Tag: Hostess House debacle

She Said It!! City Manager Says EXACTLY What I Predicted Almost a Year Ago About Hostess House Cost Overruns! LOL.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy is alive and well at City Hall. It’s been muttered there a dozen times over the decades. During the Old City Hall remodel, the Business Pork debacle and others. The attitude that “welp, we’ve already sunk a ton of money into this, we better keep going!” is a well-known fallacy in economic circles. It’s what kept the Concorde airplane program alive not to mention the Vietnam War and the F-35 fighter project.

Erin Corbell just did it at last night’s City council meeting while discussing the $43,800 “surprise” that was recently found, as predicted by me last April.

BAM. Like a Swiss watch. Every single one of these things.

It’s a shame they wasted $45,000 clearing concrete and drawing up legal rules that were never followed for Martin’s Rod & Custom’s retarded pipe dream a few years ago, or they would have the spare change to pay for this current fuckup!

All that being said, I will admit it’s nice to have Herb Pearce up there and a bunch of guys actually DEBATING this and asking questions. Herb is a lumber guy, so he understands construction. If this was two years ago, Talbert, Monroe and Kuehne would have said “HERE YOU GO! Want some more???” without asking a single question. So at least these guys had a hearty debate on this and asked hard questions.

Erin Corbell, on the other hand, has been on one government payroll or another since 2006, according to her LinkedIn page. She looks to be in her early 40s, so I’m guessing that first job as a secretary for the McCulloch County (population 7,600) Sheriff’s Office was fresh out of college. When you are in government for nearly two decades and your entire professional life, you tend to start thinking money grows on trees.

Lampassole Right AGAIN: MORE Expensive Change Orders To Hostess House Debacle $43,807 AND ANOTHER For $62,457!!!

Seems like we just had one of these! Oh yeah…we did back in November:

Ooohhh Boy, Was I Close. Hostess House Change Order For Over $57,000. Final Farewell Nut Sack Punch For Finley As He Retires.

As I said in April of 2024 when they approved $2.2 million for the “facelift” of the Hostess House:

“…halfway through the construction, a LOT of new charges will come in as the contractor “surprisingly” finds issues nobody knew was there. These are called “change orders” and it’s the oldest trick in the book to grab more money from a government that is now trapped.“

Well, we have yet ANOTHER TWO this week for $43,807 and $62,457 [see page 89, 90 and 95] for “full replacement of roof,” “structural changes,” a “power study” and other assorted bullshit.

The ORIGINAL bid for roof items included $9,639. But wouldn’t you know it? Once they “got in there” they then discovered “failures in the existing roof system”!

No way! Who ever could have seen this coming?!? Don’t forget that the ORIGINAL budget for this debacle was $200,000. We are now approaching $2.4 MILLION.

I’m already losing track of these additional charges. Here are a few other ones I have written about….

City Dinged For Another $38,000 For “Architectural Fees” On Hostess House Debacle – New Total $168,570 (That’s Just The FEES For Project) [July 2023]

Hostess House Additional Cost Alert! [July 2024]

As Predicted: “Unforeseen Structural And Electrical” Disasters Strike Hostess House Money Pit. NINE New Change Orders. Mo Money, Mo Money! [November 2024]

Hostess House Change Order For Over $57,000. Final Farewell Nut Sack Punch For Finley As He Retires. [November 2024]

Hostess House Debacle Not Only Over Budget But Now Apparently Eight Months Late As Well. [December 2024]

We are now WAY over $100,000 in change orders – which fulfills yet ANOTHER Lampasshole prophesy from way back on April 18th, 2024:

Since there will be no turning back at that point, the City will pay all that shit too. I’ll guess it’s another $100,000 at a minimum.

Something very similar happened with the Old City Hall “remodel” that ended up costing $1.6 million on a $350,000 budget:

#1 – The “experts” (JNW Architects, that time) charged a lot of money at the start to do a structural analysis.

