One of the “brilliant” arguments for the ever-increasing salaries of City Hall Big Wigs is that “we need to keep jacking up their salaries or they’ll leave for greener pastures – why just look what Marble Falls pays!”
After listening to this interview, I have to wonder if old Rhonda Witcher reads this blog, because she asked pretty much EVERYTHING I have asked about this “Business Pork” and made the same points I make repeatedly about the labor force not being there to support such a project.
Good job, Rhonda! You did the first valuable interview of your life at age 102.
Assistant to the City Manager Ryan Ward was on there in place of Finley (another sign that Finley is handing over the reins this year) and our new Economic Development Director Stacey Ybarra joined him. Between the two of them, they talked in circles spewed many buzzwords, and basically gave zero information on the entire park.
First let’s hear Ryan Ward’s bullshit:
Rhonda Witcher: “Well, the can of worms you get when you come here to Lampasas is the Business Park out on 183…the City has had that a long time…put a lot of money into it…it’s been built – has anybody come yet? Are there any renters?“
Ryan Ward: “That’s a great question! I can give you an update on that! Mandy did a great job…it is about 99% complete…the legwork that Mandy had done…there are several businesses that were waiting on the City of Lampasas to complete that… so once the electric is complete, we hope to get folks, uh, moving in as soon as possible, you know, some of these businesses that are really interested in being out there”
Great non-answer, asswipe! Rhonda asked if there were any renters and you just babbled a whole pile of bullshit without giving an answer. SHOCKINGLY, Rhonda didn’t take that for an answer, and pressed him AGAIN….
Rhonda Witcher:“But SPECIFICALLY, are any tire-kickers, ha-ha-ha, or anyone out there looking??”
Ryan Ward:“You know, uh, that would be a good question for, uh, our manager, Finley deGraffenreid….he worked real close with Mandy…that piece of it I didn’t work on it with Mandy…the interested parties…and…a lot of those things are kinda kept, nondisclosure…until they make their mind up…but yeah, I don’t have any of that information, I wish I did, to share”
Ah yes – pawn it off on Mandy (who is long gone) and Finley (who isn’t there and will ALSO be retiring soon! Pass the buck – classic bureaucrat move
Rhonda is STILL undeterred! He keeps at it. He turns to Stacey Ybarra and asks “what do you think about that?”
Stacey Ybarra: “I think it’s a great opportunity…at this moment in time…to be able to attract businesses, you need shovel-ready sites…you need those types of sites to be able to bring big businesses…it’s just about getting it completed and doing the legwork to bring them here, they will come…it just may take a tiny bit of time…but that’s what I’m here for….and making sure the money was worth the while. It is my number-one priority.…
SHOVEL READY Q4 2015!!! That would be 87 months ago, sugar
[Rhonda STILL keeps at it. Bravo Rhonda. Ward and Ybarra expected to sit there and babble more vague bullshit but you held their feet to the fire. Witcher asks for specifics AGAIN!]
Rhonda: “Hmmm…ok…how do you do that? You know…how do you go out and find, uh, businesses that want to move here?”
Stacey Ybarra:“That’s part of economic development…there’s a lot of different strategies…you have to continually reach out…it’s about staying the in know…what leads are out there and keeping your ear to the ground…and also cold-calling…”
Talbert told us last February (when she pilfered $971,000 from the City) that the LEDC was turning businesses away, because the Business Pork wasn’t up to snuff!
Not ONCE did Ybarra say “The Governor’s office calls us weekly with RFIs”!! Not ONCE. Which just reinforces my belief that that line was never anything but a huge lie.
Rhonda then brings up ANOTHER great point of mine next:
Rhonda: “I wonder…does Lampasas have the labor…for these businesses“
Ward then piles on the shit BIG time and blabbers a big bowl of diarrhea word salad and cliches and bullshit:
Ryan Ward: “You know, that’s kind of an interesting thought…we have to reach further out…you hope you can find enough work force…to hire more staff…and that’s always the first priority…not only that there is housing…how are we developing those housing communities? But the growth is coming here…”
Oh, is the growth coming here? No shit! Then why have we been subsidizing all of these housing developments if “they are coming” anyways, you morons? Talbert (as mayor), Williamson, Monroe and the rest have given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to developers over the last couple years. Instead, they should be assessing impact fees to pay for the water, sewer, police and all the rest we will now need more of.
Talbert and the rest always tell us this will all “grow the tax base”. So fucking what? Will our taxes go DOWN? No, they will not. You can bet your ass on that.
