Clayton Tucker Must Be Crushed And Humiliated

Former Council Members Meddling in Current Affairs, Spewing Bullshit

Well, I tried to take a relaxing day with the kids and enjoy the water slides at Kalahari yesterday. It was all well and good until late evening when the Dispatch electronic issue dumped into my email box. I should have let it lie there until today, but I saw the front page with “skate park” and “historic buildings” and I foolishly opened it up.

What I found was quite disgusting and enraging. FORMER council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and FORMER mayor “Transparency” Talbert yammering total nonsense about the skate park.

Why a has-been council member and failed mayor are involved in this at ALL is beyond me. Doesn’t Talbert have enough on her plate wasting money in her $7 million dollar sandbox over on Highway 183? I guess not.

The skate park is a disaster that has been out of control for a while. Even Cathy “Pork Chop” Kuehne (who is almost as profligate a spender as Talbert) finally asked “how did it jump like that?”

You KNOW it’s getting stupid when Pork Chop arises from her slumber and asks some obvious questions.

Ya’ll remember the skate park, right? That’s the one that went from a $200,000 estimate in August of 2020 to a $400,000 estimate in August of 2021 (page 20):

Then Finley stood before council and lied right to their faces about it all…

City Manager Tells Blatant Lie To Council Without Blinking

First up to explain this train wreck was former council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison. Harrison hasn’t been on City council for years, so I have no idea why he was wheeled in to bloviate on this topic in the first place.

Chris is the guy who, while running for re-election to City council said: “To me, it’s not the government’s place to fund private business”.

Then after he left office, he whored himself out to developer S2M2 Inc and went to his good buddy and former council chum Misti Talbert to grab $185,000 in taxpayers’ money to “fund a private business” that he now happened to work for and which wanted a free detention pond built. The very same detention pond that Misti and council had said “NO” to before Greasy got hired on to lobby for them:

City Hands Former Council Member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and Developer S2M2 $185,000 In City Funds For Brodie Estates

Anyways, I guess old Chris felt he owed a favor to Misti for getting him that big $185,000 check, so he was in the paper carrying water for her skate park disaster yesterday and trying to tell us why the costs exploded.

His brilliant answer?

Diesel.

Yeah, according to Chris: “Diesel went from $2 to $5.19”

This is complete horseshit, of course. Harrison is cherry-picking the dead-nut low price and the current ridiculous $5.19 price and blaming it all on that.

[Note: Waste Connections is a hell of a lot more “diesel sensitive” in the business of hauling garbage than the skate park is – and THEY are ‘only’ raising trash rates 8.8% – NOT doubling them. Hmmmmm]

The problem is that the original estimate was made in 2020 and the new “doubling of price” estimate was made the next year – LONG before diesel went parabolic.

Let’s see what diesel prices were in August of 2020 and then in August 2021 – which are the two dates the estimates were made (as you can see from City council’s own minutes):

We can see that diesel actually went from $2.37 to $3.45 during that time.

Harrison blaming the skate park cost doubling on diesel is like that moron Biden blaming high gas prices on Putin invading Ukraine. Sorry, but the damage was done LONG before all that.

Granted, that 45% increase sucks, but no way in hell that is to blame for a doubling of the skate park cost. I actually live in the real world and help run real businesses. The cost of everything has been screwing us too, but NOTHING has doubled in price in a year. We’ve had 15% increases, 25% increases and some 30% increases – but NOTHING has doubled.

The skate park fiasco is not due to “diesel”. The skate park fiasco is the result of YEARS AND YEARS of a culture of incompetence and unaccountability on the part of Finley deGraffenreid and City council. It is the result of a council that rubber-stamped any and all project cost increases with zero discussion or interest in knowing why.

It is also the result of a City council heavily populated by idiots like Chuck Williamson and Cathy Kuehne who have never worked in the private sector in their lives and do not value a tax dollar properly.

Their attitude for YEARS, no matter what the project cost overrun (and there have been MANY), was always “well, it’s just another [fill in amount], we can’t stop now”.

