Former City Council Member “Greasy” Chris Harrison Goes Begging To City Council for $125,000 of Free Money for His New Employer S2M2 Inc.

The name “Chris Harrison” should ring a bell with longtime readers. He is not only the ex-city-council dummy who motioned to spend $126,000 (originally $119,000) on an elevator for the Old City Hall debacle (page 6) when there was a perfectly good $96,000 bid on the table….he is also the bozo who, as a then-current member of the Lampasas Riding Club AND City Council, pushed council to spend six-figure sums on lights and steel panels (page 7) for the “riding arena” over at the 580 Sports Complex (even though there are ALREADY existing arenas close to Lampasas). Naturally, they had MUCH bigger and more expensive plans (page 1 and 2).

[As more evidence of the insanity back in those days, then-mayor Toups and then-mayor-pro-tem Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert were ACTUALLY entertaining the notion of spending $2.5 million for a RODEO FACILITY (page 2 and 3). They thought it was a dandy idea and would pay for itself. THESE are the people in charge?? Truly boggles the mind.]

Suffice it to say that “Greasy” Chris has a history of proposing horrible and expensive ideas that seem to serve “Greasy” Chris himself. The fact he is popping up asking for money from his former Council buddies makes a lot of alarms go off.

Back to the present day: according to the latest Dispatch, Chris Harrison now “represents” a company called S2M2 Incorporated….and they want some free stuff: namely $125,000 from the city in “cost sharing” for a detention pond in a new subdivision.

(For those of you who don’t get it, “cost sharing” is the new bullshit term for developers who want the city to hand them large sums of your tax dollars).

This bad idea ALREADY was shot down last May, but apparently whoever pulls the strings at S2M2 decided to hire Harrison to try and sweet talk his former council buddies into forking over $125,000 – Harrison supposedly then directly contacted Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert and made his case again. Misti, who has never met a spending idea she didn’t agree with, now thinks this is just fine and dandy.

I dug into S2M2 Inc online and found very little: an address here in town at 202 Riverview Drive, Suite #2 and some taxpayer numbers and a charter date of September 28, 2017. Here is a photo of the front of this “corporation” (it is actually the storefront of the nice lady who does his books for him):

I had one of my private investigators dig some more and apparently the only name associated with this ‘company’ is a guy named Steven McDonald. I assume that’s where the S&M comes from. Get it?? S&M?? S2M2??

Well, this looks pretty damned greasy, if you ask me….hence the moniker “Greasy” Chris Harrison. How long has Harrison ‘worked’ for S2M2? Who the hell is Steven McDonald and why is he so keen to steal $125,000 from the taxpayers? Does he own property over there? Why does Steven McDonald list ONLY his accountant’s address in his corporate charter – which is extremely strange, in my book.

Perhaps City Council can look into those very questions instead of just handing over a chunk of money to every developer with a pulse (*cough* Deorald Finney *cough*).

Parks and Rec Director Recommended a $105,000 Restroom In 2016. Now Finley is Handing Out ANOTHER No-Bid Contract For $185,000

Funny what you find in the City Council meeting minutes. Specifically the November 14, 2016 City Council minutes (page 2 and 3). Back in those days, the city was REALLY spending like drunken sailors and wanted to look into bathrooms for FOUR different spots – including Campbell Park.

[Now, I personally think a restroom in Campbell Park is idiotic and unneeded. But if you are going to make a stupid purchase, at least get the best price through competitive bidding. Letting City Manager Finley “Spinley” DeGraffenried declare the project doesn’t need to be bid and then piss away (pun intended) $185,000 on a BATHROOM is the height of insanity].

It didn’t take me long to find the recent recommendation of Micky Tower – the Director of Parks and Recreation. The following is lifted DIRECTLY from Council’s own minutes:

Restroom capacity and recommendation for Campbell Park: – 3 toilets, 1 urinal, 2 lavatories.

Micky Tower reviewed the restroom construction costs: for a Wood Frame 3 toilets, 1 urinal and 2 lavatories with Buy Board pricing and Architectural and Engineering included:

  • Base Cost $83,157.00
  • Metal Roof $ 2,370.00
  • Installation $ 9,000.00
  • Freight/Crane $10,900.00
  • TOTAL $105,427

Mr Tower then went on to describe FOUR other bathroom options – NONE of them exceeded a cost of $143,000.

