Tag: slush fund

More LEDC Numbers Don’t Add Up…I Am Shocked

Every IRS filing for the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation has some numbers showing how many hours per week the officers ‘worked’. It looks something like this:

There are two problems with this. First of all, there are ZERO hours listed for “any hours for related organizations below dotted line”. I would think Talbert and Monroe would list their City council minutes below there, since their positions on City council are VERY closely related to the LEDC slush fund.

But even worse is the fact that the hours spent in LEDC meetings (according to their own minutes) do not even REMOTELY match the hours listed on their Form 990 submitted to the IRS.

They have all listed two hours PER WEEK on the IRS form (Millican and Lindeman list 1 hour only) – or 104 hours per YEAR conducting LEDC business.

The problem is, the LEDC minutes contradict this WILDLY. They are off by ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE.

Granted, the IRS filings show the fiscal year numbers (Oct 1 through Sep 30) and the minutes for the LEDC run from Jan 1 through Dec 31….but they both run for 12 months. Even though they do no overlap exactly, they show wildly divergent numbers.

For 2019 (using the LEDC’s own minutes), I show a grand total of 14.75 hours spent in meetings. Yes, you read that correctly. Just over ONE HOUR PER MONTH for an organization sucking down $300,000 of tax dollars per year. Your tax dollars hard at work!

Yup – they only met TEN times in 2019…for an average of 90 minutes each time.

Their IRS filings imply they worked 104 hours per year. Their own minutes indicate they met for 14.75 hours per year.

Now, you might say “well, they only MEET for 14.75 hours per year, but they take a lot of work home on the weekends”. LOL. Sure they do. If you believe that one, I have a Cajun restaurant on Key Avenue to sell you.

More to come…..

OUTRAGEOUS Tidbits From LEDC Non-Profit Filings

We will be doing a DEEP dive on the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation for the next few posts. I have been reviewing ALL of their 501(c)(3) tax filings since inception in 2000. Nearly TWENTY years of shenanigans and obscene money wasting.

Lets start with how much money the LEDC have skimmed off of productive citizens. Their main source of “revenue” is sales tax. Since their formation in the year 2000 through Sept 2018 (the last Form 990 available online) they have skimmed $3,796,974 for this ridiculous slush fund.

Seeing as how the amount of sales tax skimmed has increased every single year for the last 17 years (except 2009), I think it is safe to assume it increased for the 2018/2019 tax year as well. Which means we can safely tack another $300,000 onto that total.

**UPDATED 6/9/21** – Income for 2019 filing was $313,229

Yes, the LEDC is now skimming about OVER $300,000 PER YEAR in sales tax revenue to run their little slush fund.

Let’s call it a nice even FOUR POINT ONE MILLION DOLLARS skimmed.

They purchased their ‘Business Park’ land on Oct 1, 2003 according to the records….for $909,835. They carried it on their books at that exact price until it was marked down on their 2013 tax filings to $817,978 (Schedule D Part VI).

The sudden change fits my other info: that the LEDC paid Herbst Real Estate to do an appraisal in 2012. So it makes sense this new value shows up in the filing date ending Sept 2013.

Only a group of clowns like this could buy land for $909,835 and have it worth 10% LESS ten years later. Did they think to have it appraised BEFORE they bought it? I’d love to know who sold these chumps the land.

The most disturbing and disgusting part about the $4.1 million being skimmed over the last 19 years is that their controls are nonexistent. Their tax filings SPECIFICALLY ask “Does the organization have any ‘conflict of interest’ policy?” – and the LEDC answers NO every year [Part VI section B, 12a].

That means that officers, directors, trustees and key employees are NOT required to disclose interests that could give rise to conflicts.

They also answered NO to “does the organization have and written document retention and destruction policy”.

Pathetic.

Know what else? They immediately spent $43,429 on ‘engineering and surveying’ in 2004 – right after buying the property [Schedule A – part VII]. Wonder who got THAT chunk of cash. Remember, that is 2004 dollars…which is equivalent to $59,000 in today’s dollars.

Kind of makes you wonder why, after $59,000 of surveying, they had to hand Pope Eckermann $168,740 AGAIN between 2014 and 2016. How many times can you engineer/survey the same piece of land??

Look at the other GOBS of money flushed down the toilet: $24,000 on ‘admin and overhead’, $23,408 on ‘miscellaneous’, $20,900 on ‘other services’, $34,240 on ‘professional services’. WTF???? $146,913 vaporized in the blink of an eye! [$200,000 in today’s dollars]

Then let’s get into the LEGAL fees they have wasted…..they blew over FIFTY-ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in 2003 and 2004 alone ($69,000 in today’s dollars!). I’m assuming related to the purchase of the land? What else could it be? Who knows but that is an insane amount of legal fees.

[More coming soon as this is a huge amount of work to dig all these out of the archives]