Tag: Azbell

Lampasshole Turns Three Today – Celebrating Anniversary of Finley’s BIG LIE

Happy Birthday to us.

Exactly three years ago, the ridiculous no-bid Azbell A/V monstrosity prompted me to finally speak out about local government waste. Little did I know exactly HOW much waste there was in addition to that A/V system! Millions of dollars more, as it turns out.

Finley immediately told a massive lie the very next month, trying to cover his ass against the colossal waste of money in a September 2018 Dispatch article:

DeGraffenried said if the City Council had decided to seek bids for the audio visual system instead of using the Buy Board method, the city would have had to spend about $10,000 to obtain a professional design for the system. “I think we did get good value — I’m convinced of it,” deGraffenried said of the system the city purchased.

This is what is know as a “bald faced lie”.

The TRUTH is that the city DID originally seek bids – and it accepted the lowest one from Broadcast Works for $33,983 – which INCLUDED a one-year warranty AND training. It is right there in black and white in the City council minutes from August 25, 2014….on page six.

Monica Wright, Information Systems Director, explained that she received three quotes for Professional Service related to Audio/Video Distribution and System Automation for the new Council Chambers:

 Broadcast Works $33,983.00
 Azbell Electronics $41,184.41
 Whitlock $54,411.36

Wright said that the IT Department recommends the award of quote to Broadcast Works in the amount of $33,983. The selected A/V contractor will be required to work in conjunction with the architect, general contractor and sub-contractor, in addition to attending a pre-construction meeting. The scope of work to be done will be in accordance with the contract, which will include a one year warranty, as well as training.

Council member Toups moved to approve the award of quote for Professional Service related to Audio/Video Distribution and System Automation for the new Council Chambers. The motion was seconded by Council member Talbert and with a unanimous vote, the motion carried.

Yet despite all that, somehow that original agreement disappeared in a shadowy back room deal somewhere and Azbell was handed $95,000 without question.

Looks pretty cut-and-dried to me. Finley is a liar, plain and simple. So was Gary Cox, our former Assistant City Manager who was fired resigned over a rumored prank involving goldfish crackers, if you can believe that!

The funniest part? If you actually publicly point out all the lies and money wasting and shady deals (and back up your accusations with copious amounts of hard evidence), you get called a “cowardly keyboard warrior” by the mayor! The very same mayor who babbles about being transparent but then hides behind her lawyer anytime a citizen requests public documents!

Talk about an upside-down world we live in.

Her Name Should Probably Be Monica Can’t-Wright

I have held back on some of the more embarrassing examples of Monica Wright’s ineptitude because they weren’t really germane (go look it up, Monica…..)

However, since she and her BFF (and underling) Kristy Acevedo decided to antagonize me and my guests in a bar recently, I think it’s fair to post them now.

The following is from an email Monica wrote on Jan 3, 2017 to Chris Atkinson (a Nolanville bureaucrat) regarding bids for the audio/visual system she would later hand to Azbell Electronics arbitrarily (ignoring the bidding process altogether). Remember, this is a grown, 40-something, supposedly-highly-educated IT Department Head communicating with the outside world:

Chris, I wanted to reach out to you regarding the vm that you left me regarding A/V. I am currently working on our first big A/V project for our new City Council Chambers. I have not went out for bid for it yet, however I do have a vendor that I have met with on several occasions that has provided me with great information as well as will be bidding the project. I don’t have much information for you right now being that we are still working on our scope for this project.

If you would like, I can forward his information to you. I’m sure he would be happy to talk to you about your project/needs.

Broadcast Works – Adam Comer – North Texas Area Manager – 903-509-2470 x106 broadcastworks.com

Besides the atrocious grammar unbecoming of even a fourth-grade hillbilly, this is also even MORE proof that Broadcast Works was quite involved in the (supposedly) upcoming bidding process. Monica was clearly SO impressed by Broadcast Works (original A/V system bid of $34,000), she even sent THEIR company/contact information out for a recommendation to Nolanville City government….NOT the company information for Azbell Electronics (who was eventually handed a no-bid contract for almost $100,000 for the A/V system).

What a bargain the taxpayers get for $105,000 per year with Monica Wright-Like-A-Child: zero computer network skills, zero writing skills, zero make-up skills and only works 44 weeks per year!

