Mandy Walsh – The Original Lampasshole

Mandy Walsh Lies Again. City Council Sagely Nods Their Heads

If I had a dollar for every time Mandy Walsh stood before council and lied, I’d have enough money to buy a pre-fab bathroom for Campbell Park!

As usual, the $6 million ~~corpse repository~~ ‘business’ park was the source of her fabrications.

If you go to the 1:21:10 mark of the latest City council video, you will hear her utter her usual nonsense:

“This is an effort to obviously increase our tax base here in Lampasas. So many businesses are looking to relocate…even local businesses looking to expand…this provides land for us to now use…ummm…for those businesses that are looking.“

Lies, lies and more lies.

First of all, the land has been there for 17 years and has been “shovel-ready” for almost 7 years now. Yet no takers! So your rubbish about “this provides us land to now use” is complete bullshit.

Which businesses are looking to locate? City council actually actually asked this question once, and it led to a hilarious “deer in the headlights” response from Mandy. Mandy told us the names of all these businesses are super secret and we aren’t allowed to know that.

Yeah, ok.

If that were true and you have “so many businesses” clamoring to use your land, you could have used that fact to apply for a “standard EDA grant“. But you didn’t…so there aren’t. Either that or you are deliberately passing on tons of ‘free’ government money.

Of course, Mandy and her predecessors at the LEDC have been telling this SAME LIE for over seven years now.

Local businesses looking to expand? I don’t think so. Name one. You ALREADY have a 5.6 acre “industrial park” sitting over there on 580 E that has been a vacant eyesore for YEARS. If you can’t fill a 5.6 acre “business park”, how are you going to fill the 165-acre one? You aren’t.

Also, we DID have a local business that was looking to expand a few years back. City council told them to fuck off. No, I’m not kidding. I already wrote about how the City told Anijimoto to take a hike five years ago when they wanted to expand and create 200 more jobs:

Mandy Walsh Begs Ajinomoto To Back ‘Business Park’. Ajinomoto Offered City 200 New Jobs AND $300,000 Back In 2016. City Declined!!

Oops. Everyone forgets about that, don’t they?

So, to recap:

The LEDC has been skimming millions for 23 years and have nothing to show for it. They have wasted millions on the business park, and have nothing to show for it.

There are “so many businesses” looking to get into the park, but Mandy can’t name one. There are so many local businesses looking to expand, but she can’t name one. There is SO much demand for 5 acre plots from all the secret prospects, but simultaneously the 5.6 acre “industrial” park has sat empty for YEARS.

A REAL company in town offering hundreds of REAL jobs (not pie-in-the-sky bullshit 7 years from now) was told to go fuck themselves. The ONE “prospect” that Mandy and the LEDC wasted a YEAR “negotiating” with (Mike Cour and Eco-Strong) turned out to be a scam artist and scum bag who tried to scam them out of $1.85 million dollars for a tire recycling plant and the deal then promptly fell apart.

Does that about cover it??

LEDC Kinda/Sorta Grilled By Council – A Rarity. Mandy Clause Flustered – Part I

Some (relative) fireworks last night as a City council member actually asked some tough questions of Mandy Clause and the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club (LEDC) about their “business” park. Kudos to Herb Peace for asking some tough questions that former council members like Delena Toups would never ask.

Let’s get to some highlights:

15:20 mark: Mandy says “this project is fully funded by the EDC”. This is not true. You are borrowing $1.5 million and posting future sales tax collections as your “collateral”. Sales tax that would otherwise be going to the CITY and its citizens for services.

The LEDC budget is only about $350,000 per year (skimmed off sales tax) – a FAR cry from $1.9 million this “Phase I” will supposedly cost. Not to mention the OTHER big loan you still have that runs for another 19 years, thanks to you giving in to BancorpSouth demands to do so (and costing the taxpayers another $207,000)

15:40 mark: Mandy “We receive RFIs from the governors office on a weekly basis – and they’re all looking for acreage and, currently, as it stands, there is nowhere to put someone…that’s looking for even 2 to 5 acres…we’re having to pass up on some possible prospects because we don’t have the land and we’re not fully developed“

From the way Mandy paints this picture, you’d think the poor, underfunded LEDC was just formed last year and operates on a shoestring budget.

“Everybody wants to come here and set up shop! We’re missing the boat!!”

