Archive for February, 2012

Hutcheson Arrested – Roberts Censured

Friday, February 24th, 2012

In a follow-up to our story last year regarding a lease-with-option-to-own scam oeprating in Loveland a couple of important events occured recently. see story

The primary operator we reported on since 2009 has been arrested in Ft. Collins. Martin Hutcheson is an ex-con who operated the lease-with-option-to-own real estate scam in Northern Colorado now for a longtime but we don’t know yet whether the charges are related to his real estate activities. The case against Hutcheson is being prosecuted by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office

Hutcheson’s self-described former friend, Clayton Roberts, also probably regrets getting involved with Marty Hutcheson after a complaint by the mother of a victim against Roberts’ real estate broker license resulted in a $2,500 fine, public censure and mandatory additional training in property management, contracts and broker obligations by the Colorado Real Estate Commission.

Roberts recently posted a number of nasty comments about LovelandPolitics and its publisher on a December 1, 2011 blog posting. If you reference item 10 in Roberts’ disciplinary action, Roberts agreed, “No subsequent action shall be maintained or pursued by Respondent asserting the invalidity in any manner of this Stipulation and Final agency order.” Instead, he has acted in a retaliatory manner against anyone who cooperated with the investigation by attacking their credibility while also understating the findings to which he plead guilty.

Especially noteworthy is the Colorado Real Estate Commission finding that,

“Respondent admits that he/she has demonstrated unworthiness or incompetency to act as a real estate broker by conducting business in such a manner as to endanger the interest of the public.” And he is threatening LovelandPolitics with a lawsuit because we injured his sparkling reputation?

Posted in Rent-to-own | 17 Comments »

Thompson Valley EMS Hit Hard By Centerra Metro Districts

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Few may understand how the ambulance and paramedics who transport them to the hospital are paid but as Centerra grows the issue may become more important to them. That is because the local service once relied primarily on a modest 1.716 Mill Levy is now hoping for increases in patient fees and possibly property taxes to survive (see our story)

Like many local entities, TVEMS believed the Centerra Urban Renewal Authority was a limited tool made as an exception for property taxes only on certain known parcels of land for only so many residences. In 2007 and 2008 that all changed. Loveland’s City Council abdicated its authority to McWhinney on declaring urban blight while also allowing more and more residential construction putting a heavier burden on TVEMS. Now Lovelanders who rely on emergency transport are going to either pay more in the future to maintain the same level of service or face a decline in response times as fewer dollars are stretched over an expanding service population. 98% of the property taxes paid in the Centerra Urban Renewal areas is rebated by the County to McWhinney’s Centerra Metro District to repay the over $100 million in public bond debt borrowed by McWhinney.

Not unlike the oligarchs of Russia’s mob riddled economy, the McWhinney’s host elegant fundraisers on their tax dodging yacht off the coast of California while first responders in Loveland struggle to save lives with limited resources. Instead of benefiting from the taxes voters approved to support such services, those taxes are instead diverted through a complicated Urban Renewal scheme to repay “public debt” created to subsidize McWhinney’s Centerra developments. The one-way “Public-Private” partnerships allows McWhinney to take profit out of their projects on the front-end while leaving others to pay the mounting public debt on the back-end.

According to sources involved in the deal to relocate the medical service’s headquarters, McWhinney offered public monies as an incentive to draw TVEMS towards McWhinney owned properties and away from property in Loveland owned by Martin Lind. This misuse of public funds is possibly illegal but went unchallenged by the Colorado regulatory agency for local governments – DOLA (Department for Local Affairs).

McWhinney contributes generously to community charities and political campaigns to ensure few will speak out against their partnership with the city.

Any comments?

Posted in McWhinney | 13 Comments »

Fire Service Dangerously Underfunded

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Tuesday night, Loveland’s Fire Chief Randy Miroswki told Loveland’s City Council the fire department is grossly under funded and under staffed. See our story

For years LovelandPolitics has been reporting on the numerous diversions of funding away from emergency services and into failed land speculation, business incentives and extreme urban renewal plans that allowed Centerra to keep 98% of the property taxes collected on new development.

Loveland’s Fire Department staffs only 2 firefighters per engine. This is a problem.

In 1971 the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration passed what is called the “2 in/2 out” rule for entering burning structures making it a legal requirement that 4 firefighters be on scene before attempting a rescue.

Loveland residents are at risk as the fire suppression capabilities of the city are the worst in Northern Colorado. We like museums, libraries and parks just like everyone else but the priority needs to be public safety. We support the comments by Councilors John Fogle and Daryle Klassen who reminded their colleagues that funding the fire department is essential even if it means giving-up plans for the museum expansion or other nice to have projects.

The Mayor appears to understand the problem while the city manager, to his credit, allowed the fire chief to report the truth. This is a big change from past administrations. Whether Mayor Gutierrez has the leadership skills to say no to his colleagues and special interests looking to divert even more general fund monies into non-essential city services (like entertainment and arts) remains to be seen.

The agenda item prior to the fire presentation at the January 31, study session indicates otherwise. Mayor Gutierrez along with Councilwoman Joan Shaffer supported a staff request to cut by 2/3 the objectives of the “creative sector” for creating jobs or attracting new visitors to the city while not decreasing their budget commensurate with the lowered expectations for success.

Posted in Fire Department | 19 Comments »