Over and over and over again, ridiculous bungling, cost overruns and fiscal waste were left unmentioned and unpunished. Everyone just went back to the Magic Money Tree to pay for all the stupidity. Wildly overpriced elevators, selling a building for $75k and buying it back for $225k, paying $96,000 for a $33,000 A/V system, not bothering to get bids on bathroom construction, etc, etc, etc. It has been going on for YEARS!

I can almost hear Talbert sitting in on this skate park discussion (where she had no business being in the first place – you are a FORMER council member, sugar) and blabbering something like “well, it’s only another $90,000 and we have to get this done”.

This is known as the Sunk Cost Fallacy and it is why the shitty Business Pork is STILL going strong and wasting $7 million over 20 years despite not a single prospect showing any interest in the damn thing.

Then our Parks Director made a ridiculous statement too! Here is what Chris Eicher had to say in the newspaper:

“We knew if we wanted a $300,000 skate park, we would have to budget $400,000. That’s just the way it is”

Huh? Ummm, no. If you know it’s going to be $400,000 then you SAY it’s going to be $400,000. Anything else is bordering on fraud as you give a bullshit low-ball number to get your project passed and then admit the “real” much-higher number later. I can’t believe he actually said that out loud. It reeks of dishonesty or incompetence, I’m not sure which.

The whole fiasco wouldn’t be complete without a zinger from Finley himself. Here is his brilliant addition to the anaylsis:

“The only thing I can guarantee is that the exact cost will be different than budgeted”

THAT is the wizard who is supposed to be on top of things and who costs the city around $200,000 per year for his “expertise”. For 25 years he has been working in the government sector doing this shit, but hey – don’t expect him to have a fucking clue either!

I pointed out the “Finley Factor” many years ago on these very pages. Finley is always off by a factor of 3x or so – and the price is ALWAYS higher.

Lampasas About to Get Hit With 8.81% INCREASE In Trash Collection Fees

Well, Waste Connections is dropping the bomb on Lampasas [page 70]. They, too, are using the Brandon Administration’s massive inflation to stick it to the citizens.

You remember Waste Connections, right? They have the City trash contract that previous Mayor Misti “Transparency” Talbert couldn’t bother to put up for bid right after she, Delana Toups and Cathy Kuehne won a ~~questionable bribe~~ award for a karaoke contest at the TML convention a few years ago.

***Waste Connections hands out ‘prize’ to City council girls…Waste Connections then gets $5.5 million contract renewed (which was not put out for bids to anyone else).***

They also did a pretty shitty job last year and had a LOT of complaints against them. There is is again! Just like the pool – higher costs and worse service. It’s almost like there’s a pattern there!

So the question is: will the City eat this cost or pass it along to the consumer? You’d think that maybe the City would swallow this one since:

#1 – they just got handed almost $2 million from the Feds in “free Covid money”.

#2 – they just decided to borrow $6.5 million more for some questionable projects like sprucing up the landscaping at the Wastewater plant and Old City Hall.

#3 – they ALREADY jammed everyone with higher electricity rates last November while at the same time giving a lot of “free” electrical hookups to all the rich developers in town!

What will Finley do here? Will he earn his bloated salary? Stay tuned!

P.S. – don’t forget these guys ALSO run our retarded “recycling program” that loses over $12,000 per year. Looks like it’s going to lose even more now! Man, I really hate being right all the time.

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

I’m going to reprint my annual screed about government employees versus the private sector. Every government worker is going to be howling for raises this year since Brandon’s runaway inflation has given them the perfect cover.

Finley and his new Assistant Manager are preparing to do just that at tomorrow’s City council meeting [page 7]

Of course, they fail to mention that they are ALREADY paid more than their private-sector counterparts AND get incredible benefits like medical, dental, life insurance and free retirement contributions.

In fact, Lampasas matches retirement contributions 2-1, if you can believe that! So if Finley contributes $7,000 towards his pension, the City puts in $14,000. YOU the taxpayer pay for that $14,000.

They also get air-tight job security. You literally don’t get fired, no matter how badly you fuck up. Even if you are head of the IT Department and allow City computers to get wrecked by a ransomware attack. Your job is still safe.

