Beaumont City Council Gives Staff Until February to secure 100% Developer Funding.
The evening started in the Regular Session where Council spent 40 minutes debating the submission of a letter regarding the San Gorgonio Warehouse Project. Vote is 4/1 with Mike Lara voting to NOT submit a letter to his co-workers.
Then the Potrero Workshop began with Beaumont Public Works Director Amer Jakher, Alan Kapanicas’ brown-skin doppelgänger. Jakher made it clear at the Workshop that he does not work for the City, he works exclusively for the Developers. Exclusively.
Amer Jakher made several statements on the Staff Report, but there is no documentation to support his claims.
Quote of the night from Amer Jakher: “We’ve talked to RCTC since then and they’re satisfied with the progress we’ve made to date. But if we slip and we are unable to get this constructed by the end of this year we stand to lose this Grant.”
The big fear is ‘losing Grant money’.
The City has already lost the Grant Money because they forged their Financial Statements on the application and stole $13 Million under the guise of ‘Potrero’.
Then Mike Busch from Urban Logic/Futures brings in a parade of Consultants to sell the Potrero Interchange Warehouse Extravaganza !!!
Yes, that’s right, Potrero Warehouse Project. The entire Workshop was to sell Warehouse Development.
And remember Mike Busch, boys and girls? He was paid something around $1/4 Million to reconcile the CFDs Bond Fund Accounts. Busch showed up for a few meetings, then faded away.
When asked how much of the Potrero Interchange money came out of the Bond Fund Accounts Busch’s answer was: “I don’t know”.
When asked about the CFD Bond Reconciliation Busch replied: “We’re still working on it.”
No, they are not. The ‘job’ was never to reconciled the bonds, the ‘job’ was to cover up the past crook’s criminal activity and funnel money out of the City.
Did Mike Busch bring in experts to talk about the City’s finances or what would be best for the Citizens currently living in Beaumont?
No.
Busch’s experts were on ‘Land Use’ and the 80,000 people living in the Pass Area were not even a consideration.
The slideshow contained the following ‘information’
“97.9 Million Square Feet of New Industrial Development Forecasted for the Inland Empire.”
“3.4 Million Square Feet of Warehouse Space for City of Beaumont.”
“The future of logistics”
“Potrero not a Regional Shopping Area”
“Office Vacancy is at 22.3%”
“Potrero is not Office Area”
Warehouses are the best choice and, according to Mike Busch: “It brings a diversity to the City’s Revenue Base.”
The ‘Experts’ proclaimed that the only place for commercial shopping is 2nd Street. No mention of 6th Street, imagine that. What are the odds that the ‘new faces’ would treat 6th Street and all the promised commercial development throughout Beaumont just like the ‘old faces’?
Orozco asks if they surveyed office space in Beaumont exclusively?
Answer: No.
Translation: They just googled crap off the internet and made a power point presentation. There are no statistics on Beaumont, so they just used Inland Empire data.
White: The $13 Million; do we know how much of that came out of the CFD Funds?
Busch: No.
2:29:00 White: Is the $5 Million coming from the Developers with or without Bonds or Fees?
Mike Busch: The conversations have been on an assessment basis, so they’ve been willing to assess themselves.
White: A Special Assessment District for Beaumont or for themselves?
Busch: The two approaches that we’ve briefly talked about: one would be like a ‘Benefit Assessment’, which basically sets an assessment rate on the property to fund their share of the project. The other would be a Community Facilities District. I haven’t researched both of them in any great detail yet. I haven’t had a chance to have our conversations with the Developers yet. We do have a call scheduled next week where I think we’ll get to those details.
And there you have it. The ‘$5 Million Developer Contribution’ is actually bond debt, which is Taxpayers’ money. The Developers have no intention of putting up any of their own money at all.
Mr. McDonald paid the $75,000 and has a Reimbursement Agreement from seven (7) other Developers, but Mr. McDonald already built his tilt-up Warehouse off Highway 60 with a forged EIR and now the semi trucks can’t enter and exit the Warehouse.
And that’s a really sad story, but it’s the result of forging the EIR. McDonald saved a penny, but he’s going to lose everything in the long run when he starts getting sued for causing wrecks on highway 60.
The Acquisition of three (3) parcels of Property were not included in the price. The Acquisitions of Property will add a few Million to the price tag.
Congratulations to City Manager Todd Parton for telling Council that there are immediate roadway needs on Highland Springs, Oak Valley Blvd, and Pennsylvania Avenue and the ‘responsible thing do to’ is to the be honest with the County.
RCTC has asked the City to re-allocate the Grant money to other projects, like Oak Valley and Highland Springs. If the City doesn’t act responsibly they will lose the Grant Money available and not be considered for any Grants in the future.
“An MOU is Not a Binding Agreement.” is about the only thing City Attorney John Pinkney said all night. Not too chatty now that he’s looking at Federal Prison Time.
Amazon should sue for the amount of times their name and business has been referenced in this workshop without their consent.
It was the tale of two hustlers. What started out as a Workshop to commit the City to 100% fund Potrero turned into the City Council voting to ‘Approve’ the Potrero Interchange if the Developers pay for 100% of the funding.
And the Lawyers and Consultants have until February 21 2017, to secure all of the financing or the City Council is going to vote to kill the Potrero Interchange.
No one from Beaumont ‘mentioned’ to the Developers that the SEC has locked the City out of the Bond Market. The Disclaimer of Opinion on the 2015 Audit was dismissed with ‘’It’s not final”.
Orozco was the only one in favor of the Potrero Warehouse Project. If you’ll recall it was Orozco, Brenda Knight, and Dirty Della Condon that voted to continue the scam in August.
Orozco: Where else can we get money? I want a Financial Plan moving forward.
Answer:
#1. The Potrero Interchange is not a revenue stream for the city, it’s a scam to funnel money out of the city.
#2. Urban Futures just scammed the City with the ‘Workout Plan for Sustainability’.
#3. Stop funneling all the Taxpayers money to Lawyers and Consultants. Fire every Staff Member that is not qualified to do their job and hire adequate Staff.
#4. Stop chasing Small Businesses out of Town.
Beaumont City Council Potrero Interchange Workshop January 3, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOSKZC2bKxU&feature=em-lss