Tag: Talbert

LEDC Board Packed With More Talbert Cronies. Nepotism Rules as Leavell Latest to Scurry off Sinking Ship

First Walsh resigns abruptly, and now Neal Leavell is gone from the LEDC board. To see Leavell scurry off the LEDC ship after over TWENTY YEARS is surprising indeed. Very surprising. After all, the Business Pork Project is almost complete and about to open in a glorious fashion and attract dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of “high-paying jobs”. Why would Walsh and Leavell bolt so close to the payoff day?

So Leavell had to be replaced after he left. There was a tiny blurb in the most recent Dispatch about how “council voted unanimously to appoint Fin Erwin to the LEDC board of directors“

How nice. Fin Erwin. Never heard of him. Obviously just some random guy who was selected out of the many, many people who have submitted paperwork to be on the LEDC board of directors. I know there are a bunch of them, because I’ve seen their submissions in the council packets. Even Comrade Clayton Tucker applied to be on the LEDC board! In all, I’d say at LEAST 8 people submitted paperwork to serve on the LEDC board. People like Tim Hefley, Jami Sanchez, Kathy Crawford, Michael Sibberson, and Comrade Clayton Tucker.

[See pages 16 through 29 to see all the applications]

Only it turns out he’s NOT just some random guy. Fin Erwin is married to Haley Gibson. Haley Gibson is….wait for it….

…Misti Talbert’s SISTER! Oh my. So Misti now has her brother-in-law on the LEDC board of which she is president.

I wonder how he’ll vote in the future. Will he vote WITH Misti’s chowderheaded ideas? Or against them?

Hmmm. What are the odds that her own brother-in-law is plucked from the pile of submissions to be on the LEDC? Oh wait…according to the list in the September LEDC packet, Fin didn’t even APPLY! Again, go see pages 16 through 29 to see who DID bother to fill out the paperwork.

The LAST time this happened (a year ago), the LEDC decided to ignore all the people who actually went to the trouble of applying and instead appointed Ryan Shahan to the board.That would be the SAME Ryan Shahan who is President of the Bank that is loaning the LEDC millions of dollars for the Business Pork Project.

Inbred LEDC Inbreeds More – Appoints Bank President Ryan Shahan to LEDC Board – THE SAME BANK They Just Borrowed $1.5 Million Dollars From.

Not really a good look, as I commented at the time. Don’t forget the taxpayers paid his bank an additional $15,000 “loan origination fee” for the honor of borrowing their money.

This is an even WORSE look.

Nepotism and inbreeding and more inbreeding. For shame.

Oh, and don’t worry about locking up your Facebook pages now. I already got screenshots of everything I need.

Budget Nuggets

City debt obligations by year:

2016/2017 – $475,300 [Toups mayor]

2017/2018 – $660,385 (+39%) [Talbert mayor]

2018/2019 – $746,171 (+13%) [Talbert]

2019/2020 – $872,995 (+17%) [Talbert]

2020/2021 – Data not listed [Talbert]

2021/2022 – $978,784 (+12% over 2019/20 numbers)

2022/2023 – $1,400,004 (+43%) [Monroe]

Debt obligations up 106% in 5 years (21% per year)

IT Department – up 54% in 5 years (11% per year)

City manager department – up 107% in 5 years (up 21.5% per year)

Population of Lampasas up approximately 5% during this time (1% per year)

Debt obligations and City manager costs rising 21x faster than population growth

IT Department spending rising 11x faster than population growth – and they STILL allowed a costly ransomware attack to cripple the City!

Another Talbert Whopper Is Exposed Four Months After Her Term Ended

Earlier this month, we were treated to the lovely surprise that electric rates are going up. This was AFTER the Dispatch told us TWICE that “the budget will NOT include an increase in utility or tax rates”.