Questions For Misti Talbert

So here are a few questions for Misti “Spend like a drunken sailor’ Talbert as she starts her second term as mayor:

Did you learn anything from the $1,500,000.00 Old City Hall renovation debacle?  Are you proud that you backed it from the very beginning (“WOW factor!”) and supported it from start til finish?  Or can you finally see it for the colossal waste that it was?

How about the part where Azbell Electronics won a $96,000 contract with no other bids…despite the fact you sat on city council the FIRST time the exact same contract was bid and awarded to Broadcast Works for $34,000? 

Were there ANY repercussions when you found out city employees pulled the wool over your eyes on the Azbell contract? Did anyone get a stern talking to? Fired? Punished at all? I have posted internal city hall emails showing conclusively that Monica tried her best to keep Council in the dark and Gary Cox was very aware Azbell was FAR more expensive than other vendors. Or do you like being treated with such blatant disrespect?

Is it your opinion that the mayor and city council are the boss of Finley, or are you content that it seems to be the other way around?

Are you going to continue handing Eckermann Engineering hundreds of thousands of dollars in no-bid engineering work? 

Are you cool with increasing the salary/benefits of your highest-paid city employees like Finley, Gary and Monica by 5% to 9% every single year? Do you have ANY plans to trim ANY government spending at all? Or is it 7% increases as far as the eye can see?

Do you think it might be a good idea to have at least ONE of your IT employees get qualified in network administration (by Microsoft, Cisco, etc), since they are costing the city hundreds of thousands in salary and benefits annually yet they spend another $30,000 or so per year to hire TSM Consulting to do the network jobs THEY should be capable of doing themselves? Monica Wright has been on the public teat for OVER THIRTEEN YEARS and has exactly ZERO certifications in network administration….which means she has to pay TSM consulting tens of thousands of dollars annually to do such simple tasks as a server migration.

How many more millions does the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) have to waste on the “business park” before you second guess your decisions there?  One million?  Two million? 

How many more $8,000 videos promoting Lampasas will the city pay for with zero results?  How many more TML conferences will the city pay for with $1000 worth of hotel rooms, so the LEDC staff can go spin their wheels in more conferences and seminars with no results?  How many more “consulting” contracts will you piss away money on?   HALFF is now getting $120,000 to do the job that LEDC has been wasting $100,000 per year to (not) do.  Do you think that is money well spent?

Not once in all her current self-congratulatory interviews has Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert made any mention of being the least bit concerned about the idiotic and wasteful spending of her administration and the administration before her.

One thing is sure – Talbert’s second term will provide me endless fodder and many boneheaded decisions to ridicule. 

New Info Emerges From City Hall Emails – Did City Manager and IT Director Deliberately Keep City Council in the Dark Over Exorbitant Cost of A/V System?

In short, the answer appears to be yes.

We have requested and received dozens of internal City Hall emails pertaining to the no-bid City Council chambers A/V system that was awarded to Azbell Electronics for almost $100,000 last July.

Emails belonging to the city manager, assistant city manager, city IT Director, Azbell sales rep Chris Anelundi and others involved in the expensive boondoggle were obtained through a Texas Open Records Request. They show city employees who have zero regard for tax dollars and who go out of their way to keep city hall in the dark over the true costs of the project.

The emails show the following information:

