Rooney Valley News

True to form, Tom Morton, the Sr. Vp of Brookfield who presided over the Solterra Special District abuses and is now the lead director (one of two) for Big Sky  –  is burning bridges as fast as he can.

Multiple lawsuits personally attacking the new leaders of Green Mountain who dared to ask questions and challenge Big Sky’s election night IGA.

Lots of Lawsuits

Tom Morton secretly tried to get Solterra to sue Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District.  The Solterra board was ready to go and formally told Green Mountain they were going  to sue unless Green Mountain reinstated the IGA with Big Sky.   Until residents pointed out:  they didn’t support that idea; they supported Green Mountain.  And by the way, Brookfield set it up so that Solterra’s access to sewer from Green Mountain is temporary – runs out in 2023.  Not smart to frivolously sue the public entity who will decide whether or not to continue your sewer service in 4 years.  The Solterra board backed down.

So Tom Morton sued as Big Sky.

And his partner –  CDN Red Rocks LLP – which is also essentially Big Sky  – filed a separate suit.

And he got Stream Realty, the developer who is working with the Three Dinos to build warehouses at Dinosaur Ridge, to file a separate suit.

And it would be no surprise if the Three Dinos and Cardel Homes filed their own lawsuits.

Pile on to put as much pressure on the citizen leaders of Green Mountain – who dared to ask questions and challenge Big Sky.

Saying the Same Thing

The three lawsuits  basically all say the same thing.

1. Green Mountain is required to provide sewer service to them.
2. Terminating the IGA completely eliminated their access to sewer in Rooney Valley.
3. Green Mountain must reinstate the election night IGA

If you have been following the issue you already know the answers.

1.  Green Mountain is only required to provide sewer service to residents of its district.  Big Sky and all the others are not in Green Mountain’s district.  That is why they tried to do the IGA – because they are not entitled to service.    Big Sky could apply to be included in the Green Mountain district, but they never did.
2. There are many ways for Big Sky and all the others to obtain sewer service.  They involve public hearings.  Big Sky decided instead to try and use an election night agreement with no public hearing or public vetting of the technological feasibility.  If they follow the rules, there is absolutely nothing to prevent Big Sky or any other developer from applying for sewer service through one of the several procedures.  But they never did.  Tom Morton does not like public hearings. Or public elections.   And of course, the IGA went far beyond simply obtaining sewer for the Big Sky development approved in 2014.  It established Big Sky (Tom Morton) as the new “master meter” – the new Sanitation District – for all of Rooney Valley expressly allowing Big Sky to charge whatever fees they deemed “reasonable”.  No public accountability.  A violation of the 2014 Service Plan that created Big Sky in the first place.
3. The new citizen leaders of Green Mountain asked questions and evaluated the Big Sky IGA over 8 months.  They asked Big Sky twice to address the material modification issue – whether or not the IGA was a material modification to the Service Plan which would require them to get permission from Lakewood to be the new “master meter” for Rooney Valley.  Big Sky refused.  Green Mountain held multiple public hearings on the issue and finally concluded for many reasons that the IGA was wrong.  They are a legislative body.  Accountable to the citizens.  Not profit seeking investors.    They have an obligation to reverse bad decisions.

New Revelations

One of the delightful things about litigation is that secrets erode to the surface.  Like buried bones revealed by the wind, rain and sunshine.

One of the revelations exposed by the new lawsuits is this wonderful little tid bit :

“146. CDN [Big Sky] has a contract to sell the CDN Property [Big Sky 166 acres] for millions to a purchaser who desires to develop the property as provided for by the Vested Rights Agreement. The transaction cannot be completed because of Green Mountain’s actions. There is now no economically beneficial use of the property.”  (CDN Lawsuit paragraph 146.)

Translated:  Big Sky is selling all their property as soon as they can.   Fly by night, quick in and out, get approval to build and then cash in as fast as you can.  Move on to the next project.  

So . . . . . Who is going to run one of the largest new sewer systems in the Front Range.

This is one of the profound problems with Big Sky’s approach.  They are only interested in the cashing in part.  They don’t care about the long term accountability for a significant public utility service part.  We can’t have fly by night profit seekers in charge of our sewer system.  We need a publicly accountable permanent institution that follows and enforces the procedures.  An organization that knows what its doing and has the staff and resources to get it done.   An organization that  believes in the checks and balances to ensure the public trust is protected.

And who is CDN anyway.   Can’t find much under the name – another ghost corporate moniker with no substance.   Turns out they are three partners of Western Corporate Enterprises Inc. in Canada  who use their money or other peoples money to invest in (hopefully) get rich quick investments.

And that is what they are doing here.  They just get in and out quickly with as much money as they can.  No long term commitment. And they don’t give a hoot about whether or not the Big Sky Sewer system breaks down in 5 years.  They’ll be long gone on to their next investment project.

Our representative government in Green Mountain is working

So, if you see Adrienne Hanagan, Jeff Baker and Alex Plotkin, please thank them again for daring to ask the questions, daring to challenge billion dollar developers and daring to stand strong in the face of the same personal attacks over and over again in the waves of lawsuits.

They aren’t getting paid to do this.   (And neither am I.)

Here is the resolution by Green Mountain terminating the Big Sky IGA.

Green Mountain Adopted Resolution Termination Big Sky IGA April 9, 2019

Here are the lawsuits filed so far.

Green Mountain Lawsuit June 2

Green Mountain Lawsuit CDN – Complaint

Green Mountain lawsuit Stream Realty

Here is the first answer filed by Green Mountain

Green Mountain lawsuit Answer to Big Sky

John Henderson