The LEDC has only spent 17 years and millions of dollars so far – and you expect them to have a finished product? Especially after they basically said in 2015 “Hey, we have a finished product!”

You think that because they spent a million bucks in 2015 to get “shovel ready”, took pictures breaking ground, and made bold proclamations about an imminent influx of companies that they are actually ready??

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park. 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**

What do you think they are, miracle workers??

Not fully developed? Wait a minute here! The LEDC said over and over the Business Park was “shovel ready” SIX YEARS AGO after they begged for, received, and wasted the LAST million dollars. Remember? I do. Here is a picture of the sign they put up: “Shovel Ready Q4 2015!”

Guess that was another lie. They sure have a way of piling up when the LEDC starts talking.

Let’s be clear about something else: the “prospects” are not looking for acreage, they are looking for a handout from the taxpayers. Period. There are TONS of acres around here. I see them every day. So let’s cut the shit about “no land available” – what the prospect wants is free or subsidized acreage, courtesy of the taxpayers. Huge difference.

In fact, Mike Cour and Eco-Strong strung Mandy Walsh, Misti Talbert and TJ Monroe along for about a YEAR and THEN said “hey, we need $1.85 million from you to start this thing” – and it promptly fell apart.

As a reminder, I had to get my lawyer involved to get this information from Mayor Transparency:

Mike Cour, who flat-out lied to my face and said “we aren’t asking for anything from the City”, later asked for $1.85 million, as you can see from his shitty PowerPoint page above

17:15 mark: New councilman Herb Peace asks “do you have a list of names of the people that have contacted you from the governor’s office?“

Bravo Herb! I have been arguing for that info repeatedly for years. They always keep everything a huge secret. Mandy’s answer??

“I have a list of the projects…the names are confidential….until they choose a site and are ready to start building and developing”

BAM. That is absolute bullshit. I don’t care what the “procedure” is, there is ZERO reason to keep the “prospect” a secret until the very last second. The thought of some clever businessman/scam artist going up against Mandy, Misti and TJ Monroe at the “negotiating table” in a secret room makes me nauseous. That is because Misti Talbert, TJ Monroe, and the rest of the LEDC are incapable and incompetent when it comes to vetting a “prospect”.

How do I know that the LEDC is incapable of “negotiating” a “deal” with a prospect? Because their last “prospect” (which they also kept super secret) strung them along for a YEAR before being dumped. Not a single person on the LEDC (all of whom are STILL there) thought to do a cursory Google search on Mike Cour or Eco-Strong.

Let me repeat that: their ONE and ONLY “prospect” they have had for their ‘Business’ Park and who they tried their best to keep secret, was a CON MAN who has been in the paper for CONNING clients out of money!!

Don’t believe me? Check out “Triton Financial in Austin Texas Lawsuits“

Triton Co-Founder Michael Cour Named In Lawsuit”

In fact, I did ALL the heavy lifting for them. I posted REPEATEDLY on these pages that something stinks about Mike Cour and Eco-Strong. The LEDC members are so naïve, incompetent and desperate to get a deal done, they didn’t see this guy was a scumbag from day one, like I did.

But we are supposed to trust them with the “secret list”. Yeah, ok.

Much more to come….

When Mandy Walsh Says Lampasas Was “Economically Injured” By Covid, She Is Lying Like A Rug – Here Are The REAL Numbers:

The Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) is STILL working on their CARES ACT grant for their ‘Business Park’ debacle, apparently. I remember back when it was going to be completed by July 31, 2020! Only six months late, guys!

What’s the hold up? Who knows. My guess is that Mike Cour and Eco-Strong are a MUCH weaker prospect than they let on. They likely needed Impact DataSource to conjure up some bullshit studies to make them look better – and that takes time.

Of course, Mayor Transparency REFUSES to let me see the study, which was completed last month. My lawyer and City attorney JC Brown are currently sparring over that.

Rest assured, I shall prevail.

Anyways, I recently downloaded a database which lists EVERY SINGLE PPP LOAN handed out in Lampasas by business name. The big ones (over $150,000) are easy to find. The smaller ones are much harder….but I have them all.

You wonder why the City had an extra $250,000 in sales tax fall in their laps this year?? I sure did. Now I know why. Let me list all the ways that Lampasas was “economically injured” by Covid:

Individual stimulus checks: I estimate this to be roughly $6 million dollars pumped into the local economy ($1200 times 3500 adults and $500 times 3000 kids). This is literally a “money” flood that was conjured out of thin air by the Treasury and Federal Reserve and handed out to everyone.