  • City Hall (IT Director, City Manager, assistant City manager) DID set out to re-bid the A/V system a second time around: Azbell and Broadcast Works were actively seeking to win the bid in Jan and Feb of 2017. This destroys Finley’s story he concocted (after the fact) that they didn’t need to re-bid the project since Azbell was a “buy board” member.
  • Assistant City Manager Gary Cox was well aware at the very start of this that Azbell was MUCH higher priced than other vendors. He pointed this out to Monica Wright – even giving an example of a video recorder he found for $2880 for which Anelundi and Azbell were charging $4880 – he called this “a significant markup over other vendors” in a private email to Monica dated Feb 8th, 2018.
  • ACM Gary Cox requested several bells and whistles for the project that added many thousands of dollars to the cost and weren’t really needed, but were fancy add-ons (including cameras and a wireless mike for the audience so audience members wouldn’t have to make the long walk up to the podium to speak on a normal microphone)
  • Broadcast Works was contacted by email by Monica (Dec 2016 through Feb 2017) and told the project was back on and there would be a second round of bidding. The Broadcast Works rep (Adam Comer) REPEATEDLY sent Monica emails expressing his hope to win the business, all the way through Feb and March 2017. Poor Adam was strung along, as Finley and Monica moved forward with Azbell behind his back – making the decision themselves to just go ahead with Azbell and not bothering to get a second bid. They did not even give Broadcast Works a chance to bid a second time after contacting them in Jan/Feb 2017 asking them to do just that!
  • Monica Wright was aware that Azbell had previously bid on this contract (and lost to Broadcast Works for being far more expensive) – she then informed current sales rep Chris Anelundi of this and even sent Anelundi the previous Azbell losing bid package (which was around $42,000)
  • Monica Wright SPECIFICALLY discouraged Anelundui from giving any hard numbers during his council presentation on March 13, 2017…going so far as to write in her email: “as far as budget numbers go, we won’t mention that to City Council Monday night” then adding that “the City Manager wants Council to know what all is involved with this project….if they know the capabilities of the A/V system, the components and equipment needed to achieve what we want, hopefully their jaw will not drop when we ask for approval.” [Editor note: sure sounds to me like they knew damn good and well this thing was ridiculously overpriced]
  • When the time came in July 2018 to actually go and ask for the ludicrous sum Azbell wanted for this vanity project, Monica appeared to have reservations about the cost again, writing in an email to Anelundi: “I am hoping they just award the contract and move on“

She got her wish. City Council rubber-stamped this thing with only feeble objections over the expensive earpieces for the hard-of-hearing.

In an email shortly thereafter, Anelundi (sounding quite amazed) asks “And just so I am clear, the approved amount totaled $94, 674.57 correct?” almost as if he can’t believe this group of wizards just ponied up TRIPLE the amount that Broadcast Works was going to do the job for a couple years earlier and well over DOUBLE the amount of the original, rejected Azbell bid of around $42,000 from just a few years earlier.

Digest that again: Council rejected Azbell’s original bid of $42,000 as it was about 25% more than the winning Broadcast Works bid (around $34,000). Then Monica comes back 2 years later, says “we’re finally doing this project”, tells Anelundi that his company, Azbell, was the losing bid last time around at $42,000 and then City Council goes on to APPROVE A NO-BID contract of almost NINETY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to Azbell. I’m guessing Anelundi popped the champagne bottles that night, truly amazed at his good fortune.

Now, blame still falls squarely on City Council for approving this monstrosity and not asking any questions. Several council members were sitting in their seats the FIRST time this thing went through the bidding process [**cough Misti Talbert cough**] and the winner was Broadcast Works at $34,000. Somebody should have asked why this wasn’t competitively bid again. Somebody should have asked how the hell $95,000 was justified. Of course, Finley and Monica did their best to starve them of information on cost until the very last second, when they rammed this turd through in July 2018. Plenty of blame to go around.

The difference being City Council is an unpaid position, whereas Finley, Gary and Monica are quite highly paid – ostensibly because they are “experts” and “competent” and supposedly know what they are doing. I’d say this proves otherwise in the extreme.

The scariest part of all this? This debacle is just ONE item that popped up in the newspaper and seemed SO ridiculously over-the-top on price, that I was just enraged enough to spend a considerable chunk of my own time and money to find out what really happened. If I managed to hit the jackpot like this on my very first attempt, imagine all the other shenanigans that go on over there ALL THE TIME because nobody is paying attention.

THIS is the “leadership” that Misti Talbert supposedly exhibits as mayor? Please. Gimme a break. Talbert has pushed for this wildly overpriced boondoggle for years – as recorded in City Council minutes and chronicled here.

Perhaps a restructuring of incentives is needed at City Hall. I think the following would be a good start:

1 Make City Council a paid position and hold their feet to the fire for massive screw-ups like this one. The colossal sums wasted by the LEDC (Lampasas Economic Development Corporation) are another example.

2. Sharply reduce the salaries of these “experts” at the top of City Hall, since they have proven they do not have the taxpayers’ interests at heart, but only their own.

