Tag: money waste

City Council Actually Going To Throw Money At Loony Failed Life Coach’s “Community Garden” Idea!!

Sometimes I think The Goldfish do dumb things like this just to see if I’ll have an aneurysm and die. I feel like they can’t POSSIBLY be this stupid. Then again, soon-to-be-former Goldfish Chuck Williamson once complained about the City giving away too much free stuff but then went ahead and gave away a bunch of free stuff to TWO local developers. About $250,000 worth of stuff, to be exact. So we are not exactly dealing with rocket scientists here.

Anyways, take a moment to refresh your memory about local locust and failed ‘life coach’ Janet Yoder Kraeff-Crozier (Thunberg) and her ridiculous “community garden” idea. I’ll wait here while you go re-read the post and get up to speed:

Local Loony “Life Coach” Now An Expert Gardener

Well, apparently City council thinks this is a great idea and is prepared to throw money at it. According to the packets for the 11/9/20 City council meeting tomorrow [page 9, Section 4]:

“The City shall provide, install and maintain, at City expense, Security Lighting for the Garden, in the locations shown on Exhibit A” [note – I could not find ANYTHING labeled ‘Exhibit A’ in the packets]

Furthermore:

“The City shall hire, at City expense, a qualified electrical contractor to connect the Security Lighting installed by the City to the City power supply”

Can’t wait to see what THAT costs. Also, don’t forget that the entire agreement between the City and the Garden needed to be drawn up by the City’s attorney Jo-Christy Brown…and she doesn’t work for free! In October ALONE, Jo-Christy Brown billed the City $15,907.50 for “general matters” (pages 40 and 45). I wonder how much of that was wasted on this idiotic gardening contract. It boggles the mind.

But I have a few obvious questions:

Why in the hell do they need security lighting?? Are you going to be gardening at midnight or are you worried someone is going to jump the fence and steal your radishes? I’ve got news for you: deer, raccoons, squirrels, possums, mice and rats will be doing FAR more damage to you than any mischievous meth head.

You’d think the City might be a little more concerned about the rash of recent vandalism at all the (very expensive!) public restrooms than a sad plot of dirt belonging to Janet Yoder Thunberg..

Why are you paying an outside contractor to hook up a simple security light? You’re telling me that with all the electricians on the City payroll, nobody knows how to do that? Hell, I’ll bet you $100 right now that Rickie Roy could get that job done in 45 minutes with his eyes closed and then yell “Go Badgers” just for good measure.

Oh…and “pest control” will also be the City’s problem, according to the agreement. So when these hippies build their compost pile (and fail to maintain it properly) and attract raccoons, possums and rats from all over the area, then it is the CITY’S problem. LOL.

God, I cannot WAIT to watch this whole thing get halfway built and then implode. Just to warn you nitwits, I’ll be down there a LOT next spring leaning on the fence and watching this whole disaster take place. I’ll also comb through your non-profit “Community Garden” tax fillings with a fine-toothed comb so I can do a cost-benefit analysis of this stupidity. I am stunned that ANYBODY would give this idiot a penny for this. She has absolutely not idea what she is doing – that much is clear to me.

Best case scenario: Janet and the City spend about $15,000 between them setting this thing up, and produce about 20 pounds of veggies before it all gets overrun with weeds and nobody bothers with it anymore. That works out to about $750/lb for veggies you can get at HEB for about $1.50/lb. Compared to the ROI on the ‘business park’ project, that is an incredible deal!

Mark my words. I’ve been involved with helping to build a “community garden” before and it was a total disaster. This will be too.

Hurry Up And Wait

Good thing the City rushed out and wasted $158,000 $166,315.80 on a NO-BID contract for a small crapper at Campbell Park. The pre-fab dumper was dumped in the parking lot on Jan 21st and there it sits….5 weeks later and STILL not open or hooked up!

The ironic thing is, for the first time EVER (I drive by there almost daily), I counted a ton of people in the park last weekend. And by “a ton”, I mean nine.

Nine poor citizens with bursting bladders being taunted by Finley’s not-quite-finished-$166,315 toilet in the park. Ah Finley, you have a devilish sense of humor. Think of all the fools running up to the door about to crap their pants, and finding it locked!!

Hilarious.

Still not open or hooked up – Feb 25th, 2020

Another Gorgeous Day At Campbell Park…With 0 People

Good thing Finley decreed that the City spend $185,000.00 on a no-bid toilet for the park. Just look at all those people with bursting bladders enjoying a beautiful day on Saturday December 7th – around noon.

