Tag: Kristy Acevedo

Kinda Looks Like Gary Cox Got the Shaft Back in October

Oh, the things you accidentally find sometimes when looking through public records. I really missed my calling as a detective.

I have recently been going over 2019 time sheets for our IT Department to see exactly how many overtime hours the City got jammed for during the Aug 16th Ransomware attack (spoiler: over 100 hours). You remember that, I assume? A bunch of equipment got wrecked, nobody got in trouble or even questioned, no explanation was ever publicly given.…THAT ransomware attack.

Anyways, I noticed something weird on Network Administrator Kristy Acevedo’s time sheet for the end of September. Thursday September 26, Friday September 27th and Monday September 30th her time sheet is marked “ADM LEAVE PD.”

Or, paid administrative leave. Conveniently taken around the weekend so she got a sweet 5-day vacation and got paid as if she worked those days. Love it! But why would our intrepid IT girl be in any trouble? Especially just weeks after she ‘saved the day’ by cleaning up the ransomware attack her very department allowed?

I then remembered what ELSE happened around October 1st and was quietly buried for over a month: Gary Cox was shown the door ‘resigned’ ….remember?? He “submitted a letter of resignation on October 1st”, according to a November 5th Dispatch article.

Hmmmm. Now, with well over 100 City employees running around town (many of whom do REAL work like fix broken pipes, repair downed power lines and toss violent douche bags in jail), you can be sure there are more than a few who don’t care for the IT Department people in their cushy overpaid Nerf world job. Subsequently (look it up, Monica) I had heard hilarious rumors that Kristy was tangled up in the Gary Cox ‘resignation’ affair.

I won’t go into too much detail but supposedly it involved a fairly harmless prank with some Goldfish crackers (hey, she really IS The Joker!!).

I don’t traffic in rumors. I try to stick to facts – usually taken straight from City documents or City council’s own minutes. But this is just TOO big of a coincidence to NOT be related….and here is a FACT staring me in the face. Paid administrative leave for three days at exactly the time former Assistant City Manager Gary Cox was let go resigned.

Seems to me Gary got shafted pretty hard. He appears to have been shown the door while Kristy was only “punished” with 5 days of paid vacation administrative leave.

Ouch, man.

Of course, we’ll never know the real story. No way Elmo Spinley will ever let that one out!

[P.S. to poor Gary Cox out there in Houston: anonymous tips are always welcome!]

City Council Humor…And Crazy Math

Listening to the audio-only recording of the first City Council meeting in the new Fishbowl provided some laughs…even if I had to sit through 90 minutes of absolute agony to get there.

Link to audio: https://app.box.com/s/k7e9kao553yiyt4vgatpfhvx6igyk9gq

The humor (once again) concerns the horrible deal the City wants to make by moving the police department servers from in-house servers to cloud servers.

If you slide forward to the 1:29:25 mark, you will hear (barely – the audio is terrible – not worth $95,000) the explanation as to why the PD needs to make the move to cloud storage. We are told that “by OUTSOURCING our video to a cloud solution, it’s gonna eliminate some work that Monica and Kristy have to do to maintain, update and repair that server.” [1:31:10 mark]

Yes, we definitely don’t want to burden Monica and Kristy with “maintaining or repairing the servers!” That is only, like, their JOB and stuff. Christ, between TSM Consulting, Watchguard, Tyler Technologies and all the others we pay for IT work, the poor girls will have nothing to do but change printer cartridges and head out for an early lunch! Poor dears.

There’s that word OUTSOURCING again! Something I’ve been calling for all along. EVERY city I contacted that was close to our size in population OUTSOURCES their IT. So I’m all for outsourcing – but you ALSO have to get rid of our overpaid IT Department at the same time. Otherwise it makes no sense.

More ‘crazy math’ comes in when we are told they need about 9TB of storage which will cost $270 per month. Apparently storage cost is 3 cents per gigabyte per month – or 9,000 gigs times 3 cents = $270.

Which SOUNDS cheap. Until you go to NewEgg.com and see that you can BUY a 10TB drive for $200 – or 2 cents per gig.

