Exposer of Waste in City Government – Destroyer of Marxist Lice
The Fishbowl will open to the public on December 16th between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. Spinley deGraffenreid has asked people to bring ornaments for the several trees inside the building. I’ll be bringing seven of these beauties:
No, not for just managing the city. But for his incredible ability to make every horrible decision look like it was a good one and to also hold two contradictory positions in his head at the same time, while talking out both sides of his mouth. He is truly a marvel. Take today’s Dispatch article about the Fishbowl as a prime example:
At the beginning of the article, Spinley needs to somehow explain why they paid $229,000 for a building they had just sold less than two years earlier for $75,000. The reason? The owner made a ton of awesome improvements like new windows, a new roof and ‘electrical work’. He implies the building is just spectacular and they got a deal on this thing.
By the end of the article, he ALSO needs to explain why the $1.5 million Fishbowl is a year late and WAY over budget. He does so deftly with this quote:
“Throughout the project, some residents voiced concerns about the expense and whether a new council meeting venue is necessary“
Asked about those concerns, and about whether renovation was a better option than constructing a new building, deGraffenried said, “I think the choice of the project was correct. I think that to say we have not learned anything from remodeling an 85-year-old building would be incorrect,”
See how he slips “an 85-year-old building” into the mix? He is now implying (contrary to the BEGINNING of the article) that this shitty old dilapidated building is to blame for all his woes and delays and cost overruns.
Just to recap for the slow crowd:
Seriously. Spinley, you missed your calling. You would be a shoo-in for White House Press Secretary.
Poor Misti is off to quite a rough start during her second term as mayor:
Her $1,500,000.00 Old City Hall vanity project appears to STILL not be completed (which means the $95,000 “Ferrari of A/V systems” sits unused). I have yet to see a puff piece about the finished product in the local paper and the City continues to have “community meetings” at the school cafeteria and old council chambers.
She has recently jacked taxes up to just under the rollback rate, on TOP of the increase in valuations….meaning everyone will see a nice big tax increase this year. Again.
The “business park” weed patch on which they have wasted over $1,000,000.00 was at least hidden under a rug for the last 6 years, but then recently somebody went and dumped a dead body there and brought it onto the front pages – an ugly reminder of a failed dream. Now they are scrambling again to figure out exactly what they are going to do with that albatross around their neck:
.…and now this embarrassing ransomware attack on the city’s network (which took 10 days to resolve). A network run by two city workers I have pointed out as unqualified for over a year, a fact which Misti and Spinley unfortunately ignored.
What will our intrepid mayor face next? Huge cost overruns on the wastewater plant? Locusts? Plummeting sales tax revenue during the coming recession?? We shall see…..
Well, Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert certainly has a sense of humor. This was evident with the ridiculous excuse she gave for increasing the tax rate 6.5% recently.
According to the Lampasas Dispatch, Talbert said “residents now receive a greater level of services than they did years ago, the last time the tax rate increased.”
I’ve been around here since 2011 – the last time the RATES were supposedly increased – and if there is a greater level of service since then, you sure sneaked it past me.
Unless by “services” you mean the service of taking huge piles of $100 bills from taxpayers/citizens and setting them on fire in a spectacular orgy of waste and incompetence.
You know – like the $1.5 million you blew remodeling Old City Hall, which was your signature vanity project. The waste included canceling a $34,000 A/V system that was properly bid on by Broadcast Works and instead blowing nearly $100,000 on a NO-BID A/V contract with Azbell Electronics.
That kind of service?
Or maybe the service she is referring to is taking the lowest bid of $96,000 for the Old City Hall elevator and throwing it in the trash bin and instead paying $126,000 for said elevator (which is currently 6 months past its installation date).
Maybe the “service” is blowing over $1,000,000.00 on a “Business Park” which remains an empty 165-acre weed patch used for nothing but dumping bodies?
A mayor who wastes six-figure and seven-figure sums over and over is not a mayor who is worried about money, obviously. Yet here we are a year later, and she is fine with jacking up property taxes over TWELVE PERCENT**….ready to blame the huge increase on “increased city services” instead of the piles of money wasted over the last few years on her pet projects.
** How do I get a 12% increase? Well, the average taxable value of a Lampasas residence increased over 6% last year – from $92,110 to $97,904…(must be all those newly-minted Corvive pyramid scheme millionaires in town bidding up mansions!!)
In fact, property VALUATIONS have been climbing ever since that same year of 2011 – a fact Talbert ignores when she tries to put lipstick on this pig by claiming RATES haven’t been raised since 2011. Tack on another 6.3% RATE increase on that increase valuation, and voila: over 12%.
While Talbert may be hilarious with her ridiculous explanations, in the end the joke is on the taxpayer who pays for her mistakes. As usual.
