Wow.…and that doesn’t include the fat bennies either (roughly $30,000 if history is any guide). Total cost to the taxpayer? Over $115,000
I’m pretty sure that’s MORE than Mandy Walsh made [page 96] AFTER she had been here five years already AND went to school for more training to get a bunch of letters after her name.
It’s also very fat consideringthere isn’t really any objective way to know if she is “doing a good job” at “directing the development” here!
I mean, if the guy who fixes water mains or downed power lines fucks up, you’ll know about it pretty fast when the line explodes again or the power doesn’t work. That guy is also called out of his nice warm bed plenty of times to fix those messes in shitty weather or the middle of the night.
Something tells me Stacey won’t have to do any of that for HER $85,000 – which is probably TWICE the money that poor guy who does REAL work makes!
But when it comes to the Nerf job of “Economic Development Director”? Oh yeah – let’s shoot for six figures for someone who has NEVER held that position before! Sounds like a good idea!
I’d respond to THAT by saying: “maybe we don’t need anyone to “direct” our economic development in the first place. Let the free market do the job”.
The “data” idiotically included towns that were supposedly “similar” to Lampasas – you know, like Marble Falls and Fredericksburg.
Unfortunately, Ryan Ward’s “data” is wildly contradicted by REAL data from Salary.com – an organization that is neutral and gives unbiased numbers based on REALITY (not cherry-picked municipalities where many residents own yachts and vineyards).
As I wrote 5 months ago, Ryan Ward is actually OVERPAID by roughly 25% – as his STARTING salary a few months ago was $110,000. According to a PREVIOUS Dispatch article, the national average for Assistant City Manager “typically falls between $72,536 and $96,545“:
I’m pretty sure Ryan Ward knew what he was going to get paid when he agreed to work here. They didn’t pull it out of a hat AFTER he signed the papers. Ergo, there is ZERO case for giving him any kind of raise for quite a while.
Also, there were THIRTY applicants for that job. Hardly what would happen if Lampasas was paying TOO LITTLE for the position.
Ryan also took a page out of Finley’s favorite playbook: only talking about SALARIES and never even mentioning the word “BENEFITS”. Well, I’ll mention it:
Between Finley (the City manager) and Ryan (his assistant) the two of them pull down $91,348 in benefits EVERY YEAR. That is on TOP of their combined $260,000 in salary AND a generous car and phone allowance (another $8,250).
That includes their generous 2-1 matching for retirement. When Ryan puts $7,000 into his pension, the City forks over ANOTHER $14,000 FOR him. That is REAL money but it is something Finley and Ryan try hard to ignore every summer in their ‘we’re underpaid’ rain dance they do for council.
The City has a generous paid-time-off and sick leave policy too! Which I have mentioned on more than one occasion – including a year ago when it was made more generous yet again:
In fact, the word “benefits” never escaped Ward’s mouth during his presentation until Randy “Speedbump” Clark brought up the 2-1 matching thing and Ward was forced to admit it.
The report ALSO mentioned that our police chief pay is 7.9% HIGHER than average and our library director is 11.2% overpaid, among others:
Are they going to cut Jody’s salary by 8% next year? Are they going to tell Shanda Subia SHE is making 11% less next year? Something tells me that’ll never happen. They will only consider ‘adjustments’ to the UPSIDE, if history is any guide. So what is the point of this exercise?
Back in the old days, the saying for government workers was “great salary, great benefits, great job security – pick two”.
Most of the time, government workers weren’t paid outlandish salaries but they had incredible benefits and never got fired. Which they should be quite happy with. Especially considering the outrageous cost of health insurance now compared to 40 years ago. That benefit ALONE costs the Lampasas taxpayers about $1.2 MILLION per year for the city’s roughly 105 employees.
NOWADAYS, they get all three: great bennies and job security, AND salaries that are higher than their private-sector counterparts who are paying for all of this.
Hardly seems fair to the taxpayer who is footing the bill. City council has a chance to tap the brakes on this “automatic raises for everyone and every year” bullshit. Will they??
Finley is nothing if not predictable. Of course, the guy who wants to add three positions (and thus hundreds of thousands of dollars of expense) to the City payrolls is the SAME guy who refuses to pay the CURRENT lifeguards at the pool a penny more than minimum wage to attract MUCH NEEDED workers.
But I digress.
From yesterday’s Dispatch:
Combining two roles sounds ludicrous at first glance. What’s next? A combination golf pro and grave digger? Maybe a combination firefighter and library assistant?
But I suspect I know why they did this. There is NO WAY the IT Department needs another person. Somebody (Finley) realizes that is a ridiculous overreach – so instead of imposing a massive new expense on the IT Budget where it will look ridiculous to have FOUR people doing the work that two easily do now [yes FOUR – here is why], they instead make it a “combo” position so it sounds like they are doing a lot more – and they can stick the expense into another department.
Part One of this post will be dismantling the argument that we need a “communications” position at all. Then in Part Two, I’ll get into why we don’t need a FOURTH IT position in a town as small as ours.
