Tag: LEDC

City and LEDC Refuse To Divulge Current Business Pork ‘Prospect’…AGAIN.

I tells ya – it’s like déjà vu all over again!

I have noticed over the last couple months there is a “business park prospect” mentioned in the agendas and packets. Lots of “executive sessions” to discuss “incentives” (free money) for this mystery prospect.

I asked for just the NAME of this prospect. Not financials. Not proprietary information. Not terms of any deals. Not trade secrets. Absolutely NOTHING but the name.

Guess what?

“Yes I did receive your request, unfortunately it is not that simple.   I have reached out to the City Attorney on whether or not the name of the prospect can be released at this time.  I will be in touch.”

This is ridiculous on many levels. One level of ridiculousness is that the LEDC used to LOUDLY trumpet and blather about their prospects. Even the WHISPER of a possible prospect was splashed loudly in the minutes, in the newspaper and everywhere else.

Here is a sampling of past business pork prospects (none panned out, obviously):

A $20 million medical center (2004)

A “second tier supplier to the new Toyota plant in San Antonio” (2004)

LAMCO (2017)

AWI (2017)

The development of the Santa Fe Depot property – where the guy strung Mandy and the LEDC along for most of 2019. LOL.

A “recreational insurance and lending company out of Austin that would EACH bring 15-25 high-wage positions to Lampasas” (2018)

Craft brewing company (2018 and many other times)

“A prospect from Bastrop” (2018)

Mike Irvin’s 5,000 sq ft Steel Fabrication Shop in the “Business Park” (2018)

A “prospect out of Abilene” interested in relocating their business to Lampasas but they “can’t give out details yet” (2018).

But NOW, they can’t even give me a name!

I’m guessing that it ISN’T one of the prospects they coughed up over a year ago, or they wouldn’t be making a big secret of it. After all, they already TOLD me last February.

Those prospects were: Lawson Implements, PhoLicious (now gone to Houston), Legacy Awning and Shade, Nextlink Internet (already has killer location on 580 E) and Eco-Flex Recycled Rubber (who ALREADY screwed over the City once with their lies a couple years ago).

The LEDC also doesn’t seem to have a problem blabbing about other businesses about to enter the City right now – like HTeaO (old Chinese Buffet building) or Anytime Fitness (4th Street).

I’m going to go ahead and predict that my old buddy J.C. Brown denies me this information…thus keeping taxpayers in the dark YET AGAIN about the “goat pasture” they have shelled out over $7.1 million dollars for so far.

City Makes Atrocious “Deal” With Martin Custom & Rod. Taxpayers Heavily Screwed.

Well, I can see why they wanted to keep this a secret. The “deal” also revealed yet another lie by the City last fall…but we’ll get to that later.

I am still going through this and have submitted some questions to the City manager to make sure I understand the details of this “deal” and will report by this weekend. But it looks like lose/lose for the taxpayer and win/win for Martin Custom & Rod. No surprises there.

Meanwhile, here is the EASY way to solve the math problem from yesterday. A couple guys I know who I consider smart made it WAY too complicated and tried to bring algebra into it. Remember, this is a FIFTH-GRADE math question, according to Reddit. Only a little logic and simple division need be applies.

On the second day, the kid reads 1/8 of the book. On the third day, he read 1/4 of the book – which we convert to 2/8 immediately to make all the denominators the same. Ergo, he read 3/8 of the book on day two and three.

THEREFORE, he had to have read 5/8 of the book on the first day – and we know that is 30 pages. Ergo, 30 pages = 5/8 of the book. How do we determine how many pages represents 1/8? What number divides 5 times into 30? Answer? The number 6. Therefore, 6 pages represents 1/8 of the book.

The book is therefore 48 pages (1/8 = 6 so 6×8 is 48)

I know “Doctor” Chane Rascoe has been crowing recently about how awesome our schools are. I wonder if I showed this to every 5th grader in Lampasas ISD, how many would get it right. My over/under is 10%.

Didya Know? City Personnel NOT Required To Live in City

Did you know that City employees are NOT required to live within the City limits? It’s true!