Some awesome lady in the peanut gallery stood up and let council know she was not happy with the electric rate hike. Herb Pearce (a new council member) was quick to jump in and blame it on the February freeze and said money needed to be raised:

Herb Pearce: “I think the City took a $1.5 million dollar hit this last year during the freeze…and didn’t raise it [rates] a bit? And they didn’t pass that along to the citizens? In order for us to be prudent in what we’re doing, this is what needs to happen.”

OK. Fair enough. Maybe that’s true. It’s hard to know WHAT is true anymore because back at the February 22nd meeting, then-mayor Talbert AND Finley told a very different story about the electricity situation. Herb Pearce was NOT on City council at the time, but many other Goldfish were – Monroe, Kuehne, Williamson and Clark.

It all starts at the 20 minute mark on the video. I’ll give you some highlight quotes below as they talk about the electric fund and money situation:

Talbert: “It’s important for the people watching at home to know: the position that we are in in terms of the utility rates we pay is accredited to one person and one person only – his name is Finley deGraffenreid….0ur risk has been mitigated by his ability to broker deals for us and secure us not knowing that something like this would happen, but in the event that it has we come out on top. When it comes to utility rates, that’s who you thank right there” [points to Finley]

Finley: “Our contracts are currently fixed-pricing…so the pricing from our wholesale suppliers per kilowatt will not change”

Finley: “We are financially healthy…our electric department does carry adequate reserves to overcome the temporary spike”, “I think this is a bump that we just absorb because we are healthy financially….the impact…is pretty negligible…but we are certainly in a position to absorb that if council so chooses”

Talbert: “I would like submit that the City absorb the cost instead of passing it on”

So who is the liar? Guess I better go add this to the Talbert Report Card: F

2017 Talbert Versus 2020 Talbert

Here is an interesting nugget I ran across from Jan 17, 2017 [page 11] regarding the last time City council renewed their trash hauling contract.

WAY back then (three whole years ago), the City of Lampasas used Waste Management for their trash hauling. That contract was due to expire in the spring of 2017. Here is what then-council-member Misti Talbert said about renewing the contract with Waste Management:

 “City council is not unhappy with Waste Management but wants to see if it is possible to save money on trash collection”

Wow. Smart thinking, Misti. I would agree that it NEVER HURTS to look around for a better deal. Seems to be something City council rarely does with anything else (*cough Azbell cough*), but I wholeheartedly agree it is a smart thing to do with EVERYTHING.

So what happened in 2017? Finley and the gang looked at FIVE different companies and let them bid for the new contract (yes, there are FIVE companies out there!). According to 2017 Finley, this “is a highly competitive process” [1/20/17 front page news].

Oh goody! Competition! That is always good for getting the best price!

They determined that Waste Connections “had the highest score of the five companies that submitted proposals for trash service” [3/3/17 front page news].

They did all this work for a three-year contract…since that Waste Connections contract was to last until April 30, 2020 (two weeks from now). All well and good. Nice job, 2017 Misti and 2017 Finley!

Fast forward three years to 2020 Talbert and 2020 Finley. Waste Connections’ contract is now up for renewal and the new period will be for FIVE years. Do 2020 Talbert (now mayor) and 2020 Finley still have the same zeal for “seeing if it is possible to save money on trash collection”?

Nope. Finley now can’t be bothered with that stuff. He says his “recommendation for council to extend [the current Waste Connections] contract is because of the company’s good performance and the potential disruption of service if the city sought a different provider” [2/18/20 front page news]

Weird how nobody worried about “potential disruption of service” three years ago when they let five companies go at it to get the best price. So what changed?

Well, as I have already mentioned previously, three members of City council (Talbert, Toups, Kuehne) won a bribe prize back in 2019 in a karaoke contest hosted by…..you guessed it! Waste Connections! They took home a whopping $2,500 in Oct 2019 and before that, $5,000 in 2018.

In short, Waste Connections handed three members of City council thousands of dollars just months before those same council members would be making a decision on a new five year, $5.5 MILLION dollar contract

Sooooo….back THEN (2017) it was worth it to check around for a better price just for the hell of it. But NOW (2020), after winning a bribe prize from Waste Connections, you are perfectly happy NOT to bother looking around for a better price, despite the fact that there is a “highly competitive process” out there and despite the fact that THIS contract is for a much longer period (5 years versus 3).

