If I sound ecstatic it's because the biggest fraudsters in our area have finally been charged! These three, Montecastro, Duncan and McLeod started their mortgage fraud scheme in Murrieta in 2004. Our association and our chief counsel started documenting the problem late that year. We took it to the District Attorney, the FBI, the Dept. of Real Estate, the Attorney General, local law enforcement, lenders, etc. - and nobody NOBODY would give us the time of day.
This scam was the incentive for our Association (SRCAR) to join our neighboring Association (IVAR) in a joint fraud task force with the Giardinelli Law Group. This effort has now expanded to include Ventura County, who had started their own, and Orange and San Diego County associations. We are trying to get our state association to at least give us a forum to educate other Realtors, lenders and the public about real estate fraud.
As Attorney Richard Ackerman puts it - 'earlier intervention would have prevented a lot of damage to both investors and the community.' These people operated unimpeded for at least three years, involving hundreds of homes throughout our valley. This spawned numerous copycats who saw that there was money to be made and no apparent consequences.
Their early scheme involved the over-bidding by $50,000 - $100,000 on homes, bringing in fraudulent appraisals, taking the excess at COE and then sticking the unwary buyers with the result. Often they preyed on the unsophisticated and found a trusting audience in their fellow Filipino community. Many Buyers purchased multiple homes with the understanding the Stonewood would help them make the over-payments until they could refinance in the rising market. Yeah, like that actually happened.
These severely overburdened homes started the collapse in our community in late 2006 yet the fraud continued. As the economy headed south virtually every one of the hundreds of homes they had caused to be purchased went into foreclosure. As they had focused on certain neighborhoods,it was not unusual to see 8 out of 10 homes on a single street vacant and blighted as a result.
5 years later, fraud is still with us and has morphed into other avenues to follow the trail of opportunity. But at long last there may be justice for these early perpetrators who played a large role in the early demise of our market.
Here's to justice finally served. Helooooo Bubba !
Criminal charges have been filed against James B. Duncan, Hendrix Moreno Montecastro and Maurice McLeod, three Riverside County businessmen who allegedly orchestrated a major securities and mortgage fraud that drove many investors to financial ruin in California and Arizona.
The defendants allegedly created a complex network of companies, the chief of which were Pacific Wealth Management (which has no relationship to the company of the same name in San Diego), Stonewood Consulting and Total Return Fund.
He said while the District Attorney’s complaint concentrates on securities fraud, the U.S. Attorney will file a separate criminal complaint accusing the defendants of mortgage fraud.
Richard Ackerman, an attorney representing 85 alleged victims in a civil lawsuit against the defendants, said “It’s about time” the DA and U.S. Attorney made the move.
“What my clients wanted from day one is exactly what’s happening today. They wanted to create enough pressure on law enforcement so these people would be prosecuted and put away for a long time for destroying people’s lives,” Ackerman said.
The defendants allegedly persuaded investors to buy multiple homes and then broke their promise to continue paying the mortgage payments and allowed the properties to go to foreclosure. Ackerman contends that this scenario involved at least 250 houses in southwest Riverside County and contributed t the tremendous loss of home values in the region.
Ackerman said he believes earlier intervention would have prevented a lot of the damage to both investors and the larger community.
My rant on the NAR
program "HVCC
Problems? Not According to the Government", stirred up quite
a response from Realtors on AR, just as it did with Realtors at the NAR
program. Nobody - NOBODY
but the government and the people making money off the program think
HVCC is working. It's not working for appraisers, it's not working for
Realtors and MOST
IMPORTANTLY IT'S NOT WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC - OUR CLIENTS,
whom it was supposed to protect. One might almost think Andrew Cuomo
was getting some kind of payback for this because in terms of a
workable program, this one ain't. Yet it has become the de facto law of
the land and isn't likely to end anytime soon.
Anyway, one of the
commenters on my post was a guy named Jirius Isaac who had also done a
post on HVCC. In his post, Jirius stirs up some more trouble, links you
to an interview with the President of the National Assocation of
Mortgage Bankers and also directs you to an excellent video blog at thinkbigworksmall.com.
These guys do an excellent send-up of HVCC and raise some
great points. There is also have a petition you can
sign if you agree that HVCC is one of the worst policies
implemented in the past year for our business. Up to some 120,000 signatures so far, the current list is scheduled to be presented to Andrew Cuomo this Wednesday.