Section 3.07: The city does not require its employees to live within the city limits, but city residency is encouraged. The city may require certain employees to reside within a reasonable work commuting range, as determined and approved by the city manager, particularly those employees who may be required to serve on standby duty.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it appears that our new Economic Development Director doesn’t exactly live here in town. In fact, it appears she may live in Cedar Park or north Austin! That’s quite a commute.

Now, normally I wouldn’t give a good crap WHERE she lives. But think about this delicious bit of irony:

The Lampasas Economic Development Corp has spent the last 20 years and over $7 MILLION dollars on their Business Pork project. Mandy Walsh (our previous EDD) was heavily involved in this project, and I assume Mrs. Ybarra will be as well.

The purpose of this Business Pork is to “bring high-paying jobs to Lampasas”, is it not? That’s what I’ve heard for the last 12 years. That’s what Misti Talbert said when she pilfered $971,000 from the City coffers last February for this project. We heard it from dozens of City council members and other assorted Big Wigs for 20 years now…

“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

So for them to waste that many millions in a desperate attempt to BRING JOBS to this town, it stands to reason that there must be dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of highly-skilled Lampasans sitting around idly twiddling their thumbs just itching to work, right? There must be a mountain of workers and barely any jobs around here if the LEDC needs to spend $7 million on a Business Pork Project to “bring high-paying jobs” to Lampasas.

Not exactly, as it turns out.

Here we had ONE high-paying job out there for Economic Director for the last three months….and THEY COULDN’T EVEN FILL THAT locally! They had to cast their net ALL the way down to Cedar Park and Austin to fill that position!

The fact is, local businesses are STILL trying to fill positions and having trouble. There are STILL “help wanted” signs all over the place. If THEY can’t find workers, how is the fabled “good employer with high-paying jobs” going to find any workers?

I’ve brought this up repeatedly, but it falls on deaf ears. Talbert and City council just keep throwing good money after bad into the black hole known as the Business Park. The fact we couldn’t even find ONE person to fill the EDD position here proves I’m right.

Latest Sales Tax Receipts UP 14.3% – Still Trail Texas

New sales tax numbers are out. Lampasas UP 14.3% compared to last September. Yipeee!

But for the entire state of Texas, sales tax numbers were UP 17.2%. D’oh!

We still trail the state. Surrounding “towns” like Kempner (+22.5%) and Hamilton (+19.5%) saw growth well above state average and crushed our nuts. I guess they have REALLY good Economic Development Corporations or something. If Kempner didn’t pussy out and come down hard on the coffee/bikini cafe some guy wanted to open, they’d probably see huge growth for two years!

Didya Know? Back In 2009, LEDC Actually Considered Sticking Wind Turbines On Downtown Buildings

I just love finding old nuggets like this. I’ve been reading the LEDC minutes from 1999 onwards for a while now – to make the point over and over that they are an incompetent and rudderless organization that has NO BUSINESS handling millions in tax dollars.

I’ve posted some of their more ridiculous plans over the last year, but this one may take the cake!

From the LEDC minutes on March 18, 2009:

“President Hetherly introduced Peter Grant (owner of Grant Builders LLC of Austin TX) – noting that he is a cousin of Rick Hardin, owner of the historic Santa Fe Depot”

Wait a sec…Rick Hardin….Rick Hardin…that name sounds familiar. Oh yeah! I remember now! Three years ago he suggested another “possible brewery” development in town – with City money. He sure is persistent!

But I digress. Back to the minutes….

“Hetherly explained that she had invited Mr Grant (who did the restorations on the Santa Fe depot) to the meeting to discuss sustainable systems and renewable energy.”

Uh oh…smells like a scam coming up! Let’s continue…

“Mr Grant noted that he was not an expert but he could show the board what information he has regarding the stimulus package as it relates to sustainable systems and renewable energy”

Not an expert? No shit!

However, I bet he’s an expert at lining Mr. Grant and Mr. Hardin’s pockets with “stimulus” money from the taxpayers, given the opportunity!

You see, this meeting took place in March 2009. The economy had just blown up (The Great Recession). In fact, I know the stock market hit bottom on March 9, 2009 at S&P level 666 – so this was the DEAD NUTS BOTTOM right here. This guy was no doubt talking about the Obama stimulus package that wasted hundreds of billions and accomplished nothing. As opposed to the more current Biden stimulus that is wasting TRILLIONS and accomplishes nothing.

