We saw Herb Pearce ask a few tough questions in Part I. He continued with more questions after asking for a list of these supposed “prospects” and being told by Mandy “those are confidential”.
19:19 mark: Herb asks “We’ve had this land for about 20 years? Why are we just now coming around to this right now?”
Ouch! Herb is rightly wondering “wtf have you guys been doing for the last 17 years with millions of dollars??“
This is where it gets hilarious. Mandy is not used to being grilled like this. She is used to being rubber-stamped by her girlfriends sitting on council. Since 2017 when Mandy started as ED Director, she has had her good buddies Misti Talbert, Delena Toups and Cathy Kuehne sitting up on the dais as Mayor and councilmembers.
In other words, no hard questions at all. Actually, no questions of any kind, really. Ever.
[Misti ALSO sat on the LEDC board at the exact same time she was mayor. So why would she EVER question anything the LEDC does? She’d be impugning her own actions!]
Why would they? They are all good buddies outside the confines of City council. Call it the “Good Old Girls” network. They used to travel every October to the Texas Municipal League convention (on the City’s dime) and have a grand old time.
Goofing around on teeter-totters, dressing up as snowmen, and of course, singing karaoke together several years in a row.
Council members fraternizing with the very employee they oversee ALWAYS leads to conflicts of interest. We have it in spades with the LEDC and City council.
[I get that this is a small town and it’s hard not to know a lot of people, but I never saw Talbert, Kuehne and Toups attend any “lawn maintenance” seminars with Jose the guy who mows the fields at 580 Sports Complex. Just saying!]
But that has all changed now. Talbert and Toups are gone and in their place sits Pearce and Morris – and they want some answers!
After Herb asked this question, Mandy was like a deer in the headlights. There was a VERY long pause (go to 19:24 mark) before she turned around to look behind her into the peanut gallery for some help from SOMEONE..ANYONE. I mean, it was REALLY uncomfortable. I’ve watched it a dozen times.
Here is the screenshot:
Turns out her good gal pal (and recently elected president of the LEDC – shocker!) Misti Talbert was out in the peanut gallery ready to swoop in and save her, as we’ll see in a few minutes.
But Mandy couldn’t wait that long. First she stammered about how “I’ve only been here since 2017” and then she offered up a non-sequitur about how “we don’t have other land to offer a prospect coming into the City right now” – which has nothing to do with the question Herb asked. She was pretty much stammering nonsense answers – then quickly thought to turn it over to Finley, who is an expert at babbling bullshit:
Finley dutifully stepped in and glazed over the eyes of council with gems like “leveraging enterprise funds”.
It wasn’t long until Misti charged in from the Peanut Gallery to save the day – and BOY was she talking a million miles a minute! Telling us about “the reality of the situation”.
The “reality” is she told a whopper right off the bat:
21:20 mark: “I’ve been on the EDC board since I think 2014…15…at the time we started revving things back up…at that time, there wasn’t even a director for the EDC, it was just the board…“
[Yes, by all means, let’s start in 2014 – TEN YEARS after you bought the land. We’ll just ignore everything before that, Herb!]
“How could you expect us to get anything done in 17 years with only two million dollars! WE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A DIRECTOR FOR THE EDC!”
You’d think someone who has been buried like a tick in City government for all these years would know her history. There most certainly WAS an Economic Development Director during that period. Does the name “Kathi Masonheimer” ring a bell?
It should ring a bell. She is listed as “Economic Development Director” over and over in your own LEDC minutes all during that time frame. Go ahead and check for yourselves! Minutes from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
[Before THAT, the “Economic Development Coordinator” was Cherry Hargrove. I can’t speak to any earlier than that since the LEDC doesn’t bother to post minutes before that.]
ED Director Masonheimer even assured us publicly that all the money they spent in 2015 was going to do the trick:
“Recent land clearing and development of a road at the business park, Mrs. Masonheimer added, have made the site more attractive to prospective businesses and U.S. 183 passersby.” – Oct 23, 2015
Furthermore, Masonheimer was also telling us that the “business” park was going to be generating lots of money soon – this was back on September 23, 2014:
“The LEDC’s new debt service payment will be about $150,000 a year, Mrs. Masonheimer said. The economic development corporation projects annual revenue of about $250,000, which will leave approximately $100,000 for operating costs after making loan payments. “
Whoops. Another “LEDC projection” pipe dream crashes down. But hey, the LEDC will REALLY be right with their predictions this time! Pinkie swear!!
Misti then stated [21:32 mark] that “Economic development within the City of Lampasas….everybody can look at and see…that is something to be proud of”
Huh? Examples please. Or do we just take your word for it as a self-evident truism? Which “development” are you all responsible for? Burger King? Whattaburger? Schlotskys? The Corner Store? Cefco?
I have news for Misti: all that “development” was going to happen ANYWAYS. – with or without a City bureaucrat on the payroll costing us over $100,000. Large corporations know EXACTLY when to move into an area. It all has to do with population, traffic and demographics – NONE of which are controlled by Mandy Walsh and the LEDC.
In short, the REAL answer to your question, Herb is “Because the LEDC motto is ‘Ready, Shoot, Aim”. Misti is essentially admitting that the LEDC bought that land back in 2004 with NO IDEA what the hell they were gonna do.
They had no idea in 2004 when they bought it. They had no idea in 2014 when they decided to blow another $1.3 million on it. They have no idea NOW as they stand before you asking for ANOTHER $2 million dollars. This is the same group of amateurs that was conned for a YEAR by Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong pipe dream.
In fact – that would be a GREAT question for Mandy and Misti next time they stand before council:
“What exactly happened to Mike Cour and Eco-Strong? Why did that “prospect” fall apart after you spent a YEAR hiding it from public eyes?“
I’d love to hear Misti’s answers to that.