Compare that to the latest Finley Folly this month – a $185,000 NO-BID monstrosity (page 131- 132):

  • Base model #B424: $136,816
  • Install: $9,000
  • Freight and crane: $20,500
  • ‘Additional costs’: $18,684
  • TOTAL: $185,000

Does City Council not EVER look into ANYTHING they vote on? Do they just sign six-figure checks without even cursory research? I’m not even on City Council and I have a better grasp of this stuff.

Not to mention, just about everyone who is sitting on City Council today for the $185,000 screw job WAS ALSO THERE THREE YEARS AGO! They all have the memory of a goldfish, apparently! The SAME thing happened with the Azbell no-bid contract. Everyone got collective amnesia and forgot they had ALREADY awarded the A/V contract to Broadcast Works.

I guess I’ll just start calling City Council The Seven Goldfish.

Yet another example of apparent memory loss: as a council member in 2015, Talbert HERSELF previously “moved to approve the award of a bid in the amount of $18,930.00 to Whitley Steel Building Supply for the construction of a Restroom and Concession Facility to include steel package cost, foundation cost and erection cost at the Gavin Garrett Soccer Complex” (July 27, 2015 page 6-7).

Above is a photo I JUST took today of that Gavin Garret Soccer Complex restroom she approved for $18,930. Looks pretty sweet to me AND there is a concession stand included! But hey – why spend $19,000 when you can blow $185,000 instead? That’s the Lampasas Way. I can’t decide if these clowns are totally incompetent or utterly corrupt.

Oh, and they also have a couple of Porta-Potties there too – which are FAR LESS than $185,000.

Copperas Cove Is Five Times Larger Than Lampasas…

…and has FOUR employees in their City Information Systems Department (page 32) yet Lampasas manages to spend JUST AS MUCH MONEY on IT ($374,000 versus $379,000).

Amazing. We have TWO ding dongs in our IT Department for a city of 7,500 citizens and manage to spend $374,000 (this year’s proposed budget).

Copperas Cove has a population of around 35,000 and an IT Department with FOUR employees, yet they spend almost the EXACT same amount.

So our IT Department costs us about FIFTY DOLLARS per citizen while Cove somehow manages to do the same job for about $11 per citizen. Cove is nearly FIVE TIMES more efficient with their tax dollars.

I never run out of ways to point out the enormous waste and incompetence of our City IT Department. Pretty sure Cove didn’t just get hacked in a cyber attack either. Just saying.

On a slightly related note, Cove spends $1.4 million per year on health insurance for their city employees – the EXACT same amount we spend despite having a (presumably) much smaller government. Put another way, every man woman and child in Lampasas kicks in $186 per year for City employee healthcare….and in Cove that number is $40. AGAIN, nearly FIVE TIMES more efficient with tax dollars.

Retirement costs follow a similar pattern: in Cove they spend $1.6 million on City worker pensions while we spend about $1.16 million. That works out to $154 per Lampasshole and only $45 per Cove citizen – or THREE times more efficient in Cove.

No matter how you slice it, the cost of Lampasas government on a per citizen basis is orders of magnitude greater than a town just 15 miles up the road. It is an absolute outrage and a testament to poor governance and poor management.

Taxpayers, Hold On To Your Wallets…Finley Utters “BuyBoard” Magic Phrase – Will Allow No-Bid $185,000 Bathroom

A $185,000 bathroom? Yes, it is true [page 131 and 132]. The same government that goes out and gets THREE bids for a measly $12,780 worth of stacking chairs for City Council deems it unnecessary to bother with any bids at all for a $185,000 bathroom for Campbell Park.

(I remember the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation going out and getting TWO bids for a crappy $1,500 sign for the “business park” – yet the City doesn’t see any benefit in getting several bids for a $185,000 bathroom – makes total sense, right?).

According to Council packets, the bathroom will be supplied by Restroom Facilities LTD and will be model #B424. I got in contact with this company and asked for a blueprint of the bathroom:

As you can see from the little man in a wheelchair, there is plenty of room for Bruce Haywood’s mobility scooter in there!

It is about 450 square feet with 6 toilets. So you can either look at this as $31,000 per toilet or maybe $400 per square foot. I have a friend selling a mansion in an exclusive suburb of Chicago who is asking right around $400 per square foot and not finding any takers. Makes total sense that a bathroom in a Lampasas park would cost more.

Looked at another way, the City recently told us that the average taxable value of a Lampasas residence increased over 6% last year – from $92,110 to $97,904. Therefore, as of a year ago, you could have purchased TWO HOUSES for the same price as this six-toilet bathroom the city sees fit to purchase without bidding.