#2 – The City paid big money for this supposedly-accurate analysis.

#3 – Then a few months later they come back and say “oh, the roof is fucked…we need more money to fix that.”

Nobody thinks to ask the ORIGINAL assholes who did the structural analysis “why the hell did you miss this in the initial inspection?!”

No, they just pay up again to someone else.

Hostess House Debacle Not Only Over Budget But Now Apparently Eight Months Late As Well.

At last night’s City council meeting, we learned that the $2,270,000.00 “facelift” of the Hostess House is “in the thick of the interior electrical work and exterior stone matching with a scheduled completion date in August.“

Wait, what?? AUGUST??

That is a far cry from what we heard six months ago when this debacle was approved. The groundbreaking ceremony was back on June 26th of this year. The notice to proceed (NTP) was scheduled for July 1st“with a contracted time for substantial completion by 180 days.” [see page 113 City council packet]

By my math, that would mean around the first two weeks in January of 2025 – or about a month from now.

Originally, the whole idea was to have this thing done in time for the spring. You know, so they can rent it out for weddings, parties, etc.

But with this new date in August, they are going to miss ANOTHER eight months of the year – in addition to all the time THIS year it has been closed.

Of course, even if they rent it out all year round, they themselves admit they will only make about $12,000 to $15,000 per year on the deal. Which gives us a payback period of ($2.27mm/$15,000) approximately 151 years.

I think by that time, Erin Corbel will be about the same age as TJ Monroe.

What a great deal!!

Reminder of how it all started five years ago…..

Ooohhh Boy, Was I Close. Hostess House Change Order For Over $57,000. Final Farewell Nut Sack Punch For Finley As He Retires.

Well, I wasn’t too far off when I guessed the latest change order on the Hostess House would be “$30k to $40k” a week ago.

I guess it is only fitting I receive this document on the very last day of work for Finley as he rides off into the sunset and a big fat pension. One last punch to the well-worn DeGraffenreid nut sack on his way out the door.

Also fitting that he leaves in the middle of yet ANOTHER ridiculous project that has seen massive cost overruns (see also: Old City Hall remodel, skate park, etc).

Remember, they initially said the Hostess House just needed “a few minor repairs” back in 2019 or so when they took it over…

….which then turned into $200,000…

Which turned into $2.2 million and which is now $2.270 million, apparently.

I kind of forgot today was Finley’s last day. I’m sure there will be a big party and much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I have no doubt Misti Talbert will be there to sob all over him. I bet a lot of other old City council members will show up to cry as well – Delena Toups, TJ Monroe, etc.

I seriously considered buying a giant penis cake and sending it over to the retirement party but then I thought “why waste the money on him?” He’s already cleaned us out for over $2.1 million over the last 12 years. He can buy his own penis cake.

No penis cake for you. Sorry, buddy. But here is a reprint of your resume and history with the City. I’ll be working on my “Finley Report Card” over the next couple weeks, just like I did for Misti Talbert. You’re gonna love it!!

City To Seriously Consider Blowing $2,212,950 On Hostess House “Rehab.” Over TEN TIMES Original Estimates!

Just don’t call it a remodel or a renovation. Those are “no no” words and conjure up memories of the $1,500,000 Old City Hall REMODEL fuckups back in 2017/2018/2019.

(As a reminder, the Old City Hall remodel was originally supposed to cost $350,000 and they thought THAT was too much! Final cost: well over $1.5 million)

You can call it a “rehabilitation” or a “refresh” or “redesign” if you like. I call it a giant cock up the ass of the taxpayers.

Remember: the Hostess House only brings in about $12,000 per year after expenses. They could literally just take that $2.2 million and throw it into t-bills and make 10x the return.

In case you forgot how we got here:

In the fall of 2019, the City took over the building from the DAR. According to them, it just needed some “minor repairs” and “minor decorations”…..

