The LEDC was very busy yesterday morning re-posting what 10 other pages have ALREADY reposted….
This is a lot of what the Economic Development Director does: duplicates efforts and makes posts that are already more visible elsewhere. It makes her look busy and justifies her $119,000 cost to the taxpayer. We already have a TON of other places where news gets out faster. Such as:
The City website, the City Facebook page, the City TWITTER page (yes we have one), the Chamber of Commerce website, the Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, Lampasas County Breaking News Facebook page (they have 22,000 subscribers!), the Mayor’s Facebook page (Misti had this back in Feb 2021 during the storm – TJ Monroe can’t be bothered), Lampasas ISD Facebook page, Lampasas ISD website, Lampasas Dispatch Record website, Lampasas Radio Facebook page, local TV and the LEDC Facebook page AND website!!
Instead of reposting news everyone already knows about, perhaps Stacey Ybarra or LEDC Prez Misti Talbert could answer the question I have been asking for over a month now: What is the name of the company that “won” a project from the LEDC and what are the details of this project? Including jobs created and capital investments made?
“Announcement/Project wins: 1” – what are the details???
Also, in light of recent water supply humiliations, HOW MUCH WATER ARE THESE NEW INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS GOING TO BE USING? DID YOU CUT THEM ANY DEALS FOR CHEAP WATER? ARE THEY AWARE OF THE RISK THAT THEIR WATER MIGHT RUN OUT ONE FINE AUGUST MORNING?
Are you going to give some company a “free” $500,000 worth of land and let them pull 30,000 gallons of water per day out of the system? How’s that going to work, exactly? We’d love to know, if you aren’t too busy re-posting news from yesterday morning.
Outstanding observation ladies! You should direct your queries (and anger) towards former mayors and City council members TJ Monroe and Misti Talbert, for starters. Chuck Williamson is also on the list:
What did they do? Well, as I have been ranting about on here for literally FIVE YEARS, they have been handing out taxpayer money to SUBSIDIZE all this growth. They should have been doing the OPPOSITE and charging “impact fees” on every new house. Want to hook your house up to the grid? That will be $2,500 please. Want to hook up to the water/wastewater? That will be another $2,500 please.
You think anyone is going to balk at a $5,000 charge on a $300,000 house? They aren’t. And if they do? Good riddance – that’s how you slow the growth. Then, at the end of the day when you have 500 new “rooftops” as Finley likes to call them, you at least have $2.5 million in your coffers to pay for all the millions of dollars in water/wastewater upgrade costs the City is facing right now.
But Talbert and Monroe DIDN’T do any of that. They did the exact OPPOSITE and handed out money to developers or gave them FREE electrical hookups. Deorald Finney was given a $72,000 gift on his Stone Valley subdivision when Talbert (and council) decided he didn’t have to pay to hook up to the grid.
Don’t forget about the $185,000 in taxpayer money Talbert handed to S2M2 back in 2020 for their ill-fated Brodie Estates development – which is still nowhere near finished.
Where is Misti Talbert now? Don’t worry – she’s only the president of the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. They are the ones with a gigantic empty “Business Pork” they have spent over $7 million dollars on. I’m sure she’ll drive a hard bargain over there, too. Of course, we’ll never know because the LEDC has been lawyering up every time I ask a question about what’s going on over there.
Millions of tax dollars handed out. All so YOU can have more traffic, more people sucking on the water pipe and more people on the grid. Job well done, Misti!!
I’m back to combing through the old minutes. If you haven’t been following the Business Pork Origins Series, you can START HERE.
Anyhow, back in in 2005, the LEDC board put the bond they wanted to issue up to a vote and let the citizens decide on it. This bond issuance was supposed to pay for utilities to the “business park”. It was a complete disaster.
[Now remember: the LEDC was ALREADY moving the goalposts even back then. The ORIGINAL pitch went like this: buy the land, get a legit prospect by pitching the land they now had, THEN get an EDA grant to pay for it all using this solid business prospect – as the rules required. NOW they were skipping item #2 and just trying to grab more tax dollars!]
