After what seemed like quite a bit of confusion about whether there should have been an interview process with each applicant, council finally voted on the LEDC board matter.
As I suspected, the “wussy middle ground” was the way they went: they jettisoned TJ Monroe as she has been there the longest and is the oldest. They needed a sacrificial lamb, and they weren’t about to toss Talbert, since she is the current president of the entire mess, unfortunately.
I guess the thinking here by keeping Talbert AND her brother-in-law Erwin (when there were at least FIVE other citizens who applied) is “we don’t want to switch horses in midstream.” The problem with that “logic” is the idea that they are anywhere NEAR the middle of the stream. They are still back on the bank of the river, and moving AWAY from it more every year.
Deorald Finney was selected to replace Monroe. Huge mistake. Finney is the guy who was handed a $72,000 gift of tax dollars from Talbert and Monroe – and who then jacked the prices of his Stone Valley Houses by about 40%.
So now those two will be working hand-in-glove on the LEDC. Should make the grifting a lot easier for both of them.
I can’t believe they didn’t go with Mike Irvin. I never even heard his name mentioned during discussion. Maybe he withdrew (?).
Oh, also Sid Ball assured us all that “things are really moving now,” which is likely why he was ALL in favor of keeping the current three numb nuts in there.
I don’t want to say the LEDC are like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, but here are a few quotes to remind everyone how long we’ve been hearing that line of nonsense:
“I feel like we’re getting somewhere,” board president Dr. Neal Leavell added. “I think we’ve really accomplished something. It’s taken a lot of patience, but we’re here.” – September 23, 2014 (over TEN YEARS AGO!)
“DeGraffenried said the LEDC was bold in its decisions to purchase the business park property and extend utilities to it. The city manager predicted Lampasas will enjoy many “spin-off benefits” throughout the city because of the utility work. ” – October 23, 2015
Or maybe read my transcript from Ryan “Gump” Ward and Ybarra from almost TWO YEARS ago!
I guess we’ll get more details from The Dispatch in a couple days.
What a missed opportunity.