STRAIGHT OUT OF A PLAYBOOK

 ****

We were going to hold our peace; but hell, does anyone do their research? 


 Let's go back 8 years: 

Way too many homeowners began losing their homes in Maple Heights starting somewhere around 2007, and in 2008 The Mortgage Crisis hit (banks were definitely in the mix of perpetrators) and Maple as was reported, was at the epicenter of the mortgage crisis.  (We don't make this stuff up folks) 

"For sale" signs were everywhere, and correct us if we're wrong, at some point city hall made it so those signs could not be posted (bad impression of Maple ... right?).

So here we go ... people losing their homes, the population of Maple dwindling to around 24,000 (down from 26,000 and is currently somewhere around 22,000).  And by the way, Maple Heights website didn't adjust those figures to the 2010 census figures until we started complaining.  We love transparency, and way too many times we've had transparency issues with those folks down at city hall.  

Ok, ... we digress.  So the population is dwindling, but we hear going into the next administration, there was a surplus in the budget (?)  Check this out.  Now again, population dwindling, people losing their homes.  So what does city hall do?  New pool, (and according to the former finance director) new police cars, a push for (20+year) bonds (debt, debt, debt) to build (how many?- yep 5) new schools, and tax levies (that never lets up).  But in 2010, census shows we're down to around 23,000 Maple Hts folks (included in that figure around 3500 school children).  Wonder who got those lucrative contracts? also [Go HERE for Maple Heights School report card]



What's done is done; however, you really need to understand.  Even if the number of homeowners declined significantly, the homeowner would still be on the hook to make those bond interest payments.  Can you lose your home if you don't pay your property taxes?  Absolutely!!

When you have loss of population, loss of homes, high unemployment, money circulating outside the community, you need to address that vigorously.  Was that done? NO! 

Property owners lost value in their homes (that still continues).  


Property owners and other residents didn't want charity. 

 Property owners and other residents needed financial assistance, money, ownership, job training and jobs. 

What they were asked, approve tax levies.   
Specifically, ... over and over again, they asked the already overburdened homeowner for tax levies.  Don't those folks at city hall have any real ideas that don't call for overburdening homeowners? 

Where did Maple Heights taxpayer's money go?  We asked and ran into wall after wall to get answers until we started posting (the emails we sent to various inhabitants of city hall) on this blog. Then we got stone-walled again.  We especially wanted to know how many Black full time public employees there were (particularly police and fire) and how many Black contractors were hired during a certain period of time.   **Result: Stonewalled

Now ...About those speed cameras.  Anyone with any intelligence knew that this was mostly about revenue and not so much safety (city hall gave it away with those revenue comments and failed to involve residents in the decision). To make matters worse, some of those speed cameras were placed near shopping areas and /or predominantly black residents.  As to who got ticketed.  Among those ...well, people who wanted to shop at Giant Eagle, and friends and family of residents, and residents got tickets.  Got so folks didn't want to come into Maple and the folks here ... many of them felt trapped. We all knew it wouldn't stop with just those cameras.  There would be more to come (yep, just like in Cleveland).
That the speed camera amendment passed with overwhelming votes was a smack at city hall.  Folks were so mad, they were coming from Warrensville Hts to vote LOL.


We wanted to know where most of that money was going. 
City Hall will tell you they needed it for city services.  We wanted a breakdown.  Stonewalled 
How many residents have full time jobs at city hall?  Most of the people city hall does business with, and full time public workers in Maple live outside Maple. Most of that money circulates outside Maple. There are no easy answers right now; however, we've said it over and over again (as has research shown and other cities have proven); money needs to largely circulate in the community.   

This problem continues to not be addressed and we're sick of the excuses concerning state cuts (cuts that these politicians knew about in 2011 folks).  You can't keep asking for money from residents (esp. while the population continues to decline) and pumping that money outside the community.  

***Remember that money in a fund for the folks who lived down by the railroad tracks? Well, while all these non residents got paid and spent our money in their own communities, those folks (who were down by those railroad tracks due to the banks and mortgage company's institutional racist policies -Link and (2 (3)) ... well, most of their money got dumped into the general fund that [wait for it] was used to pay folks who spent our money where they lived (outside of the communities in which they served).  Talk about a slap in the face!

Wow ... Straight out of a mayor's playbook.  We know that playbook so well.  [Inside joke]

Look, if you want to elect a black female as mayor simply because it would be historic, go ahead and do so.

To be specific to The Mortgage Crisis and Maple Heights:
We don't like titles being thrown around when we know the huge role banks, mortgage companies, re-insurers, major accounting firms, etc played in one of the greatest financial meltdowns this nation has seen - - The Mortgage Crisis ... that placed Maple Heights at the epicenter.