Large PPP Loans (over $150,000): I estimate this to be roughly $2.5 million dollars.

Small PPP Loans (under $150,000): I did an AutoSum of all the totals on my spreadsheet and it totaled $5.7 million. MANY of these will never have to be paid back.

CARES ACT to City and other: This includes, for instance, the $100,000 that Mandy Clause handed out to undeserving businesses like Wool & Vine and was THEN reimbursed by the Feds. The City, through Rickie Roy, is also applying for reimbursement in the amount of roughly $400,000, if I am not mistaken. That’s for shit like hand sanitizer, Plexiglas, expensive equipment they might possibly get away with calling “covid relief”,etc. That is another $500,000 right there.

Latest ‘stimulus’ bullshit check of $600: I don’t know the criteria on this and haven’t looked at it closely but call that another $3 million.

So we are looking at EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS pumped into Lampasas. That’s $18,000,000.00

That ALSO doesn’t take into account the boat loads of money paid out in unemployment claims AND the work-ethic-killing $600 per week piled on top of that. I have no idea how to calculate that, but I have no doubt it runs into the millions.

So – we likely have in the neighborhood of TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS sloshing into our City from the Feds…..yet Mandy Walsh has the BALLS to then go begging to the Feds FOR MORE for the LEDC’s failed ‘business park’!! She actually has the NERVE to apply for a grant by claiming that Lampasas was “economically injured” by Covid!

Christ, lady. Covid has been a total GIFT to this town, financially speaking. We have come out WAY AHEAD and our unemployment rate is lower than that of Texas AND the United States. Yet you have your hand out for more! Worse yet, every single City council member unanimously agreed to this attempted pilfering.

Absolutely disgusting. You’re worse than the slimiest politicians in Chicago and New York with that kind of bullshit money grab. For shame.

Wading Through Mandy Walsh’s Hip-Deep Horse Shit – PART III

Our final piece on the LEDC ‘business park’ boondoggle/money grab. To continue dissecting the Dispatch puff-piece:

“Currently, the city does not own land that could host a large primary employer”

This statement confuses the hell out of me. My first response is “so what?” – why does the City need to own all the land first before it’s sold to any business? We already have real estate agents to facilitate transfer of property from, say, the rancher to the Big Box Store.

Secondly, what the hell do you call the 165-acre albatross around your neck that IS the business park?? Are you picking nits and saying the CITY doesn’t own it, the LEDC does? Again – so what? No idea what this babbling nonsense means here. Neither the City NOR the LEDC should be in the business of land speculation and/or development, because those organizations are completely populated by dunces.

In the grand finale, Finley “Spinley” DeGraffenreid has to parrot the exact same bullshit he has been saying for at LEAST 7 years. Blah, blah, blah…dividends for the local economy. Where have I heard his bullshit before? Oh yes…the LAST time the City begged for a million bucks to “develop” the park and “make it shovel ready” back in 2014. Here are a couple of Finley quotes from the past:

“We’re at a point now that we have to make that property marketable, otherwise it won’t be developed,” – Finley in August 2020 (last week)

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 (WHOOPS!)

“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 (OOPSIE! Wrong again!)

So it was developed with a million bucks back in 2014 but apparently still isn’t developed and isn’t marketable.

Wait a sec…the land it not marketable? Hold on here. I remember the LEDC spending boat loads of money to market it with videos, pamphlets, brochures, etc. Hold on a minute. Let me check my notes….

Ah yes – here are some expenditures made to “market” the ~~corpse repository~~ ‘business park’ YEARS AGO…so I guess it actually WAS marketable at one point?

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 6.5 years later) – $2,190

Only Finley and his gang of dipshits would spend $5,500 marketing land that they now claim can’t be marketed.

I guess the business park is like Schrödinger’s cat: it is both developed and undeveloped at the same time. It is also marketable yet unmarketable. It exists in two quantum states?

We end the Dispatch article with the usual coup de grace of bullshit – the “artists rendition” of the business park.

The REALITY is the photo I took myself below:

Shovel ready since Q4 2015!! LOL!

