Tag: Mike White

Neither Of These Dummies Should Be On City Council

The Dispatch is going to start providing us with backgrounds and positions for everyone running for City Council this spring. Place 3 incumbent dingbat Chuck Williamson is being challenged by Gordon Nelson…who also appears to be a dingbat of a different sort.

I’ll go through the pros and cons of each.

Chuck Williamson pros: none

Chuck Williamson cons: has never held a private sector job, as far as I can tell. Has been on City Council for at least the last six years – and was thus part of the profligate spending and idiotic decisions made during that time. Including the $1.5 million vanity project, the $185,000 no-bid bathroom, and all the rest. Chuck also at one point a long time ago said “the City is giving too much away” but then voted to give more away to private developers like Deorald Finney and his Stone Valley subdivision in the form of “free” electrical hookups – not to mention S2M2 and former fellow Council turd ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison. Chuck also favored all the money wasted in the ‘business park’ boondoggle. Chuck’s grade: F

Gordon Nelson pros: calls out City council for stupid spending and specifically mentions the $185,000 bathroom in Campbell Park (Dispatch page 5 – 3/23/20).

Gordon Nelson cons: manages to still wuss out and say “I’m not saying the City Council is spending foolishly, but they’re not spending wisely“. [Wrong Gordo…they are spending foolishly]. Gordon has ALSO never worked in the private sector – huge negative. Gordon unfortunately has a hard-on for a ‘community center’. Which I guess is better than having a hard-on for a ‘civic center’ but not by much. Let’s see how the City handles their new management of the Hostess House, before we bite off more than we can chew….shall we? Intangible: Gordy’s newspaper interview makes him sound less than brilliant. Maybe he just isn’t a very good interviewer? Gordon’s grade: D-

It is a crying shame that Mike White is hanging up his cleats soon. His seat will be fought over by two other people…who I will grade just as soon as their profiles are printed in the newspaper.

Mike has what just about everyone else on City council doesn’t: experience running a successful business in the private sector. He understands the value of a dollar. It is no coincidence he was often the lone voice of sanity and fiscal restraint during council meetings. One Mike White is worth ten of these other bozos. As it is, at LEAST four of the seven current council members owe their life-long earnings to the taxpayer.

As for the other two members, I have no clue what TJ Monroe used to do, but she has been on Council since the earth cooled and seems to ALWAYS vote for more spending and stupid projects. Misti seems hardwired to spend huge amounts of money. Not sure if that is a chick thing or a Misti thing.

Bottom line: we need MORE dudes who have run successful businesses in this town to get on City council. The problem is, they are all busy trying to keep a bunch of eggs in the air – taking care of customers, employees and suppliers all while government at all levels tries to pick their pocket and regulate them into oblivion.

Mike White retiring is a huge blow to the City.

The Twisted Logic of Councilman Mike White

During a 30 minute phone call (screaming match) with Mike White last month over the $100,000.00 Azbell Electronics debacle, other issues came up.  Like how overpaid our city employees are and how they seem to get an automatic raise every single year, when those of us in the private sector (who pay their bloated salaries) do not.

Now, before I begin shitting on heads, I’ll say I’ve always considered Mike to be one of the sane voices on city council.  He actually runs a successful business and understands the value of a dollar.  Thus, he is always voting NO to the plethora of moronic ideas coming out of that group.  Hopefully he will vote NO on the latest idiotic idea of a city recycling program, but I digress.

When I was bitching about the fact that we spend a LOT of money on a city manager AND and ASSISTANT city manager, he started laying into me that “we need to pay a lot because if we don’t, the city down the street will!!”.  I heard this same bullshit argument when I complained about the massive amount of money being spent on Christmas lights a few years ago.  The explanation I got was “they spend a lot more than that in Marble Falls!”

I don’t care what they spend on Christmas lights in Marble Falls.  Nor do I care what they pay their policemen or firemen or their city manager.  Lampasas is not Marble Falls.  Not even close.  So to justify bloated salaries because “Marble Falls does it,” is the height of idiocy.

The cost of living is much lower in Lampasas and the employment opportunities are much worse.  Ergo, you pay what you need to attract a person who can do the job – not what Marble Falls is paying for that job.

Here is your proof:

Cost of living and employment opportunities in Lampasas

versus

Cost of living and employment opportunities in Marble Falls

The average person in Lampasas earns about $27,000 per year and 21% of the city lives below the poverty line.  There is no excuse for paying city “workers” $70,000 or $100,000 per year.  Many of these “workers”, like Monica Wright, would be scanning groceries at HEB for $25,000 per year if she wasn’t “working” at city hall.

But wait!!  It gets worse!

Because when a city “worker” says they ‘only’ make $45,000 per year, they are conveniently leaving out all the benefits.  The city also pays their health insurance, which can be up to $15,000 per year.  They also put away another $15,000 or so for their pension!  So they are not costing the taxpayer $45,000 per year.  They are costing us more like $75,000 per year.  All to sit on ass in an air-conditioned office and tell people like me, by email, to buzz off when I ask too many questions.  Great work if you can find it! Who do I fellate for that job??

But that’s not enough.  They think they should get a 2% raise every single year.  This goes along with their overtime pay, “longevity pay” (yes, they get paid a bonus just for being there a long time), and weeks of paid vacation.  Add it all up, and a lot of these clowns are making over $50 for every hour of ‘work’ they spend dicking around on their computers.

*NOTE*:  All of the above guesstimates of employee cost are taken from the city budget.  Of course, they refuse to tell me what anybody actually makes so I have to deduce these numbers from the budget.  I DO know that a year or two ago, they wanted a 1% bonus, which a city council member said would cost the taxpayers another $60,000 – which means the city employee total employee salary number was somewhere in the area of $6,000,000.00 per year.  That’s SIX MILLION.  How many employees does that cover?  No idea.  They refuse to say.