I’m no computer expert and I’m sure that a PD video server and NewEgg external drives are not completely fungible (look it up, Monica) but my point is made: storage is CHEAP in the year 2019. We can BUY storage for TWO cents per gig and own it forever OR we can RENT storage for THREE cents per gig PER MONTH. That makes zero sense to me.

Zero sense, that is, unless the ultimate aim here is to relieve Kristy and Monica of the ‘burden’ of doing their jobs and securing data. Only then does it make a tiny bit of sense.

Another scary thing I noticed from this audio-only recording was how quickly The Seven Goldfish just unanimously vote for massive new expenditures on stuff like this after a 2-minute presentation. Zero research. Zero deep questions. No tabling it until next meeting so they can check on some claims or do some math or ask about other alternatives. Nope. Somebody asks for a big check, and the Goldfish throw tax dollars at it. Easy as that.

The same thing happened with our useless city recycling program. One dummy at a town hall meeting asked for it – and voila: we have a new $12,000 expenditure for something that does ZERO for the environment. It’s actually quite alarming how easily the Goldfish are duped into writing big checks.

Not Only Has IT Department Head Monica Wright Not Explained Ransomware Attack – She Skipped The Next City Council Meeting!!

For those of you not aware, on August 16th the City of Lampasas was hit by a ransomware attack. The city network apparently having been left wide open by our TWO highly-paid computer experts. Here is a timeline of what transpired.

You’d think after the city was held hostage for ten days and at LEAST $36,000 worth of equipment was ruined (that we know of), City Council might have some questions and Monica Wright (the HEAD of the IT Department) might have some answers or explanations about how it happened and why it won’t happen again.

Nope.

One reason for the lack of details was that Monica Wright couldn’t even be bothered to show up for the August 26th City Council meeting to make her departmental report!! She sent her sidekick and supposed “network administrator” to the meeting instead [page 1: City Staff present]. See photo of minutes below:

There are only two explanations for this: Monica was on one of her many vacations OR she was afraid to face the music. She loves having the title and extra pay of a ‘department head’, apparently….but she doesn’t want all those icky responsibilities and hard work.

Well, at least Kristy was there to explain it all – since she is ostensibly (look it up, Monica) in charge of the City’s network.

Nope. Apparently Kristy sat there twiddling her thumbs the entire meeting. No report was made by her either. The fire chief made his report and that was the end of any departmental reports (see pages 5 and 6). See photo below:

Not only that, City Council (whom I call The Seven Goldfish, due to their very short memories) didn’t even ask about it!! In fact, Misti Talbert THANKED them for their hard work and that was the end of it.

I’d like to tell you that City Manager Finley “Spinley” DeGraffenried was there to make a report on the cyber attack, but HE wasn’t there either! He sent his assistant Gary Cox to “commend the IT and Finance Departments” over the ransomware attack. I assume he included the Finance Department since they will be writing a bunch of huge checks to replace all the ruined computer servers and computers, right?

City Attorney Stonewalls My Request For Ransomware Attack Details.

Far from being questioned or chastised about the recent IT Department screw-up which left the City’s computers open to attack, Monica Can’t-Wright and her accomplice Kristy “The Joker” Acevedo were PRAISED for their “hard work during the ransomware attack”! Seriously – there were ZERO questions from City Council about how the attack happened or why the IT Department got caught with their pants down (Council minutes page 66).

Only in government work can you screw the pooch that hard and then get praise for helping to clean it up. In the private sector, you’d probably be looking for a new job. God forbid The Seven Goldfish ask a single question about the entire incident – they have already forgotten it entirely!

What exactly did Monica do to save the day? What were the “emergency protocols” the quick-thinking Monica implemented? The City won’t say! That’s right. After I requested a copy of these supposed “protocols” that Monica implemented, the City attorney, Jo-Christy Brown produced six pages of drivel (lots of billable hours!) in a letter to the Texas Attorney General’s office explaining to them why the City of Lampasas should be able to deny my request.

Of course, I know damn good and well there ARE no protocols. But Ms. Brown and the City of Lampasas are taking the ridiculous position that release of any of this data “might result in a ‘targeted attack’ towards any perceived vulnerabilities”.