THEN it jumped up to “about $200,000”, according to City Manager Finley deGraffenreid in the Lampasas Dispatch in March 2021:

[But when computing things using FinleyMath(TM), you ALWAYS have to add a zero at the end. Like owning a boat. That $3 bracket for your home ends up costing $30 at the marine depot! It has happened over and over and over again. Thus, $200,000 becomes $2,000,000]

THEN it ballooned to $1,308,670 – which is a sick joke all by itself. Morons like Cathy “Pork Chop” Kuehne said they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more.”

Why not? It’s not her money! It’s just play money, apparently!

THEN it jumped again up to $1,879,483.55 [see page 67]

“Scope creep” means dummy council members throwing in everything on their wish list.

But wait…there’s more!

It jumped YET AGAIN to $2.15 million!

Then last February, City council dropped a load in their panties as they saw bids come in even higher than their ridiculous estimates:

So they had to go back to the drawing board. This, of course, costs MORE money to “revise” stuff as they decided to take out the 24k-gold toilets and diamond-crusted doorknobs….

Now they will probably pay $2.2 million and tell us it’s a DEAL because that is DOWN from the $2.97 million estimate last year! See how it works? No mention that it’s actually TEN TIMES MORE than they budgeted. Actually, probably 30 times more, since it originally was just “minor repairs,” they assured us.

Prediction: this will pass at $2.2 million on Monday night…but halfway through the construction, a LOT of new charges will come in as the contractor “surprisingly” finds issues nobody knew was there. These are called “change orders” and it’s the oldest trick in the book to grab more money from a government that is now trapped.

Since there will be no turning back at that point, the City will pay all that shit too. I’ll guess it’s another $100,000 at a minimum.

Hostess House “Minor Repairs” Now at 10x Original Inflated Budget.

At the last council meeting, council members FINALLY put up a fight over what looks to be excessive costs. When Reliance Architecture said it would cost $38,000 to re-shuffle some paperwork, council actually put up a fight.

It was nice to see. We certainly NEVER saw that type of thing during the Talbert and Monroe years. The last time I recall seeing serious pushback on costs was when the Old City Hall remodel project was budgeted at $350,000 and the bids came in at $750,000. Of course, they proceeded to spend $1.5 million on it before it was all said and done.

The Hostess House has followed a similar trajectory – as I predicted at the very beginning in March of 2021….

From March 12, 2021 Dispatch article

When computing things using FinleyMath, you ALWAYS have to add a zero at the end. Like owning a boat. That $3 bracket for your home ends up costing $30 at the marine depot! It has happened over and over and over again. Thus, $200,000 becomes $2,000,000:

From August 8, 2023 Dispatch article

I hate to say it, but after I win the $1.5 billion Mega Millions tonight, I STILL will not donate $2 million to this project, because it seems like such a ripoff. The City THEMSELVES admit that this venue will only make about $10,000 per year in rental fees after subtracting costs. So the payback period is 200 years. Absolutely retarded.

Throw in the fact that Mike Hardin has ALREADY completed a “possible wedding/reception” over at the old Santa Fe Depot, and you have a lot of supply on the market for this purpose. As usual, the City should have stayed out of it and let the free market do its job.

New Budget Admits Hostess House Revenue Will Only Be $10,450 Per Year.

First, City council took over the Hostess House three years ago and told us it needed some “minor repairs”:

Then Finley told us the budget for the project “is about $200,000”

Council picks architecture firm for Hostess House upgrades

THEN the brain trust of Kuehne, Talbert and Williamson got ahold of it, and they decided to blow about $1.4 MILLION on the project.

According to the new budget [see page 1], Hostess House revenues for the next fiscal year will be $16,000 and expenditures will be $5,550.

That leaves about $10,000 left over as “profit”. Pretty close to the $12,000 I have been using for a while now.

At $10,450 per year, it will only take the City about 140 years to get their ‘investment’ back.

Of course, compared to the Business Pork project (expenditures over $7,100,000 and revenues of $0) this looks like a huge winner!