Government tends to grow and grow, becoming fat and bloated, because there is no profit motive, no competition and they have a monopoly on force (i.e. if you don’t pay the ludicrous sums demanded, you go to jail or have your house taken away). Most people are extremely busy earning the very money to be grabbed by government boobs and don’t have the time to complain as their taxes inch up relentlessly (or jump dramatically as in the case of this year’s 20% property tax increases)
Eventually you end up with something like the City of Lampasas IT Department (aka the Department of Redundancy Department) which somehow blows over $300,000 per year and employs two unqualified nitwits who then hire TSM Consulting for more money to do their work for them (and who only work 10 months out of the year for a six-figure salary and benefits).
Or you end up casually paying $125,000 for an elevator for city hall when there is a perfectly good bid for $96,000 sitting on your desk.
Or you piss away nearly $100,000 on an A/V system for city council because you can’t be bothered to go out an bid the project competitively.
Or you blow a million dollars running electricity and water/sewer to a “business park” which was a moronic idea to begin with and which sits there as a 165-acre weed patch….and which I now hear rumblings may be re-purposed to provide “affordable housing” (more on this in the future).
Or you hand Halff Associates a $120,000.00 consulting fee to “plan” the Lampasas economy for you, even thought we ALREADY have a Lampasas Economic Development Corporation spending well over that amount annually.
Or you incinerate $1.5 million remodeling Old City Hall – a project that was originally rejected when it was only $350,000 but somehow grew into a $1,500,000.00 monstrosity.
Or you squander a few hundred thousand dollars on steel paneling and lights for a rodeo arena that was totally unnecessary and which just happened to be championed by a city council member who was a member of the riding club…and which I believe might be used twice a year. If that.
These irresponsible actions are the actions of a government which has WAY too much money rolling in and clearly doesn’t value it. They have enjoyed the fruits of a supposed ten-year “booming economy”, and have become very accustomed to throwing money down the toilet without a second thought.
Well, trees don’t grow to the sky and all good things come to an end. Very likely, we will experience a recession soon and these idiots will be staring at a giant six-figure hole in their budget. Which they will then plug not by lowering salaries, benefits or spending, but by jacking up your taxes and utility rates as they always do.
SO – maybe City Council should be proactive for once and cut the copious amounts of fat NOW….THIS YEAR, so they are prepared when the downturn inevitably arrives. Sounds crazy, right?? My next post will provide lots of quick and easy ways to slash spending and shrink the bloated and wasteful city government.
I’m no detective, but the complete and utter lack of crowing about the new $1.5 million City Hall renovation and its nearly $100,000 A/V system for the last 4 months tells me this thing STILL isn’t done yet!
Remember back in mid-March when Finley informed us there would be a two-week delay on the elevator? That was a mere two weeks AFTER he told us it would be all done in a week or two.
Well, here we are FOUR MONTHS LATER…and I have STILL not seen any huge puff piece in the Lampasas Dispatch crowing about the $1.5 million dollar monstrosity. What’s the hold up? Is the elevator STILL not installed?
I find it impossible to believe that when this vanity project is done, Finley won’t invite the Lampasas Dispatch in for a photo shoot and make a BIG announcement for all of us peons to come to the next City Council meeting and grunt our approval. The wretched masses can “oooohhhh” and “ahhhhhh” and stroke the FOUR expensive 70-inch TV sets and the $5,000 DVR box like primitive monkeys stroking the giant black monolith in “2001 – A Space Odyssey“.
Yes, that is how I imagine they see us.
I mean, Monica Can’t-Wright even went out and bought 100 stackable chairs (four years ago) for this momentous occasion! This is the VERY DEFINITION of the community event Finley claims the $1.5 million debacle was built for! Yet we haven’t heard a peep in the newspaper and I haven’t seen a SINGLE mention in the council minutes – which I watch like a hawk.
I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the big pile of shit that has been sitting on the west side of the building for the last 6 months – which looks suspiciously like a disassembled $125,000 elevator to my untrained eyes.
As you may recall, former genius council member Chris Harrison thought the city should ignore the cheapest $96,000 bid for the elevator from Austin Elevators and instead go with the $125,000 elevator from RKJ Construction. He wanted to “keep it local” – which are apparently government code words for “get bent over and screwed hard”.
Again, this is all speculation on my part. If any of my usual City Hall birdies wish to chirp about this issue, you know where to find me.
To those who pay attention to such things, a public meeting has been announced for June 17th at 6pm so all the whiners and complainers can whine and complain about (1) Community Planning (i.e. the $120,000 consulting contract handed to Halff Associates) and (2) City of Lampasas Budget Input (i.e. how big of a raise will Finley and Monica get this year?)
Here is the punchline: this big, important community meeting will be held in a school cafeteria. Why is this so funny to me? Well, I have a memory longer than three weeks, as it turns out. Let’s rewind quickly to September 25th, 2018 (8 months ago). Finley was busy covering his butt trying to explain to the citizens how $1.5 million dollars was a bargain price for new Council chambers and how a no-bid $95,000 A/V system was the deal of the century.
