New depths are being plumbed by Mandy, the LEDC and (by extension and tacit agreement) our Mayor and City council. They have sunk lower than the lowest level of prehistoric frog turds at the bottom of the New Jersey scum swamp.
If you are new to this issue, Mandy and the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club are busy trying to grab about a million dollars of federal funding to waste on their 17-year-old debacle they call a ‘business park’ – 165 acres of weeds upon which they have wasted over $2 million local tax dollars and have nothing to show for it.
Five or six years ago, it was declared “shovel ready” and lots of moron politicians and City bureaucrats (many of whom still hold those positions today) promised that high-paying jobs were imminent.
That never happened.
But what DID happen is Covid-19. Mandy and the weasels at the LEDC and City saw a chance to blame a virus for their many, many years of blundering and to grab “Covid disaster relief” money from taxpayers all over the United States.
Which is a complete scum bag move.
They have somehow convinced themselves that Lampasas was economically injured by the virus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sales tax receipts are WAY UP this year – and unemployment in Lampasas is far lower than the rest of Texas and the other states
[Lampasas unemployment is 4.8%, Bell County is 7.3%, Texas is 8%, U.S. is 11%]
Lampasas is in SUCH bad shape financially, they handed out ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to countless businesses in ‘Covid relief’ – even though a number of those ‘businesses’ were only open very briefly before Covid hit (*cough* Wool & Vine *cough*).
They were in SUCH bad shape, they quietly gave City manager Finley deGraffenreid a $10,000 raise to $140,000 per year (plus lots of benefits!) right in the MIDDLE of the supposedly economically injurious ‘pandemic’.
They were in SUCH bad shape, they handed out FREE electricity to other “Covid injured” businesses like Burger King…you know, the one that’s listed on the New York Stock Exchange and did a booming drive-through biz during the ‘pandemic’.
In other words, it’s going to be hard to convince anyone with a brain that Lampasas is in dire straits and needs to pilfer a million bucks from the U.S. Treasury. SO – what is a welfare queen to do?
Why, write a bullshit “letter of support template” for the whole stupid ‘business’ park idea, make dozens of copies and then send them out to local businesses to just sign and throw in the mail to them!
Yes, that’s right. Kind of like writing a flattering Valentine’s Day card to yourself, handing it to your boyfriend and suggesting he sign it before handing it back to you, telling you how awesome and hot you are.
In other words, this is an extremely sad and pathetic (not to mention DISHONEST) move.
ONE business owner I talked to didn’t even KNOW they had gotten the letter from Mandy two weeks ago! They had to call around to their underlings and ask everyone else about it!
Naturally, most business owners will just sign and send back, not even knowing what the hell she is talking about. Why? Because they don’t want to be hassled by the City in the future. Can you see it now? “Hey! That’s an awfully nice bistro you have there! It would be a shame if the health department stops by every day for the next month looking for nits to pick!”
Not to mention, Mandy Clause already took her giant sack of money and handed out $100,000 in ‘free money’ to many of these same businesses a few months ago. You think Wool & Vine is going to bite the hand that fed them? Nope. That $100k handed out was almost like a bribe in advance.
Would you like to see some of the absolute BULLSHIT LIES that Mandy is foisting upon all these business owners in her form letter? Here you go – remember, the business owner is supposed to sign these and send in as if they thought of all this “support” themselves:
Furthermore, our suppliers that depend on us to support them and their communities continue to also have significant financial impacts. Any relief for the community and the workforce is appreciated
Our stores have implemented over [FILL IN NUMBER] actions to help reduce the potential risk to our employees and customers of the virus spreading. Although these actions have been costly, they have proven to keep our teams safe.
Stability of the economy and supply chain is at risk. We need relief and help in the local municipalities or they will struggle to recover from this major economical and health event. Please support the City of Lampasas in their request for infrastructure funding
Oh, so now it is ‘infrastructure funding’? LOL. I thought it was Covid relief. Of course, the feds have ALREADY printed TRILLIONS and handed it out to small businesses, the unemployed and anyone else with a pulse. The City of Lampasas population has seen a roughly $5 million windfall of federal handouts and has collected about $250,000 in EXTRA sales tax because of this windfall.
But…”we need relief”. Yeah, right.
“We need help in the local municipalities or they will struggle to recover“? This sentence is terribly written. Who are “they”? The municipalities? I thought this was about local businesses – NOT the well-paid bureaucrats who are swimming in budget surpluses, according to our City manager!
Also, it’s “economic” not “economical“. Man, you’d think for $100,000 the taxpayer might get a public relations chick who can write at a high school level, at least.
A second letter has THIS bullshit in it:
The infrastructure improvements to the Lampasas Business Park will provide incentive for businesses, like ours, to consider this location in expansion plans. With these proposed improvements and the recovering economy, our company may consider expansion in this area with additional space and [FILL IN BLANK] new employees.
This is the most disgusting and egregious of Mandy Walsh’s many lies. The REALITY is that every single one of the businesses you are sending this bullshit letter to has had FIVE YEARS to consider your ‘business park’ already! And they have ignored your weed patch, knowing full well it is a useless shit heap.
Mandy suggests that if they only had “infrastructure” in the park like “sewer and electricity” then all of these many businesses would be falling over each other to get in there.
Ummm, sweetie? There is ALREADY sewer and electricity” in there! Remember? You dolts spent a MILLION DOLLARS back in 2014/2015 to do that and PROMISED that you were now shovel-ready and the jobs were about to come pouring in. Remember Delana Toups’ quote from 3.5 years ago? Or TJ Monroe from 5.5 years ago?
“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017
“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015
The rest of their horribly wrong predictions can be found at THIS link.
Up next: According to LEDC minutes (8/19/20 page 3 ), Mandy is paying Impact DataSource to do an economic impact study on their “prospective business park prospect” – presumably Mike Cour and Eco-Flex. You know, the outfit I have already proven are complete liars and bullshitters. Stay tuned…