Of 3,800 registered voters (this is taken from the 2/7/2005 minutes) only 207 voted in favor of taking on this massive debt to fund the Business Pork pipe dream and 395 voted against. So not only did 65.6% of voters say NO to this idea, but the YES votes comprised 5.5% of the voting pool.
In other words, 94.5% of the voters wanted nothing to do with this debt burden.
But back then, just like today, the LEDC refused to listen and charged forward with their moronic idea. This is taken from the minutes in February 2005:
Board member [Craig] Benton commented: Citizens went against the election because of the tax increase. The City needs industry. Have got to get utilities to this property. The land is still a good investment and the Board needs to continue the course. If required, can do utilities in small increments, even if it were five feet at a time, if they have to. This land is still a good investment.
[Gee Craig…are you trying to say the land is a good investment? Did they teach that in chiropractor’s school? Turns out it WASN’T a good investment, because 7 years later, the land was appraised at a value 10% lower than purchase price, but we already covered that]
I seriously hope this guy didn’t think you can lay down power lines and water lines five feet at a time as you got a little pocket change. But with this group, you really never know.
Board members [Steve] Hudson and [Sally] Yancy agreed with Benton’s comments [2/7/2005 minutes].
So the LEDC ignored the will of the people and charged ahead into the abyss. Just like they do today.
Furthermore, Mike Talbot (who was simultaneously the Executive Director of the LEDC AND the City Manager) had the following to say about it all:
“Talbot stated he felt the Board should not be deterred in their efforts in regards to the Business Park due to the failure of the Bond Election. He gave the following possible reasons for the Bond Election not passing:
I’m considering changing the name of the ‘Business Park’ from ‘Corpse Repository‘ to ‘Eckermann Retirement Fund’. The LEDC has blown WAY over a million dollars on that weed patch with nothing to show for it, but Pope Eckermann seems to have the nicest monthly skim on this thing.
Between 2/21/14 and 6/15/16 Pope Eckermann took a $168,740 bite out the taxpayer’s ass. Or about $6,000 per month. To do what? Great question. Here is a sample of just a few entries – it’s seriously almost on a monthly basis! They almost LITERALLY tithe Pope Eckermann on a schedule, it seems. Monthly rent to sprinkle holy water on the sacred site:
Of course, don’t forget to add the most recent $100,000 tithe to ‘develop’ the supposedly-already-shovel-ready business park and it jumps to $268,740. And you know it won’t stop there. This is a gravy train that all the vultures will ride for YEARS because the City and the LEDC are too stupid or stubborn to admit this thing is a debacle.
Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Mood grabbed a huge bite of taxpayer ass too. Obviously a law firm, these charges were for legal services pertaining to Kempner Water service for the ‘business park’. Not sure how that applies since there are ZERO businesses there drawing any water from that $834,000 water system they installed. But the law firm billed them and it is filed under ‘business park’ – denoted by all the many yellow highlights added for me by the City accountant, I assume:
All in all, there are 20 entries between 3/16 and 11/17 for a massive $273,000 just in legal fees!!
So we are up to about $540,000 just between those two vultures. Let’s continue.
It cost a small fortune to run water/waste water lines into the ‘business park’. Qro Mex got that contract. At least there is something there to show for it (pipes), even if they still aren’t being used 4.5 years later. Eckermann got a bite of taxpayer ass there as well. We see $32,000 in ‘engineering and surveying’. They also blew about $30,000 clearing brush and trees. But not before $8,000 was spent on a ‘tree survey’ and $14,000 for a topological survey – both compliments of Triple C Surveying:
Not to mention…this is all just for “improvements”! We aren’t even talking about the original COST OF THE LAND YET!
But wait…there’s more!