Furthermore, a local contractor is donating the pad for this building! That is about $10,000 savings right there – yet the bathroom will STILL cost $185,000?? Impossible.

Pardon my French, but this “BuyBoard” scam is a big pile of bullshit. Every time Spinley utters that word, the taxpayer gets hosed. The last time Finley uttered this magic phrase, a $34,000 A/V system that was properly bid AND AWARDED to Broadcast Works turned into a $95,000 NO BID disaster handed to Azbell Electronics.

Here is a PARTIAL list of stuff that the City has deemed worthy of going out for multiple bids on (all FAR LESS than $185,000):

  • 100 stackable chairs – $12,780 (3 bidders)
  • Elevator for Old City Hall debacle – $96,000 (ignored by Chris Harrison and $126,000 bid accepted instead) (3 bidders)
  • A/V system for Old City Hall debacle – $34,000 bid awarded then cancelled and $95,000 no-bid contract awarded to Azbell Electronics (3 bidders originally)
  • Demolition of Old City Hall – $13,500 (2 bidders)
  • Sign for ‘business park’ – approx $1,500 (2 bidders)
  • Concrete/curb work for butterfly sculpture in front of city hall – approx $5,000 (2 or 3 bidders, I forget)
  • Repairing restroom on the 17th tee box at golf course – $5,200 (two bidders)
  • Shade structures at 580 Sports Complex – $15,240 (two bidders)
  • Re-route water and sewer lines – $11,450 (two bidders)
  • Construct 8-inch water line – $102,439 (two bidders)
  • Pipe, fittings and manholes for a sewer line – $10,656 (4 bidders)
  • Resurfacing four tennis courts – $18,060 (4 bidders)
  • Lighting and electrical for tennis courts (LED) – $9,700 (3 bidders)

And the most ironic of ALL from July 27, 2015 (page 6 and 7):

Mayor Pro Tem Talbert moved to approve the award of bid in the amount of $18,930.00 to Whitley Steel Building Supply for the construction of a Restroom and Concession Facility to include steel package cost, foundation cost and erection cost at the Gavin Garrett Soccer Complex. This was PUT OUT FOR BID and THREE bidders responded (high bid was over $25,000)

So a mere four years ago, these exact same people thought it WAS wise to put a restroom out for bid – and the low bid was accepted at $18,930.

NOW, they decide on a NO-BID $185,000 restroom.

THIS is the kind of egregious wasteful spending the City does ALL THE TIME. It also explains why they are now looking to jack up tax rates, electricity rates and water rates to balance their budget. Absolutely disgusting. Misty Talbert….a drunken sailor indeed!!

I really have to wonder whose nest is getting feathered when I see absolute idiocy like this.

We Are in the 1% – Yay!

As many Lampassholes on Facebook were griping today about their utility bills being wrong or non-existent due to the 10-day computer outage from the recent attack, one dunce named Melissa Johnson wrote “well, you can’t really rag on the IT Department about that…after all, 20 other cities got hacked”.

I guess that is one way to look at it.

A better and more accurate way to look at it would be to say “well, 2000 other towns DIDN’T get attacked – thus 99% of the towns in Texas managed to keep their systems secured”.

But that’s just me.

Talbert Administration 2.0 Off To A Very Rough Start

Poor Misti is off to quite a rough start during her second term as mayor:

Her $1,500,000.00 Old City Hall vanity project appears to STILL not be completed (which means the $95,000 “Ferrari of A/V systems” sits unused). I have yet to see a puff piece about the finished product in the local paper and the City continues to have “community meetings” at the school cafeteria and old council chambers.

She has recently jacked taxes up to just under the rollback rate, on TOP of the increase in valuations….meaning everyone will see a nice big tax increase this year. Again.

The “business park” weed patch on which they have wasted over $1,000,000.00 was at least hidden under a rug for the last 6 years, but then recently somebody went and dumped a dead body there and brought it onto the front pages – an ugly reminder of a failed dream. Now they are scrambling again to figure out exactly what they are going to do with that albatross around their neck:

“Business Park” vision as sold to the public about six years ago…and yes, they had an ‘artists rendition’ drawn up for this.



“Business Park” reality after over $1 million dollars were wasted on it: a weed patch where a woman’s corpse was recently dumped by her killer.

.…and now this embarrassing ransomware attack on the city’s network (which took 10 days to resolve). A network run by two city workers I have pointed out as unqualified for over a year, a fact which Misti and Spinley unfortunately ignored.

