The LEDC has now concluded their business for 2023, since they never meet in December. What have they accomplished this year? Let’s take a look.
Business Park: still empty.
Next May will mark the TWENTY YEAR anniversary of when the LEDC decided to embark upon this disastrous adventure at the urgings of Angelou Economics (you can learn about that HERE):
They borrowed $1.1 MILLION (over TWO million in today’s dollars) at a hefty 7% – for what is now STILL a giant empty “goat pasture” (former City council member Mike White’s words, not mine). The only excitement that has happened over there was when a murderer dumped a corpse there in July of 2019.
Well over seven million dollars has been wasted thus far.
Last January (almost a year ago now) Finley hired Stacey Ybarra as the new Economic Development Director. She was hired on at a very generous $85,000 per year (quickly raised to $89,280 after less than nine months on the job) – which is $10,000 MORE than the person she replaced (Mandy Walsh) who had been there FIVE years and had a lot more experience than Ybarra.
I’m not sure what the LEDC chumps paid for the “Perryman Group” economic projections back in 2007 [page 130], but I’m sure it was WAY more than the $0.00 the projections ended up being worth.
First is the cost projection. As you can see, the geniuses at Perryman figured it at about $2.7 million dollars….
Actual cost as of today? Over $7.2 million and counting.
But what about the BENEFITS? Well, Perryman has an answer there too:
Wow! A new job is created for every $350 in outlays? I thought that was a typo for sure, and the number had to be more like $35,000 in outlays. Nope. It’s $350 – which means that we should have created over 20,000 jobs for the $7.2 million spent.
Actual jobs created? ZERO.
As you can see, Perryman predicted 9,800 jobs, but that was with a $2.7 million cost ($2.7 million divided by their bullshit $350 per job number = 7,700 jobs). Since the REAL cost is now $7.2 million, we should have gotten about 20,000 jobs instead. That 9,800 jobs number is so absurd on it’s face, somebody at the LEDC should have laughed at them and demanded their money back. Of course, nobody did. They nodded their heads and swallowed the bullshit whole.
Perryman also told the LEDC that all that Biz Pork money created would “help defray the costs of public services and other infrastructure.” In fact, the Business Pork has had the OPPOSITE effect.
LEDC President Misti Talbert literally stood in front of City council and begged for (and got) $971,000 in Covid-relief funds that the CITY could have used for just about ANYTHING ELSE! Including public services and infrastructure! The Biz Pork didn’t defray SHIT! In fact, it pilfered money that could have been used elsewhere! How’s that for irony??
Talbert and the LEDC pilfered $971,000 over 18 months ago.
Are you starting to see the depth of the bullshit going on at the Business Pork project? Why I rail on it over and over and over again? Why it’s the biggest ripoff ever pulled over on the taxpayers? Are you starting to see the incredible amount of incompetence and stupidity on display by the LEDC over the last 20 years?!?!
Every single promise, projection and assurance has been 100% complete and utter bullshit for OVER TWENTY YEARS.
Well, you don’t see THIS too often! From yesterday’s Radiogram:
My god, Ronnie Witcher writes like a retard. He’s almost worse than Ryan Ward. That sentence make zero sense grammatically, but you get the idea: things are not progressing smoothly at the “new” (20-year-old) Business Pork project.
You don’t say? Gee, who has been saying that for over FIVE YEARS now?
I’d say you better get ready for a LOT more “frustration,” gentlemen.
Ybarra might have babbled on and on for 20 minutes [38 minute mark] on Monday night throwing out a lot of buzzwords, but the facts remain indisputable:
Current amount wasted on advertising “Business Park”:$50,000.00
Current amount wasted in total on empty goat pasture:$7,200,000.00
Maybe Ybarra finally got a tap on the shoulder from the City’s hack attorney JC Brown telling her to lay off all the bullshit and lies because it was making it harder and harder to keep denying me information.
Here is the OLD “economic matrix” – complete with the horseshit about “20 – to 35 jobs created” and “project wins”and “announced capital investments”
Here is the NEW “economic matrix” from this week’s LEDC packet (page 27) – all that garbage has been erased. In its place is a “rah rah” cheering section about the new businesses that have opened recently:
Of course, if they were intellectually honest, they would ALSO include the businesses that have CLOSED this year: Wool & Vine, Baby J’s, The Dog House, Rolling Pin and Gillen’s Candies.
I suspect that Bidenomics will claim at least another business or two before the year is over, unfortunately.
Eco-Turd again? I am really wondering who is dumb enough to pay $90 a foot for a fence. Seems pretty much impossible to me. There must be other parties buying products. Maybe a government or “polluting” company that needs to burnish their “green image” so they buy overpriced crap from Eco-Turd.
