I recently requested a list of businesses that were lucky enough to receive Mandy Walsh’s “the business park is AWESOME” template letter. As you recall, these businesses are supposed to “write a letter” (actually written by Mandy herself) to the U.S. government and support Mandy begging for almost a million dollars of OTHER people’s tax money so the LEDC can waste ANOTHER $1.9 million of their ‘business park’ debacle.
One of the names on the list was Ajinomoto (Windsor) Foods. One of the biggest employers in our town. You may remember Ajinomoto Foods: back in early 2016, they offered to swap about 2 acres of land with the City near Campbell Park so they could expand their business and “add up to 200 jobs” PLUS they would hand the City $300,000!!
From the Lampasas Dispatch (3/18/16):
“The frozen-food company’s proposal, explained in a four page letter submitted March 7 to the Lampasas City Council, involves enlarging the downtown plant to create as many as 200 new jobs. In exchange for acquiring about two acres of undeveloped land on the south side of Campbell Park, Ajinomoto Windsor has offered to give the city 2.33 acres adjacent to the west side of the park “and up to $300,000 in cash for park development”
Sounds like quite a deal to me! Ajinomoto says “hey, you give us those 2 acres there, we give you a different 2.33 acres nearby (land swap) AND we will throw in $300,000 AND we will create up to 200 jobs!”
These are REAL jobs, mind you. Not complete bullshit imaginary jobs that Mike Cour and Eco-Strong are currently offering.
So what does City council do? Do they let the issue go to a vote by the people (which is required by law in any land conveyance like this)? Hell no! They vote to KEEP THE ISSUE OFF THE BALLOT!
From the Dispatch (3/18/16)
The City Council recently voted not to include the proposed land sale on
the May 7 ballot, however, so the next opportunity for the plan to be presented to voters would be in November.
Who voted against this? You may recognize some of the names: Talbert, White, Williamson and Monroe – FOUR of the current seven council members.
You cannot make shit like this up. The absolute STUPIDITY of the City knows no bounds. I love to make short summaries of the City’s retard moves, so here we go:
2014/2015 – City wastes almost a MILLION DOLLARS bringing water and electricity to 165-acre weed patch known as “business park”. Project has been going on since 2003 and has wasted WAY over $2 million at this point. The whole point of the weed patch endeavor is to “create jobs”.
Early 2016 – Ajinomot0 proposes a land swap that results in 200 new jobs AND $300,000 for park improvements. CREATING JOBS – which is EXACTLY what the LEDC has tried (and failed) to do forever with their $2 million goat pasture.
Early 2016 – City council (including current Mayor Talbert) votes 6-0 to NOT ALLOW this issue on the ballot where the citizens can decide.
The rest of 2016 – of course, the deal dies on the vine and never happens. Not mentioned in the Dispatch again.
2014 thru 2019 – weed patch garners ZERO interest from any businesses despite the wasting of a million dollars. City thoroughly embarrassed that all their predictions of “high paying jobs” have failed to materialize.
2020 – LEDC and Mandy decide that ANOTHER $2 million is needed to REALLY make it ‘developed’. They come up with idea to beg for money from Feds in the guise of “Covid relief” for their “economic injury”, even though the City is thriving by every metric (sales tax receipts, budget surplus, low unemployment numbers).
September 2020 – Mandy sends a letter to Ajinomoto begging them to cheer lead for her ‘business’ park grant submission!!!
Brilliant! Why let a company hand you $300,000 and 200 jobs for no effort when you can INSTEAD squash those jobs and waste $2 million on a weed patch pipe dream across town? Then beg the SAME company to help you out!
The LEDC and Mandy are like that loser friend you have that only calls you when they need to borrow money or bail them out of jail. Bunch of useless turds, if you ask me. I would love it if Ajinomoto told her to suck a big one, but – like all businesses in the City – they probably don’t want to be hassled in the future and signed the letter as directed.