What will our intrepid mayor face next? Huge cost overruns on the wastewater plant? Locusts? Plummeting sales tax revenue during the coming recession?? We shall see…..

“Minimal Impact” Computer Disruption From Cyber Attack Appears to End on Day Ten

Well, ten days after the initial ransomware attack, the City appears to have their utility department website back up! Great job tech department TSM Consulting!! Can we assume ALL systems are back to normal? Hopefully the Dispatch or Radiogram will have some real information on this.

Now, we will await a full accounting of what exactly went down, how it was solved, and what will stop it from happening again.

Poor Eager Beaver CorVivers Just Can’t Catch a Break

It’s been a while since I poked fun at the CorVive crowd…mainly because the “crowd” has dwindled to just a few suckers left holding the pyramid-shaped bag with a garage full of over-priced CorVive laxatives. But I just couldn’t pass this up – way too funny.

A few days ago, I saw an article headlined “Top Ten Worst Resorts For Food Poisoning”. Since I am a worldly Lampasshole who frequently travels internationally, I figured it was worth a look.

Number three on the list was “Riviera Maya, Mexico” and it kept ringing a bell with me, but I couldn’t immediately remember where I had seen that resort before. Then it hit me: THAT is the “prize” that Jeremy “Meatball” Fouts dangles out for the CorVive suckers who suck the most chumps into his CorVive scam!! LOL. What a guy! Not only is he a scumbag, he is a CHEAP scumbag.

What’s the prize for the year after this one? Haiti? Or maybe Hurghada Egypt?? BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Nice burn job, Meatball Fouts.

Was Kristy Acevedo Negligent or Incompetent?

Kristy Acevedo holds the title of “Network Administrator” for the City of Lampasas. She and her superior, Monica Wright, are paid quite well ($180,000 in salary and benefits – Pay Group 30 for Monica and 22 for Kristy) to “maintain and troubleshoot all network systems and equipment” (this is taken directly from the City of Lampasas description of her job).

The city spends over $300,000 per year on the IT Department and has spent about $1.5 MILLION DOLLARS on that department over the last six years. They are proposing a huge increase to $374,000 this year alone.

So it’s hard to argue they don’t throw enough money at that department. Hell, Monica had enough cash to blow almost $100,000 on a NO-BID audio/visual system for City Council chambers last year, when she COULD have only spent $34,000, so they are clearly rolling in dough. Perhaps I have simply been right all along in saying they are totally unqualified and in way over their heads. Incompetent, is the word I am looking for here.

Employees of the city serve “at will” and can be dismissed at any time [Section 13.01 of the City Personnel Policy]. One of the many reasons for possible dismissal listed is “Incompetence or Neglect of Duty”

Now, this problem hasn’t even been resolved yet, so the finger pointing can wait until our TWO IT ‘experts’ have fixed their mess….but after the dust has settled, it seems City Council should be looking into how this was allowed to happen and whether our Network Administrator was incompetent or neglectful of her duties. Considering how many days off they get per year, there is about a 20% chance one of them wasn’t even at work last Friday!

The Finley-Spin Begins. Here is a TRUE Ransomware Timeline

City Hall is already starting to spin the narrative on this ransomware attack, so I felt it necessary to start and maintain a timeline of what REALLY transpired and will continue to transpire – with my commentary in brackets:

Friday August 16: Somebody launches a ransomware cyber attack against 22 Texas cities this morning. That same day, multiple Lampasas citizens start questioning why their utility payments aren’t being processed. According to the August 21 Radiogram, “IT Director Monica Wright immediately implemented response protocols for this type of incident.” [This is the spin it took Finley FIVE days to come up with? So the official spin is “thank god Monica was there to slam the barn door shut well AFTER the cow got out, knocked over the lantern and burned down the city…the very same door she left wide open in the first place.]

[The “protocols”! Sounds very sophisticated. Like a James Bond movie. I’d guess the actual “protocol” was Monica voiding the entire contents of her bowels into her underwear, yanking the power cord of her personal computer out of the wall thinking that might help, and then running in tears to Finley’s office sobbing about some “randomware” on her computer. Finley then turns a sickly green color and calls TSM or the state of Texas or SOMEBODY who knows SOMETHING about computers, dammit!!!]

