Tag: free stuff

City Hands Former Council Member “Greasy” Chris Harrison and Developer S2M2 $185,000 In City Funds For Brodie Estates

More developers grabbing more city dollars. Anyone shocked? You shouldn’t be. We already discussed how mansion owner Deorald Finney got HIS $72,000 gift from City taxpayers.

I’ve ranted about hypocrite “Greasy” Chris Harrison (former City council member) multiple times. HERE and HERE for instance.

Well, the City just cut old Greasy and S2M2 a $185,000 check last month. It sure pays to have friends (and former council buddies) on City council!

Link to City checks written on page 32 – lest some moron accuse me of “slander”

Just a quick reminder of what (massive hypocrite) Greasy Chris Harrison said back on 4/10/15 (page 11) when he was running for City council a second time:

“The council candidate [Harrison] 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“

So Greasy Chris Harrison was opposed to $5,000 grants but he and S2M2 gladly pilfer the taxpayer for $185,000. Lovely.

Here is a brief timeline of how the geniuses on City council went from DENYING S2M2 a $105,000 check as “too expensive” in May of 2019 to then handing over $185,000 last month – links to Dispatch articles are in brackets in case some moron accuses me of ‘slander’ again:

5/31/19 [page 5]: “The pond is estimated to cost $135,000, and McDonald said if he has it built, he will forego $75,000 he could have made had he turned the pond site into three residential lots. As a result, he asked the city to spend $105,000 on the pond – half of what he said it would cost S2M2 if the company sacrifices potential buildable space to create a drainage pond. Council members, however, said that cost is too high to justify for what they said would be minimal drainage improvements in the area. The council’s motion called for no city payment toward a detention pond.”

[McDonald failed to get the free stuff…so he sends in Greasy Chris three months later. Greasy used to sit on City council with the other Goldfish]

8/30/19 [page A4]: Lampasas company S2M2 Inc., represented at Monday’s meeting by Chris Harrison, is seeking city cost-sharing for the detention pond, which would occupy three lots the company otherwise could have used to build houses in its proposed Brodie Estates subdivision. S2M2 is asking the city to spend $125,000 toward the detention pond, Harrison said. That amount, he told city officials, is about half what the water detention structure will cost the company — when factoring in pond development expenses, the value of the three buildable lots the company will sacrifice and the profit that the sale of three houses could have generated. The pond is not required for Brodie Estates.

“The mayor said city officials need to think again about a detention pond“

[Now that former council buddy Harrison is asking, Mayor Talbert thinks they need to “think again”. Notice the cost has already jumped from $105,000 to $125,000. These wormy shits do this all the time.]

9/20/19 [page 4]: “the City committed to pay S2M2 a maximum of $150,000 for the company’s actual costs of surveying, engineering and building a rainwater detention pond in the subdivision. Council members have said the detention pond is not required to develop Brodie Estates.”

“Harrison said developers requested city cost sharing because adding the detention pond will cause S2M2 to sacrifice three lots it otherwise could have used to build houses. On another item, the amended development agreement specifies that the city will reimburse S2M2 a maximum of $40,000 for engineering, easement acquisition, construction and materials for a water line loop.”

Incredible!!

The Seven Goldfish went from “NO, we won’t spend $105,000” to “we should rethink this” at $125,000 to “here is $150,000 PLUS another $40,000 for some water line stuff”

Genius negotiating on the part of Mayor Talbert and the other Goldfish. I guess the taxpaying saps should be thankful that they only got clipped for $185,000 when the maximum possible reimbursement was $190,000.

Gee thanks, S2M2 and Greasy Chris Harrison for leaving a few crumbs! Maybe they can take that $5,000 they “saved” and give it out to Wool & Vine as one of those business grants that Councilman Harrison was opposed to back in 2015. It would be a final bit of irony!

Here is a video of local developers looting City coffers with help from the wizards on City council:

I Hope Deorald Finney Invites TJ Monroe and Chuck Williamson Over For The Mansion Warming Party!

You may recall developer Deorald Finney. He’s the one who asked City council for a bunch of free stuff for his Stone Valley development project of 67 new houses a year or two ago. I have ranted about him a few times on these pages.