They already shelled out $158,000 to Restroom Facilities LTD ($83,158 check #153217 and $74,842 check #154306) for the privilege of them dumping a pre-fab building into Campbell Park by crane. Then they’re going to spend another chunk of money hooking it up, apparently.

Funny thing is – I see ZERO prep work going on for this. No foundation has been built, etc. Gonna be hard to reach Spinley’s b.s. target date of “December”. I suppose he could have meant December 2020.

Just look at all the cars in the parking lot!!

Yet Another $100,000 Job Title Being Created To “Plan” And “Manage” Lampasas Growth.

First it was the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC). The LEDC spends gobs of money on salaries/benefits ($100,000) and wasteful, fruitless projects like the corpse repository ‘Business Park’ (over $1,000,000 and counting) and Texas Municipal League Conferences. But that accomplished nothing. The Big Wigs and Goldfish needed more.

Then the City handed out hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and fee waivers to developers (and former City Council members) to rip out oak trees and build houses that cost twice as much as the average Lampasas property . But the Big Wigs were still displeased.

They hired Halff Associates to ‘consult’ (i.e. $120,000 to put up a survey on SurveyMonkey) and also asked a half dozen low-IQ screwballs at a ‘Town Hall” meeting to throw out pipe dreams and fairy tale wishes for our fair city. This STILL did nothing and it angered the Big Wigs more!!

So, NOW they are creating a “Development Services Director” with a salary in the $70,000 range!! Add in benefits, and you are already at roughly $98,000. Not to mention all the other goodies they will need like a car allowance, hotel rooms for useless conferences, etc. And for what? Well, according to the official job posting, this new person will “plan, organize and manage the growth and development of the community through City ordinances and policies.”

Hmmm. Sounds more like the job of the City council, the zoning board and the LEDC, doesn’t it? How many $100,000 clowns does it take to ‘plan’ growth? I kinda prefer the free market, myself. Not some dummy who majored in a joke like “urban planning” at the local junior college.

Furthermore, this new person will “provide direction and leadership in implementing the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Development Services“.

Now, where have I heard that “comprehensive plan” before? Oh yeah – that’s what the recommendations of the Halff Associates $120,000 boondoggle are called. So these City geniuses hire Halff for $120,000 and their response is to put a survey up on Survey Monkey and apparently to recommend the City create another $100,000 position to implement the Halff Associates recommendations! LOL!!

Wow. I REALLY should have gone into government work instead of stupidly opting to become a productive member of the private sector, so I could be milked to death by idiot bureaucrats and politicians.

Mayor Talbert City Hall Vanity Project Delayed Yet Again – Due to Overpriced Elevator

Wow. What a difference a week makes!

Just a 14 days ago, Finley assured City Council that the elevator for the City Hall Boondoggle would “arrive in mid-March” and take a week or two to install.

Not anymore.

NOW, according to Finley and city council packets, “production for elevator equipment has been pushed back two to three weeks”. Seriously?!?!? The arrival time is now “projected for the first or second week of April…and crews will take approximately two to three weeks to install.”

You will recall, back on November 14th, 2016…City Council approved an elevator bid from RKJ Construction for $119,532…and which later ballooned to over $125,000 – despite that fact that Austin Elevator bid $96,600 for the exact same job. Former city council genius Chris Harrison made a motion to accept the inflated elevator cost because “[RKJ] is local”

Let’s all take a moment to thank our stars that Harrison is a FORMER council member now.

Production?? WTF? Are they JUST NOW building an elevator for the Lampasas-Misty-Talbert-Finley-DeGraffenreid-“WOW Factor” $1,500,000 City Hall Boondoggle which has been in the works for years? How is that possible??

So, despite paying an extra $30,000 for an elevator to “keep it local”, and despite the fact it was bid on OVER TWO YEARS AGO, it is STILL not ready! What?? You’re telling me it is being specially constructed as we speak? Last I checked, an elevator is a simple box and was invented a century ago, at the least. What is the hold up? Once again – you can blame former genius Councilman Chris Harrison for this one – he made the motion to piss away an extra $30k for a local elevator – and council rubber-stamped it unanimously…as usual.

Just another delay and cost-overrun for the bloated and ridiculous City Hall “WOW Factor” renovation which is the centerpiece of the Talbert Administration. I’m seriously shocked she is running again after this debacle. I’d go hide my head in the sand, if I were her.