By: Libi Uremovic, July 17, 2014| Original Article at Patch.com
At the July 15, 2014 Beaumont City Council Meeting the City did a Presentation titled; “The CFD Mello Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982”: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/DocumentCenter/Index/504
Although Beaumont citizens have requested Mello Roos workshops, this presentation was not listed on the Agenda; perhaps because it is full of inaccuracies and worthless documents.
In the Presentation the City used several documents from other sources in an attempt to justify the bond debt.
One of the documents is a ‘Compliance Report’ from Willdan. The part of the report disclosed to the public states: “This report is intended to summarize historic compliance with respect to Annual Report and Listed Event filings for the Bonds and is not intended to be used, and may not be used,in any manner for any purpose other than to provide an example of Willdan’s Continuing Disclosure Compliance Review services.”
The City shows the Willdan Summary of Findings for one bond, the 2013 Series B, and states: “The Annual Report for the aforementioned bonds was not filed by the due date for the last fiscal year. Filed on March 20, 2014 (79 days after due date)”
The Summary of Findings for 2013 Series B further states: “The financial and operating information required by the Continuing Disclosure Agreement was presented in this report with the following exceptions: 2012/2013 City’s Audited Financial Statements, 2013/2014 total assessed valuation, 2013/2014 actual amount of Special Tax levy and maximum amount that can be levied pursuant to the rate and method of apportionment, 09/30/13 balance in Cash Flow Management Fund (along with a statement of the Cash Flow Management Fund Requirement), 09/30/13 balance in Residual Fund.”
Basically; Willdan’s report is that the City refused to provide them with the information needed to verify compliance. We know the Audit wasn’t prepared in a timely manner, but the rest of the information was available.
‘… maximum amount that can be levied pursuant to the rate and method of apportionment…’
Kapanicas has openly admitted that all property owners are charged the maximum Mello Roos taxes on every property regardless of the amount or interest rate of the bond, but he can’t disclose the information to outside sources because the City’s method of determining Mello Roos taxes violates State Law.
With Mello Roos; the property owners taxes should only be the amount necessary to repay for the bond and the bond funds can only be used to benefit the property owners that are burdened with the liens on their property.
Willdan also presents a chart listing the roads paid for by each Improvement Area, but either the chart is wrong or it proves the City misappropriated the Mello Roos funds. Willdan lists almost every Improvement Area as paying for the Potrero Blvd. Interchange, but the Improvement Areas 1-12 are on the first 1994 bond and there is no mention of Portrero Blvd. Pages 39 and 40 on the 1994 Bond show that the funds were supposed to be used to pay for sewer and water treatment.
Another irrelevant document the City uses in their Presentation is an IRS report verifying that the interest from government bonds can be excluded from gross income on the bond owners’ federal taxes. This is regarding a persons’ federal income tax report and has nothing to do with the property owners’ situation in Beaumont. Property Taxes are County, not Federal. Mello Roos is State Law, not Federal Law.
The last piece of ‘trust us’ evidence used by the City is the list of Lawyers profiting from the bond debt because nothing makes people more comfortable than knowing a pack of rodents are feeding. Number 3 on the list of profiting lawyers is the City Attorney.
The Presentation starts with: “Fair Share = Mitigation”
No, fair share does not equal mitigation nor does the word mitigation excuse government intervention into the private sector. Google ‘Fair Share’. In Beaumont, as in the rest of the world; Fair Share is a Socialist movement: http://www.fairshareonline.org/california-fair-share
The City continually fails to realize the reason the housing market has crashed so horribly in Beaumont is because they operate as a Socialist government and subsidize the private sector.
The City also fails to realize that cities have been built for 10,000 years without acquiring massive debt. Councilman Berg repeatedly states that without Mello Roos Beaumont would not have a Wal Mart, but there are literally thousands of Wal Marts operating all over the world without burdening ‘future property owners’.