He’s the guy who actually had the nerve to ask City council to waive pretty much every building fee they charge (loss of about $31,000 to City coffers) AND to provide free electrical hookups to each house – at a cost to the City of $72,000. Oh, and to hand over another $53,000 or so for other drainage/street stuff (3/29/19 front page).

City council nitwits TJ Monroe and Chuck Williamson voted to give him every single break he asked for (don’t forget that Chuck is up for re-election very soon!). They lost that vote 2-5.

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and they only gave him everything he wanted MINUS waiving all building permits [5-2 vote – see Dispatch from 3/29/19 front page article]. Monroe and Williamson voted against the reduced package since they wanted to hand MORE free stuff to Finney.

I recall Mike White’s common-sense statement back in the 3/29/19 edition of the Dispatch (page 11): “If I’m building a house, I don’t get a fee waived”.

Bravo, sir. Monroe and Williamson don’t see it that way, apparently.

As early as July 17th, 2018 (page 10), Talbert was fine with handing out the $72,000 in candy. Her logic? The city would be willing to consider “doing the electric [infrastructure] at our cost because [it is] an enterprise for us; we do sell electric service.”

No shit? Then why does the City have a hookup fee at all for anybody?? Everyone else buys electric service too!

When Deorald was arguing for all the sweetheart deals, he said the houses would sell for between $150k and $180k (1/4/19 page 10):

“Finney estimated home prices would range from $150,000-$180,000”.

Hmmm. Weird, because one of them is currently listed at over $200,000 right now. Link here.

That $200k is THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE per house than the mid-point estimate he gave to the City. Multiply that by 67 houses and you are looking at over $2.3 million extra windfall dollars in Deorald’s pocket. Good thing the City handed him all that free shit. If they hadn’t done that, he may have been forced to live in a puny 5,000 square foot hovel….instead of the opulent mansion he is currently bragging about on Facebook:

Poor guy. Barely scraping by selling those Stone Valley houses. Without that $72,000 fee waiver from Misti and The Gang, he might have to live in a house WITHOUT corbels! The horror.

I sure hope City council gets invited over for the mansion warming party! Or maybe get invited on a trip to Hawaii or something. Anything to show his thanks for City council being such suckers with City money.

$72,000 buys some nice trips to Hawaii, doesn’t it??

Here is a video of developers grabbing City of Lampasas tax dollars over the last few years. If you look closely, you can see Deorald and “Greasy” Chris Harrison in there!

City Council Hands $3,410.59 To Burger King For “Covid”

[They also handed $3,716.61 to Bush’s Chicken. It appears our old friend Deorald Finney is involved in Bush’s holding company too – but I need to sort through the records more. These corporate records are quite tangled sometimes]

Council came up with the bright idea to help out local businesses hit by Wuhan Flu by giving them some ‘free’ electricity. They estimated the cost to the City at around $70,000 at the time.

This ‘free electricity’ program is in ADDITION to the $100,000 that Mandy Walsh and the LEDC handed out previously.

I don’t know how they decided who got what, but if anything I have to assume Burger King did MORE business during the lock down since they were exempted. I know I myself ate there WAY more than I normally do. Hell, Burger King is DESIGNED to do a lot of drive-thru business. I would be willing to wager their revenue was MORE during the lock down than before the lock down.

Either way, the idea of the City handing out FREE MONEY to Burger King seems quite outrageous to me. This is the same group that can’t be bothered to offer any more than minimum wage to local high school kids to lifeguard at the pool – leading to very few applications this year and (supposedly) leaving them unable to open the City’s second pool.

Lest you think Burger King is owned by some sweet, local mom and pop type of franchisee…..think again. It is owned by Jimmy Jamshed in the FORT WORTH area…through his Landmark & Landmark Group limited liability company.

CORPORATE WELFARE

Jimmy is listed as CEO of at LEAST 10 companies. I’m guessing he has deep pockets.

So – just to recap for those on the short bus:

Wuhan Flu causes unwarranted panic and City closes a bunch of LOCALLY owned restaurants – forcing them to try and adopt a take-out business model

Burger King was ALREADY positioned for this and very likely saw INCREASED sales.

