The Storey Teller News and commentary on what’s really going on in Storey County.
It’s reassuring to know that when I write something (in a house or with a mouse) that makes it’s way to the (McGuffey-says-it’s-Irrelevent) Virginia Highlands chat group, TRIC Executive, Mustang Ranch Brothel resident and Lance Gilman bunkmate Kris Thompson pipes up with a longwinded diatribe about what a pants on fire guy I am.
Mr. Thompson took umbrage to my most recent Sunday Word of the Day essay about Leadership (which you can read here) with a critical piece of his own (posted below) on the VCH.
For those who don’t frequent the VCH chat group, here is my response where I expand on the whole Leadership in Storey County thing.
This will reply to Mr. Thompson, The Minister of Truth.
Before we get to the meat of the bone, for the record:
The words I write, be they In a box or with a fox, are my own and are intended for the gentle residents, taxpayers and voters of Storey County.
I do not represent a cabal, cartel, conspiracy or a confederacy. Of dunces or otherwise.
Like the Green Hornet, I roll with my faithful Japanese valet Kato and The Black Beauty. That’s it.
The Tollbardona cabal is a fabrication of The Ministry of Truth.
Graft and Payola
The Minister’s claim of transparency is pure irony.
I’ll be writing about this later so I’ll save my commentary about how Pat Whitten gave golden parachutes to his homies Hames, Haymore and Nevin to the tune of $215,000 freaking dollars only to watch your boss and his fellow Commissioners feign shock and astonishment after they unanimously approved the graft.
Fact.
Community Development and Public Works
Gary Hames is as qualified as Me and Bobby McGee to inspect the billion dollar GigaFactory.
Mike Nevin was awarded his graft before Jason Van Havel went on paid leave.
Look it up.
Another Fact: Van Havel beat out an applicant with years of direct experience installing the exact type of “very critical projects” Nevin has never overseen and could have run the Public Works Department while overseeing the “very critical project” thus obviating the need to pay for the same job twice.
You know, someone who has been where we are going and isn’t a relative.
Fact.
Bleeding Heart Liberal
Mr. Thompson, if you read anything I have written (in a boat or with a goat), you would know that as a Libertarian:
I HATE RED TAPE AND REGULATION.
I HATE LICENSES, FEES AND TAXES OF EVERY COLOR, TYPE AND FLAVOR.
I LOVE FREE MARKET CAPITALISM.
I HATE GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION AND CRONY CORPORATISM
Quit painting me with the “liberal” brush. It’s classic liberal. Get it right.
I am so freaking conservative, I make almost every conservative I know look a little pink.
Pay attention.
Fact.
TRIC Effluent Pipeline
I’ll repeat myself (again) by saying I fully support the construction of the Effluent Pipeline.
Fully. Support. The. Pipeline.
I just don’t want the Storey County Taxpayers to be the chumps paying for it.
TRIC/Google/Tesla/Switch paying for their Pipeline to provide them with their water to cool their servers = Great.
Storey County Tax Revenue stolen from teachers and firefighters and police and given to TRIC/Google/Tesla/Switch to pay for their Pipeline to provide them with their water to cool their servers = The Opposite Of Great.
Fact.
It’s about Leadership
We need people in leadership who have been where we are going. We just may need people who have been to places you can’t see from the top of Mt. Davidson.
If that Leadership used to lead in San Francisco or Sacramento or St. Louis or Pittsburg or New York or London or Berlin or Dubai or Pretoria or Beijing or Tokyo, so be it.
We need fresh eyes and sharp minds to parlay the yuge, wonderful, large-handed gift of besplendored amazement which Lance the Magnificent and you, his Minister of Truth, have so generously bestowed upon us, the little people of Storey County into something even more yuge, wonderful and large-handed.
The Leadership we need to realize our potential won’t come from the five families who think they own this place simply because they have run it for the last 60 years.
Proof of this can be found in the Hames and Nevin’s contracts and their golden parachute retirement bonuses. This corrupt graft is the another shining example of the Good Old Boy Cronyism and Self Serving, Self-Interested horse-apples the gentle little people of Storey County have been been force fed for decades.
The winds of change are blowing.
