Tag: fishbowl

City Council Decides to NOT Use The $1.5 Million Building They Wanted Because They Needed More Room

Tonight’s council/town hall meeting will NOT be held at the $1.5 million dollar Fishbowl Vanity project. I have no idea why – except, perhaps, they don’t want an official record (audio and video) of their discussions about the $120,000 Halff Associates “Comprehensive Plan”.

Considering the massive sums wasted on the City council chambers and the constant justification that “we need more space”, it seems odd NOT to use this fancy building for the big “community meeting” tonight.

Funny – back in 2014, TALBERT HERSELF justified a new City council chambers by saying they needed MORE SPACE to accommodate the public:

The money wasted on her pet project was substantial. Originally, they budgeted $375,000 for the project. Bids came in at around $750,000. The two smart people on City council said “we should drop the whole thing”.

But Talbert and Williamson (shocker) were not deterred! They were determined to waste money on this thing. So they bought back a building they had sold only 15 months earlier – for triple the price:

Brilliant! But we need MORE SPACE!! Finley assured us (as only a government bureaucrat could do) that this idiocy would actually SAVE money:

Finley was wrong, of course. As he always is when it comes to spending money. The project went from $275,000 t0 $375,000 to $750,000 to eventually over ONE POINT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!

Finley went public with damage control as costs spiraled higher:

“City Manager Finley deGraffenried said the City Council’s vision is to have a facility that encourages public participation and “that could be seen as a hub” for a variety of meetings, civic activities and community groups.“

Oh. Like town hall meetings?

The project was one frantic fuckup after another. Starting with council dunces agreeing to spend $33,983 on an A/V system but then BREAKING that agreement for no reason. Instead somebody unilaterally decided they needed a $95,000 system instead. Who the dumb-ass was who did this remains a mystery to this day, despite me spending hundreds of hours digging through City council minutes.

Only government shit heads could make such a mess of things and waste this much money. Don’t even get me started on the elevator screw-up:

RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator

So….as you can see, the dunces in charge wasted a LOT of money on the new City council chambers. They said it was for the community! They said they needed it bigger so the throngs could attend!

Yet tonight, they choose not to use it. Absolutely pathetic and inexplicable.

Yet Another City Promise Turns Out To Be A Lie

From today’s Dispatch:

In another upcoming event, the city will hold a town hall meeting April 6 to discuss recycling, a potential landscape/tree policy and a potential requirement for a form survey for new construction projects. The town hall meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the former Lampasas Middle School cafeteria on Western Avenue.

It is bad enough The Goldfish are putting something as asinine as curbside recycling up for a town hall meeting, where every uninformed dummy in town (like THIS ONE) can clamor for an expensive and useless service. What is WORSE, is that they are holding it in a freaking cafeteria!!

I remember when Spinley and the Seven Goldfish tried to justify their $1.5 million City Hall vanity project by saying the following in the Lampasas Dispatch (and I quote!):

The new City Hall and Council chambers would “allow more public participation in council meetings [and] also will provide a place for various community groups to meet. City Manager Finley deGraffenried said the City Council’s vision is to have a facility that encourages public participation and “that could be seen as a hub” for a variety of meetings, civic activities and community groups.

I would say a town hall meeting to let morons clamor for ‘free stuff’ fits Finley’s description of “a variety of meetings, civic activities and community groups”.

I ranted about this LAST MAY when the City was having meetings at the same cafeteria. Of course, that’s because the $1.5 million boondoggle STILL wasn’t done yet.

Well, it’s done now! They have held Council meetings there for MONTHS. I guess the fancy $1.5 million vanity project is NOT for the community who paid for it after all. It’s just for the Big Wigs. The important politicians and City workers don’t want the filthy masses dirtying up their $12,750 worth of chairs.

I also wonder why the LEDC doesn’t hold their meetings there and use the $96,000 audio/visual system just like City council does. After all, the LEDC handles (I should say ‘mishandles’) hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. The taxpayer has a right to know EVERYTHING that is being discussed in those meetings – not just the short crib notes that show up in the printed minutes.

I asked Finley this very question last month when I met him at City Hall. I did not get an answer.

Yet Another deGraffenreid Lie Exposed.

Wow. How many lies is this now?? I’ve lost count. Someday in the future I’ll have to dedicate a post to all of Spinley’s bullshit over the last year and a half. Today we’ll stick to just the Old City Hall rehab lie.

I have called out Elmo Finley more than a few times about repeatedly telling his favorite fairy-tale to the newspapers. The one where the Old City Hall rehab cost “‘only’ $1.02 million (plus a $125,000 elevator)” [see: Dispatch 11/1/19, page 11, column 2]

(Actually, the elevator was $128,400, but that is just picking nits).

I have maintained all along the true cost was well over $1,500,000.00

Well, we now know I was right yet again. Note the amount listed in official City documents posted this weekend [page 34]:

It’s that big number on the top: $1,463,577. Which is pretty damn close to $1.5 million. Does that number include the $128,400 for the elevator that Spinley always loves to add on separately for some weird reason? Who knows. But we can probably assume they didn’t count stuff like paying $229,000 for the exact same building they sold for $75,000 two years earlier.

