Tag: Chuck Williamson

Holy Shit! Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson Dies In Office.

Wow! Not sure how I missed this one. City councilman Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson passed away June 18th. He will join fellow City councilman Randy “Speedbump” Clark at that big City Council Chamber in the sky.

There is only one conclusion I can draw from BOTH Clark and Williamson passing away during their City council terms: dealing with Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne is enough to put any man in his grave.

I disagreed with pretty much every single position Chuck took as a City councilman. I was especially galled when he voted to hand a pot of gold over to Deorald Finney and his Stone Valley development back around 2019. He was also instrumental in the boneheaded move to sell a City building for $75,000 and then buy the same building back later for $225,000.

I gave Chuck his “Vampire” moniker because despite being voted out of office, he somehow rose from the dead and was re-installed by TJ Monroe when they guy who beat him resigned suddenly. I think that might have even happened twice, actually. I’m too lazy to search my own blog, however.

Chuck was fairly useless as a councilman, but according to his obituary he served in Vietnam – which is a hell I wouldn’t wish on anyone. So my respect for him has jumped on that. I’m sure he has family that will miss him as well. My condolences to them.

R.I.P. Chuck.

TJ Monroe & Chuck Williamson: Making Expensive Shitty Decisions Since July 2013

Chuck Williamson has been involved in City decision making in one way or another (CIP Committee, council) since the early 1990s. TJ Monroe has been doing the same for at least 10 years as a council member and LEDC member.

I would argue it’s time for both of them to hang up the cleats and go play golf or bingo or something. They have both left a trail of money wasting, bad ideas, and idiotic predictions in their wake.

Unfortunately, Williamson just wormed his way BACK into the seat he lost last November, so we are stuck with that clown for another year or so.

BUT, we have a chance to vote TJ Monroe out once and for all this May as she runs for mayor against local businessman Myles Haider.

Let’s take a look at just ONE snapshot from July of 2013 to prove how badly TJ and Chuck have managed things over the years.

From the July 2, 2103 Lampasas Dispatch:

“Also at the recent meeting, the council discussed selling, reusing or moving unoccupied city buildings. The council decided to sell the former City Hall at the corner of Main and Third streets. Mrs. Monroe and Mrs. Bierschwale
said they can envision a private buyer refurbishing the building nicely,
possibly for use as upscale apartments.

Translation: On the advice of the CIP (of which Chuck Williamson was a member at the time), City council – including TJ Monroe – decided to sell the old City Hall building for a measly $75,000!

At the VERY SAME TIME, City council was sitting around saying “gee…we need a new council chambers!” and they were budgeting $250,000 for the project.

From the VERY SAME ISSUE of the Dispatch:

“Several City council members said they would like to consider funding for a new council chambers — estimated to cost $250,000 — in the upcoming fiscal year. “We need it [a larger meeting space] as soon as we can get it — I’ll put it that way,” said McCauley, who serves on the CIP Committee”

So in one breath, these idiots said “we need a place for a new council chambers” and then ALSO said “hey, let’s sell this old building we aren’t using for a pittance!”

What ACTUALLY ended up happening??

There was no “private buyer” to magically turn the building into “upscale apartments” like the monumentally mentally impaired TJ Monroe dreamed about! No…what happened was the morons on City council BOUGHT BACK that very same building for $225,000 just over a year later!!

They THEN spent roughly $1,500,000.00 to “renovate” this building and turn it into a new City council chambers. Thus spending 500% MORE than they were considering spending! ($250k versus $1.5 million).

[Note: the Old City Hall debacle included a $96,000 no-bid A/V system: a screw-up SO egregious it prompted me to start this blog. Not to mention a wildly overpriced elevator that breaks down constantly!]

Did anyone show any regret, remorse or shame for bungling things so horrendously? Hell no! Chuck Williamson was PROUD of his genius idea to sell the old building for a song. He said so in the June 10, 2014 issue of The Dispatch:

“He added that the Capital Improvements Program Committee has shown
foresight with recent plans — such as its suggestion, which the council followed, of selling unused city-owned buildings. The longtime CIP member
said he hopes the committee’s quarterly meetings will help identify both current and future needs for Lampasas.”