As I mentioned in my
post, the lady from Freddie Mac told us that complaints to her office
have fallen way off since HVCC. It later came out that she doesn't take
complaints from Realtors, lenders or members of the public - but in her
limited grasp of reality she can say she gets fewer
complaints.
Turns out a recent poll
by Interthinx
quoted on National Mortgage News, inflated value appraisal fraud is up 46%
in Q309 compared to Q308. How can this be? It can't be
brokers fault anymore - they can't even order an appraisal under HVCC
rules. Can it be attributed to the lenders who own most of the major
AMC's? I know a lot of folks who are no conspiracy theorists who claim
these big players are setting market value through gaming the system
with their own AMC's. How else to account for the institutionalized
fraud?
Check out Julius's
blog to follow along on some other angles.
The NAR presenters from
Fannie, Freddie & FHFA basically told us to get stuffed - get
over it, learn to work with it cause it ain't going away.
Lots
of good events going on at NAR. I'll let you know what we did at the Land Use, Property Rights and
Environment Committee yesterday and comment on our Government Affairs Directors
meeting this morning as well as the very entertinaing and enlightening Legislative Forum
featuring Bill Press and Mike Murphy. But today at noon we spent 'An Hour with the FHA
Commissioner'.
It's
amazing the difference it makes when you have somebody in a position of
authority who actually knows what they're doing as opposed to putting a
bunch of bureaucrats and political hacks in charge. Commissioner and
Under-Secretary of Housing Dave Stevens
is one of us. Just like in the state of California we finally got Jeff
Davi in place to help straighten out the Dept. or Real Estate, Realtors should consider ourselves lucky
to have Dave Stevens minding the store at HUD.
After
hearing the apologists
and sycophants discuss HVCC yesterday, it was gratifying to
have a discussion with somebody who listens and who, as Pres. McMillan
said, 'Gets
It.' According to Charlie Mac, the FHA & Stevens
has been a 'solid partner'.
Speaking
before a packed house, Stevens gave a brief history of the FHA. Created
in 1934, the FHA came into existence during circumstances very similar
to where we are today. Stevens cited the fact that the FHA had grown
kind of unpopular in recent years because they had no 'sexy' products,
they insisted on a down payment, they did 30 year fixed loans and they
insisted on documentation. As a result, their market share sank to
around 2% from 2002 thru 2006.
However, last year they wrote about 25%
of the loans out there and this years percentage will be
even higher. They also wrote over 80%
of loans for first time buyers, 51% of loans to Black
buyers and 45% of loans to Latino buyers. Fannie & Freddie
combined only managed around 25% to that same demographic.
Stevens
said that there would be no mortgage market today if FHA hadn't been in
place to fill the gap created by the collapse of sub-prime lenders. And
that even though FHA's capitol is eroding as a result of the current
crisis, they have neither requested nor accepted any TARP or other
bail-out funds and their balance sheet is still strong. He stressed
that the FHA
will not be the next sub-prime or GSE because the FHA
focuses on buyers for whom a purchase
is shelter, not an investment, not a speculation. The
people who buy a house to mark their kids growth on the wall, who plant
a garden, who take pride in their home and their neighborhood.
Not
that the FHA has a problem with investors - in fact without them the
market would not have recovered to the point it has today. He did not
elaborate and was not questioned on the possibility of doing away with
the 90 day flipping rule or on expanding the number of properties that
one investor can own saying only that each buyers credentials must be
weighed on it's own merit.
He
credited discussion with Charles
McMillan withswaying
FHA policy regarding HVCC implementation saying they
realize the importance of the independent appraiser and are concerned
about the proliferation of AMC's, especially those owned by major
lenders. He said they intend to apply the principles of HVCC as it was
intended, not as it has actually been implemented. Along those lines he
also announced that effective
Monday there will be NO MORE 2nd appraisal requirements for FHA.
That he also credited to Pres. McMillan. That's a major step for FHA
and one that should be welcome by our members.
He
also gave kudos to his boss, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, as
being a true 'rock star' and visionary who also 'gets it' about the
need to stabilize housing
to lead the way in this nascent recovery. He
also gave great accolades to
the Realtor community for pulling off the homebuyer tax
credit not just once but twice this year - once during its initial
passage back in March and again just 2 weeks ago. He said that as
recently as 2 months ago he would have bet there would be no extension
and certainly no expansion - but with the active lobbying efforts of
NAR and the massive (550,000+) letters and emails to congress, we
pulled off an upset against long odds, against the media and
other pundits, and we should be extremely pleased with out efforts. But
don't stop there.