Some things never change. Let’s get to the good part!

“Discussions included various stimulus funding and amounts, bio fuels, solar panels and WIND POWER –turbines could be implemented downtown without being overly noisy and are better than solar power”

“Height of wind turbines – 30 feet is a good height, just need 1 1/2 stories above the roof. Ten-plus feet above the roof depending on obstructions. $2000 to $5000 to install. They are installed on ‘beefy’ poles set 4-5 feet deep with concrete pier and 1-inch bolts”

BAHAHAHAHAHA. Holy shit! They ACTUALLY DISCUSSED sticking pinwheels on top of buildings downtown! Can you imagine how that would look?? These are the types of geniuses on the LEDC you are currently trusting to spend $7 million on a Business Pork Project, don’t forget.

Also, the statement that wind turbines are “better than solar power” is absolute unmitigated bullshit. By every metric (cost per watt, etc) solar is FAR “better” than wind – but nobody on the LEDC has ever been accused of being a genius, that’s for sure.

The icing on the cake? “Peter Grant noted that he was talking to Rick Hardin about the possibility of using the Depot for a training facility” [to train people how to install solar panels and pinwheels].

LOL. Of course you are. That way you can double-dip the stimulus money! Unbelievable. Thankfully, this scheme was even too hare-brained to qualify for federal government money, apparently. It died on the vine like so many other LEDC schemes.

In case you think this is too crazy to be true:

LEDC Claims Hundreds of Jobs Unfilled in Lampasas County. LEDC Also Spending $7 Million on “Business Park” To “Create More Jobs”. Huh?

I don’t know how I missed this one…from just 60 days ago [see page 85]:

“Workforce Solutions of Central Texas is partnering with the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation for the annual Lampasas Hiring Event.“

Hundreds of jobs need to be filled in Lampasas County. In May 2022, there were nearly 230 job postings in the county. Many of the jobs that are open pay well, according to Charlie Ayres Director of Industry and Education Partnerships at WSCT”

“These jobs hada median advertised salary of $20.00 an hour with 20% of the postings being above $30.00 an hourAyres said”

There is no shortage of jobs to be had. Quite the opposite. So I’m wondering exactly what Misti Talbert and Mandy Walsh and the rest of the LEDC think they are going to accomplish by blowing another $2.7 million (most recent Phase III) on their sandbox. Remember: this entire debacle was conceived and started TWENTY YEARS AGO. What may have been true then is not necessarily true now.

How the Business Pork Project Started 21 Years Ago (Spoiler: They Lied From The Start)

Businesses cannot even find enough workers NOW – how is any new business in the Business Pork (which will be heavily subsidized and also in direct competition with existing businesses in town) supposed to find workers in that environment?

I have made this point many times before:

Why the Business Park is a Disaster That Cannot Be Fixed

LEDC Just Got Pho-cked!

I think Christmas is coming early this year. Watching yet another of the LEDC’s “business prospects” take a shit on their heads is just too perfect. God must really love me to shower me with so many gifts.

You may recall PhoLicious. You should – they were JUST in the local newspaper a mere 15 days ago. The small-town small business hit it big by getting their Pho (essentially very expensive Ramen noodles made by dozens of other companies) onto the shelves of Wal-Mart. The owners, Joseph and Anh Trousdale, made sure to gush over the City and the LEDC and how they were going to save the day:

At first, the Trousdales feared they might have to leave Lampasas to find a large-enough building within their time constraints. But with the help of the city and the Lampasas Economic Development Corp., the couple found a developer who had land.

Well, I was quite skeptical two weeks ago of a 10,000 square foot facility being built “in a few weeks”. I was also surprised they “found land” since LEDC Misti Talbert has told us many times that her Business Pork is “the only game in town” right now and there is simply no other land to be had! She repeated that lie in February when she was begging for the $971,000 in city Covid money.

The LEDC ALSO listed PhoLicious as one of their “serious” prospects for the Business Pork earlier this year. I questioned that too, of course.

I have no doubt that when PhoLicious got accepted by Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, Misti and Mandy immediately had visions of a hugely successful business blossoming in their $7.1 million dollar Business Pork. They’d get to show everyone that the Business Pork was FINALLY worth it!