Lampasas Economic Development Corp Committed To Making Taxpayers All Over The U.S. Pay For Their Incompetence

Not content to just blow MANY MILLIONS of dollars of Lampasas city money on a 165-acre ~~weed patch~~ ‘business park’ over the last 17 years, the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club is now formally submitting a grant application (asking for free stuff from federal taxpayers) to the federal government. Which means that nurses from Georgia, bus drivers from Oklahoma and teachers from Michigan will now be funding the LEDC’s ‘business park’ boondoggle indirectly through their federal tax payments.

**The bullshit they sold taxpayers 7 years and millions of dollars ago – a pipe dream** ^^^

**REALITY – a shitty weed patch where corpses are dumped on south Hwy-183**

Langford Community Management Services will be charging the LEDC $7,500 to write up the grant. This money is to help pay for the nearly TWO MILLION DOLLAR “Phase I” (actually it’s Phase II but who’s counting) ‘improvement’ to the goat pasture they own.

I have covered this boondoggle of waste and (in my opinion) outright nest feathering HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Recently, the same idiots who said we were all set five years ago, NOW say we need to plow ANOTHER $1.9 million into this fiasco to get it REALLY shovel-ready (even though it was supposedly shovel-ready before). They are even brazenly (and DISHONESTLY) calling this “Phase I” of the ‘business park’ improvements. I guess the ONE MILLION you blew back in 2015 was Phase Zero?

Mike White HIMSELF called the ‘business park’ “a goat pasture” and a “poor return on investment” which has been going on for DECADES [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].

According to Mandy Walsh herself at the last meeting [go to 6:34 mark]

“We have discussed the EDA (Economic Development Administration) CARES ACT…with our grant writers at length for community management services. What that is, is Congress appropriated $1.5 billion to strengthen and assist communities recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. So the EDA is accepting applications for grants that support a wide variety of projects…um, including, ah, infrastructure…and economic development projects, so that’s what we’re going to be applying for, is the disaster funding through the EDA”

Yeah Mandy….the ‘business park’ is a disaster, all right. But it is a disaster of YOUR making, NOT because of the coronavirus.

So, Mandy and the LEDC are going to try and scam the feds out of a huge pile of money EVEN THOUGH THIS BUSINESS PARK FIASCO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CORONAVIRUS and has been a disaster for “DECADES”, by the admission of Mike White himself [5/26 council meeting].

This enrages me just as much as when I see scumbag politicians in Illinois/Chicago or New York tell the Federal government that they need to fork over $41.6 billion to their cities/states “because of Covid” and Uncle Sugar should just hand over a check.

I’m sorry, but no, your finances aren’t a train wreck because of Covid. They have been a train wreck for decades because of wasteful and idiotic spending by liberals. Chicago and New York made their beds by electing socialists and morons who ran their budgets into the ground….they should lay in those beds WITHOUT a bailout from the Feds – i.e., the rest of us.

Same goes for Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and our own City council…many of whom I would assume identify as “Republican” or “conservative”. YOU made this mess. YOU kept throwing good money after bad. YOU made this bed and now YOU should lie in it….not some poor tax paying sap who lives in Georgia or Arizona.

I can tell you this: if it’s the last thing I do, I am going to try and stop this theft of federal money you are using to cover up LEDC and City council incompetence. Get ready for a flood of Open Records Requests from me. Who is your “viable tenant” for the ‘business park’ that you are pinning your hopes on and bullshitting the Feds with on your grant application? I sure hope it isn’t Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong scam, because I already visited his OTHER company (Equicare at 15500 S-US 183) and took photos of the absolute JOKE ‘Eco-Strong” is. It is a weed patch with some crappy rubber mats piled up that have been there for quite a while, by the looks of it.

[Not to mention, Mike Cour and Equicare currently sit on approximately 200 acres ALREADY. He has ZERO need for the business park unless he himself is trying to scam some free stuff from the taxpaying chumps of Lampasas. Don’t worry…I’m all over him like a cheap suit, too]

I’ll be there at every turn calling you all out as welfare queens and parasites, which you most certainly are. This is brazen theft and, in my opinion, fraud. The money you are trying to scam out of Uncle Sugar has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with coronavirus and EVERYTHING to do with rampant incompetence and fiscal mismanagement on the part of the LEDC, City council and Mandy Walsh herself.

