Tag: Azbell Electronics

Seven Goldfish Move Into Their New $1,500,000.00 Fishbowl

Huzzah! The $1,500,000.00 Talbert/deGraffenreid Wow-Factor Vanity Project is supposedly finally done, according to today’s Dispatch!! Only a year late and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget!

I’m not sure why they waited until four days AFTER the Oct 28th City council meeting to trumpet this thing in the newspaper. Why not do your big Dispatch puff piece BEFORE the meeting? That way the highly engaged and intelligent electorate can come and gaze upon the majesty of its many big-screen TVs and its $95,000 no-bid A/V system, right?

Maybe it’s just MOSTLY done and not ALL done. Kinda like the ‘shovel-ready’ corpse repository business park. That would also explain why the Dispatch article says that City officials have announced that “a formal open house and dedication ceremony is planned in December” instead of making the same announcement last week. Gives them another month to actually make it ALL done, right?

I think one of the funniest parts of the article is where Spinley deGraffenreid explains to us morons that selling the entire building to Joe Corcoran in 2013 for $75,000 [which is less than $7 per square foot!] and then BUYING BACK THE EXACT SAME BUILDING IN 2015 FOR $229,000 was ACTUALLY a stroke of genius. BAHAHAHAHA. I gotta hand it to Spinley – I have no idea how he keeps a straight face when he makes these outlandish claims.

The explanation for paying over TRIPLE what they sold it for two years earlier? Well, I guess old Joe made some ‘improvements’ to the place – like new windows and a NEW ROOF, according to the Dispatch article.

New roof??? Weird. Because, as I recall, despite the idiots at JNW Architects collecting a check for declaring the building structurally sound [May 2016] and “in good shape”, City council LATER approved almost FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO RE-ROOF back on September 20th, 2018!

Spinley also loves repeating his fairy tale that the renovation was ‘only’ $1.02 million, because that’s how much they handed over to ASJ Construction. He doesn’t count all the other stuff – like the $154,000 they wasted buying back the building…the $54,000 to JNW Architects to make a bunch of mistakes consult…the no-bid $95,000 AV system…the $60,000 fire suppression system..$12,780 for 100 stackable chairs to hold the throngs of City Council attendees…$8,055 for OTHER Council furnishings…$50,000 contingency….random furnishings….the $128,400 elevator…the $45,000 roof repair that was supposedly already done by Corcoran….. and a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff.

Only in the mind of a government bozo do those costs not count. The REAL number is WELL OVER $1.5 million, my man.

Here is a summary of just a small bit of the stupidity – the roof:

November 2013: City council decides to sell the building to Joe Corcoran for $75,000 or less that $7 per square foot.

In 2015: City council The Seven Goldfish decide to buy the same building back for $229,000 – apparently forgetting (as goldfish are prone to doing) they just sold it for $75,000. They claim the $154,000 wasted is ok because Joe fixed some windows and put on a new roof. Joe triples his money in less than two years. Your tax dollars at work.

May 23, 2016: JNW Architects said the building “is in good condition”

October 2016: Finley hands JNW another $18,000 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” for the building.

September 2018: Finley comes begging to City council for $45,000 to re-roof the building. Council The Seven Goldfish, forgetting (as goldfish are prone to do) that the building was already deemed awesome and structurally sound, agree to fork over the $45,000 with no questions.

This would all be hilarious if it was happening to Chicago or Austin Copperas Cove…but no. Sadly these morons are running OUR city. How many more millions need to be wasted before people wake up?

Monica’s Melons

“Do not stoop to tie your laces in your neighbor’s melon patch”  — Old Chinese proverb.

 

This was always one of my favorite sayings.  Simple…clever…and requiring a tiny knowledge of melon growing.  Do you understand the meaning?  I’ll explain and simplify, so that even the ENTIRE Sullivan family can understand it.

It means, it is wise to avoid even the APPEARANCE of impropriety or theft.  Maybe your shoe is untied…maybe it isn’t.  Maybe you were about to steal the neighbor’s melon and maybe you weren’t.  Perhaps it was an innocent shoelace tying…or maybe it was something more malicious, like melon theft.

(Even more simply, in deference to the Sullivans, melons grow on the ground, and it would require bending over to steal one).

Get it?  You wait until AFTER you exit the melon patch to tie that shoe.  That way, there are no misunderstandings or appearances of scum-baggery.  For a tiny bit of effort (waiting a few minutes to tie the shoe), you avoid a big ugly mess of accusations.

It would also apply to, say, getting several bids on a $100,000.00 project to install a bunch of giant TVs and microphones and fancy iPads and stuff all over Lampasas city Council Chambers.  By getting three different companies to COMPETE over a project, you insure that everything is (and looks!) above board.  This COMPETITION is how you get the best price.  Without it, you end up with something like the post office – terrible product and high price.

So…it makes me wonder why everyone in the city is digging their heels in on this thing.  Monica could have picked up a phone and gotten two more bids…which costs the city zero.  The downside to that is literally ZERO.  The upside is that they may save $40,000.  So why isn’t it being done??  The fact that they are all willing to go to the mat on such a horrible decision makes me wonder if melons are being stolen.  Know what I mean?  They are all doubling down and defending a terrible decision that is clearly wasting money for the city.

Maybe Azbell handed somebody an envelope full of cash…maybe they didn’t.  Maybe people were promised their OWN 70′ TV from Azbell for their home…maybe they weren’t.  There is no way to prove or disprove that and I’m just giving examples of how something that looks this bad might be construed- but it sure makes the imagination run wild….and it could all have been avoided by picking up the phone for two more bids.  But they won’t.  So why are they all choosing to “die on this hill” as it were?

Why not get two more bids?  I’m still waiting for that answer.  Especially from those who are hell-bent on attacking me and defending Monica and her melons.