With no prior public discussion or prior hearings, the Solterra Board just announced today that they will hold a special meeting to:
“make a final determination to refund the Districts’ current general obligation indebtedness of approximately $27,395,000 and to issue new general obligation indebtedness of approximately $10,000,000.”
“Final determination?” When was the “initial determination” made. There have been no public meetings or hearings on whether or not it was a good idea to issue new bond debt (this is a bond debt to pay additional profits to the developer – taxes to the residents; income to the developer).
There have been no meetings or public hearings on whether or not that is a decision the board should make or a decision the residents should make at an election. (The developer in 2006 “voted” in an “election” – 8 employees of the developer – to eliminate the right of the residents under the Colorado Constitution to vote on bond debt – we have asked the board to return that right to the residents and they refuse to even consider the issue).
There have been no meetings or public hearings in over two years to make a decision about having an independent, forensic evaluation of the financing of the infrastructure, beginning with an evaluation of the income to the developer from the cost of the lots, where that money went (traditionally used to pay for the infrastructure) and the actual cost of the infrastructure and how the previous bond money was spent.
How can the board in good faith possibly fulfill its statutory fiduciary duty to the citizens without an independent evaluation of whether or not we actually owe Brookfield any money.
Issuing more bonds to pay the developer more profits which is taxes to the residents should be decided by the residents in an election, just like it is for the city, county and state.
Issuing more bonds to pay the developer more profits which is taxes to the residents should not be decided at a special meeting of the board with three days notice.
Here are the emails for the board. The meeting is Monday at 6:30 and my guess is that they have already decided what they plan to do since they and they alone had their “preliminary determination”.
Note that the last time Brookfield proposed to issue new bonds without a vote of the residents (June, 2017), the recall stopped the bonds. The statute that provides for recall is CRS 32-1-909 and related statutes. A recall of the board members begins with filing a proposed form of the petition (similar to the form we filed last time) with the District Court. That could be done Monday morning.
We need to hold them accountable and let them know we want to vote on this issue . . . at an election.
Brookfield took this right away from us and now the board won’t give it back. The board (most of whom opposed the recall of Brookfield from the boards) want to make the decision for us because they don’t believe we will make the right decision.
But, by definition, the decision made by the voters at the voting booth . . . is the right decision.
That decision belongs to all of us, not just a few who don’t really care what the rest of the residents think – otherwise this would not be a “final determination” about taxes to pay more profit to the developer.
Here is the notice sent out today:
8_3_20_Notice_and_Agenda_Special_Meeting_bonds_
Here are prior blogs on the issue:
Solterra – It is Time for An Independent Audit of Brookfield’s Income and Expenses
District NO. 1
Tom Waterman President frdistrict2@gmail.com
Craig Brown Vice President frmd3cab@gmail.com
Mike McCleary Treasurer frmd3.mlm@gmail.com
Dave McGraw Secretary frmd2drm@gmail.com
Terry Larson Asst. Secretary frmd2tll@gmail.com
District NO. 2
Dave Mcgraw President frmd2drm@gmail.com
Terry Larson Vice President frmd2tll@gmail.com
Ted Michelsen Secretary frmd2tm@gmail.com
Alan Plumhoff Treasurer frmd2acp@gmail.com
Tom Waterman Asst. Secretary frdistrict2@gmail.com
District NO. 3
Craig Brown President frmd3cab@gmail.com
Aaron Hochstein Vice President frmd3aph@gmail.com
Daniel Dominic Secretary frmd3dad@gmail.com
David Wilson Treasurer frmd3dew@gmail.com
Mike McCleary Asst. Secretary frmd3.mlm@gmail.com
See also:
John Henderson
Hey John, are Kathy and you leaving the area? Hope not!