Stay Tuned…
This is what I was responding to, from the keyboard fo the Minister himself…
This will respond to the post by Ms. Barde and Mr. Toll (and Mr. Carmona who they are campaigning for). The upcoming Toll/Barde/Carmona cartel campaign for public office is clearly trying to get off the ground now.
The Whitten agenda items show the County is operating at a very high level of transparency – they are completely airing this issue out in a public meeting with everyone having notice ahead of time. All documents are being provided and a report was prepared all of which is part of the record. The Agenda item provides a number of acceptable options for the Commission. The options are laid out for all to see. It should be noted that the three individuals mentioned devoted almost a century of work – basically their entire adult lives – to serving the residents of Storey County. I’m sure more will come out at the meeting concerning the reasons.
The Toll/Barde/Carmona cartel complains about the Battle Born contract for plan reviews and building inspections and the temporary use of Mike Nevin to supervise a very critical project after the suspension of the Public Works director. They offer no alternatives here, not one. They just gripe about what the County did.
No one knows TRI better than Gary Hames. No one has dealt face to face with more companies out here than Gary Hames (except maybe Dean Haymore who also retired). Hames knows inside and out the Storey County “magic” which has drawn the best companies in the world into TRI. The critics I presume would want to advertise a department head position for interviewing with people applying from San Francisco and Sacramento. They would come in here having no idea what brought the massive success to the County, and they would implement systems that they are experienced with – eg. red tape and high fees. It would kill development in this County. And who specifically would they proposed take on the critical VC sewer project? They would want someone from Sacramento coming in to handle the delicate and sensitive nature of the project in the heart of Virginia city – that would be a disaster. The course taken by the County in both instances is a safe, prudent course. And no better alternative – has been suggested or put forward by anyone.
The pipeline comments again show these three don’t understand either the deal being worked or the basics of economic development. The water in the pipeline will provide the ability to bring high water using customers. These facilities tend to be very dense in capital investment – eg they would pay much higher real and personal property tax payers (the facilities could be in the billions of capital investment instead of millions). Without the pipeline, many of these companies would locate elsewhere. The Toll/Barde/Carmona cartel would kill this pipeline deal. They don’t want the pipeline, period. This would greatly restrict economic development and capital investment in the County going forward. But it appears that’s what their goal is – no more economic development, and no more job growth in this county. Companies looking here to invest and create jobs would be driven away quickly by the attitude of this crew – but that’s their goal. Let alone the fact that 4,000 acre feet plus of treated sewage outflow would continue to be discharged into the Truckee River rolling right through Lockwood and Painted Rock.
They comment about the Tesla deal and how that deal should not have been made. And they ignore the fact that TRI put a ton of skin in the game for Tesla. TRI provided over 3,000 acres to Tesla free of charge. TRI only got paid because it sold land for the USA Parkway/Infinity Highway to the State, who paid TRI for it. TRI also provided around 500 acre feet of water to Tesla to get them into TRI. This was no sweetheart deal at all, TRI put a ton of its own skin in the deal to win Tesla for the park. And the County is being paid I believe over $3 million per year by Tesla, even during the abatement period. If these three had been in power, there would be no Tesla, no Switch and no Google. And had they been in power at the beginning there certainly wouldn’t be a TRI as they would have quickly run off any potential developer.
Lastly, the Toll/Barde/Carmona group again claims Lance does not live in his district. This is a false statement of a fact plain and simple. He lives here in the River District and has for over a decade.
I guess the sole basis of the upcoming campaign is to rip into Lance Gilman and try tear him down in every way possible. That’s pretty sad treatment for a man who has brought thousands of jobs and billions in capital investment to this County and the region, and all the charitable food he sends out every week to senior centers, the backpack programs for the little kids from needy families, and the other donations he makes all the time. Sad treatment indeed.
Yet they want to tear this man to pieces so they can get one of their own into a position of power in this County. All should beware. Be very aware.
Thanks to all readers for considering my post. I’ve been trying to stay silent and focus on helping the horse situation and doing my job out here at the park, but the lies in the post were just way out of line. If I don’t respond to these three in the future, just please consider what would be (and should be) said about the actual truth of the matter in response to their posts.
Thanks much.
Kris
Ahem. I do believe y’all do have people who have been where you are going, which is in a very tight circle. Three people. For decades, endlessly. Once you decide on governance by five, things will get more real, not to mention more fun.