After my polite email request to the President of the Lampasas Community Gardens to take a gander at their non-profit tax filings, I was told to get lost:
Lampasas Community Garden President Janet “Crazier” Crozier has taken many gifts from the taxpayer over the last couple of years. She is either not bright enough or honest enough to admit this, of course. According to HER:
“We have not taken money from the City, nor have we asked for anything other than what was promised to the community garden. The only thing that the City provided on behalf of the wishes of the community was the volleyball court that sat vacant for at least 7 years. We pay our utilities. We have set up our own limited water collection system off the roof of our donated shed.“
This is all baloney, of course, except for the part about “not taking money” from the City. Only because the City was not dumb enough to hand her actual piles of cash, like some other fools were. So the City never technically gave her any “money” – but they HAVE provided subsidies, City workers, City time and materials to her for free.
To wit:
She gets highly-subsidized water. The first 5,000 gallons PER MONTH are FREE and the water bill for one entire YEAR was once $35. So you may “pay your utilities” but they are hugely subsidized and the taxpayer is paying most of it.
She got trenching and pipes and spigots done for her by City workers on City time. There is also a new electrical panel over there, presumably for her use. Anyone who has had irrigation or electrical work done recently knows that it costs an arm and a leg. YOU paid for all that. But don’t bother going down there to stroll in the garden – because it is locked with a chain and NOT open to the public.
She is currently pressing Parks Director Chris Eicher to blow over $5,000 on sidewalk modifications over by her pet project. A pet project to bring gardening to those in wheelchairs. She actually had to advertise for people in wheelchairs for this – and as far as I know, my fake Crippled Russian email account was the only person who answered her. A project that she hasn’t even gotten funding for and for which the need is questionable, to say the least.
“Nor have we asked for anything….” – more baloney! She stood before council and tried to get them to buy her over $12,000 worth of “rain catch tanks” – even though she ALREADY gets water that is essentially free from the City. Luckily City council came to their senses after leaning towards paying for these items. This one enraged me the most, I will admit. Twelve grand is not peanuts…and this loon just casually asks for it like it falls off a money tree somewhere. That’s because she is a hard-core liberal/Marxist from Ohio.
Anyways, Crazier did not like me asking any questions. She informed that that “I do not have time for your nonsense”.
I had to inform Mrs. Crazier that she DOES indeed have to produce those tax filings. It is the law.
The easy way is to hand them over. The harder way is to make me go to your CPA or the IRS to get them. But get them I will.