No matter. My lawyer is on the job again and we will leave no stone unturned. Be assured I’ll remind the LEDC of all their rules about who they can and cannot hand tax money to.
In honor of Eco-Turd, I’m going to go through my piles of old LEDC stuff and find all the emails I have between Mandy Walsh and Finley discussing the Eco-Turd a couple years ago when they were strung along by Mike Cour.
Let’s be frank. Everyone on the LEDC knows the name of this secret business pork prospect. The City attorney knows the name. Likely, everyone on City council and more than a few City employees also know the name. At least three dozen people know who it is.
Yet City attorney J.C. Brown is silent and refuses to respond to my requests to name this prospect. Why? Is there a law against it? No. Is it because the prospect is such a joke, you cannot bear to let me know because I will ridicule it and poke a dozen holes in the entire idea? If that is true, you should be ashamed of yourselves for such a shitty prospect.
Is it Eco-Turd?? Please, God, let it be Eco-Turd.
Well, we will know in a day or two or I’ll be hiring my own lawyer again and also going after the City for my attorney’s fees. We have already been through this multiple times. You don’t have a leg to stand on, JC Brown. RELEASE THE NAMES!!!
If any of you naughty employees wants to leak it to me in total anonymity, feel free to drop me a line at lampasshole@protonmail.com
I may soon have to retire the “goldfish” moniker since there are fewer and fewer dummies on City council compared to when I started this site almost 5 years ago. We now have non-goldfish like Pearce, Morris and Keele up there on the dais.
Hopefully after the elections next month, we will be rid of not only Monroe, but Kuehne as well. I’m seeing a LOT of Herb Pearce signs around town. Unfortunately, he has to deal with the Teachers Mafia – hundreds of teachers who will blindly vote for Kuehne just because SHE and her husband are also teachers. Gonna be tough to overcome that. But overcome that we must, if we are to avoid having our fourth substandard mayor in a row.
Tonight’s subjects:
Get ready to pay more for water and electricity!
Is Finley about to hang up his cleats and retire? Will Ryan “Forrest Gump” Ward be taking over in the next month?
Dealing with the Hostess House debacle.
Details of the new Business Pork prospect. Just kidding. You are not allowed to hear about that. It’s all Super Secret. You will only hear about it HERE on this blog after I battle with JC Brown and blow my own money hiring lawyers. Again.
Here is a recent example of a city handing out free money to a company in exchange for “creating jobs” in that city. I am bringing this up because it is very clear that our own LEDC and City council is now in the midst of “secret negotiations” to “evaluate financial information from a business.”
20 years of failure.
The bottom line for the Irving deal with Kelly-Moore paint is they get $75,000 in “incentives” in exchange for promising to create 30 jobs with a $100,000 salary. In other words – $3 million of salaries for a $75,000 donation.
As much as I detest governments handing out “incentives,” you have to admire the ratio: 40-1 in favor of the citizen ($3 million divided by $75,000).
I am posting this now so that we can later compare any “deals” that the geniuses like Misti Talbert and TJ Monroe make with any Business Pork prospects. I GUARANTEE you they will be far shittier than this. Remember: the LEDC has ALREADY spent over SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS on that goat pasture. They better bring in some hella good jobs to justify that waste.
Something tells me it will be more like 10 jobs at $42,000 per year and a ridiculous promise for hundreds more “in the future”.
Goat pasture has been “shovel ready” for 7.5 years….still sits empty.
After listening to this interview, I have to wonder if old Rhonda Witcher reads this blog, because she asked pretty much EVERYTHING I have asked about this “Business Pork” and made the same points I make repeatedly about the labor force not being there to support such a project.
Good job, Rhonda! You did the first valuable interview of your life at age 102.
Assistant to the City Manager Ryan Ward was on there in place of Finley (another sign that Finley is handing over the reins this year) and our new Economic Development Director Stacey Ybarra joined him. Between the two of them, they talked in circles spewed many buzzwords, and basically gave zero information on the entire park.
First let’s hear Ryan Ward’s bullshit:
Rhonda Witcher: “Well, the can of worms you get when you come here to Lampasas is the Business Park out on 183…the City has had that a long time…put a lot of money into it…it’s been built – has anybody come yet? Are there any renters?“
Ryan Ward: “That’s a great question! I can give you an update on that! Mandy did a great job…it is about 99% complete…the legwork that Mandy had done…there are several businesses that were waiting on the City of Lampasas to complete that… so once the electric is complete, we hope to get folks, uh, moving in as soon as possible, you know, some of these businesses that are really interested in being out there”
Great non-answer, asswipe! Rhonda asked if there were any renters and you just babbled a whole pile of bullshit without giving an answer. SHOCKINGLY, Rhonda didn’t take that for an answer, and pressed him AGAIN….
Rhonda Witcher:“But SPECIFICALLY, are any tire-kickers, ha-ha-ha, or anyone out there looking??”