PART I – COMMUNICATIONS POSITION IS AN UNNEEDED JOKE NERF JOB:
The Dispatch article tells us “the need for such a position surfaced during Winter Storm Uri, which kept the (IT) department busy informing the public with updates 24 hours a day for eight days while also handling the city’s fiber-optic infrastructure”
So much nonsense in one paragraph! Where to start??
[First of all, Uri was probably a “once-in-100-years” storm that we are unlikely to ever see again. To hold THAT up as a reason to fork over $100k for a new position is the height of idiocy]
What did the IT Department have to “inform the public” about for 24 hours per day? Closed roads? That’s the Streets Department or Police Department. Frozen pipes? That’s the Water/Wastewater Department. I’m guessing most of City Hall was sitting home due to the City being essentially shut down – just like the rest of us. To try and show the IT Department as working tirelessly “24 hours a day” to “inform the public” is a ridiculous joke. It did not happen.
Also, there are ALREADY about a DOZEN ways that City information is currently disseminated to the public right now. Let’s list a few of them:
The City website, the City Facebook page, the City TWITTER page (yes we have one), the Chamber of Commerce website, the Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, Lampasas County Breaking News Facebook page (they have 22,000 subscribers!), the Mayor’s Facebook page (Misti had this back in Feb 2021 during the storm – TJ Monroe can’t be bothered), Lampasas ISD Facebook page, Lampasas ISD website, Lampasas Dispatch Record website, Lampasas Radio Facebook page, local TV and the LEDC Facebook page AND website!!
What’s that, like a DOZEN different places all telling us the same things? I think we all knew early on that “the power is fucked up and failing a lot”. Having Monica Wright post it over and over on the City website is a prime example of time wasting “busy work”.
Hell, the LEDC Facebook page ALONE pretty much just copies and pastes posts from ALL those other pages. Mandy “Copy and Paste” Walsh’s entire JOB is pretty much doing just that. If anything, we have a MASSIVE duplication of effort and time wasting. If you need 15 different people to tell you the power is fucked up, then you are either brain dead or named Bruce Haywood.
Here is just a tiny sample of the hundreds of “reposts” Mandy does all the time – taking a post from somewhere else and then “copy paste” to the LEDC page:
And Mandy ALREADY costs the taxpayers over $100,000 to do her copying and pasting. The taxpayers need another Nerf job like “communications” director like we need a colostomy bag on our hips.
As for “handling the fiber-optic infrastructure”? I am reminded of The Big Lebowski when he was spewing bullshit to the kidnappers while “driving, talking on the phone and handling the money“
A great way to sound like you are busy when you aren’t really doing shit. THAT’S the IT department “handling the fiber“. But what does that mean, exactly?
The City didn’t have an answer for me except this: “I would refer to the Dispatch with regards to the meaning of the article” – so I guess I’ll email the reporter and ask what it means to be super busy “handling the fiber”!
Although Mandy Walsh is already currently holding the title of LEDC Director, if she ever left (why would she??) and they needed a new person, I have provided a job description for you:
LEDC Director position available! Salary and benefits of over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR! Yes, we know the average wage in Lampasas is about 65% LESS than that, but this is an IMPORTANT JOB!
Must be able to: create stupid hashtag pages like #lampasasrising which actually do nothing at all but make you THINK you are actually doing something. Must be able to take credit for every single business that opens in Lampasas, even though they would have opened with or without your existence. Must ALSO be able to IGNORE every business that closes (Cafe 281, Rutlands, Toupsie’s, Mamma Jeans, Chinese Buffet place, that chocolate/bookstore place that came and went, etc, etc, etc) and pretend that never happened.
Must be able to also hand out hundreds of thousands of dollars of other people’s money and then bask in the credit. Must also attend quasi-retarded conventions several times a year (we pay thousands of $$ for your food and lodging, though!) and be conversant in useless buzzwords like “identifying community assets” and “encourage collaboration”!
Sound like an easy and overpaid job? What’s the catch? There isn’t one!! This is a typical government make-work job! Apply now!
**UPDATED**
Today’s Dispatch has a blurb about our Economic Developer completing some course at the Texas Community Development Institute (CDI). I had zero comprehension of how far you could take this “Community Development” scam! Not only are there scammers in every small local government milking the taxpayer to “develop their economy” but there is an actual INSTITUTE giving out credentials for this horseshit! I view this is about as meaningful as a masters in “Gender Studies” or “Art History” or “Sociology” – a totally bogus and useless circle jerk propagated by a group of navel gazers.
Just take a look at the absolute gibberish they printed in the Dispatch [5/12/20 page 6]:
The PCED exam content is based on comprehensive, current and applicable information for community and economic development practitioners with questions to measure both the understanding of content and the ability to apply the appropriate methods and tools to specific community situations.
When you read nonsensical bullshit like that, your antennae should go up and scream “useless scam alert!”. Something tells me the City probably paid for her to ‘earn’ this particular pile of horse manure as well. They never stop burning money at the LEDC!