Burger King is a massive corporation with deep pockets and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange

The owner of this particular franchise is based up in FORT WORTH.

Landmark & Landmark owns and operates Burger King restaurants in Gatesville, Early, Brownwood, McGregor, Brady, Clifton and Stephenville. The company also owns and will operate the Burger King under construction in Burnet.

Absolutely outrageous. I’m surprised I don’t see Wal-Mart on the list of “free money” recipients as well.

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Thank Goodness City Council Handed The Developer of Stone Valley $72,000

I did some ranting last year about City council waiving electrical hookup fees for rich developer Deorald Finney – which cost the City approximately $72,000 in lost fees [5/21/19 page 10]. City council (most of whom are reliant on the taxpayer for their OWN salaries and only one of whom has an inkling of the real business world) was in such a huge rush to “promote development” that they just gave away the farm for no reason at all.

“GIMME $72,000!!!!!” <—————————-> “Derrrr ummm….OK”

Proof they did the wrong thing comes today in the latest Dispatch (5/28/20 page 7) – where we learn that while everyone else was forced to stay in their homes like scared rabbits this spring – and many business were wrecked and jobs lost – Stone Valley was just chugging right along on their construction.

In fact, according to the article: “Danielle Sheppard, a Lampasas resident who works for Coldwell Banker: ‘We are definitely in a seller’s market.‘ The supply of available homes has had a hard time keeping up with the demand for housing as more people flock to Central Texas.”

How nice! Deorald will have no problem selling his houses for TOP DOLLAR…and he gets an extra $72k to boot, thanks to the dummies on City council!

Of course, Deorald is not only helped by City council handing him free shit, he’s also helped by the morons at the Federal Reserve who have pegged rates at zero (yet again) in order to screw savers and encourage reckless borrowing. I guess it pays to have the largest lobbying group in Washington DC.

Economic lesson for City council dummies: when people are fleeing liberal dumps like San Francisco, New York City and Chicago and choosing Texas in droves anyways, YOU DON’T NEED TO HAND OUT SUBSIDIES. They are coming here no matter what. If anything, you should be extracting an extra pound of flesh from these guys…after all: IT’S A SELLER’S MARKET!!!

Socialism Alert! LEDC Now Worried About ‘Affordable Housing” – And Allowed To Waste Money On It.

The deeper I dig into the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club, the worse it looks. On January 15th, they posted their most recent “Incentive Guidelines and Principles” [page 7] in their monthly meeting packet.

What is in there should alarm all fiscally responsible, hard-working taxpayers. The “gimme free shit” crowd and the trailer trash with five kids they can’t afford will love it, however.

Please turn your attention to Page 10: Not all Type B projects are required to create or retain primary jobs. The following projects are NOT required to create or retain primary jobs:”

A long list follows this, and when you get to “E” you see “Affordable housing”.

Say WHAT??? What exactly does ‘affordable housing’ have to do with economic development? Nothing. It is simply a handout. It sounds like something that moron Nancy Pelosi would say: “food stamps are GOOD for the economy because then the people can go spend it and stimulate the economy” (yes, she said this once).

That would be like taking all the money from the HEB cash registers and handing it out to bums in the parking lot so they can go shop inside at HEB. Idiot socialists/libs only look at ONE side of the ledger, ignoring that that same money is stolen from someone else.

“We need more affordable housing” is liberal/socialist talk for “take money from people who earned it and hand it to people who didn’t”. It’s really as simple as that.

The funny thing is that Deorald Finney and his Stone Valley housing development are selling houses now in the $200,000 range. Seeing as how there are plenty of houses on Zillow in the $120,000 to $140,000 range, I would say Mr Finney’s new houses are on the expensive side – and thus NOT affordable. Yet the City essentially handed him $70,000 in tax dollars for his new development.

The City of Lampasas and The Seven Goldfish voted to WAIVE electrical hookup fees for ALL 69 of Deorald’s planned houses. That is over $70,000 in foregone revenue for the City – all so Finney could make an extra 1% on each house.