Friday afternoon August 16, Saturday August 17, Sunday August 18: Not a peep from the City about this disaster. At this point, the police and sheriff computer systems had to be down, but that was not made public. I know this because the police system was still down on Tuesday the 20th at 5pm [and yes, I have proof]. I know they will say “we couldn’t make this public since we had a target on our backs”, but that is a pile of nonsense….because remember, the quick-thinking Monica had ALREADY implemented “protocols for this type of incident”…which any moron must assume included chopping all connections with the outside Internet world to prevent further damage….right? [at this point, the City probably hoped to solve this quickly and sweep it under the rug so as to not be completely embarrassed. Thus total radio silence]

Monday August 19: I myself started getting suspicious reading about all the people unable to pay their bills and remembering the attacks in Texas the previous week. Still not a PEEP from the city 72 hours after the incident….and police systems STILL presumably down.

Tuesday August 20: Finley tells a blatant lie to the Radiogram, saying that “a series of unrelated incidences [sic] caused the Sheriff’s Department, Police Department and Utility Department to go offline last Friday and the problem is being corrected.” [Why make this blatant lie? This is why I don’t ever trust a thing Spinley/Finley says. The cat was going to get out of the bag eventually and you know damn good and well the CITY MANAGER knew this was a coordinated attack three days ago – so why tell this complete b.s. about “unrelated incidences [sic]??]

Tuesday August 20: This very blog begins to connect the dots and get info from reliable sources at the city and state level that Lampasas DID get hit – despite Finley’s lie in the Radiogram that very morning. This blog questions Gary and Finley point-blank about it by email around 3:30pm. By 9pm, ACM Gary Cox admits they were hit and federal authorities are involved.

Wednesday August 21: The Radiogram finally prints an official statement from the Police Department that includes all the b.s. Spinley/Finley has produced after five days of polishing this turd. The most laughable part of the Spinley’s yarn is this part:

“While this attack did have some impact on City operations, the City implemented its continuity of operations plan and continued to provide City services with minimal impact to our citizens……As of press time, the City of Lampasas utility department is still offline. They are assuring customers that no cut-offs, or late notices are being processed. They hope to be back on line by Friday morning”.

[Seriously?? Continued to provide city services with minimal impact? Yeah sure….everything was just fine except all the broken parts. Lol. Then a few sentences later they say the utility department is STILL offline!! AND, they HOPE to have this mess sorted out by Friday!! A FULL WEEK after the attack! (but the impact is limited, lol) That is some serious b.s. spin, right there. Wow. Bill Clinton himself couldn’t have spun dog shit into diamonds that well].

Thursday August 22: Problem still not solved. A source of mine entered city hall and saw our two intrepid IT “experts” looking “quite frazzled”. [Probably the first full week either of them have clocked in years]

Friday August 23: One full week after the attack – problem still not solved. The Lampasas Dispatch Record reports on the attack – and regurgitates much of the same palaver reported in the Radiogram. The Original Lampasshole also makes an official Open Records Request and asks for copies of these “response protocols” and “continuity of operations” plans that were supposedly implemented in the wake of the attack.

Saturday August 24: Tried to log on and use the “Pay Utilities” page….still not up. Eight days and counting!!

Sunday August 25: The “minimal impact” STILL continues – cannot log onto the utilities payment page. How long until they just give in and pay the ransom? Will it come out of Kristy’s paycheck? Do they even know how to buy bitcoin?? We shall see…

Monday August 26th: Systems appear to be back to normal after 10 days. Mayor Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert thanks the City Staff for all their “hard work during the ransomware attack” (page 66). No seriously. She did.

Tuesday September 3rd: City attorney Christy-Jo Brown writes a six page letter to Texas Attorney General pleading their case as to why I should be denied information about the ransomware attack. Yup – keep the taxpaying citizens in the dark. As usual.

Monday September 9th: requests come flooding in for replacement equipment to replace servers and computers ruined in the ransomware attack – currently over $36,000 of equipment is ruined.

When the the clouds of dust settle from this debacle, there needs to be a very PUBLIC and HONEST accounting of what the hell happened. Answers to things like:

  • How EXACTLY did they get in?
  • Exactly when did Finley realize this was part of the statewide ransomware attacks and how quickly did he call in the REAL experts?
  • How long was the police system completely down?
  • Was ransom demanded? How much? Did the city pay in full?
  • Which “experts” were called in and how much did they bill the city for this mess?
  • Where was Kristy Acevedo Friday morning and afternoon? She is not mentioned at all, yet her job is “Network Administrator” and the network was left vulnerable and attacked.