3. Have an outside entity go over the entire structure of City Hall to identify positions that are unneeded and/or paid grossly out of line with their private sector counterparts (and yes, the $30k per year in benefits counts towards their salary). Maybe take a look at what a lot of these people ACTUALLY do all day long (besides post on Facebook, go to loads of useless conferences with other city employees in other towns, and waste massive amounts of time and money planning a $1.5 million vanity project for City bigwigs)

Clearly, there needs to be a more adversarial role between Council and City Hall – especially the City Manager. Council should be looking out for the taxpayer since Finley and others at the top of City Hall clearly only look out for themselves.

Will any of these things happen? No. I’ll be called a trouble-maker and a pot-stirrer for daring to point out anything that might call into question the genius of those in charge. Better to just bury your head in the sand and let some government sponges hose the taxpayer over and over then ask for more.

Who Gave The Order to Dump Broadcast Works and Give No-Bid $96,000 Monstrosity to Azbell Instead?

So…I have searched every set of minutes and City Council packets from August 2014 (when Broadcast Works was awarded a $34,000 A/V contract for the new council chambers) all the way up to March 2017 (when Monica Wright appeared in a city council meeting and informed us all that Azbell would be doing the (no bid) work…which ended up being quoted at $84,000 – which quickly became $96,000)…and guess what?

Not a SINGLE mention of Azbell Electronics in all those thousands of pages.  Not one.  No mention in the minutes…the packets…Monica’s monthly IT report (where it lists everything she has been up to, like buying refrigerators)….nowhere at all.  It apparently just happened magically one day.  Everyone just woke up one morning and forgot about Broadcast Works simultaneously, I guess.

That tells me this decision had to happen in one of those “closed-door, executive council sessions” I keep reading about.  Far away from the prying eyes of taxpayers.  There is simply no way Monica would be allowed to make this big of a decision on her own.  It had to come from City Council, the mayor and/or Finley deGraffenreid.  There is no other possibility.

So, the question is….who and why?

 

Finley Pees on Taxpayer Heads – Tells Lampasas Dispatch it is a Refreshing, Much-Needed Rain

I guess Finley finally had to respond to the well-documented instances of Old City Hall cost overruns, waste and no-bid A/V contracts presented here in meticulous detail and using City Council’s own minutes.  He did so in today’s Lampasas Dispatch (Sept 25, 2018).  This was smart of Finley – the end of the fiscal year is in a few days, and the new budget will be presented soon…no doubt with large spending increases.  Best explain how all these millions are actually for the community and not for City Hall employees.

Of course, I have to rebut his rebuttal with some facts that were ignored or left out:

First claim: The “approximately $1 million the city is spending to remodel”

Response: It’s actually $1.4 million and counting [using information from City Council minutes and detailed on this blog].  While $400,000 might not be a lot to those in the upper echelons of city government who are pulling down well over $100,000 per year in salary and benefits, it certainly IS a lot to the average Lampasas taxpayer who makes around $29,000 per year and who is footing the bill for this debacle.  It is also 40% more than you state in the article…and they aren’t done yet.  Expect more money to be spent.

Second claim: Finley uses the words “Buy Board” constantly like some sort of magic immunity phrase.  He claims they went with Azbell and didn’t bid the project for several reasons…one is the magic Buy Board [we don’t have to because they are pre-approved…nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!] and the other is supposedly because “if the city didn’t use the Buy Board method, they would have had to spend an additional $10,000 to obtain a professional design for the system,” according to the article.

Response: I give you one date – August 25, 2014.  You DID go out and get three bids.  The lowest was Broadcast Works at $33,983.  Azbell came in at $41,184 (still a far cry from the $94,683 Azbell is currently charging).  Whitlock was $54,411.

Furthermore, as stated in the minutes from that meeting, the Broadcast Works bid specifically required the company to “work in conjunction with the architect, general contractor, and sub-contractor, in addition to attending pre-construction meetings” – which SURE makes it sound like they were going to do EVERYTHING themselves and wouldn’t require the extra $10,000 “to obtain professional design” that Finley is babbling about now as he re-writes history.

Even if it WAS true, the original $33,983 PLUS another $10,000 still only comes to $43,983.  Which is FAR less than the $94,682 king’s ransom that Azbell is charging them currently.