Got it.

My how things change in 36 months.

Just to be clear, you can hardly call this a bribe…since ALL the money Waste Connections handed to City council (plus another $7,200 swiped from the HOT slush fund) was immediately wasted on some giant metal letters. They didn’t PERSONALLY see any gain from the money. HOWEVER, they were without a doubt in my mind, influenced and not intelligent enough to see it. Unwittingly duped, as it were.

Mayor ‘Pendulum’ Swings Too Far The Other Way Now

Oh the irony.

A mere nine days after whining on Facebook that social media was making a mountain out of a coronavirus mole hill, Mayor “Pendulum” Talbert has swung way too far the OTHER way and announced (on her hated social media, no less!) that the tiny town of Lampasas (population density 1000 people per square mile) is now on lockdown – just like New York City.

FYI, New York City has a population density of about 28,000 per square mile AND has HALF of all coronavirus cases in the country right now. So a lockdown there makes total sense.

Talk about hysteria!

All “non-essential” businesses are now closed. Of course, the list of ‘essential’ businesses is long and distinguished. Like my schlong. So not much has REALLY changed except hair dressers and barbers are getting a big fat shaft. I guess Mayor Pendulum needed to look ‘mayoral’ and DO SOMETHING…even though the state has already put guidelines in place that seem like MORE than enough to most people.

I’m thinking this act of ‘hysteria’ and unnecessary EXTRA orders on TOP of the Governor’s orders will mark the peak of panic for this whole episode. Italy is already seeing a small drop in the rate of daily deaths. I think the thing she doesn’t understand (math again!) is that fully HALF of the cases are in New York City. And most of the rest are in Washington and California. In terms of cases PER CAPITA, Texas is already doing extremely well with the measures taken weeks ago. So Mayor Pendulum’s actions sure seem ridiculous and unwarranted…and are angering a few people!

Poor Mayor Pendulum…wrong TWICE in ten days!

Good Thing Talbert Didn’t Get Her Wish To “Shut Down Hysteria and Misinformation on Social Media”

I bet Mayor Talbert wishes she could take back that ridiculous post she made. It makes her look sillier by the day. I mean, just look at the hysteria and misinformation the Family Medicine Clinic is now spreading on social media! It doesn’t conform at ALL to Misti’s belief that the virus is no big deal and people are causing hysteria by taking it seriously:

“Very hard and very fast and could overwhelm the system“! Holy shit! THAT will stir up the crowd and cause a panic! Mayor Talbert to the rescue!

If Mayor Talbert was so utterly wrong about this, what else has she been wrong about? Pretty much everything, as it turns out. Blowing millions on a City Hall remodel and ‘business park‘ that is a weed patch come to mind. Handing out ‘free’ electrical hookups to her developer buddies and $150,000 to former Council members (S2M2) also come to mind. Or maybe the $120,000 you wasted with Halff Consultants to “study how Lampasas can grow”. Maybe the over $40,000 on new equipment ruined in the ransomware attack (the ransomware attack that saw nobody reprimanded or fired and was never even explained to the public).

Did I mention the $166,000+ wasted on a no-bid toilet? Or the wildly overpaid/overstaffed IT Department?

Misti and City council have been terrible stewards of taxpayer dollars for YEARS and YEARS. Now that the good times are over and they will very likely face a massive hole in their budget (I would not be surprised to see a $400k to $500k deficit), I can only imagine their incompetence will multiply exponentially.

Since you are in for a BIG world of hurt with City finances, allow me to refresh you memories on a LOT of ideas I had NINE MONTHS ago to trim the fat. I’ve done all the hard work for you. HERE IT IS.

Talbert Is Going To Flip Her Wig When She Sees This

What was that about hysteria, ridiculousness and misinformation on social media?