(Well, unless your name is Gary Cox and you pull a prank with Goldfish crackers)

Even during the pandemic when people were losing their livelihoods, Finley was handed a TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR raise (or 7.7% increase)! UPDATE – it was actually $20,000 as he got ANOTHER $10,000 raise later that year. Grand total of a 15% raise in one year.

In the most recent budget, the line items for “City Manager” [page 18, line 502-5100 under “Benefits”] (salaries ALONE for Finley and ACM Ryan Ward total up to $284,803)

Retirement benefits for Finley and Ryan were $45,440 just for last year. That is $45,440 the taxpayer hands to Finley and Ryan for their future retirement. That is REAL MONEY. That is almost $23,000 each.

The City then pays for their insurance as well. Last budget, it was $23,587 – or close to $12,000 for each of them.

Out here in the real world, I just got my bill for my health insurance for the next year – it is over $9,000. I get to pay that out of my own checking account. But Finley and Ryan don’t have to worry about that stuff. The taxpayer pays for that too! Of course, Finley never mentions all these benefits when he cries poor to City council for higher wages.

Add up those bennies and the taxpayer is forking over $91,348 JUST for the benefits for those two guys!

But wait! There’s more!

There is a line item for “Telephone Services” [page 18] amounting to $2,250. I’m guessing they both get free cell phone plans – since that works out to about $95 a month for each of them. No cell phone bill! Cool!

There is also a line item for “Car Allowance” for $6,000! That’s $250 per month for each guy. That just about covers gas, doesn’t it? Nice benefit!

Anyways – remember that when poor Finley (and all the other Big Wigs at the top of City government – **cough** Monica Wright **cough **) cries about his $150,000 wage not being very much, he is failing to mention the OTHER $40,000 or $50,000 in benefits that goes unseen into his pocket.

So- without further ado, here is the article I post every year about this time:

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

Nerf Job = Nerf Workshops + Nerf Travel

One of the most exasperating things to see over 22 years of “economic development” is the ridiculous amount of conventions, courses, webinars, summits, workshops, clinics, and travel these “economic developers” waste mountains of time and money on.

If all of these clinics and workshops worked so well, why are you still going to them after 22 years? Reminds me of “couples therapy” that lasts for 5 years. If you can’t figure your shit out long before that, you are clearly being ripped off by charlatans who just want to keep you coming back so they can bill you even more.

Here is just a small sample from ONE LEDC meeting back in October of 2006:

“Board member Yancy stated that she had attended the AUSA convention in Washington D.C. – she felt the convention was a good tool to promote Lampasas”

“Board President Hetherly stated that she had attended the Texas Municipal League’s “Conference on Small Cities Problem Solving Clinic” and that the clinic was very informative in regards to Economic Development.”

“President Hetherly stated that she had attended the ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making. She stated that it was a good conference to attend.”

All of these conferences, workshops, clinics and nonsense cost the taxpayer a bundle in travel, hotel rooms, meals and fat registration fees.

Naturally, this still goes on today. Our very own City officials travel to the Texas Municipal League convention every fall and do important work like ride on teeter-totters and sing karaoke.

I have covered this before, of course.

Why, just recently, Mandy Walsh informed the LEDC she had joined the Rural Sparks Roadmap Course, run by another charlatan named Jimi Coplen. Hey it’s “only” $247, but if this chick finds 15 or 20 government-employed suckers who have tax dollars to spend for a few courses every year, that adds up to a nice side hustle for her!

I’m going to have to start keeping track of all the conventions and clinics on this page so we can see just how ridiculous it all is. I don’t have the costs for all of these and it’s frankly too much work to dig into. If cost is listed in the minutes and easy to see, I’ll post it.

This list will be updated frequently:

Grand Central Texas Conference in Atlanta, Georgia [April 2024 LEDC packet]

AUSA Convention in Washington D.C.