Part of his cover-his-ass story was that this vanity project was NOT just for City employees and City Council! No, no, no! To use Finley’s own words from the article, the Misti/Finley “wow factor” debacle was ALSO to “allow more public participation in council meetings [and] also will provide a place for various community groups to meet. City Manager Finley deGraffenried said the City Council’s vision is to have a facility that encourages public participation and “that could be seen as a hub” for a variety of meetings, civic activities and community groups.”
I would say a public meeting about the budget and community planning CERTAINLY fits the description of a “civic activity/meeting for a community group”. Pretty much EXACTLY what Finley described in his newspaper puff-piece 8 months ago.
So why not have this important civic meeting in the fancy new $1,500,000.00 Misti Talbert “Wow factor!” vanity project? I’m guessing there is one simple reason: it STILL isn’t completed!!
How far overdue is this vanity project? The article tells us that as well:
Later in the same article, Finley states that ASJ Construction was “50 days into the 120-day project” and that was on September 25th, 2018. Which means there were supposedly about 70 days remaining. December 4th, 2018 would mark 70 days after Finley made his statement.
Clearly the project was not done on December 4th, 2018. Not even close. Seeing as how the City will NOT be holding this important community meeting there on June 17th, that means the debacle project is now SIX MONTHS LATE (in addition to being about $500,000 more than projected).
The ease with which they just decided to have this meeting in a cafeteria and the ability of the cafeteria to hold the huge throngs (ha ha!) of people that will show up begs another question: why do we need a $1.5 million meeting room in the first place if an existing school cafeteria works just fine? A very good question…one I have been asking since last year when this monstrosity was started.
I’ll tell you why….the cafeteria just doesn’t have that “wow factor”, ya big dummy! Luckily we have wise civic leaders like Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert to push such huge, bold, wasteful “wow factor” projects through to completion…even if it is $500,000 over budget and 6 months behind!
The new pile of City Council packets brought more checks written for the Old City Hall Misty Talbert “Wow Factor” Vanity Project! ASJ Construction and Azbell Electronics will be throwing a huge party this Christmas. Hope Misti and Finley are invited! Here are some of the sums spent on the debacle project. This is by no means exhaustive. I’m sure I missed some stuff.
JNW Architects (the ones who bungled all kinds of things over the years – April 13, 2015): $56,020 over 5 payments between 2015 and 2017. It may be higher, but some of the checks are for “consulting” and it’s hard to say they were for the OCH debacle.
Azbell Electronics: $94,674 (this is for some TVs and microphones for City Council to use). Mind you, this system could have been had for $34,000 from Broadcast Works – but the money tree out back was bursting with cash, so why not spend it?? OVERPAY of $60,000.
RKJ Construction: $128,400 on an elevator (Austin Elevator bid $96,500 for this part of the project, but Council-genius Harrison wanted to “keep it local” and yank an extra $32,000 off the money tree out back). Well done! OVERPAY of $32,000 (elevator STILL not installed).
RKJ Construction: $13,500 to demolish interior of OCH and remove debris. This is the only contract I’ve seen that seems like a fair price. Go figure.
$12,780 for 100 stackable chairs. Monica purchased these FOUR YEARS AGO ($127 per chair) despite City Council meetings rarely exceeding 30 people. Where are the chairs now? Who knows. OVERPAY of $7,000.
$8,055 for even MORE furnishings (Amazon Capital Services – page 18)
$7,313 for curbing and a pad for generator.
$5,596 for “geotechnical engineering study” – sounds like kissing the ring of Pope Eckermann.
ASJ Construction: Tons of checks here since they are the main contractor. Checks in the amount of: $134,692 $143,336 $211,435 $166,301 $153,458 $42,069 $45,162 $45,714 $45,514 $26,000 $14,732… and we aren’t done yet!!
The capper? ASJ also just billed the city $11,310 for “reception desk – city hall“. Did we just pay over eleven thousand dollars for a $&*%(^* desk??? I think we did. WOW Factor!! OVERPAY $6000
$60,000 for a fire suppression system – no idea who sells and installs this. Fire Department?
$7,500 for “phone” and “fiber patch”
Roughly $12,000 to remove bats from the building.
$45,194 to re-roof a roof that I’m pretty sure JNW Architects said was
“structurally sound” three years earlier (Oct 2016 JNW was paid $18,500 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” of said analysis).
Tonight they will discuss spending $27,850 to “improve parking lot conditions behind City Hall”.
What does it all add up to? A LOT. I remember the good old days (circa 2015) when the Grayson/White/Toups crew didn’t even want to spend $400k on this. Look at them now – around $1,500,000.00 and counting! Well done!!
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.
A new year….a new change order for City Council to rubber stamp. This time for $54,580. A new roof here…”aesthetic upgrade” there….pretty soon you are talking real money! Don’t worry…just head on out back to the money tree and grab another 50k for the Old City Hall debacle. Plenty more where that came from.
Another unanimous decision (White absent) to torch taxpayer funds on the “wow factor” vanity project that is the hallmark of the Talbert administration.