It's
always nice to have somebody in authority tell you what you want to
hear. It's even nicer when they mean it. Stevens says he's not in the
government for the long haul - just to help fix a problem and then
he'll be back to selling real estate. I hope he means that too. He's
too nice a guy to stay in politics long.
I
always enjoy listening in when our Chief Economist Lawrence Yun
prognosticates. Dr Yun has developed a little sense of humor during the
past few years, and while not nearly as eloquent or entertaining as
David Lareah in his heyday, Yun is able to translate the numbers to his
audience much better than 3 or 4 years ago - even though the numbers
aren't nearly as entertaining. And he's believable. He was recently
named one of the countrys 10
most trusted economists by USA Today. I'll take trust
over entertainment any day.
According
to Dr. Yun this morning, aided by the home buyer tax credit, the
outlook for housing and the
economy appears headed for a sustainable recovery. "Things are looking much
better". The projections are enhanced
by a tax credit expansion to more home buyers through the middle of
2010. “Given the success of the first-time buyer tax credit to date,
and the need for qualified buyers to continue to absorb inventory that
will include additional foreclosures over the coming year, we are
hopeful about the impact of the expanded tax credit because it will
stabilize home prices,” he said. “In fact, the credit is working better
than first projected – it now looks like we’ll have 2.3 to 2.4 million
first-time buyers this year.” He estimates that 350,000 - 400,000 of those would not
have purchased right now - would not have gotten off the
fence without the tax credit. Overall impact from the tax credit
extension & expansion will give a 15%
boost to existing home sales.
“We’ve
seen a steady downtrend in
housing inventory for well over a
year and home prices appears to be in the early stages of stabilizing.
We've also seen 8 straight
months of seasonally adjusted sales increases. With
expansion of the tax credit to additional buyers through the
middle of next year, and no major unforeseen events impacting the
economy, home prices should rise
between 3 and 5 percent in 2010, but
with wide geographic differences,” Yun said.
Yun
also talked about the difference between a tax credit and just letting
prices drop further. To consumers the
$8,000 credit looks the same as an $8,000 price reduction. But
to the market, an $8,000 price reduction means a 4% drop in
wealth or another $730 billion
destruction of housing wealth and further negative
economic impact. We've already
lost $4 trillion in housing wealth from the peak and all the money the bubble made has been
removed - in fact many markets are over-corrected at this
point.
We
are experiencing a bifurcated recovery - under $500,000 has been very
resilient while over $500,000 continues to lag badly.
Yun
also questioned whether first
time buyers are used up or pent up? In 2000, pre-boom,
there were 11 million renters who could qualify to purchase if they
wanted to. Today there are 16 million. The demand remains and there are
still a lot of people sitting on the fence hoping to buy at the
absolute bottom of the market. The move-up and upper end markets also
have a lot of room for improvement but that will wait until consumer
confidence starts to rise again - it hasn't yet.
The
recent increase in velocity stimulates economic stability, helps price
stabilization and eliminates that fear factor which will lead to more
demand as people realize things are looking better. With unemployment
expected tom peak mid-2010 (although remain at around 10% for awhile)
we will see a gradual decline in foreclosure activity as home values
start to increase. That makes it easier for re-sets to stay in their
homes and reduces the trend to strategic defaults. Bank balance sheets
will improve and lenders will increase their activity both on mortgages
and business loans.
“The
size of the U.S. budget deficit
is a concern going forward, and
carries the risk of higher inflation. At this point, that risk appears
to be restrained,” Yun said. The federal
deficit has more than tripled this year to
$1.4 trillion. The government must start showing they have
a plan and the political will to curb that debt and start soon. They
must do it judiciously in order not to shut off the recovery but they
must act soon or our foreign lenders will start to get nervous, the
money supply will contract and there will be a significant rise in
interest rates to the 7% - 8% range, which would effectively shut down
any recovery. Yun does not believe that will happen and does not see a
'double-dip' recession in the future.
You
can download all of Dr. Yun's slides from this mornings presentation
right here. Use them at your next office meeting and you too will sound
like you have a clue.