Best of all, they’d show that mean old Lampasshole he’s been wrong all these years!!

But that all blew up in their faces VERY publicly tonight on the LCBN Facebook page:

Ouch. That’s like when Jan Levinson gave David Wallace a big promotion on the TV show “The Office” and Wallace promptly told her he was quitting for a better job offer from Staples or Office Max or something. Complete and total kick in the nuts and huge douchebag move.

I was wondering who the “developer” was and where the “land” was. Trousdale let slip here that it was “by the fire station” so I can make a pretty good guess: the big warehouse that Mike Irvin just bought where Greenskeepers used to be, maybe? That is a HUGE building and more than enough for PhoLicious, so something else must have happened behind the scenes to scuttle this “deal”.

Did the City not cough up a big enough bribe subsidy economic incentive? Did Trousdale realize he will never find enough workers here (something I have pounded the table on repeatedly as a reason the Business Pork will never work)? Was all his gushing about the LEDC helping him out just a pile of shit to keep them buttered up for possible free land in a year or two?

If anyone out there has the dirt on how this all fell apart, email me at lampasshole@protonmail.com

As for the LEDC, get used to this feeling. It’s going to happen again with Eco-Strong very soon.

“It’s For The Business Park”

That headline is starting to remind me of the teachers union and politicians favorite line: “It’s for the children”. It’s the bullshit they fall back on to waste mountains of money and if you ask any questions about the details, you are an asshole who hates children.

Well, I don’t hate children but I DO hate the Business Pork. So I will continue to point out uncomfortable truths about that disaster of a project.

One City council member actually pushed back a little on the LEDC’s request for tens of thousands more dollars to waste next year. Zac Morris actually asked our Economic “Director” about one of her line items [go to 1:28:00 mark]:

Zac: “With the travel and training, I see that that goes up, what, $4,000 this year in the request?”

[Note: last year it was $6,000 and they now want $10,000 – a 66% increase]

Mandy Walsh: “Correct. Yes…we increased it to $10,000…I’m assuming we’ll probably do more travel [unintelligible] to make sure with the Business Park and meeting people face to face as part of recruitment efforts.”

[Recruitment efforts??? I thought you already had all those many, many (about four) prospects ready to move in – at least that’s what you told us when you were begging for money back in February]

Randy “Speedbump” Clark: “Are you still getting calls?” [about possible tenants who want to move into the Business Pork]

Mandy: “I am…especially now that there’s movement out there” – Mandy then proceeds to list zero businesses she has “gotten calls” from about moving into the Business Pork. Mandy is well trained in The Lie That Keeps on Giving and she uses it once again here with Randy.

So, to summarize the current state of the LEDC budget and Business Pork Project:

(1) They want $5,000 more for advertising the Business Pork Project, even though they have spent close to $50,000 over the last 10 years doing that very thing with zero results.

(2) They ALSO want $4,000 more for “Travel and Training” so they can go out and “meet people face to face as part of recruitment efforts” for the Business Pork. This is despite the fact that the LEDC and Mandy have told us many, many, many times that they have “serious prospects” already. Clearly they don’t.

(3) The LEDC has not even been able to fill their tiny 5.6-acre “Industrial Park” and has been strung along for almost a year on that, but they STILL sling shit about filling their 155-acre Business Pork. Yes, that is as preposterous as it sounds.

Bottom line: these people STILL have no idea what they are doing but are willing to waste millions more thrashing around like a blind squirrel hoping to find a nut.

Here is a list of just a FEW of the failed promises we’ve heard in the last 18 years from the LEDC about ‘prospects’:

A $20 million medical center (2004)

A “second tier supplier to the new Toyota plant in San Antonio” (2004)

LAMCO (2017)

AWI (2017)

The development of the Santa Fe Depot property – where the guy strung Mandy and the LEDC along for most of 2019. LOL.

A “recreational insurance and lending company out of Austin that would EACH bring 15-25 high-wage positions to Lampasas” (2018)

Craft brewing company (2018 and many other times)

“A prospect from Bastrop” (2018)

Mike Irvin’s 5,000 sq ft Steel Fabrication Shop in the “Business Park” (2018)

A “prospect out of Abilene” interested in relocating their business to Lampasas but they “can’t give out details yet” (2018).