We could go on and on and on .... but, we're just FED UP with excuses, AND bullshit!!!

Oh.. and for the folks who want to vote for Bill, simply because he's white, ... (by all means) whatever makes you feel comfortable.   


We do recommend you read the Maple Heights News for general information about candidates who are running, and Maple Heights ballot issues

While we have major differences in ideology, Brownlee has done something no other person in Maple (or outside of Maple) has done. He's put what goes on in Maple Heights meetings and council, etc out there for everyone to see.  It's called transparency folks, and ya'll (those who know our writing style and have followed us for years) know we love transparency in government.



Update 10/30/2015

****No matter who becomes mayor of Maple Heights, you can believe the Maple Heights African American Gazette (and we're sure Lynde Brownlee) will not stop telling you what goes on in city hall, and asking for public records.   


Astounding the number of people (esp who don't live here) and outside groups who have made last minute endorsements (especially last minute since this post).  God bless them. To think they never gave a "hill of beans" about Maple Heights before, but have showed up on the scene. 

Let's see how much money they contribute to this community come 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.  Let's see what happens with jobs, job training, and creating viable diverse communities.  Let's see their commitment to money circulation within the community and ownership.
 Let's see them put their money where their mouth is.  We will definitely tell you if they don't.******



Update: 11/2/2015
Finally,  If you need to pass a tax levy for a temporary fix, go ahead and pass the damn thing.

Related:

Foreclosure Epicenter: Maple Heights, OH

What Caused The Mortgage Crisis

The Role of Accounting in the Financial Crisis

Role of Auditors in Crisis Gets Look
  
Railroad money gets locked into special fund

Transparency and Open Government

From Black Wall Street to the Black Dollar Project

Maple Heights News Yahoo Page

The Case For Reparations

 Questioning Maple Heights mayoral candidates: editorial board

Your Black Education
Asians keep a dollar in their community 120 times longer than African Americans
MAPLE HEIGHTS LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO GO



And this is a message for Richard A:
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

To others who would like to link us as supporters of Mrs. Mitchell, we are admirers.  She helps folks whether you're in her ward or not or it's midnight or 6 am (that's simply what she does).  .... ; however, please understand we would be as critical of her as every other politician should she be facing that position in the General Election.  

ESOP 20TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON ON OCTOBER 16, 2013

                .

          

For 20 years Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (“ESOP”) has worked tirelessly to empower people to improve their lives and communities. ESOP’s work over the last two decades to end predatory lending and abusive mortgage servicing and to prevent foreclosures has helped thousands of families across Ohio to stay in their homes and to stabilize neighborhoods.

     We invite you to join us Wednesday, October 16^th for our 20^th Anniversary Luncheon. The theme is “Building Partnerships for Economic Empowerment.” We hope you can join us for this important conversation about how the non-profit, public and private sectors can join forces to help disenfranchised communities move forward from the foreclosure crisis.

Keynote Speaker
Senator Sherrod Brown

     Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information on sponsorships, table and advertising purchases please contact Deonna Kirkpatrick

at 216-361-0718 or dkirkpatrick@esop-cleveland.org.

SENATOR SHERROD BROWN ON PREDATORY OVERDRAFT PRACTICES

 FROM HIS NEWSLETTER

Northeast Ohioans were alerted this week to predatory “overdraft” practices by banks that lead customers to overdraw their checking accounts, causing them to be charged exorbitant penalties. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, announced new legislation that would protect Ohioans from these practices.

“Banks should play by the rules instead of purposefully ‘reordering’ their costumers’ debit card transactions so that they profit while consumers rack up costly penalties,” Sen. Brown said. “My bill would put a stop to this by empowering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to crack down on banks that employ predatory practices. It also would allow the CFPB to establish fair guidelines to protect consumers and the banks and credit unions that play fair with their customers.”

According to a recent study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), some institutions purposefully “reorder” their customers’ debit card transactions in order to maximize their profits at the expense of consumers. Instead of subtracting money from your account in the order that you made purchases for the day, banks will subtract larger purchases first, leading your account to reach zero more quickly, making it more likely that you will be charged multiple times for purchases in the negative. Every time a transaction in the negative occurs, a consumer is charged on average a $34 penalty.

A Federal district court also recently came to the same conclusion—that financial institutions regularly reorder transactions from high-to-low, instead of low-to-high, exclusively to generate more fee revenue at the expense of the consumer. The two plaintiffs in that case incurred $143 in overdraft fees from a $49 overdraft, and $506 in fees for overdrawing $120. According to Pew’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project, transaction reordering caused one plaintiff to incur four overdraft charges instead of just one – imposing an additional $66 in fees.