One of the seminars I
attended today at NAR was entitled 'Managing the Risks
and Opportunities of the New Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC)."
Let me say at the
outset, I sat through the whole friggin thing and didn't note any
opportunities - unless you count aggravation as an opportunity.
No shortage of risks, however.
NAR did a great job
staging this - they had a panel in place that included spokesholes from
FHFA, FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac and an AMC. Oh, and they had two Realtors sitting in
for balance. In my humble opinion, if I had a load of the bullshit they
were peddling today, I would have the healthiest, greenest lawn in
Southern California.
Alfred Pollard, General
Counsel for the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Jacqueline Doty,
Directory of Collateral Policy for Freddie Mac; and Mark Johnson,
COO for LSI (and Appraisal Management Co), started the
process with brief statements on why the program was started (to combat
fraud) and how well it's working. As Mr. Pollard stated - 'we
have experience a systemic event for the financial markets, primary and
secondary lenders, Realtors, institutional lenders and appraisers - all
of those industries are on the table as we determine what comes
next.'
It was interesting to
note that the one entity that he left out, the one he happens to work
for, wasn't included as being on the table - THE GOVERNMENT.
The one institution central to the whole fiasco is
the only one not up for evaluation and found wanting. In fact, these
sanctimonious bastards are now sitting in judgement of the rest of us
and determining how they can keep us from running amok again. Ain't
that special.
Our Realtor panelists,
Steve White, owner of two large Keller-Williams offices in LA; and
Penny Triplet, a Realtor and appraiser from Ohio, stated the litany of
complaints that you are all familiar with. Delays, incompetence, bad
appraisers, out of area appraisers, higher costs to customers, lost
transactions, lack of portability - you name it, they brought it
up.
The government people
claimed to be listening but they were just dancing. Time and again they
quoted passages from the 6 page HVCC document - well this is how it's
supposed to work; well, this is what it says; well that's another of
those myths; well this is how you're supposed to work through that.
Basically they acknowledged that 'there might be a few bad actors in
the group but this HVCC has solved a lot of problems and is a wonderful
thing.'
Oh, and if you thought
it was scheduled to expire in June of 2010 - think again, It's in place until next November and
there ain't nothing you or (NAR President) Charles MacMillan or anybody
else can do about it. Your opportunity is to learn how to work with it
because it's here to stay. Even after the current HVCC
expires, some form of the bureaucracy that has been set up to
administer it will continue because, like any government program, once
born it never dies.
As if the moderator knew
the Q & A might get testy, she decided that rather than
take questions from the floor, she would just take questions
submitted in writing. That lasted about 15 minutes until she could no
longer ignore the line of Realtors standing quietly at the microphones
waiting to ask questions.
Still no straight
answers were forthcoming. Realtors were advised to report bad appraisers -
that is if you can figure out who they work for or if the AMC or the
lender cares enough to return your call (after 18 months, the office
for reporting bad appraisers still hasn't quite been set up but it's
coming soon). Realtors are
allowed to talk to appraisers and even give them comps, of
course provided the appraiser even bothers to call you or come out to
your city or doesn't report you for applying undue influence by giving
them accurate comps. If you get a bad appraiser you can request a do-over,
of course it will be done by the same guy whom is now pissed off and
never mind that the delay might cost you the deal. If it's so bad your
buyer switches to another lender of course the
appraisal should be portable (like you'd want to port that
crap) unless the new lender doesn't want to accept it or it's from an
appraiser that's not accredited by their AMC, in which case your client
will get to buy a new one and hope it's better than the old one. You've
got an appraiser from 200 miles away? Or even from another state? Jeez,
that's not supposed to happen because the HVCC says it's not so it
can't be. That's just anecdotal information. The Freddie Mac
rep said complaints to her office are waaaay down since HVCC.
Complaints from appraisers that is. Turns out they don't take
complaints from Realtors unfortunately.
One Realtor summed it up
perfectly - 'The
government appears to think the problem in under control. Realtors
think the problem is out of control. How do we get the two
sides together?
If todays panel is any
indication, we don't. Hang on kiddies - it's gonna get worse before it
gets better. We're from the government and we're here to help you.
The City of Murrieta held their 2009 Veterans Day Parade and Groundbreaking for their Veterans Memorial today. It was a Chamber of Commerce day, hazy skies keeping the sun from blistering the thousands of people lining Washington Avenue while more than 80 parade entries honored our Veterans. Vintage cars carried vintage Veterans, dignitaries paid tribute, the La Mesa Warbirds swooped overhead, there were motorcycle veterans, submariners from the silent service, marching bands, color guards, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts by the troop.