So why weren’t the magic “Buy Board” words invoked back in 2014?  Why did you get three bids the first time?  How did Azbell’s initial $41,000 bid (which was rejected) morph into $94,600??

Maybe Finley would try and use the excuse that, “well, we changed  venues”.  The problem with that excuse, is that it is debunked in black and white in Council’s own minutes on August 24, 2015.  It clearly states that “Monica Wright has discussed the change of location with the IT vendor for the A/V system, and it appears cost should be equivalent to quotes received for the previously proposed Council chambers.”

Oops.  No help there either.

So, no matter how much lipstick Finley puts on this pig, the facts remain:

  1. The City DID bid this the first time [Aug 25, 2014] and there was no mention of any magic Buy Board immunity phrases back then.
  2. Broadcast Works was lowest bid at $33,983 and Azbell’s $41,184 bid was rejected
  3. Despite the change in venue, Monica stated that the vendor said it was cost-equivalent [Aug 24, 2015]
  4. This was reiterated AGAIN on Sept 28, 2015 with “the audio/visual vendor toured the building and saw no problem with doing the work.“
  5. Suddenly Azbell appears in March 2017, charges $94,675, and nobody makes a peep about it.

What about Finley’s final argument in the Dispatch, that “this is for the community”?  Well, we’ll get into that in the next few posts.  I’m glad Finley brought up the LEDC (Lampasas Economic Development Corp) in his Dispatch article, because they happen to be my next example of egregious waste.

 

Old City Hall and Azbell Screw Job – Part VI (2018 – The Current Mess)

At the end of the last chapter, you could see Finley lubing up his fist and instructing City Council to bend over.  He has some new info on the Old City Hall Hose Job….here is the home stretch leading us to today:

May 14th, 2018: Finley dumps the 1.4 million pound anvil onto Council’s pointy heads.  Without bothering to present the losing bids, he states that ASJ Construction was lowest qualified bid…and the following is the current situation

  1. Base bid $890,000
  2. Alternate #1 $25,000
  3. Alternate #2 $128,000
  4. Total price $1,043,000

EXCLUDED from this bid are the $125,000 for the elevator….the $60,000 for fire suppression…the $88,000 already incurred…and of course the ridiculous $83,000 audio/visual screw job, which is apparently untouchable – though for some strange reason, it says in parenthesis “some savings possible” – which is hilarious because it will end up being almost $100,000 by the time it hits the newspapers 60 days from this meeting.

So we are now at around $1,400,000…which doesn’t include cabinets, counter-tops, dais, signage, and flat work.  Unsurprisingly, Finley recommends Council take this deal [take it, good and hard].  Council says “thank you sir, may I have another??” and approves this unanimously.

May 29th, 2018: Unrelated item to enrage you – health insurance costs are set to increase nearly 7% for city employees (remember those awesome benefits!) which will cost the city nearly $80,000 this year since they spend over $1,000,000.00 per year on employee health coverage.  Finley states that this could be reduced if city employees are willing to pay a higher co-pay for prescriptions and he’ll go ask them!  BAHAHAHAHA.  Seriously??  In a shocking answer, city employees told him “no thanks, we don’t want to chip in any more for our gold-plated coverage…let the city eat it all”.  Christ.  Must be nice.

July 23, 2018: Monica finally officially brings this Azbell monstrosity to Council.  Why now?  I have no idea…the fix has been in forever, as I have documented.  She states “we have been working with Azbell since March 2017” [which is when they appeared in the minutes for the very first time] – the grand total is $94,674.57.  Talbert calls for a vote [apparently having absolutely no recollection that she herself already voted to award Broadcast Works the A/V contract back in August of 2014] and this ugly turd is passed.

Not a single peep from anyone present that this seems like a ludicrous amount of money to spend.  Nobody remembers the $34,000 bid for the same thing in 2014.  Did anyone even look at the bid sheet?  Four 70-inch LCD TVs for $2150 each is the VERY FIRST ITEM.  They cost $900 at Wal-Mart.  This is disgraceful.

News of this abortion is reported a few days later in The Lampasas Dispatch…whereupon The Original Lampasshole reads the article and blows a gasket…leading to this blog and the detective work you see on these pages.