Looks like Chane Rascoe, the $200,000 man, is acting all hysterical and ridiculous-like! Wow. I guess all the people speculating last week that the schools might shut for a while were also being all ridiculous and hysterical too, right?

Also, Rascoe says “at a MINIMUM“! Geez…he better be careful. He may cause some hysteria and misinformation with that statement and draw the ire of Misti Talbert!!!

I guess the question now is: do the teachers all take a 3% pay cut? Or do they tack on these days at the end of the year and cut into their summer break? Kinda like ‘snow days’ up north?

Quote Of The Year Winner: Misti Talbert

I just have to record this for later reference down the line. In today’s Dispatch, Mayor Misti Talbert made the following observation about wasting over $1,500,000.00 on a vanity project (new City council chambers and building renovation) she championed from start to finish:

“This has been a lot [of money]… but I think it’s been worth it,” Talbert said. “I think if you sit here for just a minute, you’re going to realize this is very worth it.”

I’m sure for The Seven Goldfish, it is very worth it. They get to sit in their fancy chambers surrounded by toys for about 4 hours a month. For the other 6,993 of us suckers citizens, probably not so much.

Although I guess if I sneaked into every single one of the 2,000 houses in Lampasas, stole $750 from every single one of them, didn’t get caught, then sat in my living room “for just a minute” ogling the $1,500,000.00 pile of loot I will get to enjoy at everyone else’s expense, then I would probably say the same thing.

Weed Patch Blasts From The Past

Since I was digging through the Dispatch archives anyways, I thought it would be humorous to copy down all of the hilariously inaccurate promises about the weed patch corpse repository Business Park. Here are some good ones:

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — which she said Harrison spoke against publicly. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017

“DeGraffenried said the LEDC was bold in its decisions to purchase the business park property and extend utilities to it. The city manager predicted Lampasas will enjoy many “spin-off benefits” throughout the city because of the utility work. ” – Oct 23, 2015

“Recent land clearing and development of a road at the business park, Mrs. Masonheimer added, have made the site more attractive to prospective businesses and U.S. 183 passersby.” – Oct 23, 2015

“Projects like this send a message that the city will provide the infrastructure needed for job growth,” [letter written by crusty, big-spending RINO fossil-dummy Roger Williams, U.S. Congressman] – Oct 23, 2015

“An economic study in 2001, [Neal] Leavell said, concluded a business park was the main item Lampasas needed to attract development.” – Oct 23, 2015

“We look forward to working with you and working to fill this business park with good jobs,” she said [Carol Faulkenberry, Texas Dept Agriculture] – Oct 23, 2015

“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015

“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015

“Grayson said he hopes to develop the business park and attract companies to the site.” [Then-mayor Grayson running for re-election] – April 3, 2015

The council also voted to guarantee funds for the LEDC’s loan with First State Bank Central Texas. The bank requested the guarantee in the event the LEDC becomes unable to pay off the loan. The LEDC’s $1.77 million loan from the Lampasas bank includes $1.3 million for the business park utilities. – Oct 17, 2014

“I feel like we’re getting somewhere,” board president Dr. Neal Leavell added. “I think we’ve really accomplished something. It’s taken a lot of patience, but we’re here.” – September 23, 2014

“Advocates of utility extensions have said entities compete vigorously for new jobs and that cities with ready-to-build sites have an advantage as they try to attract new businesses.” – August 8, 2014

“Economic development officials have said utilities for the business park are essential to make the 165-acre area attractive to companies.” – July 22, 2014

The LEDC was “proactive,” deGraffenried said, in acquiring the U.S. 183 property several years ago for a business park. The goal of utility extensions, the city manager said, is to develop the land into a site that can promote economic growth. – June 17, 2014

Here is the final side-splitter – September 23, 2014:

“Of the LEDC’s loan from First State Bank Central Texas, $1.3 million is for the business park utilities. Another $465,000 is for refinancing of the LEDC’s debt on the business park land. The total $1.77 million loan is for 15 years at a fixed interest rate of 3.35 percent. Along with the infrastructure the LEDC will fund, Lampasas has $200,000 in the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget for electrical extensions to the business park.

