LovelandPolitics
| Loveland's Independent News Source |
| Harry Devereaux Hopes To Replace Fellow LBP Board Member Doug Rutledge On DDA Board |
| Loveland's City Council is set to appoint longtime Ft. Collins resident and Loveland banking heir Harry Devereaux to the DDA |
| Memo to council: The Downtown Development Authority Board has received the resignation of Joe Goacher, term ending June 30, 2021 and Doug Rutledge, term ending June 30, 2018. The current Board members of the DDA conducted a solicited recruitment for qualified candidates for the vacant director positions and after consideration of qualifications, the nominees for appointments have been found to successfully meet the established criteria in C.R.S. Section 31-25-806 and either reside in, are business lessees, or own real property in the DDA. The DDA Board held discussions in regular board meetings December 11, 2017 and January 9, 2018 and nomination motions were made at the special meeting on January 15, 2018. Both candidates, Jon-Mark Patterson and Harry Devereux, bring experience and expertise to the Board which is found to be necessary for continuity of service, and each have indicated an interest in serving on the Board of Directors. The current Board members are: • Sharon Cook, Chair • Clay Caldwell, Director • Ray Steele, Jr, Director • Tom Donnelly, Larimer County Commissioner • John Fogle, Loveland City Council • Vacancy - LDP Board member (nominee Harry Devereux) • Vacancy - Eligible member from within DDA Boundaries (nominee-Jon-Mark Patterson) The DDA Board will be developing a formal recruitment and selection strategy for future board vacancies. Outreach and Notification Efforts: N/A Council Agenda Item CITY CLERK (presenter: Beverly Walker) APPOINTMENTS TO THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (DDA) BOARD This item is a recommendation to City Council to appoint two Directors to fill the current vacancies on the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Board. The DDA has a seven member Board of Directors which includes voting positions for a City Council member, a County representative and a member of the Loveland Downtown Partnership (LDP). If the motion is approved, Jon-Mark Patterson will be appointed to a term effective until June 30, 2021 and Harry Devereaux will be appointed to a term effective until June 30, 2018 and serves as the LDP representative. Both candidates meet the qualifications for appointment as defined in C.R.S. Section 31-25-806 (attachment 1). This item was presented to the DDA Board on January 15, 2018 where the Board voted, unanimously, in approval of both nominations to fill the two vacant Director positions. 1) A Motion To Appoint Jon-Mark Patterson To The DDA Board For A Term Effective Until June 30, 2021 2) A Motion To Appoint Harry Devereaux To The DDA Board For A Term Effective Until June 30, 2018 |
Loveland, February 4, 2018
To many casual observers of Loveland politics, it seems like Loveland has as many
governing boards for downtown re-development monies as it does the few same
people serving on multiple boards.
Two boards, DDA (Downtown Development Authority) and LDP (Loveland
Downtown Partnership) are officially constituted by the Loveland City Council to
appropriate or guide appropriation of monies collected from sales taxes, property
taxes (both mill levy and tif) along with other direct subsidies like the city's facade
improvement program to businesses and individuals.
A third group calling itself LBP (Loveland Business Partnership) is not constituted by
the city but instead operates very much like a lobby organization meant to apparently
influence decision makers in these two other groups and the city council. Curiously, a
number of the same people serve on multiple city boards also work on the LBP
board alongside City of Loveland Director of Economic Development Kelly Jones.
Chairman of the LBP, Doug Rutledge who was featured in our previous story, has
resigned from his position on the DDA and is now said to be handing it over to fellow
LBP board member and personal friend Harry Devereaux. In the column to the right
of this story is the memo to Loveland's City Council recommending the hand-off plus
the agenda item for Loveland City Council's Tuesday night agenda.
Despite a city policy limiting advisors to serving on just one city commission or board
at a time, Devereaux is expected to be appointed to the DDA to serve the remaining 6
months of Rutledge's term despite already serving on the LDP governing board.
Who Is Harry Devereaux?
Like many power brokers in Loveland, Devereaux serves on multiple boards and
commissions yet lives outside the community. Harry and his wife Debra have lived in
their $1.2 million lakeside estate on Breakwater Drive in Ft. Collins since 1998.