It was my privilege to be one of the parade announcers this year.
Veterans marched, flew and rode by. Some in wheelchairs, some on crutches & canes, some with as regal bearing as when they marched into battle 65 years ago or more.
Members of the US Submarine Veterans paraded a model of the USS Bonefish. (SS-582), the last conventionally powered submarine in the US Navy. Decommissioned in 1988, this model is 1/10 the size of the 219' Bonefish, which carried a crew of 84.
3 Bands and several marching groups sported color guards and precision flag movements.
Among the marchers today, which included a 9' cow (Chic Fil A), an 11' Lake Monster known as Thunder, twirlers, karate kids and a Clydesdale named Diesel, Realtors from Tarbell Realtors in Murrieta fielded a marching unit which included several veterans who are braving the housing wars today. Always good to see Realtors® in the mix on a day like today.
Is it just me - or do veterans tend to drive vintage & classic automobiles a lot? The Model A Club brought their A game starting with A's from 1928 and a pair from 1930. There were Jeeps from 1943 and 1951, a '51 Dodge 3/4 ton M37, a 1959 black Caddie all chromed and finned just gleaming down the street. There was also a NASCAR tribute car, Emergency response vehicles, convertibles galore and they were all loaded with Veterans.
From the parade, we trekked over to Town Square Park for the goundbreaking ceremony for the Murrieta Veterans Memorial. To reach the event you had to walk past or through the Field of Honor. Erected the past few days by the Murrieta Rotary Club, the Field is 1,200 American Flags across the city park.
Every flag was purchased by an individual in honor or memory of a veteran. The moneys are being used to install the granite wall that will become the Veterans Memorial.
Prior to the groundbreaking, a pantheon of local dignitaries, Mayors, Council members, and guests thanked our veterans for their service. Grand Marshall and WWII Marine Corp Veteran Harold Craig was introduced and over 2 dozen WWII veterans were with him. Among the speakers, Murrieta Council Member and veteran Rick Gibbs gave an eloquent tribute to veterans including many in his family for whom he flew flags in the Field of Honor. Congresswoman Mary Bono-Mack also praised the veterans telling the story of her father, also a veteran who died just last year, who returned to marry his sweetheart against long odds.
In this photo Mary Bono-Mack pays tribute to our armed forces as hundreds of veterans, dignitaries and townspeople gathered against the backdrop of 1,200 American Flags in the Field of Honor.
Overall not a bad day in our little corner of the world. Our hearts went out to the recent casualties at Ft. Hood, great respect was given to those who protect us today, and great tribute was paid to those who have taken up that duty in the past.
Our town is not as small as it used to be - but today the town turned out en mass to celebrate, to honor and to have a few hot dogs and rub elbows with the Mayor. It was almost a Groundhog Day kind of event and everything played out beautifully. The parade started on time, nothing broke down, the horses weren't (that) messy and the speeches were blessedly short.
The flags waved softly in a cool breeze and all was right in Murrieta.
I'm amazed (well, not really) that more people haven't sounded the alarm on this. The climate change mantra has people lulled into somnambulence and we are gratefully exchanging our freedoms for a government dictated level of subsistence.
What could the Copenhagen Conference on World Climate Change have to do with our real estate markets? How will this make the US a puppet regime?
I found this very educational and I think everyone needs to look at this critically. See what the world is up to and how our President and Congress are happily drinking the kool-ade.
We lose our autonomy about how we live, where we live, what we live in. This isn't rhetoric, its in the accords. There is no voting, not elections, no representation. It is absolute. I've joked before the presidential elections about this administration issuing breathing permits. And if you don't toe the party line, yours just might be revoked. Come to find out, its getting to be real, on a world-wide scale and its targeted primarily at the US.
I wish I could say that I don't believe that any US citizen would go along with this stuff, but many do without thinking about it. They swallow the by-line, the sound-bite but don't look at what is really involved or behind the push.
There is a battle for individual freedoms and individuals are losing, big time. And like the frog in the pot of water, we're slowing being cooked to death by the warmth of the water, all the while the temperature is being turned up by those on the left.