Same goes for the $12,780 they spent on a ridiculously large amount of stacking chairs that will never be used.

Bureaucratic knuckleheads like Finley and Monica might not count that as “real” money, but I do. It’s ALL part of this boondoggle.

Add it all up and you can easily make a case for more like $1.6 million wasted on that vanity project. A very far cry from Finley’s oft-repeated lie of $1.02 million.

Fishbowl Unveiled At Open Bowl Ceremony

So the City showed off their new digs earlier this week….ALL the upper-echelon (look it up, Monica) Lampassholes were there. Well, actually it was mostly City employees, City politicians and the piles of people who have made a mint off of City contracts. Even Pope Eckermann was there to bless the proceedings. As was JNW bunglers Architects. I assume there were some people there from ASJ and RKJ Construction companies but I don’t have any clue what they look like. Maybe they were the guys over in the corner laughing and lighting their cigars with $100 bills.

Finley did his best Toby Flenderson impersonation as he narrated, bloviated and pontificated on the hardships he faced in torching $1.5 million tax dollars. It was no small feat, according to him:

The building is very nice inside. Then again, for $1.5 million, it had better be. Wish I could say the same for the audio system. Granted, I was in the back of the room, but won’t that be the case all the time when 200 people pack the council room every two weeks to stay informed?

TJ Monroe either needs a new $250 microphone or needs to learn how to lean forward into it. Misti was barley intelligible but that may have had to do with a hoarse voice and her attempt to tear up during her speech to show the overwhelming emotion of throwing $1.5 million down a rat hole. I’m not sure which.

I managed to hang my seven goldfish ornaments on the tree in council chambers:

Apparently City workers and leaders have confused themselves with the CEOs of a very profitable Fortune 500 company. They spared no expense in the Executive Suite…or the break room…or the OTHER Executive Suite. Note the massive excess of chairs despite the main room being filled to capacity. Somebody got carried away with the City credit card! Again!

I also rode the Magic $128,400 elevator…and it didn’t trap me. WAY nicer than the other thousands of other elevators I’ve ridden in during my lifetime. But this is for the Fishbowl – which means SPARE NO EXPENSE!

Can’t wait to start going to some meetings next year! It’s a shame Monica never figured out how to work the video streaming component of the $95,000 audio system. That huge camera over the Mayor’s desk looks cool and expensive. A shame not to use it. Gary Cox must be rolling over in his grave.

After Blowing $95,000 On Opulent NO-BID A/V System, City Decides Not To Use Video At All

After THREE City council meetings in the new Fishbowl and ZERO video records of said meetings, I finally just asked the City outright: “Are you aware of any plans to EVER have video recordings of council meetings?  It was promised last year by [recently fired resigned Assistant City Manager] Gary Cox.”

The official response: At this present time, the City does not have any plans to video the Council meetings.  If and when the decision is made to video the Council meetings, the videos will be made available on the City’s website.

You seriously can’t make up stuff like this. It’s almost as good as the LEDC promising “shovel-ready” sites in the Business Park four years ago and still having a useless weed patch today.

Just a quick reminder that not only did Gary Cox specifically promise video archives of the meetings, but thousands and thousands of dollars were spent on cameras and other devices to allow video recording of meetings and (later) live streaming.

Some expenses:

The City bought TWO Lumens VC-B30U PTZ cameras with RS232 controllers – those were $920 EACH = $1840

The City also bought a Matrox Monarch HD video streaming and recording appliance for $1,227 (NewEgg sells this same device for $995)

That alone is $3,000 worth of bells and whistles that the IT Department can’t figure out how to use. I have to assume that is the case: either simple incompetence or laziness. Why else would the City blow thousands on cameras and video streaming and recording and then NOT use it???

Of course, tens of thousands are wasted all the time in the IT Department and hundreds of thousands are wasted by the City in general. Three grand is spit in the ocean when it comes to City waste. But it just shows for the umpteenth time how wasteful and incompetent some parts of the City really are.

You would never catch Rickie Roy pissing away money like this in the Public Works Department. Never.

Christmas Shopping Almost Upon Us! Tips On Wasting Large Amounts of Money – Lampasas Government Style!

You need a HUGE new TV, you say? We got ya covered! Now, you COULD buy a kick-ass 75”TV with HD 4k with ALL the bells and whistles for $953. But that isn’t Spinley and The Seven Goldfish style of shopping!

You want something smaller, MORE expensive and with worse resolution, don’t you? Of course you do! Check out this baby – only 70”and without 4k resolution – and it costs 60% more!! Curious how the picture looks? Just head on over to the new $1.5 million Fishbowl on City Council night and have a look! There are FOUR of them to gaze upon!

You’re getting there – but that STILL ain’t City-Government-level money wasting. You need to pay more….WAY more for that smaller TV set! Well, Azbell Electronics has got you covered. Chris Anelundi and the scumbags at Azbell can get you that TV for $2,148.95! And NO it doesn’t matter if you buy four of them – NO volume discount for you! Sucker!!