Ryan Ward:“You know, uh, that would be a good question for, uh, our manager, Finley deGraffenreid….he worked real close with Mandy…that piece of it I didn’t work on it with Mandy…the interested parties…and…a lot of those things are kinda kept, nondisclosure…until they make their mind up…but yeah, I don’t have any of that information, I wish I did, to share”
Ah yes – pawn it off on Mandy (who is long gone) and Finley (who isn’t there and will ALSO be retiring soon! Pass the buck – classic bureaucrat move
Rhonda is STILL undeterred! He keeps at it. He turns to Stacey Ybarra and asks “what do you think about that?”
Stacey Ybarra: “I think it’s a great opportunity…at this moment in time…to be able to attract businesses, you need shovel-ready sites…you need those types of sites to be able to bring big businesses…it’s just about getting it completed and doing the legwork to bring them here, they will come…it just may take a tiny bit of time…but that’s what I’m here for….and making sure the money was worth the while. It is my number-one priority.…
SHOVEL READY Q4 2015!!! That would be 87 months ago, sugar
[Rhonda STILL keeps at it. Bravo Rhonda. Ward and Ybarra expected to sit there and babble more vague bullshit but you held their feet to the fire. Witcher asks for specifics AGAIN!]
Rhonda: “Hmmm…ok…how do you do that? You know…how do you go out and find, uh, businesses that want to move here?”
Stacey Ybarra:“That’s part of economic development…there’s a lot of different strategies…you have to continually reach out…it’s about staying the in know…what leads are out there and keeping your ear to the ground…and also cold-calling…”
Talbert told us last February (when she pilfered $971,000 from the City) that the LEDC was turning businesses away, because the Business Pork wasn’t up to snuff!
Not ONCE did Ybarra say “The Governor’s office calls us weekly with RFIs”!! Not ONCE. Which just reinforces my belief that that line was never anything but a huge lie.
Rhonda then brings up ANOTHER great point of mine next:
Rhonda: “I wonder…does Lampasas have the labor…for these businesses“
Ward then piles on the shit BIG time and blabbers a big bowl of diarrhea word salad and cliches and bullshit:
Ryan Ward: “You know, that’s kind of an interesting thought…we have to reach further out…you hope you can find enough work force…to hire more staff…and that’s always the first priority…not only that there is housing…how are we developing those housing communities? But the growth is coming here…”
Oh, is the growth coming here? No shit! Then why have we been subsidizing all of these housing developments if “they are coming” anyways, you morons? Talbert (as mayor), Williamson, Monroe and the rest have given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to developers over the last couple years. Instead, they should be assessing impact fees to pay for the water, sewer, police and all the rest we will now need more of.
Talbert and the rest always tell us this will all “grow the tax base”. So fucking what? Will our taxes go DOWN? No, they will not. You can bet your ass on that.
So the bottom line? No, we don’t have any prospects for the park – despite 20 years and seven million dollars and lying to you for YEARS that “we get weekly requests for information”. No, we don’t have the labor force to fill any jobs we might get. Oh but don’t worry, we’ll subsidize rich developers like Deorald Finney for houses that would be built anyways and we’ll ship people in from Cove and Austin, if need be.
So at the end of the day, there will be more traffic, more crowding, more houses cramming in on 1/4 acre lots, and your taxes will not ever go down. In fact, you’ll be paying more as we have to now blow millions more on water and waste water.
So tell me again why this is a good thing? Sounds like dog shit to me.
Good thing the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club is spending $7 million on a Business Pork Project to bring “high paying jobs” to Lampasas. They have been at it for almost 20 years now and have squandered millions.
Meanwhile the private sector is way ahead of them, as usual:
Mandy Walsh had zero to do with this. Misti Talbert had zero to do with this. The LEDC had absolutely zero to do with this. Yet somehow, there are some great jobs available! How did they ever do it without a bunch of bumbling morons wasting millions?? It boggles the mind.
So Wal-Mart is desperate for workers. Everyone is desperate for workers. There are WAY more jobs available than there are people to fill them, so naturally the LEDC thinks they need to spend millions to “bring jobs” here. Makes complete and total sense.
This is the SAME Misti Talbert who, when she was mayor, had trouble finding enough lifeguards to open the City pool! Truly, hers is a towering intellect and razor sharp business mind.
Speaking of Misti…she assured us a mere 7 weeks ago that there is NO commercial space in Lampasas! Her beloved Business Pork is the only game in town! She told us this when she begged the City for $971,000 for her idiotic project:
Groveling for money: lies and more lies
Makes me wonder how THIS place opened, if that’s the case….
Not to mention NextLink, PhoLicious, etc, etc, etc – how can this new place possibly exist when “there is no commercial space in Lampasas”?
