Publisher @newssmithville Yes, that’s a real tattoo. Playing life on expert level. GO CUBS!
Bastrop County, TX
Joined February 2012
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Kristen Meriwether retweeted
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 The City of Elgin said the auditor found, "no evidence of wrongdoing."
But we reviewed the single audit report not published online which showed the auditor found 8 material weaknesses.
We've got the findings and the unpublished report 👇
smithvilletexasnews.com/elgi…
Here is the updated statement from City of Elgin:
"The City of Elgin will cooperate fully with Governor Abbott’s recently announced investigation into the City’s finances. Recent audits conducted by an independent auditing firm for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 found no evidence of wrongdoing or criminal activity and no missing funds. Any issues discovered in the audits concerning accounting procedures are being addressed with current staff. All audits for the City can be found on the City's website, elgintexas.gov."
PLEASE NOTE: the links to the audit reports do NOT include the single audit report that outlines the problems in detail.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
🚨Governor Abbott Directs Texas Rangers To Open Investigation On The City Of Elgin Funding Allegations 🚨
"There have been serious and potentially criminal accusations made against the City of Elgin that need to be investigated,” said Governor Abbott. "Texans expect their elected officials to be honest stewards of taxpayer dollars and conduct the people's business openly, and in compliance with Texas law. Due to the accusations of chronic financial mismanagement, including inconsistent accounting practices and unreconciled bank accounts, in potential violation of multiple state laws, I directed the Texas Rangers to launch an investigation into the City of Elgin's finances to ensure transparency and full compliance with state law."
gov.texas.gov/news/post/gove…
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
This story continues to get crazier the more I look into it. Did you know the City of Elgin finance director who left in late 2021 or 2022 was killed in a murder suicide in February of this year? 👇
elgincourier.com/article/344…
Remember, this audit is for the time period Sept 2023 to Sept 2024.
You can see the FY24 financial audit presented to Elgin's council last week here 👇
elgintexas.gov/ArchiveCenter…
I went to Elgin City Hall to view it and saw a supplementary report that's not online (old reporter's trick FTW!). It provided more detail on the issues (TL/DR: they didn't have competent staff or proper procedures), and a log of the adjustments they made.
The only red flag for me (so far) was the EDC and TIRZ Zone No. 1. The report mentioned, "separately audited financial statements are not issued" for either entity.
I had never heard of TIRZ, but it's a controversial funding mechanism used by cities to improve areas of blight by using future growth to pay for today's capital projects. It's often criticized for diverting funds from cities to private developers. The lack of oversight and accountability makes it ripe for fraud.
There is a project called Hidden Oaks Highway 290 Property where the city and the EDC used taxpayer funds to purchase 60 acres of land on Hwy 290 back in 2018 for $3.9M. In 2020 The city approved a $2M loan from the TIRZ to the EDC to purchase 14 acres of this land. If you read the narrative on pg 66 of the audit you can see how many times the city/EDC/TIRZ loaned each other money, with limited oversight and accountability...all done during the time the now-deceased finance director was in charge.
I have way more unanswered questions than answers, so I'll be speaking with a few people from Elgin this week to get some additional background. Look for a story later this week.
cc @ATXVideos
Elgin, Texas has $10 million taxpayers dollars go missing, it just vanished
The mayor says we "can't go back" because the people who caused the problems are no longer there
The mayor says to ‘move on’
“Going back will never get you anywhere if you're going backwards — we need to figure our what to do moving forwards”
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Local independent media here in nearby Smithville 👋 We are a little town of 4,000 people 30 miles south of Elgin in Bastrop County.
We would love to partner and work with someone who has the financial expertise to find the missing money. Because no, taxpayers shouldn’t be “moving on” or “looking forward” when $10 million dollars of public money goes missing.
We haven’t covered Elgin yet (we're hyper-local Smithville), but are aware that their city manager was unanimously voted out by their council in late 2024. They offered their interim the city manager job in Aug but he declined the offer. Makes sense why now.
We’d love to get to the bottom of this story and get the $10 million back for tax payers and make sure whoever is responsible is held accountable. If you have the expertise to help, DM us.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
As someone who's been applying for months I can say from personal experience that qualified employees are buried in AI-generated rejections. Great system we've set up here
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Mike Rowe: “We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code.”
“Well, AI is coming for the coders.”
“It’s not coming for the welders, the plumbers, the steamfitters, the pipefitters, the HVAC, or the electricians.”