Harry is an heir to his father, Jack Devereaux, 1970 purchase of Home State Bank in
Loveland which his father successfully managed for 35 years. When Harry and his
brother Jack Jr. took over their father's business circa 2005 local banking was
undergoing many changes. Nonetheless, they made a commitment to keep
Loveland's own bank local and resist temptations to sell-out to a larger institution.
Eventually, it appeared as less a choice than necessity that Loveland's local Home
State Bank was acquired by Guaranty Bancorp (NASDAQ: GBNK), the holding
company for Guaranty Bank and Trust Company ("Guaranty Bank") in 2016.
The acquisition is described by the Federal Reserve as an "unassisted" acquisition
meaning no federal dollars were required to complete the transaction presumably
necessary to bring the bank into compliance with current guidelines.
In a 2016 Dodd-Frank news item (famous legislation to reform banking following the
2008 financial collapse) Devereaux hinted to Home State Bank's troubles
commenting, "When the feds clamped down on risk ratios for lending after the
recession at the turn of the decade, there was a lack of enthusiasm to borrow
because of uncertainty."
What Really Happened to Home State Bank?
In an August 9, 2012 email to the Federal Reserve, Harry's brother wrote on behalf
of their privately owned Loveland bank,
"Once again we may have to face the unintended consequences of regulation in the
form Basel III. The proposed capital guidelines will cause great harm to
community banks which did not participate in the behavior which caused the
current issues at hand. Unlike the 'Too Big to Fail' banks which have easy access
to capital markets it feels like we fall into the 'Too Small to Matter' category."
Jack Devereaux, Jr. Chairman of the Board Home State Bank
Basel III is an internationally agreed-upon set of reform measures to create a
minimum quality and quantity of regulatory capital at banks to safeguard against
future banking failures. 27 industrialized nations agreed to the Basel guidelines
including the United States. Despite heavy lobbing by Home State Bank of Loveland
and many other smaller community banks, the regulation was implemented
beginning on January 1, 2015 for those institutions in the United States.
Loveland To The Rescue
Shortly after Jack Jr. and his brother Harry took control of Home State Bank from
their father circa 2005, they sold the bank's longtime downtown building at 6th and
Lincoln to the City of Loveland in 2007 for $1.1 million. Some saw the purchase as an
insider deal to help a struggling bank. As a price comparison, the City of Loveland is
planning to acquire a building twice the size (two-story) in downtown Loveland along
with a separate parking lot (behind Pulliam Building) for less money more than a
decade later.
The Home State Bank building was sold, without a competitive bid, to Jay Hardy's
Brinkman Partners for $200,000 five years later in 2012. Brinkman proceeded to
build some 65 apartments using fee waivers among other city subsidies.
In January of 2009, the much beloved Jack Devereaux Senior died at age 87 leaving
his stock in the Home State Bank to his children; Harry, Pat, Ann and Jack, Jr. A
generous contributor to local charities combined with Devereaux Senior's willingness
to take risk on smaller loans made him somewhat of a "George Bailey" character in
Loveland for three decades. Guaranty Bank's changes have not followed a similar
trend earning it many complaints by former Home State Bank customers online even
being described by one customer as "Potter's Revenge" in reference to the 1946 film
It's A Wonderful Life.
While already rumored to be struggling, Home State Bank, as with many community
banks, vociferously opposed the bank reform act of congress that became law in
2010 by the name of Dodd-Frank. The new law was intended, in part, to protect
depositors from unscrupulous practices by privately held banks not subject to the
same scrutiny of publicly traded companies.
By 2015 Loveland's Home State Bank was rumored to be in trouble among
Loveland's banking community. According to one website that tracks annual
compliance and health of banks, the capitalization of Loveland's Home State Bank had
fallen to single digits in 2015 signaling it was a candidate for take-over or consent
decree by the Federal Reserve.
"The Home State Bank has a Capitalization of 9.94% versus the BestCashCow
average of 12.21. Capitalization measures how much equity capital a bank has to
underpin loans and other assets on its balance sheet. The higher the
capitalization number the more secure a bank is considered."
While the struggles of Home State Bank was no secret within Loveland's banking
community, the Loveland Reporter-Herald was not keen to report negative news
regarding such a powerful family. In 2014 when the McWhinney's paid $100,000 to
have their name added to the Rialto addition, a conference room was named for the
Devereaux family without any requirement for an accompanying donation.
