If Ward/Finley Even Get Their LOWEST COLA Request, City Salaries + Benefits Will Easily Top $11,000,000.00 For First Time Ever.

Eleven million bucks! For 115 employees. By my math, that is an AVERAGE of $96,133 in salary and benefits for EVERY SINGLE employee of the City of Lampasas.

How do I arrive at this? According to Ward himself, a 3% COLA will add $230,000 of expense to City payrolls.

230,000 / .03 = $7.66 million in current salaries.

Finley has said repeatedly over the years that benefits are about 40% of salaries.

$7.66 million x 1.4 = $10.724 million in CURRENT salary and benefit costs.

But wait! Add on the lowest COLA of $230,000 and you reach $10,954,000.00

Not quite $11 million. Oh but wait! Health insurance costs are jumping 12% this year! That easily puts us over the $11 million mark. First time ever!

Another year or so and we’ll be looking at an AVERAGE salary of six figures for every single employee of the City. Pretty amazing! I know skilled nurses who don’t make that much – and they have about 20x more responsibility than Finley deGraffenreid does.

Don’t forget, as part of their benefits package, guys like Finley get DOUBLE retirement matching by the City. If he puts in $7,000 per year, the City throws in $14,000 for him.

You won’t hear the word “benefits” uttered ONCE by Ryan Ward during the salary begging coming up next week. Not once.

Assistant To The City Manager Ryan “Gump” Ward Presents Costs For 3%, 4% and 5% COLAs For Entire City Payroll.

At the Monday City council meeting, Assistant to the City Manager Ryan “Gump” Ward will present scenarios for a 3%, 4% and 5% global COLA for every single City employee. Even the lowest COLA will set the taxpayers back $230,000.

LAST year, Finley suggested (and got) $312,000 in raises as well….

City Proposes Tax Rate Just Under Max To Avoid Election. Sees $326,000 Surplus. Finley Suggests $312,000 In Raises For Employees.

When I complained to City council last year, they explained that they went off the Federal government SS COLA number (they clearly did NOT do this in 2014, 2015, 2016, etc). For your edification, the federal government will likely use a rate of 2.57% for social security COLAs in 2025.

So Ward is getting greedy right off the bat by making his LOWEST COLA assumption at 3%.

I ask: why not 0%? At least for all those at City Hall making six-figures who are wildly overpaid compared to their private-sector counterparts.

State and local government workers are chronically overpaid compared to the taxpayers who pay their salaries. This is not in dispute.

Ward will blather on about salary comparisons and try to make this complicated. It’s not complicated. It’s very simple:

ALSO, don’t forget the price of health insurance popped 12% this year and 13% last year – which is mostly covered by the taxpayer as well.

Furthermore, during the profligate Toups administration, HUGE raises were given out when the actual inflation rate was essentially ZERO. So you could say they were ALREADY far ahead of the curve and it wouldn’t hurt to ease off the COLAs for once.

I have painstakingly documented the actual inflation rate versus City payroll increases during those years:

City Big Wigs Want Raises For Everyone Because of Inflation. Conveniently Forget All The Big Raises When Inflation Was Negligible

You want to give some MERIT raises to the guys on the bottom half of the ladder? The guys who turn wrenches and dig up broken water mains and fix power lines? That sounds good to me. But overpaid clowns like Ward who already make around $170,000 in salary and benefits for sitting at City Hall in the AC and “managing”? That’s bullshit.

You want to know what the salary should be for City Manager? Don’t look at Marble Falls or Fredericksburg. That’s nonsense. Look at a Wal-Mart manager with about 115 employees. Take THAT salary and then subtract 10% – because THAT guy is competing in the private sector and could lose his job if he fucks up. The City manager isn’t competing and can’t lose out to a competitor – he’s a monopoly. End of story.

Curiouser and Curiouser: Misti Talbert Used To Keep The Books For….Wait For It….Harrison Construction!

Yes, the very same Harrison Construction owned by Paul Christopher Harrison.

Now why is that odd? Because a few years later, Harrison would be in front of MAYOR Misti Talbert asking for $145,000 in City money for a detention pond for his new employer: S2M2 – who had previously been turned down for that exact same detention pond but who then hired Harrison to go to City council (and Mayor Talbert) to beg for tax dollars. Turns out he was successful in grabbing $185,000 in tax dollars for his employer.

Weird, right??

[I only ask that you remember bullshit like this when your property taxes, water rates and electricity rates go up this year. After all, it ain’t Misti’s money she handed over. It’s yours.]

