9/16/13

Civil Rights Museum Bailout questions to be answered by the City of Greensboro before tommorow's Council Meeting.

I spoke with Len Lucas this morning, and was informed the City has not received the 2010 and 2011 audits that are supposed to be "acceptable", before City Council votes to provide $350,000 to Skip Alston and friends tomorrow night.

Where are the audits for Greensboro's Civil Rights Museum?

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2013/09/where-are-audits-for-greensboros-civil.html

So the audits have not been delivered to the city, and Len hasn't found whether or not they are "acceptable" or not, nor is there any chance of competently doing so before tomorrow night's meeting.
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Disclosure; Len has attended one of my CPA continuing education ethics classes.
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Since city management insisted on being in the room during the meeting, there wasn't a time to meet between now and tomorrow's meeting, and Len and I agreed that I could email in the other questions and they would be answered beforehand.
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The Questions;

What are the other "debt payments" does the agenda item refer to, are they clearly tied to the real estate, and what would be the consequences of not assisting with the other debt?

If some loans are unsecured by the property, why should Greensboro taxpayer's bail out non real estate related debt?



Who gets the asset management fee, and is payment of the fee directly related to not having the property foreclosed upon?

Who get's the development fee, and is payment of the fee directly related to not having the property foreclosed upon?

Why did total liabilities almost double year over year?

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2013/05/in-international-civil-rights-museums.html

If the Carolina Bank loan is guaranteed by the Sit in Movement, which doesn't own the property, why are taxpayers being asked to provide a bailout to "assist with repayment of a loan with Carolina Bank"?

What are the consequences of not assisting with the Carolina Bank Loan?

If City Council gives $350,000 before the audit, will they have violated their fiduciary responsibilities to Greensboro taxpayers?



Who gets the payments from 2019 to 2044 on the US Bank loan and the SCD loan?

What would happen if the BB&T loan is defaulted on, relative to retention of the property?

Could Skip, Earl and friends extract salaries as officers/owners of the Sit in Movement or any of the other entities if the city bails them out, after the tax credits expire or at any other point?

Do the museum's landlords stand to earn income from the property under any scenario?

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2013/09/on-tuesdays-item-9-loan-to.html

What will be who's long term debt once the tax credits expire?

Who the equity of the "Master Tenant Equity; $4,028,349" and "Managing Member Equity; $65,629" belong to?


Is the entirety of the $350,000 flowing through to Carolina Bank?

Who received the $4,500,000 developer fee and what happened to the money?

1 comment:

W.E. Heasley said...

George:

Your list of questions are most excellent. Yes, the audits would have to be fully examined and reviewed over an extended time period and all pertinent questions answered.

Your post raises a question: Of a group of entities that seek a bail out, is there a sub-group that sought bail-outs all along? Stated alternatively, do some entities run up extraordinary debt with no intention of paying back the debt as their end stratagem is/was a bail-out?

Which raises another question: Although there have been plenty of bail-outs over the years on national, regional and local levels, the mechanics of such bail-outs regarding the taxpayer seem lacking. Maybe a discussion would be enlightening. How so?

If politico P, of political taxing authority area G, pledges James and Jane Goodfellow’s taxpayer dollars for a bail-out of entity M, then the creditors of entity M now have a claim against the future tax revenue stream of political taxing authority area G.

The future tax revenue stream of political taxing authority area G is dependent on James and Jane Goodfellow producing an income from which taxes can be coercively extracted. Hence, the bail-out, directly or indirectly, gives the creditors of bailed-out entity M a claim against the Goodfellow’s ability to produce an income from which taxes can be coercively extracted, ONLY IF, the Goodfellow’s remain within political taxing authority area G.

What moral authority does politico P retain and then deploy regarding putting a claim against the Goodfellow’s ability to produce an income?

The Goodfellow(s) may well “vote with their feet” and leave political taxing authority area G thereby relinquishing themselves of the coercive claim bestowed upon them by politico P. Other Goodfellow(s) avoid moving within political taxing authority area G as they rationally avoid the coercive claim.

Once again, can you say “Detroit”?