Harry Devereaux Legacy on Downtown
When Home State Bank was acquired by Denver based Guaranty Bank, SEC (Security
and Exchange Commissions) filings show Harry and his siblings in Denver and Los
Angeles each owned 6.8% of the outstanding shares of stock while their father's
estate still owned 37% of the stock in Home State Bank.
Ironically, not a single Devereaux listed on the SEC filings shows a Loveland home
address. Despite the Devereaux diaspora stretching from South Dakota to Los
Angeles, California, Harry appears determined to remain not only involved in the
community but an important decision maker on how tax monies are distributed.
Harry Devereaux now works for the publicly traded bank that acquired his family's
privately owned financial institution, Guaranty Bank. No longer in the driver's seat,
Harry heads Guaranty Bank's "marketing" in Northern Colorado. In this new role he
participates in numerous community groups and continues to wield considerable
influence in city hall while looking to steer business towards his new employer.
As a board member of LBP, Harry Devereaux is also eligible to receive compensation
from "investors" like Rocky Turner's LPR Construction looking to acquire Larimer
County's building for a song from the city's URA. Since LBP does not disclose any of
their financial information to the public, whether Doug Rutledge, Harry Devereaux or
other DDA governing board members are being paid is not something we can
research due to the secrecy of LBP finances.
To many casual observers of Loveland politics, it seems like Loveland has as many
governing boards for downtown re-development monies as it does the few same
people serving on multiple boards.
Two boards, DDA (Downtown Development Authority) and LDP (Loveland
Downtown Partnership) are officially constituted by the Loveland City Council to
appropriate or guide appropriation of monies collected from sales taxes, property
taxes (both mill levy and tif) along with other direct subsidies like the city's facade
improvement program to businesses and individuals.
A third group calling itself LBP (Loveland Business Partnership) is not constituted by
the city but instead operates very much like a lobby organization meant to apparently
influence decision makers in these two other groups and the city council. Curiously, a
number of the same people serve on multiple city boards also work on the LBP
board alongside City of Loveland Director of Economic Development Kelly Jones.
Chairman of the LBP, Doug Rutledge who was featured in our previous story, has
resigned from his position on the DDA and is now said to be handing it over to fellow
LBP board member and personal friend Harry Devereaux. In the column to the right
of this story is the memo to Loveland's City Council recommending the hand-off plus
the agenda item for Loveland City Council's Tuesday night agenda.
Despite a city policy limiting advisors to serving on just one city commission or board
at a time, Devereaux is expected to be appointed to the DDA to serve the remaining 6
months of Rutledge's term despite already serving on the LDP governing board.
Who Is Harry Devereaux?
Like many power brokers in Loveland, Devereaux serves on multiple boards and
commissions yet lives outside the community. Harry and his wife Debra have lived in
their $1.2 million lakeside estate on Breakwater Drive in Ft. Collins since 1998.
Harry is an heir to his father, Jack Devereaux, 1970 purchase of Home State Bank in
Loveland which his father successfully managed for 35 years. When Harry and his
brother Jack Jr. took over their father's business circa 2005 local banking was
undergoing many changes. Nonetheless, they made a commitment to keep
Loveland's own bank local and resist temptations to sell-out to a larger institution.
Eventually, it appeared as less a choice than necessity that Loveland's local Home
State Bank was acquired by Guaranty Bancorp (NASDAQ: GBNK), the holding
company for Guaranty Bank and Trust Company ("Guaranty Bank") in 2016.
The acquisition is described by the Federal Reserve as an "unassisted" acquisition
meaning no federal dollars were required to complete the transaction presumably
necessary to bring the bank into compliance with current guidelines.
In a 2016 Dodd-Frank news item (famous legislation to reform banking following the
2008 financial collapse) Devereaux hinted to Home State Bank's troubles
commenting, "When the feds clamped down on risk ratios for lending after the
recession at the turn of the decade, there was a lack of enthusiasm to borrow
because of uncertainty."
What Really Happened to Home State Bank?
In an August 9, 2012 email to the Federal Reserve, Harry's brother wrote on behalf
of their privately owned Loveland bank,
"Once again we may have to face the unintended consequences of regulation in the
form Basel III. The proposed capital guidelines will cause great harm to
community banks which did not participate in the behavior which caused the
current issues at hand. Unlike the 'Too Big to Fail' banks which have easy access
to capital markets it feels like we fall into the 'Too Small to Matter' category."
