Tag: Broadcast works

Monica Can’t-Wright Has Trouble With Second-Grade Grammar

Oh goodness. It seems every internal City Hall Monica email I open is an embarrassment of grammar…not to mention more evidence of chicanery and outright lies when awarding a no-bid $95,000 contract to Azbell Electronics.

Dumping on her writing skills feels a little bit like pistol-whipping a blind kid, but after her decision to agitate me in a bar recently, I really have no choice but to keep this up.

As we can see below, yet again, she was in contact with poor Adam Comer from Broadcast Works (original bid $34,000 for the City Council chambers TVs and microphones). Adam eventually was quietly and inexplicably dropped and not allowed to bid a second time (despite being BY FAR the lowest bid the first time around)….ostensibly because Finley suddenly remembered Azbell was a “buy board” company.

The following was sent by Monica to Adam on December 19, 2016:

Adam, I haven’t talked to you in a while and wanted to touch base with you. So, it looks like we are getting geared up for the Chambers project again…finally. We should have a set of plans by January. I spoke with our City Manager today and he asked me about the project and asked that I touch base with you. I think that we will need to re-bid this project due to the number of things that has changed as well as some of our needs that have changed. Also, I would be willing to bet that the equipment that you quoted for us 2 years ago, is out of date. Please let me know if you are still interested in this project and how you would like to proceed. I do believe that there is a number of things that we can cut out of the original scope, therefore I think pricing will change. Respectfully Monica Wright IT Director City of Lampasas.

What can we glean from this absolute abortion of incorrect tenses, run-on sentences and unneeded commas? Three facts are impossible to dispute:

Number one: Monica doesn’t know the difference between HAS and HAVE. Nor does she know when to use IS versus ARE. These are things that every native-born American learns in second grade. Here is a proper usage:

“I HAVE fairly conclusive evidence that Monica Wright HAS no freaking idea what she is doing when it comes to writing emails OR fixing computers.”

Number two: City Manager Finley deGraffenried specifically asked her to touch base with Broadcast Works – which (once again) wrecks his argument that they didn’t need to re-bid this nearly $100,000 debacle due to some kind of “buy board” designation. She even used the word “re-bid” in her email.

Number three: Monica (shockingly) actually realizes pricing may have changed since the previous bid. Hopefully she is smart enough to also realize that pricing is almost always CHEAPER over time when it comes to tech stuff like TV sets, computers and cameras. Knowing this, it is bewildering to me that she didn’t blink an eye when Azbell Electronics charged the City $2,150 EACH for four 70-inch TV sets that were available at Wal-Mart for under $1000 last summer (yesterday I saw some 65” sets there for $600).

Not only does the price of tech go DOWN over time, but she also specifically mentions things we can cut out of the original scope! Which should have ALSO made this project cheaper. Between those two facts, Monica and City Hall should have been angling for a price FAR LESS than the original $34,000 bid they accepted from Broadcast Works two years earlier….yet somehow they ended up paying for a $95,000 NO-BID project from Azbell Electronics. It truly boggles the mind.

Coming soon: more grammatical diarrhea from Monica Can’t-Wright and her underling Kristy “The Joker” Acevedo.

This town needs an enema!

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!

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?

 

More Damning Evidence Uncovered….IT Department Should Be Very Worried

What happens when it is cold and crappy out all day?  I go sleuthing ever-deeper into the mess that is the Azbell Electronics no-bid $100,000.00 “Ferrari of A/V Systems”” debacle.  And after 5 hours of digging, I found a few more HUGE nuggets….which will be posted later today.

Bottom line is this: in August 2014, Monica got three bids for an A/V system.  I have found all three bids in the August 25, 2014 City Council packet – the winning bid from Broadcast Works is on pages 187 through 200.  The Azbell and Whitlock bid sheets follow that one.

Broadcast Works even drew up a fancy little schematic…just like Azbell:

At some point between that day and March 13, 2017, Broadcast Works was dropped, Azbell was chosen, and the price zoomed from $34,000 (Broadcast Works original bid), past $43,000 (Azbell original bid) to $96,000 (Azbell final price which was NEVER BID). Somewhere in the council packets, the answer must lie.

So I thought of a new angle to pin down these slippery weasels: start by requesting and searching for every actual check that was written by the City during that time period (I have made a records request for copies of all checks).

The City is also required to post all these checks and they show up in the first packet to City Council every month.  I still haven’t found a check written to Broadcast Works but I found a lot of other interesting things – more money wasted and more questions raised.  The noose continues to tighten around the IT Department and some of their highly questionable purchases.  Stay tuned…more to come today.

 

 

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.