At a recent hearing before the state legislature, a member of the metro district bond industry
- who admitted he makes a lot of money off of Metro District bonds and
- who said he also speaks for the metro district industry lobby MDEC (Metro District “Education” Coalition whose sponsors are all the majors metro district law firms and bond companies)
Explained their business model.
ITS A RACE TO SEE HOW MUCH DEBT THE DEVELOPER CAN LOCK THE RESIDENTS INTO BEFOE THE RESIDENTS GET CONTROL OF THE BOARD AND HAVE A VOTE.
In their own words. Listen carefully to what they are saying openly to a legislative committee.
Since the residents can’t be trusted to pay their share of the infrastructure costs after they move in, the developers have a right to keep the residents off the residents’ own metro district board UNTIL the developer can lock the residents into as much debt as the developer wants to collect.
The residents have to be “transitioned” into taking over the board based upon the developer’s schedule for locking them into debt.
Otherwise, “it’s a massive risk”.
This is not new. The developer of Solterra said the same thing when we started the recall in the Spring of 2017. The developer would not resign their employees off our board because they said the people they sold their houses to would cheat them out of the money the developer claimed was owed to him. The developer still hasn’t shown what the bond debt was spent on or explained how they made over $75 million on the sale of the developed lot and still felt “entitled to” another $60 million in profit.
http://solterracommunity.org/index.php/2017/06/24/recall-what-i-learned-from-meeting-with-the-mayors-group/
Never mind that if the developer really wanted to “lock’ the residents into paying his costs for infrastructure, he could very easily include it in the cost of the developed lot. The home builder pays the developer for the developed lot and the homebuyer pays the homebuilder for the house, land and his or her share of the infrastructure.
- All agree that cost is $30,000 – $40,000 per lot.
- Paid for when you buy your home. You get to choose which house to buy based upon full disclosure of the cost and you get what you are paying for. Developer gets paid when builder buys the lot.
- No lawyers, accountants, district managers and all the billions of dollars spent in “running” metro districts.
Never mind that the developer will never tell you what happened to the money you spent on the developed lot when you bought the house.
In our community we paid for the land, infrastructure and over $75 million in profit to the developer just from buying the house – before metro district financing added another $30 – $60 million of profit on a $41 million investment.
New Research Discloses Brookfield’s Double Billing for Solterra Infrastructure Costs
Never mind that a metro district is a government, not a developer tool. You have a right to serve on your board the moment you have a contract to purchase your home. The developer has no right to sit in those seats “unless no residents want to serve”.
And Title 32 doesn’t say anything about developers “transitioning” resident on to the board. It’s not their government to gradually hand out rights to the residents based on their schedule for issuing debt. Resident government as soon as residents move in.
Never mind you are the only check and balance on what the money is spent for, how much and when. The city, county and state are not providing that check and balance. Just like any other government. You hold the government accountable for how much and what for you pay taxes.
The developer will do anything to avoid an independent forensic evaluation of what he spent your money on. He does not want to answer the question – did he in fact earn the money. We found in our district that the developer used our money to subsidize a different development outside out district. Without resident control of the boards, there is no way to know or find out and hold the developer accountable.
Never mind that the developers do what they can to keep residents from running, including telling them they can’t and when they do saying it will cost too much to have an election and they should withdraw.
Never mind that the developer got to “vote” in the first election and “voted” to eliminate the right of the future residents to vote on tax and issuing bond debt. He got all the votes and you get none.
Never mind that in some districts the developer has created a “super district board” where the developer gets 5 or 7 votes and the residents only get one – in violation of the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution (one person, one vote).
Details on bills and how to be heard:
https://www.change.org/p/colorado-state-legislature-colorado-metro-district-reform/u/31370986