small businesses have known for YEARS that labor is tight – and part of the problem is libtards paying people not to work and also telling them they didn’t have to pay back their school loans or pay their rent because of a fake pandemic. That obviated their need to earn a living.

Many others are just lazy assholes who live with their moms.

If Stacey read here and learned from the lessons put forth, she would have known it too:

Why the Business Park is a Disaster That Cannot Be Fixed (Feb 2022). Where I wrote yet again:

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

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

But reading words of wisdom on these pages doesn’t cost a dime and doesn’t come with a fancy title. So instead she goes to empty rooms like this to listen to eggheads state the obvious:

The LEDC now skims over $400,000 PER YEAR off of sales taxes (see Part VIII, line 11a). The City pays the Economic Development Director $85,000 plus over $30,000 in benefits.

Are the citizens really getting over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS of value from all this bullshit every year?

I think you know the answer.

This Is Why Only Men Should Be Cops

Pathetic.

In New York, lesbian cop partners have to get help from some random MAN on the street to subdue a whacked out bum. Then they whip out some pink handcuffs.

I thought this was fake, at first. But like so many stories today, it is sadly true. No wonder the thugs, freaks and weirdos are running wild these days.

“Diversity is our strength!” LOL

Video of two idiots failing to arrest a crazy bum.

“Anything you can do, I can do…….Hey sir, please help!!”

Guess they checked all the boxes EXCEPT proficient at being a cop.

This is how the world will look when the lefty idiots like Stephanie Fitzharris get their dream of disarming police and replacing them with social workers – preferably black and gay social workers.

Is The Roof Already Failing At The $1.5 Million City Council Chambers?

I guess $1.5 million doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Recall, the City blew over $1.5 million “remodeling” the Old City Hall Building a few years ago.

First they sold the building for $75,000. Then they bought it back about a year later for $229,000. This was fairly typical for the idiots running things between 2013 and 2022.

City manager Finley DeGraffenreid explained away this colossal waste by telling us that a lot of improvements were made in that year. LOL.

OK.

Anyways, when they paid JNW Architects $18,500 (October 2016) for a “structural analysis” of the building, apparently the roof passed muster.

Unfortunately, the City then spent $45,194 to re-roof the building about two years later. So much for all those “improvements” the City paid $154,000 for, right Finley?

Well, the roof debacle might not be over yet.

From tomorrow’s City council packet (page 70):

“After noticing some plaster deterioration in the corners of the Calvert Building, staff reached out to Clark roofing to assess any possible penetrations or deficiencies in the roofing. The roof was installed in 2018 and is still under warranty….once the leak or leaks are fixed, staff will complete repairs to the interior.”

Oh. So will Clark pay for those repairs to the interior too? Or will Ryan Ward just go to the money tree and shake it a few times and let the taxpayers pay for yet ANOTHER costly mistake by a contractor?

Lest you think I’m kidding, recall that the Old City Hall elevator was such a disaster that the City had to pay $17,000 (out of their own pockets) for a 3-year maintenance contract because the elevator was breaking down so much.

I’m sure it’ll be different this time, though!