Texas Municipal League – annual convention

ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making

TEDC Legislative conference

Economic Board Retreat hosted by Opportunity Strategies LLC (cost of over $2,500 and suggested/approved by Misti Talbert)

“Save Your Town” presentation/training by Deb Brown (2019) – $4,500[this looks like a COMPLETE SCAM run by two charlatans]

Rural Economic Development Summit (Tulsa Oklahoma – 2019) [page 29]

Lion’s Club Courtyard Square Association

Angelou Economics ($25,000 for “Economic Plan” back in 2003 and 2004)

Dr Ray Perryman (at least $10,000 for economic reports and suggestions for development around 2005 and 2006)

LEDC “Strategic Plan” – 2017

Halff Associates ($120,000 for “Comprehensive Plan” in 2019)

Numerous LEDC junkets to California to “recruit businesses” (Masonheimer years)

Texas Midwest Communication Network for Economic Developers

Technology Infrastructure Assessment ($42,000 in 2017 to Foresite)

Texas Workforce Commission Workshop

Impact Data Source software purchases to help with “economic development” ($4,000)

Heart of Texas Defense Alliance

Regional EDC meeting (Marble Falls)

CTCOG membership and dues

TEDC Basic Economic Development Course

Community Development Institute “Year 1” Course (The Woodlands, TX)

Austin Young Business Professionals Network

Texas Rural Challenge (TRC) conference (New Braunfels)

TEDC Tax Workshop

Angelou Economics 2007-2008 Economic and Technology Forecast Seminar

SUSTEX 2019 Conference (Killeen $295)

TEDC Mid-Annual Conference (Dallas 2023 – $500)

Economic Development: Best Practices Summit (Temple TX)

Development District of Central Texas (DDCT) board meetings to develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) document

TEDC Legislative Conference

Rural Sparks Roadmap Course

Texas Downtown Association Conference (Corpus Christi, Georgetown)

Community Development Institute (CDI) for the “advanced course” and retaining PCED certification [page 19]

Pool Hours – Still Reduced 16.6%

City pool hours were recently posted online:

I’m sure the city Big Wigs are counting on everyone to forget this, but in the OLD DAYS (like 3 years ago), the pool used to be open on Sundays from 1pm to 6pm. You know – so those of who work during the week can enjoy it.

This is typical of inept government: costs go up and services go down.

Oh well. At least I haven’t heard them panicking about not having any lifeguards this summer. Perhaps they moved up their offered wage from a ludicrous $7.50 this season….finally.

Blast From The Past – Biz Park Edition (2011)

From the Lampasas Dispatch Record on June 7th, 2011 – or almost exactly 11 years ago:

With the recent redesign of the LEDC’s Web site — lampasasedc.com — growing interest in Lampasas at the retail conventions she attends and state awards the city has received recently, Mrs. Hargrove believes ongoing economic development efforts will bear fruit soon.

Fast forward 11 years to today: the LEDC is AGAIN re-designing their website. Mandy Walsh is the new Cherry Hargrove. She goes to all these conventions about “revitalizing downtown”. Hargrove ALSO believed that the business recruitment and Business Park efforts would “soon bear fruit”. Just like councilwoman Delana Toups said in 2017, six years after Hargrove’s assurances:

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017

As did former-councilwoman and complete numb nuts Wanda Biershwale two years before Toups:

“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015

It is like the movie Groundhog Day but not nearly as funny and it will NEVER make a profit.

End the LEDC. Let the free market reign.

Hey! Burnet Has an Economic Development Corp Too! And Land!

Well, there certainly is no shortage of dummies who think that a small group of “economic developers” can bring prosperity to a town better than the free market can. Burnet has the same cancer!

I will say, their website is nicer and their free giveaway land looks nicer and is already done!

Here is an article from September 2021:

U.S. 281 South Commercial Park site in Burnet

Construction is progressing at the U.S. 281 South Commercial Park site, located at the corner of Houston Clinton Drive and 281 South in Burnet. Work began in late August.

The 13-acre park will include about six commercial lots and potentially a hotel.

The site is being prepared on spec by the Burnet Economic Development Corp.

No businesses have signed on as of yet, but, in his weekly report, Burnet City Manager David Vaughn said the city has received a number of calls from interested parties.

“The City has received a number of calls from interested parties”.

LOL. Where have I heard that one before? Oh yeah.