So, if I were to ask the fire department any questions about how they respond to fires, they would deny my request in a tizzy because I might use that information to go and burn down some houses?? Absolutely ridiculous.

Just more of the same from the Talbert administration: screw it up then cover it up and tell the citizens to pound sand.

Was Kristy Acevedo Negligent or Incompetent?

Kristy Acevedo holds the title of “Network Administrator” for the City of Lampasas. She and her superior, Monica Wright, are paid quite well ($180,000 in salary and benefits – Pay Group 30 for Monica and 22 for Kristy) to “maintain and troubleshoot all network systems and equipment” (this is taken directly from the City of Lampasas description of her job).

The city spends over $300,000 per year on the IT Department and has spent about $1.5 MILLION DOLLARS on that department over the last six years. They are proposing a huge increase to $374,000 this year alone.

So it’s hard to argue they don’t throw enough money at that department. Hell, Monica had enough cash to blow almost $100,000 on a NO-BID audio/visual system for City Council chambers last year, when she COULD have only spent $34,000, so they are clearly rolling in dough. Perhaps I have simply been right all along in saying they are totally unqualified and in way over their heads. Incompetent, is the word I am looking for here.

Employees of the city serve “at will” and can be dismissed at any time [Section 13.01 of the City Personnel Policy]. One of the many reasons for possible dismissal listed is “Incompetence or Neglect of Duty”

Now, this problem hasn’t even been resolved yet, so the finger pointing can wait until our TWO IT ‘experts’ have fixed their mess….but after the dust has settled, it seems City Council should be looking into how this was allowed to happen and whether our Network Administrator was incompetent or neglectful of her duties. Considering how many days off they get per year, there is about a 20% chance one of them wasn’t even at work last Friday!

Ransomware Attack Confirmed By City

It’s official.

According to Assistant City Manager Gary Cox, “the City of Lampasas is one of 22 entities which was affected by a ransomware attack that occurred last Friday.  The matter is under investigation by federal law enforcement authorities at this time.”

Wow.

No word on the amount of “ransom” demanded by the perpetrators. I’m sure the Dispatch and Radiogram will be all over this with the details soon (right guys?).

How much are they demanding, if anything? Will the city pay up? Will any heads roll in the IT Department or City Hall for this colossal screw-up?

Stay tuned.

Was Lampasas’ Inept IT Department Hit by Computer Malware Attack?

Hmmmmmm…..last week I saw an article claiming many cities in Texas were hit by malware attacks. I immediately thought to myself “Lampasas better hope they weren’t one of them, because our IT “experts” are anything but”. Of course, Texas is a huge state with thousands of cities…I figured the odds were highly against it and forgot about the whole thing.

THEN, yesterday and today, I read Facebook posts about computers being down for people trying to pay their utilities here in town since last Friday (see: Lampasas County Breaking News).

Could these two things be related?? Did Lampasas fall victim to a computer malware attack?? This is all total speculation on my part, but it would be quite fitting if the TWO unqualified IT “experts” on the bloated payroll (who I have been railing against for over a year now) left the front door wide open for a cyber attack. Quite fitting indeed.

If so, I would love to be a fly on the wall as Monica Can’t-Wright and her sidekick, Kristy “The Joker” Acevedo run around like headless chickens frantically dialing TSM Consulting to ride to the rescue and fix it all for an exorbitant sum.

Side-By-Side IT Comparison: How Overpaid Are Monica and Kristy?

I hate to flagellate a deceased equine, but literally every single city or county I look at makes it more and more obvious that our IT Department is FAR larger and more expensive than it has any right to be. Just for kicks, I recently compared the entire COUNTY of Burnet to our little town of Lampasas. Here is what I found:

LAMPASAS

Population 7,800

Area 6.2 square miles

IT staff – 2

IT salary $125,881

IT benefits $55,081

Consulting expense $21,600

TOTAL $202,562

BURNET COUNTY

Population 50,000

Area 1021 square miles

IT staff – 2

IT salary $113,336

IT benefits $43,788

Consulting expense $0

TOTAL $157,124

As you can see, Lampasas spends 29% MORE on salary, benefits and paying for outside consultants.