Tell me this: if Finney had a house listed in Stone Valley and said “you can buy this house for $200,000 with NO electricity OR you can pay $201,150 for the house WITH electricity, how many people would say ‘go ahead and give me the electricity’? All of them – they would GLADLY pay an extra measly $1,150. NOBODY would balk at that extra pocket change to have power in the house. It represents far less than 1% of the price. Therefore, this $70,000 handout to a rich developer was a complete waste and did ZERO for the City coffers, ZERO for ‘development’ and ZERO for ‘affordable housing’.

The very term “affordable housing” is complete nonsense. It’s like a “livable wage”. It cannot be defined as it differs for each individual, therefore success cannot be measured, and therefore the socialist/lib (or LEDC) can always have a job redistributing the wealth as the ‘problem’ can never be solved.

It’s as idiotic as me whining that there are “no affordable Corvettes over at Hoffpauir Chevy” or “there are no affordable private jets around here”. You don’t have a RIGHT to ANY of that stuff.

To the libs and commies and SJW morons: you are NOT entitled to a house/apartment. You are NOT even entitled to an “affordable” house/apartment. If you cannot afford the housing that is in your area, either (1) move to a more affordable area (2) lower your expectations (3) work more hours and/or increase your value as an employee or (4) get a roommate or two…or three. PERIOD.

(Oh, and maybe stop having 4, 5 or 6 kids you cannot afford – since they will likely grow up to be the next generation of parasites asking for the same handouts)

Pretty sure we already have Section 8 housing around town…and those tenants always treat their “free” stuff so well, don’t they? We need Mandy Walsh and the Economic Dunce Club handing out MORE ‘free’ housing like we need colostomy bags on our hips.

If Mandy Walsh or any of the other LEDC geniuses are SO concerned about ‘affordable housing’, I suggest they open their own wallets, buy a house currently on the free market, and go ahead and rent it out at a very low rate. Maybe jam a white trash welfare family with five kids in there. Maybe even let them live there for free! See how that works out for you.

No? Well, if it’s not a good idea with your own money, it ain’t a good idea with mine. Go pound sand.

Eliminate the LEDC. Stop meddling in the free market. Let workers keep what they earn instead of stealing it to hand to someone else.

MORE Politicians Flip-Flop On ‘Free’ Stuff

In light of the recent giveaways to developers, I thought I’d search the Dispatch archives to see if any other politicians besides “Greasy” Chris Harrison have changed their tune on handing out “free” stuff like the electrical hookups recently gifted to Deorald Finney and S2M2 Inc for their developments.

Turns out they have! The original Drunken Sailor herself, Mayor Talbert, was actually AGAINST these types of giveaways back in August of 2014. So was Chuck Williamson! Fancy that!

As usual, they were desperately looking for revenue back in 2014. Those of us in the REAL world know that government has a SPENDING problem…not a revenue problem. But dummy politicians and City bureaucrats always go looking for more money first and never look at their own ledgers for waste.

Anyways, there was a HUGE discussion in the Lampasas Dispatch Record chronicling the debate between City council about how to raise MORE money and balance the budget back then. Here are some choice excerpts [look it up, Monica] from the article along with some commentary by me:

“Another revenue idea the council discussed is charging for items – such as replacement of broken valves, meter boxes and cleanout caps – the city currently provides for free. “We’ve been giving a lot away,” Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Williamson said. – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[Chuck Williamson is STILL on City council to this day and JUST “gave a lot away” this year to S2M2 Inc and Deorald Finney! What’s the matter Chuck?? You buddies with all these developers too? Or just going senile?]

“Mrs. Talbert said in light of discussions about taxes and utility rates, the council certainly should consider every revenue source that only impacts the person that causes the problem, or creates the cost, before everybody shares that cost.” Ms. Moreno said charges for those types of items likely will not boost total revenue much, but Mrs. Talbert said it still is an important principle” – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[The person who creates the cost should pay for it?? Kinda like a homeowner or developer paying for their own electrical hookup? Being one of the Seven Goldfish, I doubt Misti remembers saying this but there it is in black and white! She even had “principles” back then! My, how things have changed]

And here is the coup de grace [look it up, Monica] from my new hero Shane Brown. Shane was the DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS back then, so he probably knows what he is talking about:

“Public Works Director Shane Brown said the city loses money when officials waive fees for utility extensions. Brown said he questions how much the city benefits compared to the value of what it gives away in waivers“. – August 4th, 2017 – page 5

[Amen, Mr Shane Brown! Testify! Could not have said it better myself].