Mandy Walsh and LEDC Go Full Federal: Will Become Welfare Queens By Scamming Federal Government “Covid Money” For Their Business Park Boondoggle

For those of you who live under a rock, the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) has been wasting millions on a “business park” for YEARS now, with nothing to show for it. They have owned the 165-acre weed patch for about 17 years and plowed about $1 million dollars just in “improvements” into it back in 2015 – promising that “high-paying jobs” would soon follow. That did not happen. The weed patch has sat there as a multi-million-dollar disaster for another five years since then.

[I have covered this ad nauseam HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE]

Who would be stupid enough to hand Mandy and the LEDC ANOTHER $1.9 million for this failed project? A project that City council member Mike White HIMSELF called “a goat pasture” and a “poor return on investment” which has been going on for DECADES [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].

Why, the Federal Government would be stupid enough, of course! According to Mandy Walsh at the 6/22/20 City council meeting, they will be applying for grants [free money] from programs established FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF.

According to Mandy Walsh herself at the last meeting [go to 6:34 mark]

Yeah Mandy….the ‘business park’ is a disaster, all right. But it is a disaster of YOUR making, NOT because of the coronavirus.

I can tell you this: if it’s the last thing I do, I am going to try and stop this theft of federal money you are using to cover up LEDC and City council incompetence. Get ready for a flood of Open Records Requests from me. Who is your grant writer? What percentage of the dough are they getting? Who is your “viable tenant” for the ‘business park’ that you are pinning your hopes on and bullshitting the Feds with on your grant application? I sure hope it isn’t Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong scam, because I already visited his OTHER company (Equicare at 15500 S-US 183) and took photos of the absolute JOKE ‘Eco-Strong” is. It is a weed patch with some crappy rubber mats piled up that have been there for quite a while, by the looks of it.

SCOOP ALERT Are The LEDC and City Council Making Secret Deals? Handing Out Subsidies To Canadian Tire Recycler? UPDATE

Did you know Eco-Strong LLC (the distribution arm of Canadian company Eco-Flex) will be breaking ground on a plant here in Lampasas in 16 days? Neither did I. Neither did the Lampasas Dispatch, apparently. All Dispatch archive searches for “Eco-Strong”, “Eco-Flex” and CEO “Mike Cour” came up empty!

Supposedly a 25,000 sq/ft tire recycling plant will be breaking ground on June 2nd….and nary a peep from Mandy Walsh or The Seven Goldfish. Very, very odd.

I DO know that the LEDC has been sneaking around a lot lately, and operating in secret…as I blasted a story about this way back on April 19th…ALMOST A MONTH AGO. My antennae always goes up when the LEDC and City council have meetings in “executive session” with their lawyers and talk about “economic incentives” – which is code-speak for “handing out free tax money to companies”.

Funny how this article hit the web on May 11th. ONE DAY after the latest City council meeting.

Apparently they STILL can’t be bothered to announce this thing, even though the ground-breaking is in 16 days. I had to read about it in a Tyre and Rubber Recycling magazine – a BRITISH industry publication!

How did I ever find this out, if they have been sneaking around and hiding it? Because I’m smarter than they are. I busted them on the ransomware attack back in August and I’m busting them now AGAIN.

The LEDC met with Mike Cour WAY BACK in September of 2019 (page 2, item V). But of course, since the LEDC keeps shitty minutes, we have no idea what the meeting was actually about. Furthermore, NONE of this was EVER mentioned to the local newspaper. Their archives are EMPTY of any of this.

Fast forward to the latest agenda for the LEDC May 20th meeting – and Mike Cour of Eco-Strong pops up again (page 1 item V).

So Misti, Mandy and the gang: what in the hell is going on??? I have a few questions about a tire recycling center being built in Lampasas:

Why has this NEVER been mentioned before when the groundbreaking is in 16 days??
How much money did you throw at them to start up operations here?
Where is the contract showing how much money you threw at them and what they are supposed to do in return??
Does your complete silence and all your sneaking around in executive session have anything to do with your fear that local citizens might go apeshit about possible environmental impacts like the stench of burning rubber in the air?

Lemme guess: Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and City council will announce this with big fanfare as a tenant for the “business park” and try to look like heroes bringing jobs to the area, while failing to mention all the free stuff they handed to Mike Cour?

But why wait? Why rush it through at the last second? It is VERY unlike the LEDC or the Seven Goldfish not to toot their own horns about stuff like this.

I have a guess why: it keeps anyone from asking questions about what they had to give away in return for this “awesome” deal to put up tents here.