LEDC Wants Much Bigger Budget To Squander In Fiscal Year 22/23

Like a tick on the ass of the City of Lampasas, the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club just gets fatter and fatter every year gorging on taxpayer blood.

It’s time to haggle over the 2022/2023 budget and the LEDC is not being shy about asking for a LOT more money.

For example:

They are requesting $12,500 for “promotion and advertising”! This is a 66% increase over last year’s $7,500.

What do they need to advertise? Well, that they have a giant sandbox over there on 183 south called The Business Park. But guess what? They have ALREADY spent close to FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in “advertising” since 2012! What did that get them? Nothing – the “business pork” has sat empty for close to 20 years now!

They will also see a massive increase in interest payments to the banks for all the money they have borrowed for the ill-fated Business Pork. Last year they flushed $40,795 down the toilet. This year, they will blow $87,370 in interest payments – an increase of 114%. That number will remain at $87,370 for years and years to come.

Oh – and the principal payments going forward will be $117,000 (page 102)

As you can see, the LEDC is REALLY tightening their belts during these hard times,

Last budget cycle, Economic Development “Director” Mandy Walsh got a fat 6.2% raise (from $71,448 to $75,842 – see page 96). What will it be this year? I would not be surprised to see it cross the $80,000 mark before all is said and done. That’s not including the roughly $25,000 in extra pay, retirement benefits and insurance benefits she will also see.

Being an “Economic Director” sure is lucrative!!

Mandy also wantsa 66% increasein her Gallivanting Fund “travel and training” fund – from $6,000 to $10,000. This is the money spent for her to gallivant from one useless convention to another. Stuff like the Texas Municipal League Conference, TEDC Annual Conference, TEDC Legislative Conference, and a whole alphabet soup of inanity – which I have listed before.

Other massive increases:

“Business expenses”: a 100% increase from $2,500 to $5,000

“Professional services”: a 108% increase from $6,000 to $12,500

“Computer software and equip”: a 300% increase from $250 to $1,000

“Building & Grounds Maintenance” – from $0 to $2,500

What are we up to now…about $70,000 in additional expenses next year BEFORE Finley gets done throwing a raise in there too?

Amazing. Remember – belt tightening is for the suckers who pay taxes, NOT for City government. Not ever.

Reminder For the LEDC: Here Are Some Lies From Eco-Strong…

In case the LEDC forgot how they were lied to, strung along and then asked for a ridiculous $1.85 million by Mike Cour of Eco-Strong, I am here to remind you.

Here are some exchanges I had by email with Cour:

Sept 4, 2020: I asked Mike Cour why he needed to sponge free land off of the LEDC. I pointed out that he owned 200 acres literally right down the street on the SAME ROAD as the Business Pork project – why not use THAT land?

Mike Cour’s answer?

“My property was one of the options but unfortunately does not give us enough space to operate the current business and this new business”.

The “current business” was Equicare, which seems to have failed. Of course, at the same time Mike Cour told me this whopper, he was asking the LEDC for 5 acres of land. FIVE! So out of your 200 acres, you didn’t have a spare five acres to run your Eco-Strong scam?

Bullshit.

Yeah…hardly any room there!

I can see from your current pictures on Zillow that there is PLENTY of room to run both. Cour just wanted some free shit. Oh, and $1.75 million so he could buy the equipment and build the building.

Speaking of…he also told me he wasn’t looking for government handouts. From the same email:

“We have not received any funding from anyone, and we intend for this to be a private effort…”

You can’t make a more bald-faced lie than that. Maybe Cour figured I’d never get my hands on his shitty Power Point presentation to the LEDC – and Mayor “Transparency” Talbert did her best to thwart me – but my lawyer prevailed.

Turns out he had ALREADY asked them for 5 acres AND $1.75 million in cash:

Yeah – a totally private effort. Except for that measly $1.85 million in taxpayer funds.

Even after Cour made the LEDC look like gullible, bungling imbeciles, they STILL have him on their list of “possible Business Pork prospects”. That should tell you how desperate the LEDC is to get SOMEONE…ANYONE into that goat pasture so they can say it was all worth it.

I’ll get to Alan Champagne (CEO of Eco-Flex) next…