Here is the timeline of events. Remember, BEFORE all this took place, Misti was keeping the books for Harrison Construction. These blurbs are from the Lampasas Dispatch. Remember also, that Harrison and Talbert were City council members together at the same time in 2015 and 2016.

5/31/19 [page 5]: “The pond is estimated to cost $135,000, and McDonald said if he has it built, he will forego $75,000 he could have made had he turned the pond site into three residential lots. As a result, he asked the city to spend $105,000 on the pond – half of what he said it would cost S2M2 if the company sacrifices potential buildable space to create a drainage pond.Council members, however, said that cost is too high to justify for what they said would be minimal drainage improvements in the area. The council’s motion called for no city payment toward a detention pond.”

[McDonald failed to get the free stuff…so he sends in Greasy Chris Harrison three months later]

8/30/19 [page A4]: Lampasas company S2M2 Inc.,represented at Monday’s meeting by Chris Harrison,is seeking city cost-sharing for the detention pond, which would occupy three lots the company otherwise could have used to build houses in its proposed Brodie Estates subdivision. S2M2 is asking the city to spend $125,000 toward the detention pond, Harrison said. That amount, he told city officials, is about half what the water detention structure will cost the company — when factoring in pond development expenses, the value of the three buildable lots the company will sacrifice and the profit that the sale of three houses could have generated. The pond is not required for Brodie Estates.

“The mayor [Misti Talbert] said city officials need to think again about a detention pond“

[Now that former council buddy Harrison is asking, Mayor Talbert thinks they need to “think again”. Notice the cost has already jumped from $105,000 to $125,000. These wormy shits do this all the time.]

9/20/19 [page 4]: “the City committed to pay S2M2 a maximum of $150,000 for the company’s actual costs of surveying, engineering and building a rainwater detention pond in the subdivision. Council members have said the detention pond is not required to develop Brodie Estates.”

“Harrison said developers requested city cost sharing because adding the detention pond will cause S2M2 to sacrifice three lots it otherwise could have used to build houses. On another item, the amended development agreement specifies that the city will reimburse S2M2 a maximum of $40,000 for engineering, easement acquisition, construction and materials for a water line loop.”

Incredible!!

The Seven Goldfish went from “NO, we won’t spend $105,000” to “we should rethink this” at $125,000 to “here is $145,000 PLUS another $40,000 for some water line stuff”

Then of course, guess who S2M2 hired to do the dirt work and other stuff for the Brodie Estates subdivision? Harrison Construction! Such a nice, neat little circle jerk of scumbaggery. I’ve already requested the receipts for that work from City Hall. I’m very curious to see how that depression in the ground they call a “detention pond” cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe it didn’t! Maybe it cost $80k and these clowns pocketed the rest! Who knows.

And Misti just happened to be on the Harrison Construction payroll before this for doing their books. Amazing! I wonder what else we’ll find out soon with my renewed digging!

Socialist Mouse-Jiggler Poses For Photo Op On Shiny Tractor.

Fake rancher and real socialist Comrade Clayton Tucker needs to start filling his timelines with a LOT of photos of him “ranching” if he’s going to run for Ag Commissioner in 2026. So I suspect we will see a lot more of these “look at me working!” photo ops in the future.

I sometimes wonder who the dipshit is who takes these ridiculous photos. Or does he have one of those Selfie Sticks that he puts his phone on or something? I find it hard to believe mom follows him around snapping all these photos for him….

So the 33-year-old, fifth-generation rancher just now figured out there’s a better way to dig holes? LOL. I remember about 11 years ago I had to plant a bunch of peach trees. After pounding caliche a few times and breaking the tip of my shovel (not to mention destroying my 43-year-old back), I broke down and bought a used gas-powered auger for about $130. If you plan on digging more than 10 holes in your life out here, then it makes sense.

So either comrade Clayton dug a TON of holes by hand and only now figured it out after many years (i.e. he’s a moron) OR he’s lying about digging a bunch of holes in the first place (i.e. he’s lazy and a compulsive liar).

He’s been caught lying about two dozen times so far, so I’m going to go with “liar.”

But that’s not what is weird about this photo. Something else looked wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it right away, but then it hit me: that tractor (which Dad/Grandpa bought AT LEAST two years ago) is spotless! Not a clump of dirt or speck of dust on it! Amazing. Look at those rear tires and wheel wells…they look like they just came off the showroom floor!

I keep my tractor in a shed and out of the elements but it still looks like this:

And I’m not even a fifth-generation rancher! Just a first-generation Lampasshole who puts maybe 25 hours a season on that thing. I also had to save money and buy a used one because I don’t still have a Dad buying all my shit for me.