Of course, this was all in 2014 before Misti transformed into an intoxicated seaman. Now it’s all about buying power, love and admiration with other people’s money in the name of “growth”…a fool’s errand. So much for her “principles” she was babbling about back then. She clearly has none.

Hiring Scumbags To Beg For Government Money Always Pays Off In Lampasas

“Greasy” Chris Harrison pulled it off! After turning down a request from PRIVATE developer S2M2 Inc for free money back in May, City Council changed their tune and decided to hand S2M2 Inc “a maximum of $150,000 for the company’s actual costs of surveying, engineering and building a rainwater detention pond in the subdivision,” now that “Greasy” Chris (former City Council member) was the one doing the asking this time for his new employer S2M2 Inc.

But that’s not all: “the city will pay to extend electric service to each of Brodie Estates’ platted residential lots. The development agreement lists an estimated city cost of $24,500” – which sounds a LOT like the sweet deal Deorald Finney got for HIS subdivision earlier this year at a cost of around $72,000 for HIS 67 houses.

These “free” electrical hookups (paid for by YOU) run roughly $1100 per house. God forbid the developer pay this and pass it along to the actual homeowner who will benefit! It might cut into his profits! When he sells a $150,000 house, he might only make $24,000 profit instead of $25,000 profit! We cannot have that!

Here’s how I think it went down (this is my opinion – not fact): S2M2 Inc bought this land, figured they could put N number of houses on it, build those houses for $X and sell them for X+$25,000 or whatever the markup is for developers….so they made a deal with the land seller and got all ready to break ground. All well and good – maybe they make a $25,000 profit on 22 houses and pocket $550,000 after all is said and done.

But THEN, they cleared some brush out and cleaned up the land a bit and realized the drainage sucked and they would have to WASTE three of their precious lots building a detention pond! That would take the profit of THREE houses out of their pockets. Let’s say it was $25,000 each (again, I am not a developer, I am pulling number from my ass that sound like realistic ballpark figures). Taking a $75,000 hit for your own screw-up is what private businesses do all the time. But developers are special private businesses (just ask Greasy Chris). They can go to the morons at the City and explain to them how this detention pond is actually in the best interest of the CITY…and not of S2M2 Inc, who is merely trying to help them out.

[Moron politicians and City bureaucrats fall victim to this faulty ‘logic’ all the time. They extend all sorts of “free” shit in the name of “growth” and “expanding the tax base” and it NEVER works out. They do not understand this or care because (1) 90% of them have never run a business (2) they are severely math challenged and (3) it’s not their money they are giving away….it’s YOURS]

It’s the same kind of idiocy that leads towns to spend $100,000 on Christmas lights and say “people will come and visit and we’ll make it all back on sales tax revenue” – which is absolute unmitigated nonsense if you are familiar with third-grade math…which most of these bozos are not.

So – back to our story. A regular, honest, stand-up private business owner would eat the $75,000 and chalk it up to experience. But these scumbags figure, “hey! Let’s go ask the City to ‘cost share’ this with us…we might get $150,000 out of this to make up for our huge blunder!” – after all, the worst they can say is ‘no’, and we’re right back where we started. There is zero downside to begging, in other words.

So, ask the City is what they did. The City said “NO” back in May, as the Dispatch article reported….which was the proper thing to do. But these scumbags took it a step further. They didn’t give up! They then sent in FORMER CITY COUNCIL MEMBER Greasy Chris Harrison to ask AGAIN.

Lo and behold! Mayor Talbert then decided that “City officials need to think again about a detention pond“…because Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert apparently equates spending lots of money with being an effective Mayor, from what I’ve seen over the last two years.

Oh…and Chris Harrison owns a dirt works company as well. Lol. You really can’t make this stuff up. Will The Seven Goldfish look into who S2M2 Inc hires to do the dirt work? Will The Seven Goldfish ask to see how much it ACTUALLY cost instead of just accepting the $150,000 figure? Of course not. It ain’t their money.

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*).