“The LEDC’s new debt service payment will be about $150,000 a year, Mrs. Masonheimer said. The economic development corporation projects annual revenue of about $250,000, which will leave approximately $100,000 for operating costs after making loan payments. “

BAHAHAHAHA!!! Annual revenue of about $250,000? Good one. Here we are FIVE years later and about $300,000.00 in interest payments (money vaporized)….and still no companies generating that $250,000 in revenue. No “high-paying jobs” in the park. There never will be. It is a pipe dream for morons.

Masonheimer is long gone, of course….and the weed patch sits empty, a black hole for tax dollar tithes to Pope Eckermann and other vultures. I don’t blame Masonheimer. She was given an impossible task by moron politicians. A fool’s errand, if you will. Everything I’ve read in the minutes paint her as a fairly intelligent woman with a good work ethic. She was just set up to fail. The same will happen to Mandy Walsh.

None of these boobs have EVER heard of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. They will keep flushing money down this corpse repository black hole for years and years. Mark my words.

Dissolve the LEDC. Sell the land. Stay they hell out of the “development” business. That is the rational course of action.

Questions For Misti Talbert

So here are a few questions for Misti “Spend like a drunken sailor’ Talbert as she starts her second term as mayor:

Did you learn anything from the $1,500,000.00 Old City Hall renovation debacle?  Are you proud that you backed it from the very beginning (“WOW factor!”) and supported it from start til finish?  Or can you finally see it for the colossal waste that it was?

How about the part where Azbell Electronics won a $96,000 contract with no other bids…despite the fact you sat on city council the FIRST time the exact same contract was bid and awarded to Broadcast Works for $34,000? 

Were there ANY repercussions when you found out city employees pulled the wool over your eyes on the Azbell contract? Did anyone get a stern talking to? Fired? Punished at all? I have posted internal city hall emails showing conclusively that Monica tried her best to keep Council in the dark and Gary Cox was very aware Azbell was FAR more expensive than other vendors. Or do you like being treated with such blatant disrespect?

Is it your opinion that the mayor and city council are the boss of Finley, or are you content that it seems to be the other way around?

Are you going to continue handing Eckermann Engineering hundreds of thousands of dollars in no-bid engineering work? 

Are you cool with increasing the salary/benefits of your highest-paid city employees like Finley, Gary and Monica by 5% to 9% every single year? Do you have ANY plans to trim ANY government spending at all? Or is it 7% increases as far as the eye can see?

Do you think it might be a good idea to have at least ONE of your IT employees get qualified in network administration (by Microsoft, Cisco, etc), since they are costing the city hundreds of thousands in salary and benefits annually yet they spend another $30,000 or so per year to hire TSM Consulting to do the network jobs THEY should be capable of doing themselves? Monica Wright has been on the public teat for OVER THIRTEEN YEARS and has exactly ZERO certifications in network administration….which means she has to pay TSM consulting tens of thousands of dollars annually to do such simple tasks as a server migration.

How many more millions does the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) have to waste on the “business park” before you second guess your decisions there?  One million?  Two million? 

How many more $8,000 videos promoting Lampasas will the city pay for with zero results?  How many more TML conferences will the city pay for with $1000 worth of hotel rooms, so the LEDC staff can go spin their wheels in more conferences and seminars with no results?  How many more “consulting” contracts will you piss away money on?   HALFF is now getting $120,000 to do the job that LEDC has been wasting $100,000 per year to (not) do.  Do you think that is money well spent?

Not once in all her current self-congratulatory interviews has Misti “Drunken Sailor” Talbert made any mention of being the least bit concerned about the idiotic and wasteful spending of her administration and the administration before her.

One thing is sure – Talbert’s second term will provide me endless fodder and many boneheaded decisions to ridicule.