Also note that mister “I love American union workers” is riding on a Japanese Yanmar tractor…and not a John Deere. Too bad, because Deere apparently needed the business:

John Deere to lay off roughly 600 employees from three US factories

But this is a scumbag hypocrite socialist we are talking about here, so what do you expect?

Drill those holes, mouse jiggler!!! I bet Sid Miller doesn’t take pictures of himself doing mundane chores around his grandpa’s property, however. Better step up your game! Maybe getting that website up and selling some beef would do the trick!

(Gr)easy Come, (Gr)easy Go?

Has “Greasy” Chris Harrison finally pulled one scam too many? Between the Brodie Estates detention pond scam and the “price of diesel went up so the skate park cost doubled” scam – and who knows what else. It might be time to start digging a little deeper on these greasy/sketchy activities. You know all about digging, right Greasy? Considering you own the dirt works company that did the work on these schemes you hatched.

Brodie Estates was a $185,000 black hole for City money – and nobody has yet explained what happened. Why is Brodie Estates NOT being held to the terms of their agreement? It has been well over the “four years” promised and only 8 of the promised 22 houses are built. Several OTHER projects were started AFTER Brodie Estates and THOSE projects are long-since finished! Most notably Hidden Oaks.

You know what else I remembered?? Greasy Chris was the one who (while on City council) made the motion to award the inflated City Hall renovation elevator bid to RKJ Construction because “they are local” – maybe THAT was some more back scratching as well! That idiotic decision ultimately cost the City close to $50,000 since the elevator was FAR more expensive AND it was of such poor construction, they had to buy an expensive service contract on it!

RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator

Oh, and the entire City Hall renovation project was also delayed many months due to that same shitty elevator!

Some People Have a Hard Time Swallowing Truth Pills

Time to start asking more questions about Paul Christopher Harrison (Garcia) and his S2M2 paychecks. For starters. We might even delve into assault accusations as well. I hear there are several.

More to come…..

“Stolen Valor Walz Is SO Awesome!”

First it was Jim Hightower, then it was Robert Francis O’Rourke, then some random older muzzie men….

Now Comrade Clayton is expressing his NAMBLA love for his new Daddy: Tampon Tim Walz. As we’ve showed before, Comrade Clayton is Ballz to the Walz for Timmy….

I wonder if Comrade Clayton realizes that the only reason Tim was picked is because nobody else wanted the job. Also, the Harris campaign realized if they picked Shapiro, he’d quickly see that Harris has a major drinking problem and it wouldn’t be long before he used that to his advantage and stuck a knife in her to catapult himself upwards.

So they’re left with poor, stupid, commie, stolen-valor Timmy.

I think we all had a “Coach Walz” at our high school. The teacher everyone thought was a closet pedophile. I can see Clayton being the one dummy who didn’t realize that and was just happy that Coach paid attention to him. Put his arm around his shoulder and offered him “a special athletic supporter that I wore myself to the state championship! I want you to have it! Let me see if it fits…”

Poor Clayton.

The only reason libshits like Clayton get excited about a douchebag like this is:

  • his own Dad was never around
  • his own Dad is deeply disappointed in him (most likely)
  • he hates his own dad

LEDC Minutes From July Posted…Will Amermin (Terrible Name!) FINALLY Be “The One” Who Moves Into Business Pork??

Well, I finally got ahold of the minutes from the July LEDC meeting – the one where Amermin (awful name) made their presentation. The LEDC never bothered to post the minutes online but I requested a copy – here is the screenshot

LOTS of “pie in the sky” here. Almost sounds like an Eco-Turd presentation! Or maybe some Industrial Pork nonsense from Martin’s Rod.

They “expect” to employ “close to” 850 individuals after all phases of expansion are completed.

When will “all phases” be completed? Who knows! Just ask Brodie Estates about open-ended bullshit! Or even the Business Park itself, which is supposedly on Phase II after 20 years. And mind you, this is for the entire company and their multiple locations (Briggs, Bertram, etc.) NOT just for Lampasas.

For all we know, the location here will hire 15 chumps to sort garbage at $16 per hour and that’ll be the end of it.Remember, the LEDC ALREADY lowered the bar HUGELY recently to try and get anyone in there.

Any port in a storm, as they say.

LEDC Lowers Bar In Sad Effort To Fill Their Empty $7.3 Million Business Pork. Tosses Out Many Financial Requirements.

Those $16 entry-level salaries might have been impressive back in 2004 when the Business Pork was envisioned – but nowadays, that’s pretty average as you can see HERE. That’s not even CLOSE to the “high paying” and “non-McDonald’s type” jobs the LEDC has professed to be chasing for close to 20 years.