“In Aspen, I sat and listened to Larry Fink say we need 500,000 electricians in the next couple of years—not hyperbole.”
“The BlueForge Alliance, who oversees our maritime industrial base—that’s 15,000 individual companies who are collectively charged with building and delivering nuclear-powered subs to the Navy … calls and says, we’re having a hell of a time finding tradespeople. Can you help?”
“I said, I don’t know, man … how many do you need? He says, 140,000.”
“These are our submarines. Things go hypersonic, a little sideways with China, Taiwan, our aircraft carriers are no longer the point of the spear. They’re vulnerable.”
“Our submarines matter, and these guys have a pinch point because they can’t find welders and electricians to get them built.”
“The automotive industry needs 80,000 collision repair and technicians.”
“Energy, I don’t even know what the number is, I hear 300,000, I hear 500,000.”
“There is a clear and present freakout going on right now. I’ve heard from six governors in the last six months. I’ve heard from the heads of major companies.”
@mikeroweworks
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
If you would like to support Smithville Texas News, you can donate here 👇 We are currently looking to purchase audio equipment to set up our audio flywheel.
Flywheels help reduce the need to rely solely on subscriptions and ads as revenue sources, making this sustainable for our small community.
smithvilletexasnews.com/prod…
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
All we can do is hope every one of these Dodgers players somehow winds up sucking horribly.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Quick story about govt. shutdowns and the theatrics behind them. One year when I was reporting at CBS News during a govt. shutdown, I think 2013, we were sincerely searching for real life impact. When we couldn't find any, *that* should have been part of the story. Instead, we kept trying to create the appearance of an impact. It wasn't really trying to be dishonest. It was, in my retrospective view, because the general editorial idea for the story was to show how bad the "Republican" shutdown was for ordinary Americans, and the answer simply couldn't be that it wasn't. I've written quite a bit about this but we, as journalists, too often "decide" the story in advance and shape the facts to fit our narrative, rather than gathering information and letting that tell the story, whatever it may be. Anyway, the Ds were blaming Rs for the shutdown, so we were calling Ds and the Obama administration for ideas to report what was the real impact. Taking our cue, these officials fabricated impact that we could report. For example, they cordoned off outdoor public monuments in Washington DC. We knew and even discussed in the newsroom that this made no sense. These monuments weren't "manned" to begin with. The only reason to cordon them off from the public was so that visiting tourists would see the "impact" of the shutdowns and the news media would have something to take pictures of and interview people about. There are other examples but this is the one I remember the most.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Full trade between the Cubs and Astros that will send OF Kyle Tucker to Chicago, per multiple reports.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Lake Dillon's water warmed by 5 degrees over 35 years, study finds on9news.tv/2TDpUdb
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
First on CNN: Hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, calling out sick at major airports, @Rene_MarshCNN and @gregorywallace report: cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/…
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Breaking: Airbnb wins court victory over New York City as judge orders halt to law set to go into effect next month. w/ @BenWeiserNYT
nytimes.com/2019/01/03/nyreg…
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Apartment construction is one of the only activities that is mostly expected to decrease/stay the same for builders in Colorado, @AldoSvaldi reports. denverpost.com/2019/01/03/co… – at Denver, CO
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
My LinkedIn account was blocked by LinkedIn in China, a day after my other social account was blocked in China.This is how censorship spread from Communist China to Silicon Valley in the age of globalization and digitalization.
How does LinkedIn get the order from Beijing?
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Studying medical bills for years has taught me one important lesson..
Medical providers will always blame insurance companies and
Insurance companies will always blame medical providers
Few will ever say, yeah, you know what? We might be part of the problem too.
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
More than 41,000 public service workers sought federal student loan forgiveness. The government approved just 206 dlvr.it/QvSp7m
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Here’s How A Colorado Dentist Became Big Sugar’s Worst Nightmare: buzzfeednews.com/article/ste… "internal documents from the defunct Great Western Sugar Company were spread out across a bunch of libraries in Colorado."
Kristen Meriwether retweeted
Here's one thing that shouldn't happen between state and federal agencies: New York State Police, DA won't let National Transportation Safety Board investigators see the limo in the crash that killed 20 people more than 2 months ago, bit.ly/2EGJ7Ya via @GannettAlbany
ALT Debris scatters an area Oct. 7, 2018, at the site of a limousine crash the day before that killed 20 people.(Photo: Hans Pennink, AP)