Techline Construction (electrical extensions) – $62,758
Schneider Engineering (electrical extension engineering) – $24,328.49 [I have to guess Pope Eckermann the Engineer was incensed at this – another hyena gnawing on HIS taxpayers asses]
L A Porter and Canales Dibble (flex base and roads? Not sure as there is not much detail on the book entry) – $22,391.26
Rental for clearing park, engineering/surveying for clearing (you have got to be kidding me) and hauling – $9,530.40
Kleensite LLC (clearing brush…AGAIN) – $6,500
Neon Cloud Productions (promotion video of weed patch) – $3,354.86
Zoom Advertising – logos, magazine ad (LOL!!), art work, banner art, business cards (yes, all for a ‘Business Park’ that does STILL not exist 4.5 years later – $2,190
Herbst Real Estate (appraisal of park in 2012) – $2,000
Sign Designs of Texas (shitty sign currently marking location of weed patch on Highway 183) – $1,545.73
Much like the Old City Hall Vanity Project, we are now looking at over $1,500,000 for this disaster. All for a weed patch.
I guess my question for LEDC and City Hall is this: when you have ALREADY spent a HUGE sum of money to date with surveying, engineering, clearing, hauling, installing electric, installing water, clearing some more, surveying some more, surveying yet again, engineering something or other, legal fees, etc….what the HELL is Eckermann going to do for the NEXT $100,000 he was handed???? Seems to me they have all been eating at the trough pretty heavily the last 7 years and $1.5 million. So NOW you are going to pay the Pope ANOTHER $100,000 to “develop the park”?
Pardon my French, but what the hell have you been doing for the last 7 years and $1.5 million, if not ‘developing’ the park.
We haven’t even TALKED about the huge sums you will have to spend to put real roads/signage/landscaping/lights in and make it look all fancy like your pipe-dream of a rendition you paid good money for!
PIPE DREAM – high tech jobs
REALITY – corpse repository
I leave you with some hilarious quotes from years and years ago showing how wrong the politicians and City clowns have been….over and over and over….
“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — which she said Harrison spoke against publicly. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017
“DeGraffenried said the LEDC was bold in its decisions to purchase the business park property and extend utilities to it. The city manager predicted Lampasas will enjoy many “spin-off benefits” throughout the city because of the utility work. ” – Oct 23, 2015
[By ‘spin-off benefits’, Spinley must mean ‘buying Pope Eckermann a new boat’]
“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
“Projects like this send a message that the city will provide the infrastructure needed for job growth,” [letter written by crusty, big-spending RINO fossil-dummy Roger Williams, U.S. Congressman] – Oct 23, 2015
“An economic study in 2001, [Neal] Leavell said,concluded a business park was the main item Lampasas needed to attract development.” – Oct 23, 2015
“We look forward to working with you andworking to fill this business park with good jobs,” she said [Carol Faulkenberry, Texas Dept Agriculture] – Oct 23, 2015
“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015
“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015
“Grayson said he hopes to develop the business park and attract companies to the site.” [Then-mayor Grayson running for re-election] – April 3, 2015
The council also voted to guarantee funds for the LEDC’s loan with First State Bank Central Texas. The bank requested the guarantee in the event the LEDC becomes unable to pay off the loan. The LEDC’s $1.77 million loan from the Lampasas bank includes $1.3 million for the business park utilities. – Oct 17, 2014
“I feel like we’re getting somewhere,” board president Dr. Neal Leavell added. “I think we’ve really accomplished something. It’s taken a lot of patience, but we’re here.” – September 23, 2014
“Advocates of utility extensions have said entities compete vigorously for new jobs and that cities with ready-to-build sites have an advantage as they try to attract new businesses.” – August 8, 2014
“Economic development officials have said utilities for the business park are essential to make the 165-acre area attractive to companies.” – July 22, 2014
The LEDC was “proactive,” deGraffenried said, in acquiring the U.S. 183 property several years ago for a business park. The goal of utility extensions, the city manager said, is to develop the land into a site that can promote economic growth. – June 17, 2014