But guess what? Beggars can’t be choosers and the LEDC are MAJOR beggars right now. They are DESPERATE to get ANYONE in there – you can smell it a mile away. They might just throw the kitchen sink at these guys to say “LOOK! We did it!” and shut me up for a bit.

The only question is how badly they will get bent over when giving away “40 – 50 acres” that these guys supposedly need. Two years ago, the LEDC valued their land at $130,000 per acre!

LEDC Apparently Smoking Weed Now. Values “Business Pork” Land at $130,000 Per Acre.

Something tells me Amermin (does that rhyme with “a vermin”?) isn’t going to shell out $6 million dollars to the LEDC.

BLS Just Made Their Annual Payrolls “Revision” – Over 800,000 Jobs Are Erased. That’s 68,000 “Jobs” Per Month That Were Completely Faked Into Existence.

Everybody knew Joe Biden’s economic numbers were full of shit. Every month we get the payrolls number and ALMOST every month, the previous month is revised lower. Of course, nobody pays any attention to that by then – they are too busy focusing on the NEW bullshit number which will ALSO be revised downwards the following month.

The most recent annual revision was released today (45 minutes late!) – and it was the SECOND WORST REVISION IN U.S. HISTORY….

US LABOR DEPT: PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE OF NONFARM PAYROLLS BENCHMARK REVISIONWOULD CUT MARCH 2024 LEVEL OF EMPLOYMENT BY 818,000 OR 0.5%

The April 2023-March 2024 downward revision is nearly equal to the entire population of Columbus, Ohio. That’s a lot of “working folks” to just vanish.

As a reminder, they did the SAME thing in 2022 during the runup to the 2022 mid-term elections – overstating jobs by another million…

But I’m sure all those “inflation is under 3%!” statistics are on the level, right??

If This Doesn’t Sum Up The Libshits, I Don’t Know What Does.

At the convention in Chicago this week:

A gender-neutral Islamic prayer room? The DNC’s obsession with pandering knows no bounds. It’s like they’re trying to out-woke themselves daily. Good thinking, morons. Ask the Germans and Brits how all that “Islam” shit is working out for them.

I’m Liking This Sulfur Creek Dude, Armando Rosales!!

This Armando Rosales guy has the right idea. We have an “economic development corporation” that has wasted MILLIONS upon MILLIONS for nothing. Hell, they wasted $47,000 at the drop of a hat on the ridiculous “food trucks and vocational school” industrial park idiocy proposed by Martin’s Rod & Custom a couple years ago. That money was incinerated.

They handed $185,000 to S2M2 for Brodie Estates, and S2M2 turned around and pissed in their mouths by ignoring the entire agreement.

They wasted $96,000 on an A/V system for City council that ORIGINALLY bid out at $34,000!

They’re also wasting over $2.2 MILLION on a Hostess House “facelift.”

Oh, and everyone who can fog a mirror working for the City, no matter how overpaid currently, will be getting a 3% raise this year – which will cost the City (which has a large surplus) about $225,000 EVERY YEAR in new salary costs.

So don’t tell me “there’s no money.”

What Armando needs to to is go after the HOT money. That’s the Hotel Occupancy Tax fund and the City uses it as a giant slush fund for dubious projects that supposedly put “head in beds” in terms of tourism. Kuehne was ready to dole out $13,000 to that Janet Crozier loon JUST for some unnecessary water catch tanks! This is a FAR more admirable cause.

I’ve only lived in Lampasas for 12 years, so I can’t say what the creek was like “in the old days,” but I DID grow up in the 1970s in a small town like this and that’s the kind of shit we did. Old School, baby. Jump in the creek, socialize, show off for the girls. Get these fat fucks off their phones and iPads for a few hours.

Not to mention: Hannah Springs pool is only open for about 33 days a year!!! A HUGE investment like that, and it’s CLOSED over 90% of the time – thanks to the shabby management of Finley deGraffenreid.

It’s been hot as shit lately, so you know what we had to do? Drive all the way to Round Rock and use THEIR City pool – which charges $14 and was totally PACKED. But apparently we’re too stupid to try anything like that. We’re too busy lighting hundred dollar bills on fire over at the Business Pork.

I’ve said for YEARS: “why doesn’t the City put a little effort into that creek? It could be a crown jewel and an attraction. No many towns have something like this.” But instead, morons like Misti Talbert and TJ Monroe blew $7.4 million on a “Business” Park that sits empty after 20 years. Imagine what COULD have been done with just a FRACTION of that money.

Somebody do me a favor and post this blog entry on Lampasas County Breaking News and/or Lampasas Rubbernecking News and tell Armando to get ahold of me: lampasshole@protonmail.com