We are stuck with Williamson for a short while longer, I’m afraid. But YOU have the chance to get RID of TJ Monroe this May. She has proven over and over that she has no idea what she’s doing, no common sense and NO respect for the taxpayer’s money.

Vote Myles Haider for Mayor of the City of Lampasas.

Chuck Williamson Stomped Like A Narc At A Biker Rally. Will Soon Be Former Goldfish.

Well, one benefit of delaying City council elections was a massive increase in voter turnout. That turnout was not good for soon-to-be-former Goldfish Chuck Williamson, who was beaten like a red-headed stepchild by Gordon Nelson.

Nelson 1527 votes (61%)

Williamson 966 votes (39%)

I’d have to go back and check, but I think Nelson just got more votes than Misti Talbert got COMBINED in her last two elections

[*UPDATE* Fact check – true. Misti ran unopposed in 2017 and was thus gifted the mayoral position. In 2019 she received 543 votes]

As I’ve stated in the past, the best thing about Nelson is that he is NOT Chuck Williamson. Williamson is the guy who once lamented that “we are giving too much away” as a City and then turned around and handed rich developer Deorald Finney $72,000 in ‘free’ electrical hookups and another $185,000 to his former City council buddy ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison and S2Ms.

In other words: good riddance!! Bye Chuck.

Other good news: Bob Goodart defeated Zach Taylor for the Place 5 election to City council 1306 to 1154.

Why do I care about this? Since the Lampasas Dispatch never asked either candidate about their thoughts on the LEDC ‘Business’ Park boondoggle, I requested their positions myself. The Dispatch was very helpful in this regard. The response? Well, Zach Taylor never responded to me. Bob Goodart responded quickly…and he is NOT a fan!

Here is Bob’s statement on the ‘business’ park. Maybe we’ll have some 6-1 votes now instead of council rubber stamping everything without dissent:

“The business park has been a colossal waste of money to this point. The citizens of Lampasas voted to not buy the property, but then the City Manager, Mike Talbot managed to purchase the property through the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation, which is funded by the City of Lampasas.”

“The park sat for years until the decision was made to bring utilities to the park, to entice businesses. The cost to taxpayers was over 1 million dollars to bring water, sewer and electric to the property. Those utilities have sat idle for at least 5 or 6 years. I have now heard there is a plan in the works to build roads inside the park to attract business. So millions more will be spent to sit idly by until when?”

The return on investment on this property will be measured in decades instead of years at best. The best way I know to recoup any money out of this deal would be to sell it to a developer for a housing development, but the City will still lose money on it. No major business wants to build here because we are too far from the interstate, we don’t have a rail head, we don’t have the workforce to sustain it and we don’t have the things that are attractive to those businesses, such as hotels and restaurants and housing. It is my opinion it should be sold to recoup some of the money or at the very least, stop throwing money into it, until there is a firm commitment from a major business to come there.

Neither Of These Dummies Should Be On City Council

The Dispatch is going to start providing us with backgrounds and positions for everyone running for City Council this spring. Place 3 incumbent dingbat Chuck Williamson is being challenged by Gordon Nelson…who also appears to be a dingbat of a different sort.

I’ll go through the pros and cons of each.

Chuck Williamson pros: none

Chuck Williamson cons: has never held a private sector job, as far as I can tell. Has been on City Council for at least the last six years – and was thus part of the profligate spending and idiotic decisions made during that time. Including the $1.5 million vanity project, the $185,000 no-bid bathroom, and all the rest. Chuck also at one point a long time ago said “the City is giving too much away” but then voted to give more away to private developers like Deorald Finney and his Stone Valley subdivision in the form of “free” electrical hookups – not to mention S2M2 and former fellow Council turd ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison. Chuck also favored all the money wasted in the ‘business park’ boondoggle. Chuck’s grade: F

Gordon Nelson pros: calls out City council for stupid spending and specifically mentions the $185,000 bathroom in Campbell Park (Dispatch page 5 – 3/23/20).

