As it turned out, and what was revealed when the closing documents were made public, was just how sweet the sweetheart deal was for the sellers of the 50 acres
Note: This special report, another in a RoundUp series, reveals more of the behind the scenes maneuvering in the county's recent $1.7 million purchase of 50 acres near Jacob's Well. The purchase was made ostensibly to protect and preserve the natural spring flow at Jacob's Well, headwaters of Cypress Creek. What we are finding, however, is a maze of highly questionable moves, both legal and ethical, by county officials to secure the property in what looks like a real windfall for the property's seller. Unfortunately, the taxpaying public has been left in the dark. For more background, read the stories at these links: million-dollar tax write off, more than meets the eye, county votes money and open meeting violations.
Send your comments, questions and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Hays County Judge Bert Cobb at bert.cobb@co.hays.tx.us or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
Special Report
Westridge retained rights to 50 taps and 6 million gallons of water annually
On December 17, 2010, Mark Kennedy, an attorney working for District Attorney Sherri Tibbe and accompanied by Commissioner Will Conley, signed the closing documents for the County’s $1.7 million purchase of 50 acres from developers operating under the name of the Westridge Joint Venture. The land is located near Jacob's Well, and monies from the Park Bond fund were used to complete the purchase.
Critics of the purchase argued that the County was paying too much for the property, and they pointed to an independent appraisal as evidence that the Commissioners’ Court was over-paying by approximately $300,000. But those arguments didn’t gain traction. The idea of the purchase rolled on. The Commissioners were spending public monies to 'protect Jacob's Well', a land conservation purchase.
Jacob's Well/miabella fotographix
As it turned out, and what was revealed when the closing documents were made public, was just how sweet the sweetheart deal was for the sellers of the 50 acres. In fact, the transaction was such a sweetheart deal for the sellers that it left some citizens wondering who Assistant District Attorney Kennedy and Commissioner Conley were working for when they OK’d the deal.The closing documents revealed two elements in the transaction that the Commissioners Court never approved. And it is those two elements that have some asking if Conley and Kennedy overstepped their bounds by acting outside of any authority granted by the court.
The first element referred to the ownership of approximately 6,022,500 gallons of water usage a year in the form of 50 water taps that were assigned to the property. Those 50 water taps had a monetary value (shown in the appraisal) of $225,000.00. Access to the 50 water taps played a central role in the justification for the approximate $300,000.00 over-payment.
After all, the purchase would take away the approved water taps, and there would be less drawn down of the aquifer. As the closing documents show, however, the developers retained the water tap allocation.
So what does that mean for the folks who are concerned about water shortages and such? It means that approximately 6,022,500 gallons of water a year that would have been secured by the County gaining control over the 50 water taps just won't happen. Now the developers can take their allocation of 50 water taps and move to another location near the well, and put Jacob's Well at risk again.
The second questionable element referred to payment of property taxes owed by the developers. The notion of a purchaser paying the sellers’ property taxes for the preceding year is not consistent with standard land purchasing agreements, and the payment was never authorized by the Commissioners Court.
Citizens have been seeking answers to their questions to no avail. Now is a good time for Judge Cobb to ask for an outside independent investigation into the matter. That is the only way he is going to get answers to these and many more questions about the Jacob's Well purchase.
24 comments:
I believe someone nailed this one a long time ago when they said that Conley's involvement means that it will be a stinky deal.
The new Judge should call for an independent investigation. Let's finally get this charade out into the open.
In Hays County, when someone says they belong to a conservation group, put your money in your shoe and run like hell! If you add it all up we have paid well over $6 million including tax exemptions, tax breaks and theft for a hole in the ground. You would think with all that money and if the WVWA wanted to protect the Well, they would try to clean it up, cut the weeds and keep the dogs from crapping all around it. It still looks like the hole it always was with a bunch of hippies hanging out to smoke their weed. This is the biggest leak in the Trinity Aquifer and it does no one any good except the WVWA. We must be a bunch of fools to let this happen.
Yes, the new County Judge should approach one of the State District Judges and ask that a special counsel investigate the deal since the D.A.'s office would not be able to do it and remain impartial. The Texas Code of Criminal procedure does provide that a State District Judge could appoint an independent lawyer (not employed by the DA or the A.G's office) to bring information about this issue to the attention of a Grand Jury. The proper persons to investigate would be a Grand Jury which is not influenced by the DA, (as all are). Anything less than that on the part of County Judge Bert Cobb, would be a sever disappointment at best for this particular Cobb supporter. To claim you are "preserving" the water by buying it with my money, and then allow the seller to retain the right to sell the water I paid to preserve, is at best, a ridiculous idea.
"In Hays County, when someone says they belong to a conservation group, put your money in your shoe and run like hell!"
Don't blame the conservationists---it was Conley who pushed the deal through---and who probably hatched the deal with the developers to begin with.