Especially telling is Mike Cour’s quote in the article: “Texas is the ideal location for our new facilities. Its strong economy, green-friendly attitude, and the willingness of officials at all levels to collaborate with us made our decision a no-brainer”. Translation: “moron politicians and bureaucrats are giving us all kinds of free stuff.”

Ah yes. It’s a no-brainer, all right. I can just see all the people with no brains who are involved in this tax-dollar giveaway – people like Mandy Walsh, TJ Monroe and Finley deGraffenreid. Not a brain between any of them.

Well, try as you might to keep this secret, the cat is out of the bag. Monday morning, I will be making an official records request for copies of ALL contracts, incentives, subsidies and/or deals being made with Mike Cour and this Eco-Strong LLC distribution concern.

You gotta love these dummies. They hold town hall meetings about every silly-assed minor item in the world (see: tree police) but they keep COMPLETELY SILENT on a tire recycling distribution/manufacturing concern breaking ground in a matter of weeks. Just like a cat burying a turd they are ashamed of.

Stay tuned!!

*UPDATED 5/18* – according to the City secretary and Mandy Walsh, there are no current deals/giveaways/incentives/promises with Mike Cour or Eco-Strong as of today. YET, that article exists AND Mike Cour appeared before the LEDC in September and will do so again this Wednesday, according to the agenda. SO – did Mike already make plans to start this operation and THEN decide to go beg for money? Guess we’ll possibly find out this week – assuming we’re allowed to see the Wednesday meeting

LEDC Trying To Buy Your Love and Distract From Millions Wasted Elsewhere

The LEDC is clearly trying to improve their image by handing out up to $100,000 in grants (free money) to local businesses hurt by the Wuhan virus forced closings. They will do this in chunks of up to a $3,000 maximum per business. You can see the details HERE [page 4 and 5].

It makes sense that they do this. After all, it would look pretty awful for Mandy Walsh to cost the taxpayers her usual $101,285 in salary [page 82] and benefits as LEDC ‘Director’ for doing nothing while the peons who pay her salary are suffering. The LEDC skims about $300,000 a year in sales taxes to play with on their pet projects….so I guess they figure they better throw a few crumbs to the unwashed masses. Otherwise, people might start taking notice of their mammoth waste.

Roughly $4 MILLION tax dollars skimmed in 18 years (2019 estimate at $300,000)

So, between the LEDC skim of $300,000 PLUS Mandy’s salary/benefits of over $101,000 PLUS all the ridiculous conventions she goes to (like the TML nonsense) – we are approaching maybe $420,000 PER YEAR being squandered.

Now, as much as I prefer some actual taxpayers getting a sliver of their taxes handed back to them, I would MUCH prefer the LEDC didn’t exist in the first place. They have wasted MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars over the years with pretty much nothing to show for it.

So NOW they are going to assemble a special blue-ribbon panel (see video below) to decide who gets some $1000 or $3000 bones thrown to them. Who comprises this august group which will decide who gets some candy? Well, a lot of the same names you hear all the time: TJ Monroe (LOL)…Finley deGraffenreid…Mandy Walsh…Misti Talbert.

I picture something like this – from Revenge of the Nerds. The nerds are the poor business owners groveling to TJ and Mandy for some crumbs. Mandy Walsh is Stan Gable laughing at you saps! Kneel gentlemen!!

Mandy Walsh of LEDC – Clueless or Stubborn?

I recently emailed Many Walsh, our very well-paid Lampasas Economic Development Director [$101,285 in salary and benefits – page 82], to ask her a few very basic questions about the ~~Eckermann retirement fund~~ ‘Business Park’. Simple things like the original cost of the land, the terms of the loan are and the appraised value.

Mandy has been on the job for almost three years, if I am not mistaken, so she should definitely know what’s going on over there. Furthermore, the ‘Business Park’ is by FAR their biggest endeavor measured in terms of tax dollars being incinerated. Yeah, she may throw $10,000 to the Lampasas Higher Education people every year, or throw Halff Associates a $120,000 bone to do her job for her…..but the ~~corpse repository~~ ‘Business Park’ is where MILLIONS of dollars go to die.

In short, Mandy Walsh should know ‘Business Park’ stats like the back of her hand. So when she answers my email request with “Thank you for your email. I will forward your email to Christina Marez, City Secretary, who has been designated to handle these requests“, it means one of two things:

Either Mandy Walsh is monumentally incompetent and hasn’t the foggiest notion what the answers to those questions are OR Mandy Walsh is being a deliberate pain in the ass to make my life a little harder. She has to know I WILL get all that info in the end, one way or another.