Aug 13, 2018: Five days into a 120-day project, ASJ is already asking for another $10,800 for Old City Hall in Change Order #1.  Apparently a bathroom needed to be reconfigured, and “the price of metal went up” [you literally can’t make this stuff up].  Council, who is already committed to wasting $1.4 million dollars on this, isn’t going to let $10,800 stand in the way.  Change Order #1 is approved unanimously.

Sept 20, 2018: Forty-three days into project, we find out from Finley that “Council may recall approval of roofing repair to correct material failure and scupper height [no, I don’t remember this – never saw anything about it].  Based on non-performance of the selected contractor, Staff sought a quotation through the GC of the City Hall project.  Based on their inspection, roofing contractor would not guarantee the repair due to overlapping seam.  He recommended a complete re-roof of both roofs [the other roof is Municipal Court…why is this all lumped in together?  Two-for-one roof day?] at a cost of $45,194.

I’ll be charitable and assign only half of that $45,000 to the City Hall remodel – or another $23,000 for Change Order #2 – it is unclear if this has been approved by Council yet since the minutes are not posted for the last two meetings.

The weird thing about finding out the roof is crap and has to be COMPLETELY replaced, is that back in May 23, 2016, JNW  said the building “is in good condition” and then in October 2016, Finley handed JNW a check for $18,000 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” of the building.  Guess they don’t count the roof as an important part of the structure?  Beats me.  I’m not an architect or an engineer raking in huge fees.

November 16, 2018: Lampasas Dispatch reports another change order (#3) for ASJ Construction in the amount of $16,417.

I will keep you all up-to-date on the project as it limps along to completion.  Can’t wait to see what the next change order is!

City Hall and Azbell – Part V (Azbell Appears Out of the Blue – 2017)

Some fireworks and big questions are unearthed in this chapter….just slog through a few uneventful entries first….

Jan 9, 2017: Staff held initial meeting with Byron Hendrix, Hendrix Consulting Engineers.  Hendrix met with City staff, reviewed plans and toured the facility.  He said “his firm was capable of providing anything from a ‘basic’ set of plans to a more complex and thorough design”.  City staff was generally impressed with his firm and approach and was hopeful that a proposal could be considered by Council by Jan 23.

Jan 23, 2017:  deGraffenried presents Council a packet with the negotiated scope and fee for MEP services by Hendrix Consulting.  The scope includes design and clean-up of electric feeds for the entire building, performance specs for the fire sprinklers and alarm, complete MEP for second floor and partial MEP for first floor.  This will be a one-month project but would depend on plan specs by the architect.  Councilman Williams moves to award Hendrix the MEP contract for $16,500.  Seconded and carries unanimously.

Feb 13, 2017:  deGraffenried provides Council a hard copy of the Old City Hall plan set. City Staff reviews the architectural plans, including structural plans, on Jan 31 and provided comment to JNW.

Discussion included timeline of bidding that could take 30 to 60 days and preference to bid by division and have City oversee the project, which would be a savings to the City.  Talbert moves to authorize the project as presented…seconded and passed unanimously.

And here it finally is……

MARCH 13, 2017: Monica Wright explains to Council that the A/V system for Old City Hall will cover the main chamber area, executive session meeting room, and second meeting room.  Wright says City Staff has been working with Azbell Electronics on a concept and design for this project that will be brought to Council at a later date.  Chris Anelundi from Azbell is present for this meeting.  Finley also reviewed MEP for the project.

[WOW!!  Here it is…the very first mention of Azbell Electronics in the minutes going back 4.5 years.  On Aug 25, 2014, Monica presented three bids for the AV system and Azbell was NOT the winner.  The winner was Broadcast Works (who is still in business, by the way) and the price was $34,000.  From that point until this day, there has NEVER been a mention of Azbell having the contract or anything about a price change.  You can see EVERY post concerning the AV system for the last 4.5 years on this blog – starting with Part I of this series.]