So the bottom line? No, we don’t have any prospects for the park – despite 20 years and seven million dollars and lying to you for YEARS that “we get weekly requests for information”. No, we don’t have the labor force to fill any jobs we might get. Oh but don’t worry, we’ll subsidize rich developers like Deorald Finney for houses that would be built anyways and we’ll ship people in from Cove and Austin, if need be.
So at the end of the day, there will be more traffic, more crowding, more houses cramming in on 1/4 acre lots, and your taxes will not ever go down. In fact, you’ll be paying more as we have to now blow millions more on water and waste water.
So tell me again why this is a good thing? Sounds like dog shit to me.
I’d make a small wager that Finley promised him a quick raise after 6 months or so. Even money says we see Mr Ward get a bump in salary before the year is out. Any takers??
“And my middle name is Kurt! NOT Fart!”
Well, it wasn’t really a “raise”, per se, according to Assistant TO THE City Manager Ryan Dwight Ward. I had an email discussion about this when I asked him if he had gotten the 3% raise as well – even though he is ALREADY paid far more ($110,000 before COLA raise) than the average ACM ($86,000 according to Salary.com) AND he has only been on the job here for 6 months.
He refused to answer the question, but said a COLA (cost of living adjustment) is not a raise.
Yeah. OK. Semantics, semantics. Bottom line is your already-bloated paycheck is now 3% higher than it was when you started here 180 days ago. Call it whatever you want. The taxpayer pays more no matter what you call it.
In fact ALL of the “overpaid” positions identified in Dwight’s salary study ALSO got the 3% COLA raise last month. Including library director (11.2% higher), parks director (7.3% higher) and police chief (7.9% higher). You’d think that positions already identified as “overpaid” by Dwight would not need an ADDITIONAL 3% raise. But that’s not how it works, see. Only UNDERPAID positions are increased. Nobody is ever decreased due to a “salary” study. Ever.
Which sure feels like cheating to me. But what do I know?
So to recap:
Dwight starts here in January of 2022 as assistant to the City manager and his starting salary was $110,000 – which is about $25,000 HIGHER than a typical ACM salary, according to salary.com
Dwight does a “salary study” in May and uses cities near here that are a lot richer than we are and overpay their City employees even worse – like Marble Falls and Fredericksburg. His own ‘study’ identifies several positions that are “overpaid” by between 7% and 11%. He does this to prep us all for salary boosts in the coming fiscal year 2022/2023.
City council, Finley and Dwight all ignore this fact and give EVERYONE (except Finley, who got a 15% raise in 2020 during pandemic) a 3% raise COLA. INCLUDING those positions already identified as “overpaid” relative to nearby cities.
But this 3% is not a “raise” – it is a Cost of Living Adjustment, Dwight tells me. So it doesn’t really count.
Every 1% raise to City payroll translates into $70,000 out the door (according to Finley himself), whatever you call it. Old City payroll was approximately $7,000,000 for 110 employees ($63,636 per employee). It is now $7,210,000 ($65,545 per employee).
Benefits to City workers (never mentioned by Dwight OR Finley) are now closing in on $3 million per year, since 40% of $7.2 million is $2.8 million. That is an average of $25,400 in benefits per employee.
Total salary and benefits PER EMPLOYEE now around $90,000. This is BEFORE budget negotiations have even started for FY 2022/2023. There will be more to come. They are already talking about another raise COLA on Jan 1, 2023.
Since the pay increase is a percentage, the Big Wigs at the top who are ALREADY ‘overpaid’ (like Dwight or Mandy) see a MUCH bigger raise ($3,300 or $2,300) than the poor schlub working out in the heat fixing water lines and power lines (more like $1,200).
Oh, and Dwight has been on the job for a mere 6 months before the COLAraise was given to him. He knew exactly what he was getting paid when he took the job AND there were THIRTY other applicants for the ATTCM position – so it was CLEARLY already a generous offer. Yet he gets to sip the COLA like everyone else!! Must be sweet.
In addition to the 3% COLA raises, there were also “targeted market adjustments” (NOT raises either, according to Dwight!!) to other positions (adjusted upwards, of course) but none of them were spoken of, so it’s all very secretive. I have no idea who got even more than the 3% COLA raise – but some people definitely did. Hopefully the poor schlubs at the bottom who sweat for a living instead of the Nerf jobbers changing printer cartridges and doing salary studies.
All of this will not stop Finley from angling for even MORE pay increases during budget negotiations over the next two months. Because a COLA is NOT a raise, remember???