I’m going to go with “deliberate pain in the ass” on this one. Probably because I have spilled gallons of ink over the last year taking a shit on the entire concept of a Business Park and uncovering embarrassing truths about the (high) costs and (zero) benefits of this debacle.

Not to mention doing an expose on the “shovel ready” lie.

The only reason to hide all the numbers I requested is because it makes this whole project look even worse than it already is. So touche, Mandy Walsh. You win a small victory. It’ll be a few more weeks before I take yet another public dump on the corpse repository. You can trust that I will not be kind with the waste and incompetence I find in those numbers.

Until then, let’s revisit what Kathy Masonheimer (Walsh’s predecessor) had to say in the Lampasas Dispatch about the corpse repository. Remember, this is from September 2014:

“Of the LEDC’s loan from First State Bank Central Texas, $1.3 million is for the business park utilities. Another $465,000 is for refinancing of the LEDC’s debt on the business park land. The total $1.77 million loan is for 15 years at a fixed interest rate of 3.35 percent. Along with the infrastructure the LEDC will fund, Lampasas has $200,000 in the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget for electrical extensions to the business park.

“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.“

[“Annual revenue of about $250,000” – BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Makes me laugh every single time I read it]

For those of you on the short bus (and the IT Department) that 3.35% interest for 15 years on $1.77 million totals up to $889,425 in interest payments – tax dollars going directly into the pockets of First State Bank Central Texas. That is $889,425 vaporized, for all intents and purposes.

Oh, and also in 2014: “The [Lampasas City] 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“.

Translation: if this whole thing blows up and/or land values go to shit, the City of Lampasas will bail out the LEDC. Must be nice to be a bankster! Heads I win ($889,000 in free money) and tails you lose (taxpayer bailout).

“Shovel Ready” – Another Lie

“You keep using that word…I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Years and years ago, there was much fanfare as ground was “broken” on the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation’s “Business Park”. Photos were taken of self-important politicians holding shovels in a 165-acre weed patch that was soon going to attract Big Businesses and “well-paying jobs” to Lampasas.

I laughed my balls off at this back then. The idea of a group of self-important Lampassholes “developing” the local economy is as hilarious to me as Soviet Politburo planners commanding their socialist economy. Anyone with a brain knows it doesn’t work.

Not to mention, the labor pool here is about a foot wide an an inch deep. A large portion of the labor pool has trouble with basic math and spelling….not to mention tying their shoes. If you don’t believe me, go spend five minutes reading Facebook posts on Lampasas County Breaking News.

They have wasted over a million dollars on this boondoggle so far. They even went so far as to have a ridiculous “artists rendition” drawn up of the futuristic, high-paying ‘business park”. See?

Of course, like all the other grandiose plans of dummy politicians, it was a disaster. Here is the current reality – a weed patch where corpses occasionally get dumped:

In a hilarious and ironic example of foreshadowing (look it up, Monica), they later realized their tiny $1,500 sign was almost impossible to read while speeding by at 70MPH – which is the speed limit on that road.

Even funnier is the red splotch on the upper left that reads “SHOVEL READY Q4 2015“. See it? I do. Well, that was a gigantic lie…and still is to this day. How do I know?

I know this by reading the LEDC’s own packets for next week’s meeting. On page 31-32 Mandy Walsh is giving details on the oh-so-huge interest in the Business Park...but the problem is that all of these interested parties are “on an accelerated timeline and we may not be able to accommodate”.

In other words, these saps actually thought that “shovel ready” meant “shovel ready” and they can move in tomorrow! Please!! The LEDC has only spent four years and over a million dollars since the “shovel ready” lie was painted on that sign! What do you think they are??? Miracle workers??

Mandy then adds that (and I quote) “…once infrastructure is in place FOR TRUE SHOVEL-READY SITES, I think we’ll gain even more interest.”

So, to once again parody The Princess Bride, I guess before now the sites were just MOSTLY shovel ready. Not ALL shovel ready, right?

But don’t despair! Pope Eckermann The Engineer has been handed a $100,000 tithe by the LEDC and HE will bless this park with more “development” and the high-paying jobs will then come rolling in! Hallelujah! Praise be to the LEDC!