Jack Devereaux, Jr. Chairman of the Board Home State Bank
Basel III is an internationally agreed-upon set of reform measures to create a
minimum quality and quantity of regulatory capital at banks to safeguard against
future banking failures. 27 industrialized nations agreed to the Basel guidelines
including the United States. Despite heavy lobbing by Home State Bank of Loveland
and many other smaller community banks, the regulation was implemented
beginning on January 1, 2015 for those institutions in the United States.
Loveland To The Rescue
Shortly after Jack Jr. and his brother Harry took control of Home State Bank from
their father circa 2005, they sold the bank's longtime downtown building at 6th and
Lincoln to the City of Loveland in 2007 for $1.1 million. Some saw the purchase as an
insider deal to help a struggling bank. As a price comparison, the City of Loveland is
planning to acquire a building twice the size (two-story) in downtown Loveland along
with a separate parking lot (behind Pulliam Building) for less money more than a
decade later.
The Home State Bank building was sold, without a competitive bid, to Jay Hardy's
Brinkman Partners for $200,000 five years later in 2012. Brinkman proceeded to
build some 65 apartments using fee waivers among other city subsidies.
In January of 2009, the much beloved Jack Devereaux Senior died at age 87 leaving
his stock in the Home State Bank to his children; Harry, Pat, Ann and Jack, Jr. A
generous contributor to local charities combined with Devereaux Senior's willingness
to take risk on smaller loans made him somewhat of a "George Bailey" character in
Loveland for three decades. Guaranty Bank's changes have not followed a similar
trend earning it many complaints by former Home State Bank customers online even
being described by one customer as "Potter's Revenge" in reference to the 1946 film
It's A Wonderful Life.
While already rumored to be struggling, Home State Bank, as with many community
banks, vociferously opposed the bank reform act of congress that became law in
2010 by the name of Dodd-Frank. The new law was intended, in part, to protect
depositors from unscrupulous practices by privately held banks not subject to the
same scrutiny of publicly traded companies.
By 2015 Loveland's Home State Bank was rumored to be in trouble among
Loveland's banking community. According to one website that tracks annual
compliance and health of banks, the capitalization of Loveland's Home State Bank had
fallen to single digits in 2015 signaling it was a candidate for take-over or consent
decree by the Federal Reserve.
"The Home State Bank has a Capitalization of 9.94% versus the BestCashCow
average of 12.21. Capitalization measures how much equity capital a bank has to
underpin loans and other assets on its balance sheet. The higher the
capitalization number the more secure a bank is considered."
While the struggles of Home State Bank was no secret within Loveland's banking
community, the Loveland Reporter-Herald was not keen to report negative news
regarding such a powerful family. In 2014 when the McWhinney's paid $100,000 to
have their name added to the Rialto addition, a conference room was named for the
Devereaux family without any requirement for an accompanying donation.
Harry Devereaux Legacy on Downtown
When Home State Bank was acquired by Denver based Guaranty Bank, SEC (Security
and Exchange Commissions) filings show Harry and his siblings in Denver and Los
Angeles each owned 6.8% of the outstanding shares of stock while their father's
estate still owned 37% of the stock in Home State Bank.
Ironically, not a single Devereaux listed on the SEC filings shows a Loveland home
address. Despite the Devereaux diaspora stretching from South Dakota to Los
Angeles, California, Harry appears determined to remain not only involved in the
community but an important decision maker on how tax monies are distributed.
Harry Devereaux now works for the publicly traded bank that acquired his family's
privately owned financial institution, Guaranty Bank. No longer in the driver's seat,
Harry heads Guaranty Bank's "marketing" in Northern Colorado. In this new role he
participates in numerous community groups and continues to wield considerable
influence in city hall while looking to steer business towards his new employer.
As a board member of LBP, Harry Devereaux is also eligible to receive compensation
from "investors" like Rocky Turner's LPR Construction looking to acquire Larimer
County's building for a song from the city's URA. Since LBP does not disclose any of
their financial information to the public, whether Doug Rutledge, Harry Devereaux or
other DDA governing board members are being paid is not something we can
research due to the secrecy of LBP finances.