After the demotion of the CPN City Treasurer, which was extensively reported on in the last edition of the Castle Pines Connection, recent inquiries have revealed that the City owes over $1,500,000 to various entities, most of it in contractual obligations to consulting firms and lawyers.
In an effort to obtain desperately needed funds, the City recently requested jurisdiction over the local water provider, the CPN Metro District. The District is funded by your tax dollars. The City’s plan would divert tax revenues needed for water to other municipal uses and transfer management of our local parks to a multinational corporation.
A July 14 letter from the mayor to the District requested the “incremental integration of services and functions of the District within the City.” Much like a python eats a pig, the City plans to swallow the District whole and digest it bit by bit.
In evaluating the City’s ability to wisely manage the operations and revenues of the District, consider the following:
- Until June, the City was paying $160,629 per month for city management services from CH2M Hill. This amount was recently reduced to $79,124 per month. Taxpayers can applaud the cost reductions, but city expenditures were irrationally high from the outset and spending continues to exceed revenue.
- As reported in June issue of The Castle Pines Connection, City Council "stripped the city treasurer of virtually all power" and appointed a deputy treasurer citing “a lack of confidence in financial disclosure and transparency.”
- Four former members of the CPN Master Association, now city officials, authorized a loan of $200,000 from the public funds of the Master Homeowners Association. Those same individuals now resist paying the balance of the money back despite earlier public promises to do so.
- The City has enacted 12 ordinances which require the payment of a fee or tax. This occurred after campaign promises of “no new property taxes for any CPN resident.”
I have confidence that the CPN Metro District can responsibly manage water resources, provide renewable water for the future, and manage our parks and open space. Until the City lives up to its promise of transparency in government and demonstrates some measure of fiscal responsibility, I cannot advocate the transfer of millions of dollars of tax revenues from the District to the City.
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11 comments:
In response to Mr Huff's comments:
Firstly, the actual numbers are much less. $721,000 to CH2MHill and $85,000 to lawyers. Is Mr. Huff intentionally exaggerating because he is running for office and is tied to the Metro District?
Secondly, integration of the Metro District was part of the original conversation concerning our incorporation. Money would not be diverted, but spent wisely and with more transparency. As examples, the Metro District, by admission from Dan Schmick, over collects on its stormwater fee. The district spends less than $70,000 but collects in excess of $245,000 and is doing that annually and has enough money in reserve in that fund to do stormwater for over 5 years, yet they collect and collect and collect and still raise the fee. What are they using the money for?
In addition, the District has a nearly a $1 million annual capital improvement fee ($22 per month, per house, year after year), but are they building any improvements that Mr. Huff can point out? A recent independent study verifies the District is over collecting nearly $1 million annually from CPN residents. The Metro District has a huge surplus. Again, responsible? It’s ironic that Mr. Huff, the Metro District and the Castle Pines Connection appear to be connected. Mr. Huff uses the Connection as a “news” source, the Connection is partly funded by the Metro District and Mr. Huff favors the District. All of these entities are interested in getting rid of the City. Curious at best.
Thirdly, Mr. Huff picks and chooses what his definition of transparency is. Is the District transparent with it fees which are not voted on and over collected? Again, using the Connection as a verifiable news source.
The Connection has been upset with CPN because the we no longer wanted to fund a neighborhood gossip column.
With regard to the Master Association "loan"... how can it be a loan if there was no City at the time? Would Mr. Huff now be suing those board members because they did not advocate FOR the community when a neighboring community was going to incorporate and take our commercial businesses into their boundaries? Accuracy or an attempt at hysteria? And can Mr. Huff provide ANY documentation where any of those board members, now elected officials, have stated they resist repaying these funds back? Please, Mr. Huff, let's do this process correctly and legally, rather than try and cram anything through because of your agendas and lack of support for the City.
Property taxes were not raised, as promised, and Mr. Huff intentionally tries to tie the two together. Much like the Districts $30 a month in fees, per house that no one voted on and goes year after year after year. Where is Mr. Huff's outrage on that? The City’s fees primarily incur when you use a service and you only pay for that service. Every City in CO has the same exact fees.
By all means, let’s keep the Metro District and have them hide behind fees and over collections. Mr. Huff and his friends at the Metro District would have you believe they are the only ones that can provide renewable water. This is blatantly false. Do you really trust someone who intentionally exaggerates for political expediency and defends a district that is over charging residents a million dollars each year? Translated, that means each home could save an average of 14 mills or $722 each year if the Metro District was transparent.
Can you imagine what our city would have been like with no lies told from the beginning of the incorporation process? If they had only told the truth from the beginning - yes it’s going to cost you but here are the true pros and cons. Instead we were told, no new taxes and we could afford to maintain to our standards, all while keeping big box commercial at bay and keeping the parkway at a Mayberry pace. The city government has spent most of their time either covering up for old lies or defending their decisions to a community that doesn’t trust them. Over ½ of all council meetings are “executive session” because they continue to think they need to hide what they are doing from the people whose money they are spending. The community would have still voted for a city, they would have trusted merging metro funds, and they would be marching forward. Instead we are $2 million dollars in debt and the council is fought at every turn because the community can’t trust them. Now they seek more commercial and higher traffic all to keep the false promises that were made by the Master Association and their committee – Maureen Shul, Doug Gilbert, Jennifer Havercroft, Kim Hoffman, and Ron Clark.
Castle Pines North Homeowners are blessed to have you give unstintingly of your time and effort on our behalf. At a critical time your leadership would undoubtedly provide the REFORM to lead Castle Pines North out of the chaos. I support you for Mayor of Castle Pines North.