Reordering is confusing to consumers and has helped contribute to higher fees for the one in every five Americans who will overdraw their checking account this year. Specifically, Brown’s bill would crack down on these practices by:

• Ensuring banks post transactions in an objective way that is clear to their customers;
• Giving the CFPB, headed by the newly-confirmed Richard Cordray, the authority to monitor banks’ overdrafting practices to deem if they are acting predatorily; and
• Establishing fair guidelines to protect consumers now and in the future.

“Pew applauds Sen. Brown’s bill as it marks a turning point in the safety and transparency of the checking account as a household financial management tool,” said Susan Weinstock, director of Pew’s safe checking work. “For too long, financial institutions have been allowed to change the order that deposits and withdrawals are processed. This Act would restore safety to these accounts by preventing financial institutions from posting transactions in a way that maximizes overdraft fees.”

Sen. Brown’s bill would also direct the CFPB to provide a safe harbor from litigation for banks that play by the rules and follow the system the agency puts in place to ensure fair overdraft practices.

Joining Sen. Brown to help draw attention to these abuses was Francis Lesniak, a Northeast Ohio woman who overdrew her account by a total of only $5.60, but was charged $96 in penalties because her transactions were reordered.

They were also joined by David Rothstein, Project Director for Asset Building at Cleveland Saves, a program dedicated to helping Northeast Ohioans build their savings. Rothstein is also currently the Director of Resource Development and Public Affairs at the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Greater Cleveland and previously studied consumer issues and banking for Policy Matters Ohio.

“Overdraft fees hit working families and seniors hard,” Mr. Rothstein said. “We are working with clients through financial capability training to help them budget and through our financial partners to find them the best products but overdraft fees are expensive, inconsistent, and jarring to a monthly budget. This Bill provides a sensible floor for overdraft policies.”

Sen. Brown chairs the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection and has long fought to protect Ohioans from abusive and predatory banking practices.

WHO IS BUYING FORECLOSED HOMES AND WHY IT'S A PROBLEM

"Who's Buying Foreclosed Homes and Why It's a Problem

by Nate Berg (October 13, 2011)

 

 

Foreclosed homes tend to be problems for cities. They sit there, empty, unkempt, just asking for someone to break in. What they need and what governments at basically every level want is someone to buy them. Own them. Love them. Live in them.

 

 

So when a foreclosed property gets sold, the problem’s solved, right? Well, not exactly. According to a new study published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, property sales don’t lead to solutions because often the people buying foreclosed properties from banks are also investors looking to resell the property. But these predominantly small-time investors typically have fewer resources to spend on maintaining their homes as they sit on the market and wait for new buyers.

 

 

“A lot of them are being sold to an investor and staying vacant,” says Dan Immergluck, an urban planning professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the author of the study. “You have the same problem as before.”

 

READ THE ENTIRE HERE

NOTE:  A COMPANY CALLED CORELOGIC IS LISTED ON THE  PROPERTY TAX RECORDS [WHERE THE PERSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING TAXES IS LISTED] OF MILLIONS OF HOMES THROUGHOUT COUNTIES IN OHIO AND ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.  WHO IS CORELOGIC?  WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN  MAPLE HEIGHTS GOVERNMENT AND CORELOGIC? CLICK NUMBERS BELOW FOR SOME  INFORMATION

1
2
3


Update on Corelogic:
The Illogic of CoreLogic, August 26, 2012

FORECLOSED BORROWERS TO GET SETTLEMENT CASH

By Chelsey Levingston
              

"More than 64,000 Ohioans will receive letters this fall stating they may be eligible for payments of at least $840 from the National Mortgage Settlement.

 

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the National Mortgage Settlement Administrator are mailing the letters through Friday to those who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 to 2011 through actions by five of the nation’s biggest banks — Ally, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

 

The settlement stems from the so-called robo-signing scandal that erupted in 2010, where these five banks were accused of shoddy mortgage paperwork. The money comes from the $25 billion joint state-federal settlement reached this year with the banks.

 

Ohio’s share of the settlement is $335 million, which includes money to help “underwater” and delinquent homeowners, people who were victims of bad foreclosure practices, and for foreclosure prevention. More than $200 million of that is to go out directly to people “who either lost their home or to people who have been hurt by this or are upside down in their mortgage,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

 

The payments will not make anyone rich or help them get back their house, DeWine said.

 

“This is a little compensation. It’s certainly better than not getting it,” he said. “We encourage people to apply, but it’s not going to make them whole.”

 

Eligible foreclosed borrowers will receive a minimum $840. They could receive more depending on how many people submit claims, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the attorney general’s office."