Screw the individual, we don't count. What counts is that "we" collectively survive, all the while making each and every one of us drones on the "farm". And by farm, I'm referring to Animal Farm.
Read it before its too late.
Mike Michaud,
Builder of zero-energy homes Texas and Oklahoma -
Custom homes AT COST!™ part of
by
North TexasHelp-U-Build
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Last evening the people of our
community spoke and, for a change, somebody listened. That
somebody, Rancho
California Water District, had proposed a BUILDING MORATORIUM by
eliminating eliminating the issuance of water availability letters and
the installation of new water meters. That would have deleteriously
impacted residential and commercial development in the City of
Temecula, some in the City of Murrieta, the Wine Country and other
unincorporated areas including the vineyards and avocado and citrus
groves.
The effort brought out
am avalanche of community response, hundreds of letters and emails
generated by the business and Real Estate community, and a parade of
speakers in opposition to the proposal - a true
Grassroots effort. City and County leaders, developers,
wineries, Realtors, attorneys business owners and 'just plain folks'
spoke out against this poorly conceived and ill-timed matter.
The outpouring was so
large that RCWD
had to bring in workers to direct traffic in their lot and post
security. As one Director noted, there were more people assembled last
night than they've seen in total in the past ten years.
The dog-and-pony show
that preceded public comments included presentations from RCWD General
Manager Matt Stone as well as representatives from the Metropolitan Water District
and the Eastern and
Western Municipal Water Districts. I suspect RCWD brought these
folks in thinking they would bolster RCWD's position in
playing up the water crisis. Unfortunately these representatives did
just the opposite. They spoke of being 'under
allocation', the positive
effects that conservation measures have provided and the
variety of projects underway
and planned to address the shortage at the local and state
level. Kinda takes the wind out of your sails when the people you get
the water from poo-poo your whole rationale. As Eastern's GM told us
- the problem is not No water
but rather no CHEAP water.
There is no denying that
California is experiencing a drought - a combination of natural drought caused by
less rainfall and snowpack the past 3 years, and a regulatory drought caused
by a federal judge responding to environmentalists concerned about the
possible extinction of the Delta Smelt. This last aspect has actually
contributed more to the problem than the lack of rainfall, leading to
greatly restricted water flowing to 20 million Southern Californians
and to the Central Valley.
The Central Valley of
our state, often referred to as the foodbasket
of the nation, has allowed over 200,000 acres to go fallow from
lack of irrigation water, entire groves of fruit and nut trees are dying and unemployment is over 40%.
New tiered water rate structures have boosted everybodies bills by 20%
- 40% with more coming in spite of the fact that demand from our
largest wholesaler - Metropolitan, has declined in each of the last
four years.
Our water companies have
borrowed a page from the oil company playbook - whenever there's a shortage, whether
real or perceived, don't miss that opportunity to jack your rates.
But as I told them last night, not even the oil companies are
shortsighted enough to propose a moratorium on building automobiles.
Our local economy is built around positive growth - shut that down, you
shut down the whole revenue stream,the job market and critical city
services.
The problem with the
Director who proposed the moratorium, Jack Hoagland, is that he is
being myopic to a fault. He is looking at the issue as if water is the
only player in the game. He has consistently refused to acknowledge
that he is surrounded by an entire forest as he focuses on a single
tree, that water is but one
tile in the mosaic that makes up our economic
community.
The efforts of our
cities, our EDC, our Chambers has been to support the businesses that
are trying to hang on during these challenging times and attract new
ones bringing much needed job growth to the area. Currently over 60% of
our residents still commute to San Diego, Orange or LA counties to
work. A
moratorium is a job-killer for our community while chasing
those jobs and tax revenue to nearby cities not subject to RCWD. It shuts off the spigot not just for water
but for much needed jobs.
Last night five out of seven
RCWD Directors got it. Thankfully.
But as they and other
pointed out, we need an El Nino
this winter, Colorado needs a
lot of snow, and we as a state need to pass the recently enacted $11 Billion
water bond measure next year to bring some long term
relief to our over burdened water infrastructure. Otherwise this moratorium proposal may
be revisited and next time we may not prevail.
If the meeting
accomplished nothing else, it elevated the discussion to a whole new
level and provided a good education to a lot of people who may not
otherwise be engaged. RCWD is evaluating other alternatives now and a
new dialogue has been opened between them and the community they serve.
Let's hope we can all make the most of this reprieve.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.