Fake Controversy By David Flash: County Official Drives County Vehicle

Adtech troublemaker David Flash has found a new way to harass Jeff Davis County Officials. His victim is once again our Justice of the Peace. She has access to and uses a vehicle provided by the county. It is a Dodge Ram with a standard radio and modest light bar/siren system. Flash likely found information on this truck via a request for information from Jeff Davis County. He appears to be using the purchase and use of this truck as a talking point to bring more trouble to Jeff Davis County officials.

David claims the cost to the county for this vehicle is over $70k. It probably did cost that much because as many readers here know, vehicle prices have sky rocketed. David states “The 2023 Ram Cummins Diesel 4×4, purchased initially for $53,250 and later outfitted with $20,000 in upgrades, including advanced lighting and radio systems, is under scrutiny for its unclear use and allocation.” Jeff Davis County has not yet been able to update their radio system, and this means the radio in the truck cannot be considered “advanced,” because it’s an older radio that works with the older system. The light bar and siren system comes from Feniex, a manufacturer that assembles their products in Austin, Texas. This reporter spoke with an employee of Feniex and they stated that the system Jeff Davis County purchased for this truck is a modest system, one of the simplest they could purchase. David Flash claims the purchase of this truck is “under scrutiny.” This reporter has not been able to identify one single person in the community that has any problem with the purchase of the truck by the county. There does not appear to be any scrutiny of this situation by anyone besides Flash. Readers are encouraged to contact Big Bend Times Dot Org if they know about any community members that have expressed concern and we will update this article.

If one spends time looking at bigbendtimes.com they will find at least 5 posts that David has made about the truck:

Persistent Questions Surround $70K County Truck as Jeff Davis Officials Remain Silent

$70K County Truck Raises Questions; Jeff Davis Officials Yet to Respond

$70K County Truck Mystery: Jeff Davis Officials Silent on Taxpayer-Funded Vehicle

$70K+ County Truck Authorized for Justice Mary Ann Luedecke Draws Scrutiny in Jeff Davis

Unusual Perk: Jeff Davis County JP’s Access to $70K Truck Out of Step with Regional Norms

After reading the posts, one may notice that each of the 5 posts have the same information rehashed a different way. Did David publish all of these posts hoping to give people the feeling that something must be going on with the truck? It seems like a lot of words to publish over something as simple as a county official having access to a county vehicle.

David never adds any details like how often the JP uses the truck, or if they have ever used it. He claims to have requested this information from the county, but if one reads his website, one can see that he must be sending huge numbers of requests to the county about all kinds of things. More than they could possibly respond to. He claims that nearby counties do not allow access to county vehicles for their JPs, so something must be wrong in Jeff Davis County. Of course, even nearby counties in Texas have different circumstances and different needs. There is nothing strange about one county having a single JP with access to a county vehicle while a neighboring county does something different. But if one only reads what David Flash has posted, they might get the idea there is truth to his allegations.

This reporter hopes that anyone who has donated to Flash’s GoFundMe will consider requesting a refund. It doesn’t seem like David is really trying to fight corruption but that he is manufacturing controversy to drive traffic to his clickbait websites.