Hanne Schatz
Most of the community voted for incorporation DESPITE your alleged accusations - it's a pity all this energy cannot be used to move forward instead of dwelling on the past, and make CPN the place we all want it to be - all this tantrum throwing because a few in the community can't get their own way? Be careful what you wish for, the grass is not always greener...
Isn't it funny how everyone mistates facts. Seems that BSouth, CPN wants to make everyone believe that there are a lot of forces against the city. Instead of answering questions, they make accusations. Seems pretty defensive. I think that they believe they can distract the public from the real issues by trying to point fingers and talk about "conspiracy."
The only true conspiracy is that a group of people in this community got together and overreacted to the threat of the Village taking some sales tax. We are talking about a few hundred thousand dollars per year in sales tax. So, what does this group do? They push for a city. Who cares that it takes millions to make a city run. This is a classic case of stepping over dollars to pick up dimes.
So, in order to make it sound like a good idea, this group of people then has a report prepared that makes the Metro District into the bad guy. Why? Because the best way to unite people is with a common enemy. What has the Metro District done to deserve this?
1. arranged to save the community after the bankruptcy.
2. has a AA credit rating now
3. Is spending millions on making sure that water will be available to our area when the wells run dry
4. Takes care of our parks and our open space
Oh wait, I see the real issue here. The pro-city group needed to be able to say they could give us a "free" city. Then they realized that it was impossible. So, now the only option for this group are to either say "we goofed" or to try to get this money from the Metro District.
Let me a ask the real question: Who do you trust? A Metro District with a solid track record of financial responsibilty, an AA credit rating, solid plans to help our community OR a brand new group of people who got elected as city officials, who have no experience, no track record, had to lie to the public to get a pro-in-corporation vote, and are not willing or able to stand up and say that they didn't quite understand what they were doing with our future when they laid out thier plans?????
Jeff, thanks for the update. Also, thanks to The Castle Pines Connection for supporting our community.
It is easy to forecast city finances. You simply look at neighboring incorporated areas such as Lone Tree, Parker and Castle Rock for benchmark information. For example, we can easily find out tax/fee revenues (homeowner and business), debt, service levels, costs, etc. Then, you make adjustments (for our lack of business, initial debt level, etc.) and prepare a five year plan and budget. Of course, much information will need to be made public, e.g. our current service and debt contracts with attorneys, etc.
This is a critical step in any organization. It keeps you out of debt problems, and it avoids reckless financial decisions.
If CPN is going to avoid additional financial scandal and problems, it's time for basic business planning.
Finally, the truth is unearthed and the landscape of the city is scarred and ugly. If Mr. Huff is interested in running for Mayor, he has my vote. The best interests of the community must come first; not the interests of people hungry for power and prestige. I work hard for my money and do not appreciate it being spent with such disregard. Honestly, I am not sure I can afford to live another year in CPN. The cherry on top is the money which was taken from the Master HOA for the purpose of ensuring incorporation, and now city officials are whining they don't HAVE TO pay it back. I believe that is called "stealing." The city folks are busy spinning the story and looking for loopholes to release their obligation when their intent was made clear from the beginning. They said it was a loan. Shame on them! And shame on us if we continue down this road. Let's admit our mistake--CPN should never have been incorporated. Let's go back to smaller government; we can't afford any other.
In my opinion, mr. Huff was right on. Those residents who favored the incorporation misled us and got us into this mess. We are paying CH2MHILL a lot of money any way you look at it. First it was $160,000 per month and now $79,000 per month. Either one is a lot of money going down the drain. What does CH2MHILL do for this amount? Seems to me the real issue here is, can we afford to be a city. Some residents spoke up at the beginning and said that the figures did not add up. There was no way we could have a city and not raise taxes substantually. We were told numerous times that this was not the case, that the city would be fine without additional taxes. What happened??? In the biginning the Connection was so biased in favor of the incorporation that there was no disenting avenue available. Probably this was because the Master association was funding the Connection at that time. Now that the Connection is not tied to the Master Association and the information is less biased it has become a far better means of communicating information to the residents.
I believe that BSouth is simply trying to throw us all off the real issue by throwing dirt at the metro distric. Leave the metro district alone and lets look at the real issue which is the City. The current issue is why doesn't the city pay back the $185,000 loan that they owe the Master association. Yes, I said LOAN. After that issue is solved, we can move on to a far more important issue and that is why do we need a city and how do we get rid of it. A RESIDENT.
2008 Castle Pines North Homeowners apparently changed their minds about incorporation. They voted NO to Ballot Issues 2D and 2E by an extremely large majority.
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this blog. There's another one out there under the guise of representing homeowners for a solid foundation. I posted a comment with my opinion of how things have been mismanaged by our current city officials. I was polite, I did not use profanity, and yet my comment was promptly deleted from view. I even requested that they post some information about the city's "Home Rule Analysis" & the Metro District's "Position Paper" so that we could comment on those as well. My request was deleted from view.
I am glad this blog has posts related to those two critical issues facing our city. My opinion is this: our current officials have run the city finances into the ground, the "management company" providing services is questionable, and city services are nearly void. Why on earth would we hand over management of our most precious resource, water, to a city that has yet to prove they are capable of handling such responsibilities?
(Correction to my previous comment: The blog administrator for CPN Homeowners for a Solid Foundation MOVED my comments to another (more recent) post. She felt my comments were more pertinent to the other post...that's fine - at least my comments are still there for viewing!)
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