BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com
Published: 07 July 2012 05:29 PM
A confidentiality agreement signed by San Bernardino County’s top executive required him to initially keep secret the details of a proposal to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages.
The county provided a copy of the agreement on Thursday, July 5, in response to a June 19 public records request from The Press-Enterprise. The request was filed after officials revealed that county Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux had entered into the agreement in February.
San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners, the idea’s proponent, has since given a waiver that allows county officials to discuss the proposal in response to media queries. The agreement, however, apparently still exempts all written communications between the two parties from public disclosure.
The idea of using government condemnation proceedings to acquire mortgages at current, lower market rates and reducing homeowners’ payments — a concept that hasn’t been tried elsewhere — has attracted controversy and national attention.
An open-government advocate said eminent domain is exactly the kind of policy that should be discussed in full public view.
The Board of Supervisors has been generally supportive of exploring the proposal, but on Friday, Supervisor Janice Rutherford said she is against it.
“I can’t support the use of eminent domain in this way,” she said, citing concerns about property rights.
Rutherford said she’s also worried about “unintended consequences,” such as those raised in a June 28 letter by 18 finance industry trade groups. They stated that voiding contracts between creditors and homeowners could make banks less willing to lend to other homeowners in the county.
Steven Gluckstern, chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners, said he does not believe that will be the result.
“The response from the financial community is not unexpected,” he said. “I believe if they learn more about the program, everybody is better off with a solution that clears the market of these underwater mortgages.”
He acknowledged that the idea is controversial but said it’s one that he believes “will improve the overall quality of life in the community.”
Board Chairwoman Josie Gonzales said she favors fully exploring the proposal. The county needs to find a way to help homeowners, she said. More than 150,000 San Bernardino County homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to the county.
“We definitely cannot quit until we get all of that information and, based on that information, make a sound decision on what we’re going to do,” Gonzales said.
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Deveraux should be fired. He obviously is sneaky and cant be trusted, Thanks Ovitt you POS for bringing this cancer into the county.
CEO Devilreaux, the self-proclaimed Son of a Bitch (sorry, Mrs. Devereaux, unless of course Greg is Satan and was borne from the loins of a dog), always does his business for the public behind closed doors and in secret.
When he first came to ONT after being run out of Fontucky because of a lawsuit by SBPEA, Gregory “Peckery” Devilreaux (thanks Frank Z!) arrived with his one-man posse, Economist John “Crystal Balls” Husing, to talk about REORGANIZATION of the organization (it’s not an “Employment Agency”, right Greg?) and the new SYNERGY needed to remove the STIGMA of pervasive corruption permeating though-out the local government operations.
Great revelations, right, but they were from the new BOSS IN TOWN and ONT CM Devilreaux was just doing what he had learned to do and taking advantage of a bad situation to make it a whole lot worse. First, having the OPD and DA Mikey arrest and prosecute a low level manager in Planner Albert K, who was far from being involved in the circle -o-corruption with the developers and consultants (Hi Otto), but an easy fall guy for the Devil. This event provided the diversion needed for Devilreaux to build his kingdom, which coincidentally, now that he is CEO of the County, includes the same three thiefdoms in this JPA created to take over “underwater mortgages”.
It is no coincidence that ONT/ Fontucky and the County created this JPA then, because who else but Devilreaux could speak for all three entities and engage in secret negotiations with Gluckstern and Mortgage Resolution Partners that resulted in this “common interest agreement” between the Devil of a CEO and MRP? No one else, that’s who, this is another scheme where the cards are already stacked that the Devil’s Will be Done. SECRET AGREEMENTS are never for the benefit of the general public, but instead for Greg and his group of friends who stand to benefit directly from this crazy scheme involving EMINENT DOMAIN (no “public benefit” just private ones, and no it’s not condemnation of REAL PROPERTY but of the MORTGAGE FUNDING aka Deed of Trust!?)
How many secret deals are WE THE PEOPLE going to allow Devilreaux to get away with, and they just keep on coming on the taxpayers-(take a) hit- parade… there’s ONT Councilman Alan “Ex-Police” Wapner with his double-dipping full-ride public retirement to keep his Council position; then there are Bender and Sullivan, the two ONT City Engineers that made a deal with the Devil to double-dip upon retirement from Ontario City. Every time, there is either a SECRET AGREEMENT by handshake (oh yeah, forgot about the Devil’s favorite, Contractor “Richey- Rich” Underwood) or in writing, it’s in secret, so that the business never comes before the decision makers on the City Council or Board of Supervisors. Of course if the PE hadn’t made a public records request, it would still be the Devil’s own little workplace secret, to this day (remind you Greg of your Consultant Agreement with ret.-Engineer Sullivan, an agreement for post-retirement work as the ONT Program Manager for SanBAG?)
Not to mention the biggest scam job of all, again done as a private deal with the Devil of a CEO (outside of the view of the public)… and that would be former-County Counsel Ruth “Look the other way on the Colonies Settlement” Stringer, getting a yearlong delayed retirement so that Devilreaux could spike her annual public pension by over $80,000/ yr. (obviously to ultimately justify his own expected retirement pension amount) to an unbelievable $312,000 and change a year!
This is entirely unconstitutional. Josie, what are you thinking?