Just ignore those 10 microphones at $240 each…

Don’t worry if your Assistant City Manager wife/husband tells you that Azbell sells their crap at a “significant markup over other vendors” – you go and do it anyways!!! THAT’S how you piss away money, baby. Goldfish style.

First Time Was Funny….Now It’s Just Sad

City Council met on November 12th for the second time in their new $1.5 million-dollar Fishbowl. I’d like to tell you that they finally got the fancy $95,000 no-bid Azbell Electronics video recording/archiving/streaming system to work this time, as was promised by recently fired resigned ACM Gary Cox well over a year ago. But, alas, it is not to be. Again.

You can hear the $95,000-quality audio recording here: https://www.lampasas.org/Archive.aspx?AMID=212

What’s the over/under on how many weeks it takes Monica to bite the bullet and call Azbell back out to re-teach her how to operate the Ferrari of A/V Systems? Go ahead, Monica. The $1,000 they charge you for the service won’t show up in the monthly list of “checks written for over $4,000″….so I probably won’t see it.

Or will I?

After all, it’s only been about a year since the system was installed and you were trained on it…and another 2 weeks since the last Council meeting. How could I possibly expect a City IT employee of 14 years to get things figured out THAT fast?

I should probably just “sit here for a minute and realize it was very worth it” to shell out $95,000 for an audio recorder and $8,600 worth of 70″ TV screens. Very, very worth it.

RKJ Construction Kicks deGraffenreid In The Nuts One Last Time For Elevator

RKJ Construction – the company in charge of the overpriced elevator for the Old City Hall project – apparently kicked Finley in his nut sack one last time on their way out the door. Jamming the City for $128,400 on a project initially bid at $119,532.

A quick recap of the elevator debacle:

  • The City sends out the elevator contract for bids WAY back in November 2016. Austin elevator is the lowest bid at $96,605 but our idiot former City councilman “Greasy” Chris Harrison moves to go with RKJ Construction at $119,532 [page 6] to ‘keep it local’.
  • The next time the elevator is mentioned in the minutes, it has somehow morphed to $125,508 [Jan 2018]. I never saw an explanation for this.
  • The Old City Hall renovation is held up for MONTHS because of the elevator.
  • Old City Hall project FINALLY done in November/December 2019
  • RKJ bills City $128,400 for elevator – FAR MORE than originally agreed to.

You’d think RKJ Construction would give the City a small break on price after (1) getting their bid accepted despite it being $30,000 HIGHER than the lowest bid and (2) screwing up so badly and delaying their entire project for months on end. You would be wrong.

In a final act of humiliation for Spinley, the City was billed a grand total of $128,400 for the elevator. A full $8,800 (7.5%) OVER their initial accepted bid of $119,532.

What was even more odd was they broke it into TWO separate checks: LAST month, the City cut a check (#153218 page 41) for RKJ for exactly $100,000 for the elevator. I thought to myself “how nice! They actually gave them a huge break on the price for being so incompetent and holding up the project for months on end”.

WRONG!

THIS month, the city cut ANOTHER check (#153799 on page 51) to RKJ for the elevator in the amount of $28,400.

I realize that being ripped-off for $8,800 is very small potatoes compared to the hundreds of thousands the City wastes annually, but Christ Finley – grow some balls and demand a few concessions from the clowns who couldn’t even get the thing done on time in the first place! You are supposed to pay LESS for incompetent work….not MORE. Absolutely pathetic.

No-Bid $95,000 A/V System Is Just An ‘A’ System….No ‘V’ To Be Seen

I remember back in the heady days of Big Dreams and Profligate Spending…when City council was trying to explain why we needed a ridiculous no-bid $95,000 audio/visual system for their new chambers, with all the bells and whistles.

Assistant City Manager Gary Cox was explaining to The Dispatch:

“The monitors [TV sets Azbell raped them on] in the secondary rooms can be set up to provide audio and video from the main chamber — which would allow people to watch meetings live from the additional rooms if the crowd is too large [HAHAHAHAHA] for all audience members to fit in the main council chamber.”

And also this…..

“Cox said an archive of meeting videos will be available to the public. He added that the City Council could decide to stream live video on the internet so people could follow the proceedings if they cannot attend a meeting in person”.

WOW! Archives AND live-streaming! TOTALLY worth getting bent over for almost $100,000!

So I asked the City yesterday if I could see the video recording of the very first meeting in The Fishbowl on October 28th…seeing as how we paid almost $100,000 for the privilege. Their answer?

There is no video recording!

In fairness, Monica probably forgot how to work the fancy gizmo since they were likely trained on it almost a year ago. They did, however, send me a link to the audio recording. I’m no sound technician, but I’m pretty sure you can record audio-only for a LOT less than $95,000.

Audio link: https://app.box.com/s/k7e9kao553yiyt4vgatpfhvx6igyk9gq

So we don’t have live streaming of video…we don’t even have an ARCHIVE of the video. So I guess Monica couldn’t figure out how to record video after having over 10 months to do so, and all those fancy cameras and video recording devices were for naught. Just another failed Big Dream that cost the taxpayers a small fortune. Well done!