There was another “fact” brought up by some LEDC board members on Monday that turns out to be 100% false upon closer inspection (thank you Dispatch!!).
As they stammered and yammered last Monday and tried to explain how the selection process got so fucked up, LEDC member Roland Schaub said “I don’t remember there being an overabundance of applicants like there was this time around.”
The implication being that “it’s not our fault! We were just overwhelmed by this freak event. We’d just LOVE to give all the applicants a fair shake! There’s no favoritism here!”
Yeah right.
Apparently he has a VERY short memory. Because just the very last time we went through this (2022) there were no less than FIVE applicants. Amazing! I even wrote about it and LISTED EVERY CANDIDATE! You can find them on pages 16 through 29 of the council packets from two years ago.
You know who the LEDC board ended up selecting of those five applicants? None of them! Instead, they plucked Fin Erwin out of obscurity. Well, not exactly obscurity –he’s Misti Talbert’s brother-in-law! What are the odds??
They did the EXACT SAME THING in 2021 when they plucked Ryan Shahan from obscurity over five other people who actually bothered to apply when Shahan didn’t. Oddly, Shahan is the president of the very bank the LEDC borrowed millions from. Are you seeing a pattern here yet?
Multiple times we have seen Lampasas citizens go through the trouble of applying to volunteer on this board. Multiple times we have seen them all IGNORED in favor of nepotism and inside connections. And multiple times City council looked the other way because the SAME PEOPLE (Talbert, Monroe, et al) were sitting on council and the LEDC board simultaneously.
So for the LEDC members to stand up there and act surprised that anyone should DARE to suggest they are an inbred, self-interested, insulated, unaccountable clique is extremely laughable.
The only reason things are blowing up THIS time is that the makeup of City council has changed! Before, we had Misti Talbert herself as well as TJ Monroe sitting on City council while ALSO serving on the very board they were supposed to overlook. I wrote MULTIPLE times that this is a huge conflict of interest over THREE YEARS AGO!
Now that there are some new guys on City council, the LEDC is being looked into and questioned a little bit, and boy they do not like it ONE BIT.
Part III coming soon.