 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

PLAIN DEALER, OCTOBER 10, 2012

DAYTON DAILY NEWS, OCTOBER 11, 2012

PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THEY'RE ELIGIBLE FOR A PAYMENT AND HAVEN'T RECEIVED A CLAIM FORM, CALL:  866.430.8358

 

 

see related:

"Matt Taibbi & William Black on Bailout Secrets & How New Foreclosure Deal Spares Banks from Justice" .. Democracy Now, January 11, 2013

HOW TO DEAL WITH FORECLOSURES IN YOUR COMMUNITY

No One At Home: How To Deal With Foreclosures In Your Community

 

To prevent homes from going into foreclosure, try to help neighbors in need.

 

September 28, 2012 | Madame Noire / By Ann Brown

 

 

 

Minority neighborhoods in America have been devastated by foreclosures, with banks taking over the homes that remain vacant indefinitely. Several banks, including most recently Bank of America , have been called to task by The National Fair Housing Alliance, which has filed official complaints to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about the poor maintenance of these vacant homes.

Read the rest of this great article HERE
 

RELATED:
National Vacant Properties Campaign and Neighborhood Works America .
National Housing Institute

ADDRESSING WRONGFUL FORECLOSURES IN OHIO

FROM SHERROD BROWN'S NEWSLETTER: 7/31/2012

"If you’re one of the thousands of Ohio families who has experienced the pain of losing your home to a wrongful foreclosure, help could finally be on the way. But you must act quickly.

Before the reports of widespread foreclosure fraud two years ago, Ohio had 14 consecutive years of increased foreclosures.

Then, we discovered that many of the biggest banks in the country simply didn’t follow the law and give people the chance they deserved to keep their homes. We found that servicers used poorly maintained, lost, or even forged documentation to evict homeowners.

Big banks tell us that these mistakes are isolated and harmless. But these problems are not new. 

Senator Sherrod Brown with Housing Secretary Donovan in Cleveland:

Too many Ohioans were unjustifiably foreclosed on in recent years. That’s why it is important that the more than 140,000 Ohioans whose homes were foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010 know about the free Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) process.

The IFR process – enforced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve – awards financial assistance to borrowers who were foreclosed on because of inaccuracies and oversights.

According to the Independent Foreclosure Review website, borrowers are eligible for independent foreclosure review if:  (1) the property securing the loan was the borrower’s primary residence; (2) the mortgage was in the foreclosure process at any time between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010; and (3) the mortgage was serviced by one of 27 IFR approved servicers. These servicers include: America’s Servicing Co.; Aurora Loan Services; BAC Home Loans Servicing; Bank of America; Beneficial; Chase; Citibank; CitiFinancial; CitiMortgage; Countrywide; EMC; EverBank/EverHome Mortgage Company; Financial Freedom; GMAC Mortgage;  HFC;  HSBC;  IndyMac Mortgage Services; MetLife Bank; National City Mortgage;  PNC Mortgage; Sovereign Bank; SunTrust Mortgage; U.S. Bank; Wachovia Mortgage; Washington Mutual (WaMu); Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; and Wilshire Credit Corporation.

And while it’s estimated that 147,000 Ohioans are eligible, as of now, only 6,000 have requested IFR reviews.

The good news is that it’s not too late. With the application deadline extended to September 30, 2012, it is important to spread the word to Ohio homeowners that they may be eligible to receive compensation or other support.

For the families who were foreclosed on – even when they were abiding by the terms of their mortgage or their modification agreement, even after they requested assistance and submitted all the required documentation on time, or even though they were protected by bankruptcy – IFR can help.

The Independent Foreclosure Review process may provide compensation in the form of a lump sum payment, a loan modification, a suspended foreclosure, or even a corrected credit report. 

While IFR is a good option for many homeowners, it’s not a perfect process and I’m working to fix some serious flaws in it. That’s why I sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requesting that homeowners have access to an appeal process that ensures Ohioans can receive the assistance they deserve.

And though not everyone will receive compensation, going through the IFR process is free of charge and won’t prevent Ohioans from pursuing other options related to foreclosure assistance.

If homeowners don’t take advantage of this opportunity and participate in this program, then the banks will avoid making payments for their wrongdoing. Our economy will never fully recover until we stabilize the housing market – and that means restoring trust for both homeowners and investors.

But it’s up to all of us to take action. By raising awareness of the services the Independent Foreclosure Review process provides, we can help Ohio homeowners receive the compensation they deserve.

To find out more about the Independent Foreclosure Review process, Ohioans can call 1-888-9105 or visit the website https://independentforeclosurereview.com/ "

Sincerely,

Sherrod Brown U.S. Senator"

Senator Sherrod Brown's Website




UPDATE - RELATED:

"Matt Taibbi & William Black on Bailout Secrets & How New Foreclosure Deal Spares Banks from Justice" .. Democracy Now, January 11, 2013