Even City manager David Vaughn knows “The Lie That Keeps On Giving”! They must teach that line at City Manager’s School.

Since the article was 8 months ago, I decided to email David and see if these super hot in-demand properties were still available! After all, LEDC Prez Talbert keeps telling us there is just NO commercial property anywhere around here!

What did Vaughn tell me? Here it is:

“We still own the entire 13 acres on 281 south and we have an 8 acre lot and a 3.4 acre lot left out of the original 21 acres on Hwy 29 East.”

Gee, you mean nobody has knocked down your door yet? Even though you are arguably closer to civilization like Austin and Marble Falls? Color me shocked.

Hey Cour! Why don’t you go hit up those Burnet idiots to invest in your Eco-Turd scam? I bet they would bite!

Reminder For the LEDC: Here Are Some Lies From Eco-Strong…

In case the LEDC forgot how they were lied to, strung along and then asked for a ridiculous $1.85 million by Mike Cour of Eco-Strong, I am here to remind you.

Here are some exchanges I had by email with Cour:

Sept 4, 2020: I asked Mike Cour why he needed to sponge free land off of the LEDC. I pointed out that he owned 200 acres literally right down the street on the SAME ROAD as the Business Pork project – why not use THAT land?

Mike Cour’s answer?

“My property was one of the options but unfortunately does not give us enough space to operate the current business and this new business”.

The “current business” was Equicare, which seems to have failed. Of course, at the same time Mike Cour told me this whopper, he was asking the LEDC for 5 acres of land. FIVE! So out of your 200 acres, you didn’t have a spare five acres to run your Eco-Strong scam?

Bullshit.

I can see from your current pictures on Zillow that there is PLENTY of room to run both. Cour just wanted some free shit. Oh, and $1.75 million so he could buy the equipment and build the building.

Speaking of…he also told me he wasn’t looking for government handouts. From the same email:

“We have not received any funding from anyone, and we intend for this to be a private effort…”

You can’t make a more bald-faced lie than that. Maybe Cour figured I’d never get my hands on his shitty Power Point presentation to the LEDC – and Mayor “Transparency” Talbert did her best to thwart me – but my lawyer prevailed.

Turns out he had ALREADY asked them for 5 acres AND $1.75 million in cash:

Yeah – a totally private effort. Except for that measly $1.85 million in taxpayer funds.

Even after Cour made the LEDC look like gullible, bungling imbeciles, they STILL have him on their list of “possible Business Pork prospects”. That should tell you how desperate the LEDC is to get SOMEONE…ANYONE into that goat pasture so they can say it was all worth it.

I’ll get to Alan Champagne (CEO of Eco-Flex) next…

Ascaredpussysayswhat?

Comrade Clayton “Fix The Damn Grid” Tucker is back at it again! What a way to live life. In constant fear. Like an 8-year old girl afraid of a monster under her bed…

He just can’t let it go. The power went out last year in a freak 1-in-100 year storm and he’s now petrified forever that the lights might not go on when he flips the switch. I’m not sure why: he lives in his parents’ house, which is two blocks from the police station – and thus quite likely to be on the “critical infrastructure” list, which is safe during rolling blackouts.

I’ve publicly bet Clayton Tucker that he never even lost power in 2021, but he is too big a pussy to take it.

If he had taken 3 seconds to click on the ERCOT dashboard, he would see that there are eight GIGAWATTS more power committed than actually needed (68 gigawatts versus 76 gigawatts):

***Available capacity in purple. Demand in blue/green.***

Those are REAL gigawatts. Not the kind of flimsy fake “green energy” gigawatts that vanish when the sun sets or the wind dies. But he’s still scared – and likely hiding under the bed in his parents’ upstairs bedroom where he currently resides.

Of course, this is the same piece of shit who flies a flag on ~~his house~~ his parents’ house that isn’t the American flag. It isn’t the Texas flag, either. It’s the Ukrainian flag. One of the most corrupt countries on earth.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I will personally pay ALL your moving expenses to California, New York, Illinois and now Ukraine. Just pack your shit and leave for greener pastures, buddy. I hear the grid is AWESOME in Democrat-controlled California.

