Tag: detention pond

“Greasy” Chris Harrison: Then and Now – A Study in Hypocrisy.

Amazing what you can find in the archives. Like this little nugget from the Lampasas Dispatch Record (archives April 10th, 2015 – page 11). The Dispatch was interviewing then-candidate Chris Harrison as he ran for City Council a second time (he resigned with a year left in his term the first time around):

“The council candidate said he opposes tax abatements and other financial incentives to prospective businesses. He also said he was against city officials’ economic-development trips to California and a subsequent incentive agreement for a company that moved from California to Lampasas. “To me, it’s not the government’s place to fund private business,” Harrison said.

“The candidate said he learned from a grant program the City Council offered briefly in 2011. Under the program, which Harrison initially supported but later voted to repeal, small businesses that opened in Lampasas after a specified date were eligible for a grant of $5,000 from the city. Harrison said council members had good intentions but learned quickly there were problems with offering taxpayer money to businesses. “

Wow. Harrison sounds reasonable and intelligent here. He is 100% correct on those points. However, here we are about 4.5 years later and Harrison is singing a completely different tune.

NOW, Harrison has been hired by S2M2 Inc. – a local PRIVATE business. He recently went in front of city council to beg for $125,000 in “cost sharing” to pay for half of a detention pond his employer (a PRIVATE developer) needs. I guess if you are going to steal, then steal big, right Chris? You had a real problem with handing out $5,000 grants to small businesses (rightfully so) back in April of 2015 when you were running for Council but $125,000 to your new employer S2M2 Inc is just fine and dandy! Perhaps it should be Chris “The Hypocrite” Harrison instead of “Greasy” Chris.

It’s also VERY greasy that Council shot down the idea in May, but since FORMER COUNCIL MEMBER Harrison showed up to plead the case, now Misti Talbert says “city officials need to think again about a detention pond.” (Lampasas Dispatch 8-30-19 – page A4 – paragraph 12).

BONUS SCUMBAGGERY: The Dispatch archives also mention that Harrison owns a dirt contracting company he started in 2002. I wonder who will get the big, fat $250,000 contract for BUILDING this detention pond? Is that the deal, Chris? You go beg to your former Council chums for a $125,000 check to S2M2 Inc and then Steven McDonald (owner of S2M2) hands you the dirt contract? Sure looks that way from where I’m standing.

What an absolutely disgusting display of hypocrisy and wasteful spending all wrapped up in a big pile of dog shit. Will The Seven Goldfish look into this? I highly doubt it.

Former City Council Member “Greasy” Chris Harrison Goes Begging To City Council for $125,000 of Free Money for His New Employer S2M2 Inc.

The name “Chris Harrison” should ring a bell with longtime readers. He is not only the ex-city-council dummy who motioned to spend $126,000 (originally $119,000) on an elevator for the Old City Hall debacle (page 6) when there was a perfectly good $96,000 bid on the table….he is also the bozo who, as a then-current member of the Lampasas Riding Club AND City Council, pushed council to spend six-figure sums on lights and steel panels (page 7) for the “riding arena” over at the 580 Sports Complex (even though there are ALREADY existing arenas close to Lampasas). Naturally, they had MUCH bigger and more expensive plans (page 1 and 2).

[As more evidence of the insanity back in those days, then-mayor Toups and then-mayor-pro-tem Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert were ACTUALLY entertaining the notion of spending $2.5 million for a RODEO FACILITY (page 2 and 3). They thought it was a dandy idea and would pay for itself. THESE are the people in charge?? Truly boggles the mind.]

Suffice it to say that “Greasy” Chris has a history of proposing horrible and expensive ideas that seem to serve “Greasy” Chris himself. The fact he is popping up asking for money from his former Council buddies makes a lot of alarms go off.

Back to the present day: according to the latest Dispatch, Chris Harrison now “represents” a company called S2M2 Incorporated….and they want some free stuff: namely $125,000 from the city in “cost sharing” for a detention pond in a new subdivision.

(For those of you who don’t get it, “cost sharing” is the new bullshit term for developers who want the city to hand them large sums of your tax dollars).

This bad idea ALREADY was shot down last May, but apparently whoever pulls the strings at S2M2 decided to hire Harrison to try and sweet talk his former council buddies into forking over $125,000 – Harrison supposedly then directly contacted Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert and made his case again. Misti, who has never met a spending idea she didn’t agree with, now thinks this is just fine and dandy.

I dug into S2M2 Inc online and found very little: an address here in town at 202 Riverview Drive, Suite #2 and some taxpayer numbers and a charter date of September 28, 2017. Here is a photo of the front of this “corporation” (it is actually the storefront of the nice lady who does his books for him):

I had one of my private investigators dig some more and apparently the only name associated with this ‘company’ is a guy named Steven McDonald. I assume that’s where the S&M comes from. Get it?? S&M?? S2M2??

Well, this looks pretty damned greasy, if you ask me….hence the moniker “Greasy” Chris Harrison. How long has Harrison ‘worked’ for S2M2? Who the hell is Steven McDonald and why is he so keen to steal $125,000 from the taxpayers? Does he own property over there? Why does Steven McDonald list ONLY his accountant’s address in his corporate charter – which is extremely strange, in my book.

Perhaps City Council can look into those very questions instead of just handing over a chunk of money to every developer with a pulse (*cough* Deorald Finney *cough*).