So many questions!  WHY is Azbell involved right now and not Broadcast Works?  Who is the “City Staff” who have been working with Azbell, and why?  Finley? Monica?  Who authorized this?  When did it start?  There is STILL no mention of Azbell costing $100,000.00 so it must not have happened yet.   After reading through 1000 pages of minutes, I watched City Council get bids on EVERYTHING (even $12,780 for 100 stacking chairs) so why is Azbell appearing now?  If Azbell is a “buy board” company and other bids aren’t needed, then why did they get three bids the first time back in August of 2014?  Why doesn’t City Council ask these questions NOW in March of 2017?  I’d love to hear the answer – SOMEBODY has to know.

Furthermore, Monica and Finley keep yammering about “Azbell is a buyboard member so we don’t need other bids,” yet the LAST time they sent out bids for this very same job, Azbell was NOT the lowest bid and the bids varied wildly between $34,000 and $54,000 – so a competent person with an IQ over 90 should realize that since they weren’t the low bid last time, there is DEFINITELY a benefit to getting bids on this project, since it is quite likely Azbell’s bid would not be the lowest this time either.

March 27, 2017: Finley deGraffenreid reports that MEPs continue progress at Old City Hall.  The City is planning to run emergency/backup power to the project – specifically the elevator.  The city has also received the proposal for audio/visual equipment and is currently reviewing specs and scope of work.

June 12, 2017: Finley says the MEPs are 99% complete…that Bryan Ellis (building inspector) and Monica Wright are reviewing the plan set [what the hell does Monica have to do with this part??]  They are in the process of drafting bid packets for Old City Hall.

July 24, 2017: City staff met with engineers from Hendrix Consulting to review and make final changes to Old City Hall rehab plans.  Staff will finalize bidding documents in next few weeks with a construction start date of hopefully mid-September.

Sept 25, 2017: Finley says Old City Hall plans have been finalized…and they have received bids on phone cable installation, fiber relocation and audio/visual components [so where are the bids?].  He is putting RFPs together by division and hope to move into the building in 2018.

Oct 23, 2017: [This is unrelated, but…] applications are being received for the new Assistant City Manager position ($90,000 in salary and cost to taxpayer of $122,000 after including benefits and pension).  The city received FIFTY-FOUR RESUMES.  [I stand by my constant assertions that government salaries are TOO HIGH in Lampasas for MANY positions.  Clearly, there is a LOT of interest at that salary – ergo, it is far too generous].

Nov 27, 2017: Finley says the basement demolition is completed at Old City Hall.  Fire Marshall has been reviewing the space with fire suppression contractors to determine plans and pricing.  Space is available for Council to tour.

Dec 11, 2017: City staff will begin utility work to bring the fire suppression line, emergency power and wastewater line.  They have identified 13 different disciplines that will need to be bid and contracted including framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire suppression, finishes, insulation, drywall, plaster, data, flooring and millwork [OK – you will get bids on literally EVERYTHING except audio/visual???  Or does “data” cover that?  Seriously…it REALLY looks like the fix is already in for Azbell.  A/V is conspicuously left out of this list.  How about it, Finley??  To paraphrase an old Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s: WHERE’S THE BID?]

Jan 8, 2018: Finley wants to update Council in anticipation of bid awards…share comments…review estimates…review trades/specialties that will need to be procured soon.  Finley then gives some info out: $600,000 earmarked for this project…$86,348 already spend…bid docs prepared by staff.  Partial estimates to date:

  1. Fire suppression: $60,000
  2. Elevator $125,508 [Hmm…this was bid $119,000 on Nov 14, 2016.  Weird]
  3. Phone $3,300
  4. Fiber patch $4,210
  5. Audio/visual $82,759 [THERE IT IS! Where did this come from??  This is the first mention of a huge number that differs wildly from the Aug 2014 quote of $34,000 from another company altogether]

So we now have a number getting very close to the current [August 2018] $96,000 screw-job from Azbell.  Clearly, somebody has taken it upon his/herself to just pick Azbell and unilaterally squander a ridiculously huge amount of money.  We know it is ridiculous, because back in August 2014, Broadcast Works WAS AWARDED A BID FOR A/V for $34,000…City Council at the time VOTED ON IT!!!

Again…I ask Finley and Monica: how was this decided??  Why was this not re-bid?  Why was Council not informed of any re-bids especially since the cost nearly TRIPLED.  I ask City Council (especially Talbert and White since they were there in 2014 and voted to award $34,000 to Broadcast Works) WHY WAS THIS $83,000 NUMBER NOT IMMEDIATELY QUESTIONED RIGHT HERE ON JAN 8TH??