I have included “consulting” in this comparison because it represents the money we hand to TSM Consulting ($1,800 per month, every month) to be on call to do Kristy’s job for her. That is just the MINIMUM. They actually pay them more when there is actual work to do….but I am being conservative in my comparison.

You may notice the benefits are wildly higher here in Lampasas – something I have railed against for a year now. Here is the breakdown on benefits:

Kristy and Monica: $19,288 for retirement and $25,905 for insurance

Burnet county: $12,520 for retirement and $21,528 for insurance

The annual retirement contribution is FIFTY-FOUR PERCENT HIGHER here in our little town than it is 15 miles down the street. Insurance is TWENTY PERCENT HIGHER.

Yet more proof that our IT Department is over-staffed, over-paid and under worked. I say “under worked” because Monica takes off over TWO MONTHS every year, when you add it all up (as I did).

But that STILL isn’t enough loafing around for our IT Princesses! Oh, no! They want MORE time off, as you can see below:

Ideas For The New Budget – Part II

I have previously cited plenty of examples of waste in the city budget and why I think it happens. What to do about it? Here are a few ideas:

  • Eliminate the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. Mandy Walsh may be the nicest lady on the planet (I do not know her) but she is costing the city over $100,000 per year to go to conventions and attend a monthly LEDC meeting. The LEDC has wasted over a million dollars on the “business park” which is a complete disaster and not a legitimate function of any small government. After eliminating the LEDC, private citizens will still open up Burger Kings, MOJO Coffee shops, antique stores and new hotels and some old businesses will still fail. That is the nature of free-market capitalism. We don’t need a group of 5 or 6 “planners” wasting six figures to do that. The world of Lampasas will keep on spinning after LEDC is gone and the city will save a TON of money.
  • Start looking SERIOUSLY at alternatives to the current health care plan or provider. Lampasas seems to spend around $12,000 to $14,000 PER EMPLOYEE while other cities our size seem to spend more like $7,000 to $8,000 per employee. That is insane. Gary Cox needs to get on the horn to Harker Heights, Crockett, Princeton, Kaufman and other cities and ask their managers how they do it. I saw one city that used a Texas Municipal League program for their health care. Why don’t we? Hell, Kristy and Monica ALONE cost the city $25,905 for insurance (line item 505-5115). A 30% reduction in these costs would bring us in line with other cities our size and save OVER a quarter of a million dollars PER YEAR.
  • PLEASE FORGET about the civic center idea. We don’t need another “Old City Hall” debacle on our hands wasting hundreds of thousands per year in operating costs and interest payments. A cursory Google search shows many cities lose a ton of money on this type of project. The fact that Bruce “Always Wrong” Haywood wants one should be reason enough to bury it forever.

Implementing just these few ideas could easily save the city up to HALF A MILLION PER YEAR. That sounds like a lot, and it is. However, it only represents LESS THAN 2% of our $27,000,000 budget. I know most American families (including me) have had to cut spending at LEAST a few percent when times are tight. Don’t tell me the Lampasas City government can’t do the same and get by with 98.15% of what they spent last year.

I implore City Council to at least consider these proposals. They are all well-researched and well-documented.

Marble Falls ALSO Has No IT Department.

Marble Falls – which is right down the street and has a similar population – ALSO has no IT department. According to Kaleb Kraenzel, the Assistant City Manager: “currently, our organization contracts out with a local company for that service”.

That makes TEN cities our size I have checked with and ZERO IT Departments. That’s 0-10 on IT Departments….not a very good batting average, even for government work. The facts look worse for Monica and Kristy every time I get a response from another city manager.

Marble Falls takes in about FIVE TIMES the money we do in sales tax ($150k per month versus $750k), so there is clearly more money sloshing around there….yet STILL no IT department.

I asked Mr Kraenzel how much they spend on their IT contract and am waiting to hear back.

Hell, even Copperas Cove, which is around FIVE TIMES our population, only spends about $380,000 on their IT. Five times larger yet they spend roughly what we do? Very odd.

Clearly, we are overstaffed. I’m going to call the Lampasas IT Department the Department of Redundancy Department from now on. Monica has been feathering her nest for almost 14 years now. Perhaps it is time for a change.