Eco-Strong STILL Hanging Around Looking For Handout – Despite Owner Selling His Own Land For $5.95 Million

Mike Cour and Eco-Strong are the turds that just won’t get buried. For some reason, the idiots at the LEDC think this scumbag is a legit prospect and cannot wait to hand the taxpayers’ money to him – despite the fact he is selling HIS OWN 199.93 acres for $5.95 million. The property he is selling is literally RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD from the Business Pork project (he is at 15500 S Hwy 183):

***Note the “Equicare” signage – despite Zillow trying to hide address***

Just to recap:

#1 For the last few years, Mike Cour owned 199 acres literally right down the street from the LEDC Business Pork. He runs what appears to be a failing “Equine care” facility there.

#2 That is MUCH more acreage than the Business Pork land (199 acres versus 150 acres). Yet back in 2020, he didn’t want to use his OWN land for his genius business idea of turning old tires into other other garbage (Eco-Strong).

#3 Instead, Mike Cour and”Eco-Strong” tried to grab $1.85 MILLION in taxpayer funds back in 2020 – INCLUDING five acres of land in the “business park”!! Here is a screen shot from his shitty Power Point packet he gave to the LEDC:

So the guy sitting on 200 acres and a supposedly “can’t miss, brilliant business idea” went with his hat in hand to try and bilk the LEDC out of 5 acres of land AND another $1.75 million to basically pay for the entire thing for him.

Wow – what a deal! The taxpayers take all the risk, and if it pays off, scumbag Mike Cour gets the payout!

As a reminder, Mike Cour was ALSO previously tangled up in Triton Financial a few years back. Triton was sued for fraud and Mike Cour is listed as a defendant:

***Triton was a Ponzi scheme that blew up.***

Sounds like a GREAT guy to get in business with!

So Mike Cour is about to pocket almost $6 million for selling his land on Highway 183 for nearly $30,000 per acre, and he is STILL slutting around the LEDC and angling for some kind of hand out? That’s how it looks from the latest LEDC packet (see page 11)

Eco-Strong has supposedly rented that brand new warehouse over on Pecan Street just south of Brown’s Feed:

I just happened to be over there the other day and took a few photos. It’s definitely the Eco-Turd product out back there:

**I predict that the second part of Cour’s scam is to sell this “green” bullshit to moron cities like Austin who are flush with federal money to “save the environment”.**

According to the LEDC packets, Eco-Strong is “temporarily manufacturing and shipping from their warehouse on Pecan Street“. I can tell you that at least half of that statement is complete horseshit. There is ZERO manufacturing going on there. The inside of the warehouse doesn’t even look complete yet.

Also funny that Eco-Turd hasn’t changed their official “headquarters” address yet on ANY of their Internet sites:

My SUSPICION (and this is not fact, just my guess) is this: Cour will pocket that money he made from the land sale (minus any liens he has on it), he will then rent this warehouse for a year to look “legit”, and at the end of the year when the Business Pork is supposed to be JUST getting finished, he will AGAIN go to the LEDC and try to get a bunch of free shit – including FREE LAND just down the street from his OWN LAND that he just sold for $29,900 per acre!

My opinion is that the ludicrous overpriced-land boom has bailed this asshole out of his crappy Equicare biz and allowed him some breathing room while he tries to scam the LEDC again. Again, this is my opinion – not fact. Only time well tell if I’m correct.

It also proves AGAIN that the best move the LEDC could have made is to sell their shitty 150 acres for around $4.5 million and be done with it. After all, that’s what EVERYONE around here with any big chunks of land is doing right now: just sticking it up the ass of these morons dumb enough to pay $30k per acre.

While I love the idea of libtarded Austinites getting face-raped at these prices, I detest the idea of those same libtards overrunning this town.

The final irony will be when Cour’s 200 acres is chopped into a 400-house subdivision, thus giving us the exact same pile of houses that Talbert says was a bad way to go with the Business Pork land in the first place.

Irony and stupidity abound. Mike Cour and the LEDC are right smack in the middle of all of it.

More to come on Mike Cour and Alan Champagne and and all their lies.