Gordon Nelson cons: manages to still wuss out and say “I’m not saying the City Council is spending foolishly, but they’re not spending wisely“. [Wrong Gordo…they are spending foolishly]. Gordon has ALSO never worked in the private sector – huge negative. Gordon unfortunately has a hard-on for a ‘community center’. Which I guess is better than having a hard-on for a ‘civic center’ but not by much. Let’s see how the City handles their new management of the Hostess House, before we bite off more than we can chew….shall we? Intangible: Gordy’s newspaper interview makes him sound less than brilliant. Maybe he just isn’t a very good interviewer? Gordon’s grade: D-

It is a crying shame that Mike White is hanging up his cleats soon. His seat will be fought over by two other people…who I will grade just as soon as their profiles are printed in the newspaper.

Mike has what just about everyone else on City council doesn’t: experience running a successful business in the private sector. He understands the value of a dollar. It is no coincidence he was often the lone voice of sanity and fiscal restraint during council meetings. One Mike White is worth ten of these other bozos. As it is, at LEAST four of the seven current council members owe their life-long earnings to the taxpayer.

As for the other two members, I have no clue what TJ Monroe used to do, but she has been on Council since the earth cooled and seems to ALWAYS vote for more spending and stupid projects. Misti seems hardwired to spend huge amounts of money. Not sure if that is a chick thing or a Misti thing.

Bottom line: we need MORE dudes who have run successful businesses in this town to get on City council. The problem is, they are all busy trying to keep a bunch of eggs in the air – taking care of customers, employees and suppliers all while government at all levels tries to pick their pocket and regulate them into oblivion.

Mike White retiring is a huge blow to the City.

MORE Politicians Flip-Flop On ‘Free’ Stuff

In light of the recent giveaways to developers, I thought I’d search the Dispatch archives to see if any other politicians besides “Greasy” Chris Harrison have changed their tune on handing out “free” stuff like the electrical hookups recently gifted to Deorald Finney and S2M2 Inc for their developments.

Turns out they have! The original Drunken Sailor herself, Mayor Talbert, was actually AGAINST these types of giveaways back in August of 2014. So was Chuck Williamson! Fancy that!

As usual, they were desperately looking for revenue back in 2014. Those of us in the REAL world know that government has a SPENDING problem…not a revenue problem. But dummy politicians and City bureaucrats always go looking for more money first and never look at their own ledgers for waste.

Anyways, there was a HUGE discussion in the Lampasas Dispatch Record chronicling the debate between City council about how to raise MORE money and balance the budget back then. Here are some choice excerpts [look it up, Monica] from the article along with some commentary by me:

“Another revenue idea the council discussed is charging for items – such as replacement of broken valves, meter boxes and cleanout caps – the city currently provides for free. “We’ve been giving a lot away,” Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Williamson said. – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[Chuck Williamson is STILL on City council to this day and JUST “gave a lot away” this year to S2M2 Inc and Deorald Finney! What’s the matter Chuck?? You buddies with all these developers too? Or just going senile?]

“Mrs. Talbert said in light of discussions about taxes and utility rates, the council certainly should consider every revenue source that only impacts the person that causes the problem, or creates the cost, before everybody shares that cost.” Ms. Moreno said charges for those types of items likely will not boost total revenue much, but Mrs. Talbert said it still is an important principle” – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[The person who creates the cost should pay for it?? Kinda like a homeowner or developer paying for their own electrical hookup? Being one of the Seven Goldfish, I doubt Misti remembers saying this but there it is in black and white! She even had “principles” back then! My, how things have changed]

And here is the coup de grace [look it up, Monica] from my new hero Shane Brown. Shane was the DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS back then, so he probably knows what he is talking about:

“Public Works Director Shane Brown said the city loses money when officials waive fees for utility extensions. Brown said he questions how much the city benefits compared to the value of what it gives away in waivers“. – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[Amen, Mr Shane Brown! Testify! Could not have said it better myself].

Of course, this was all in 2014 before Misti transformed into an intoxicated seaman. Now it’s all about buying power, love and admiration with other people’s money in the name of “growth”…a fool’s errand. So much for her “principles” she was babbling about back then. She clearly has none.