Rooney Valley News

One person.  One vote.  That is guaranteed by the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.  No  person’s vote counts more than once.

Unless of course you live in a metro district like Aurora Highlands, Sterling Ranch Colorado and now Red Rocks Centre (RRC) in Rooney Valley.   Then its 5 or more votes for the developer and 1 vote for the residents.

Voting for what?  Voting for taxes and bond debt.  How much you will spend on developer profits (likely paid twice – once when you bought your home and again with “metro district financing”)

If you follow metro district abuse, you know the game.

• Residents of metro districts are entitled to vote on tax and bond debt and sit on the governing board immediately as soon as they buy a home or move into a metro district.  Absolute right under Title 32 and Colorado and U. S. Constitutions.

• Developers of metro districts work very hard to keep residents off the boards as long as they can until the developer boards have “voted” to issue as much bond debt as their appetite for unearned profit can consume.  Once the developers have their money they welcome the residents to serve on the boards.

• Because of recent reform legislation (with significant help from Coloradans for Metro District Reform) and increased disclosure of developer abuse (Reporter David Migoya), developers are having a harder time obstructing residents from serving on their own governing boards as the residents are entitled to do under Title 32.

• The original ways developers and their attorneys obstructed resident control of their own district government fell into two categories:

• • master / servant.  The developer district was tiny (Solterra was 10′ x 10′)  the resident districts covered the rest of the development.  The developer entered into an agreement with himself that all the tax revenue from the resident districts would be paid to him in the developer district. (It helped in Solterra that the developer told the residents they could not serve on the boards until build out)

• • Inclusion.  The only district is the developer district and it is a tiny parcel of land – a fraction of an acre – where no resident lives.  All the rest of the community where the homes will be built are outside the “district”.  After the developer has issued all the debt to pay himself, then the resident parcels of land will be “included” (technical event under Title 32) into the district.   Like the developer annexing the residents into his “district” after its loaded up with debt that he used to pay himself whatever he believed he had “earned”, without any checks and balances.

• The “new and improved” game to obstruct resident votes on tax and bond debt is the use of the Community Authority Board under Title 29-1-203.  That is the game Lennar, their attorney McGeady through RRC are proposing in a new application to Jefferson County (public hearing Tuesday, August 23 at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.)   Here’s how it works.

• • you take the district (in RRC case two districts – 1 and 2).  You now break the 2 districts into 5 districts.  So now for the same land, same service area and same community instead of just 2 districts you now have 5 districts (Districts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 – District 3 is a commercial district and isn’t included in all this).

• • Now 5 districts doing exactly the same thing 2 districts did (and you only need 1).

• • Now that you have 5 districts instead of  2 districts, and “because it is so unwieldy” to govern more than 2 districts which you had to begin with, you have those districts “vote” (and they are all Lennar employees – the same ones on both District 1 and District 2) to create ANOTHER board.

• • Just 1 board to manage 5 districts even though you started with a manageable 2 districts to begin with.  Get the picture.  See what’s happening.

• • You do this with an IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) between Districts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.  Again, they are all the same people on the board and all employees of the developer.

• • And in this new IGA creating the Community Authority Board under Title 29-1-203 you assign a different number of votes to Districts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.

• • One of the districts will be the developer district.  They will get 5 or more votes.  The resident districts will get just 1  vote each.

• • That GUARANTEES that the developer will always have a majority of the votes on the Community Authority Board.

• • One person = 5 or more votes if you are the developer

• • One person = only one vote if you are the resident

Its hard to see (deliberately?) but here are the slide presentations from Lennar (RRC) about why the Coummunity Authority Board is so wonderful:

“it gives residents a way to participate in running their own government” [paraphrasing].    

Of course, the residents already have that right and it doesn’t come from the developer.  It comes from the constitutions (state and federal) and Title 32.    

The developer is taking away their right to vote and then turning around and giving them as much “right” as the developer “wants them to have”.   As long as he ALWAYS has a majority.

Here it is in Lennar’s own words (if you can read them):

Note, CRS 29-1-203, passed in 2016 with help from the developers, on its face is there to allow cities, counties and districts from different communities to band together to do things like coordinate construction of a resevoir or public rail.

It is not there to band together artificially created subdistricts (that were only 1 or two districts to begin with) in order to replace the government that already exists with a new government disenfranchising the residents.

Here is how it looks in the documents:

The original Service Plan for the current Districts 1 and 2 said nothing about a Community Authority Board on top of the governing boards for Districts 1 and 2 (with the same people sitting on both boards).

RRC Service Plan

The bond issued by District 2 for $45 million (thank you very much say the prospective residents who won’t know anything about it until they get their tax bills) said the governance of Districts 1 and 2 by the residents was going to work just fine.

RRC Bond 45 million

Here is the NEW provision in the PROPOSED NEW Service Plan that provides Lennar with NEW authority to enter into an IGA with themselves to create ANOTHER governing board and “vote” to give themselves 5 or more votes and the residents only 1 vote:

Pages 11 and 12 of the proposed service plan which is here:

RRC 1-2, 4-6 Service Plan (resubmittal 7-12-22) (00983795)

Now, what Lennar and McGeady through RRC HAVE NOT DISCLOSED to the county staff or the Board of Commissioners IS THE IGA that will set this all up.  

• Didn’t think it was important to share that document with the staff.  

• The document that gives 5 or more votes to the developer and 1 vote to the residents.

Here is what that document – the IGA – looks like in Aurora Highlands (PREPARED BY THE SAME LAWYERS – MCGEADY):

Town Hall

The districts, all run by the developer, vote to create a new board and vote to give 7 votes to the developer and 1 vote to the residents so the developer will always have a majority of the votes.    

No more fussing with master/servant.  No more finagling with tiny  developer districts and inclusion.   No more telling residents they can’t vote until build out.  

Just give the developer 5 or more votes and residents one vote – done.  No mess no fuss.   No doubt McGeady charges a nice premium for this upgrade.

So, if you care about the integrity of local government and wish someone had told you these things before you moved into a metro district, now would be a good time to let the Jeffco Board of Commissioners (who love metro districts) know that they are about to vote to approve a scheme to disenfranchise the future residents of Red Rocks Centre (RRC).

Conclusions:

• Title 32 requires that the County deny the application to create 5 districts to provide the same services 2 districts are already providing. CRS 32-1-202 (2)

• Creating 5 districts so you now have enough districts to create a Community Authority Board – all in the same community – for the sole purpose of giving 5 or more votes to the developer and only 1 vote to the residents is simply an obscene and despicable abuse of power and corruption of Title 29, Title 32 and the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution.

If you are up that early and don’t have to go to work (Jeffco prefers to hold controversial hearings when very few people can attend), here is the information:

Public Notice Jefferson County RRC Metro District

Heather Gutherless is the County staff person for this application:

hgutherl@co.jefferson.co.us

Here are the email addresses for the Commissioners:

ldahlkem@jeffco.us

tktharp@jeffco.us

akerr@jeffco.us

John Henderson