As an unrelated aside, also at this meeting, Finley is being grilled about the Water/Wastewater Lab/Shop by White and Talbert.  Specifically, Talbert is asking how “a project that started at $400,000 is now going to cost the city $1.2 million”.  [It sure seems like the price of just about every project TRIPLES in a short span of time.  I’m going to call this The Finley Factor.]

Feb 12, 2018: Finley says there is a general lack of bidding interest in demolition, framing, and special construction scope.  He’s asking for direction and possibility of revision of scope into one bidding package.

A contractor was invited to explain.  Lesley Greer of A&L Sanchez said there were a lot of discrepancies in the bid, and without a General Contractor for all of the project, it stalls the project.  She said that most bids similar to this project are bid as one with a GC that leads the project [you may recall that the City chose to NOT have a GC run this project to try and save some money – I sure recall it.  Seems like SOMEBODY should have known that going into this.]

Finley asks Council to let him bid this as one package and also to rescind all plumbing and HVAC/Electrical bids.  Council agrees to this.

March 12, 2018: Finley reviewed a status update of projects earmarked for funding with the 2016 CO (Certificate of Obligation) Issue. Discussions  include the need to increase funding on the Old City Hall project [surprise surprise…the Finley Factor strikes again…how high will the number get??]

In the next, and final chapter, we watch the cost for this project balloon to over $1,300,000.00!!

Hold the Phones Chuck…Monica Wright DID Do Her Job Perfectly (in 2014) – Why Is She Covering for Morons Above Her?

I may owe Monica Wright a partial apology!  I have spent DOZENS of hours reading every page of the City Council minutes starting in January of 2013 (which are the very first minutes available on the website) looking for clues to the current A/V debacle….and let me tell you – there are some real nuggets in there.  Waste and incompetence on a colossal scale.  We are not talking $30,000 or $60,000 here and there anymore.  We are talking in the millions now (between City Council and LEDC waste).  Millions that could have been used to lower property taxes or fix the streets or fix water mains or beautify the parks and creek areas.  Oh boy.  Where to start?

Let’s start with this crazy fact:  in August of 2014, Monica Wright DID get three bids for an A/V system for the new council chambers.  Here is the screen shot for August 25, 2014:

Monica went out and got three bids and then recommended the lowest price – which was NOT Azbell and was just under $34,000 including warranty and training.  City councilman Toups then moved to approve, it was seconded by then-councilwoman MISTI TALBERT (current mayor) and with a unanimous vote, the motion carried.  Also present at this vote were Mike White and Finley deGraffenreid – who still both hold the positions today that they held during that meeting.  Which REALLY makes me wonder why everybody was playing stupid last month when I asked REPEATEDLY and PUBLICLY why we only got one bid on the current $100,000.00 Azbell contract.  Did Finley and Misti and Mike all forget completely that there actually WERE three bids and the lowest was for $34,000?  I highly doubt it.

I have to say, I feel VERY justified now when I went insane over the current $100,000.00 cost – you can see right here, that is almost TRIPLE what is/was considered reasonable.  I will also publicly apologize to Monica Wright for dumping 100% of this debacle in her lap – but I wonder WHY she has refused to mention any of this from day one, when I politely requested a meeting with her to discuss this.  She did her job correctly and found a good price back in 2014…so why the silence all this time?

Now a ton of questions emerge: how did this number TRIPLE so quickly?  Why did city council play stupid when I asked if there were other bids, when they knew damn good and well they DID get three bids?  Did they know that if they gave me those three bid numbers, they would look even more idiotic now since they are paying close to $100,000.00 this year?

Much more to come – including city council buying 100 “stacking chairs” for almost $13,000 for a council chambers building that hadn’t even gotten out of the planning stages yet (but yes, they got two bids on the chairs!).  Why did they spend nearly $13,000 on chairs before the building was even built, a sane person might ask?  Actual answer as printed in the minutes: to spend our year-end funds.  

My god.  Can you screw up any worse?  Can you be WORSE stewards of public funds?  I wonder where those 100 chairs are currently being stored and how much they are paying to store them.  Incredible waste and stupidity on display.