Charles, are you overlooking The Nature Conservancy and David Baker’s role in this fraud? It was he that started this whole thing by working with TNC and S.O.S. I do not excuse Conley or Kennedy. Sorry to call you out on that but check your facts and do an interview David Baker if he is talking. Google “Nature Conservancy” and “scam” to get a real eye full. They are not a conservation group except for their own power and money.
No wonder David Baker has moved to Austin.
Please Charles,
David Baker needed someone like Conley to dig Baker out of the hole he dug for himself. This deal was a complete windfall for WVWA and David Baker on many levels. The developers also received a windfall and so did the city of Woodcreek.
Certainly WVWA pressed for this deal under the pretext of being conservationists. As should be clear to all by now they are opportunists not conservationists.
Nearly 100% of the value of the land was maliciously destroyed in this "deal" to the taxpayers' great detriment. The county attorney was no friend of the taxpayers either. As one individual asked him during the public hearings on November 23, 2010: "who do you work for, the county or WVWA?"
Watch Baker try to lay waste to other property in the area as he seeks to prevent water utilities from getting permits at the next GCD meeting on 02/21/2011 under the pretext of "conserving" water. It's only when Baker isn't getting a cut of the deal (directly or indirectly) that he pretends to be a "conservationist".
Just look who the winners and losers were in this scam:
The developers who leveraged 50 acres in a recession at a pre-recession price and skipped with their 50 water taps. If Conley is still around they will concoct another scam.
Conley who silenced the WVWA group regarding his destructive development projects funded with public money. If Conley runs for reelection he will try to peel off the environmentalist who are now indebted to him. If he runs for higher office---same thing.
WVWA now has a public source of generous funding for at least the next five years that will benefit certain individuals.
Nature Conservancy who now hold a government note bearing 6%, and more importantly, an inroad into future open space deals funded by Hays County taxpayers.
The losers are all the tax payers who will foot the bill for many years and who strive for open government.
I'm tired of the belly-aching by all you whining tax hypocrites. You people just gave the rich a trillion dollar tax cut and you let the criminal conservatives steal tax dollars that should have gone for your children's education.
And here you all are pissing off about some land that would just go to some sleazy developer anyway.
You're all a bunch of ignorant whiners. Better David Baker than some chemical company poisoning your drinking water.
But then again, you people think that is what free markets is all about: The right to screw up everything for profit.
If these acts are not illegal under the statutory definitions of fraud and misapplication (or outright theft of public funds for the enrichment of third parties) then they are clear violations of the public trust. The public officials who promoted and engaged in these transactions have brazenly violated their oaths of office. They should resign or be forced to resign. The proper examples of conduct must be set by the local citizens and officials at the local level first before we can expect reforms within other levels of our government.
Hey, I'm all for an outside investigation. Our stagecoach has been held up one too many times by this gang. I was told Conley now wants to buy one of those LCRA water lines in Hays for a cool 140 million. Hands UP taxpayers! Conley is planning another great water heist.
The Anonymous of February 15, 2011 1:22 AM is either a late night Troll or that left wing loon that often comments here using the moniker of ‘Ralph’. Nobody is whining here; we are simply asking that someone investigate this fraud, which would be rare in Hays County. Judge Cobb, where are you now that you have settled in? Please let us know that we didn’t waste our vote.
Will Conley is looking a lot like Hays County’s version of the Obamanator; illegally spending us into bankruptcy. Using the willing and greedy simpletons at the WVWA to accomplish the task has worked. Does anyone else see the irony of a politician spending our money to get our votes? Is this what has become of our political system? If so, stop the earth and let me off...
Let's mention names, Charles. David Baker was a big winner in this deal - which wasn't just a land purchase. County taxpayers got him out of a lawsuit he provoked, paid for his motel operation, and will be ensuring his salary via his WVWA organization for the next several years via "management" contracts for "managing" a hole in the ground. Great for Baker and his cult followers, not so great for the taxpayers.
Conley wasn't the only person behind this. You can count former commissioners Ford and Barton as well as commissioner Ingalsbe as being on the list. Good riddance to both Ford and Barton and hopefully this will remain an example as to the type of harm that can be expected should either of these two ever seek and be placed into public office again.
The wasting of the land value isn't even addressed. Not only did the taxpayers pay an inordinate price for the property - but the taxpayers paid that price for property with development rights. However, the county did not receive property with development rights. Instead, the county wound up with property worth virtually nothing since the development rights were conveyed to the Nature Conservancy.
The "deal" even went beyond and off-course of the little that was disclosed during commissioners court. Baker, Ford, Barton, and Ingalsbe were concerned that there was no way the incoming commissioners would support this fraud on the taxpayers. That's why the rush to purchase took place after November 23, 2011 and no public meetings were held to address these material changes.
Was Kennedy ever designated to accept on behalf of the county the land that was "donated"?
This article mischaracterizes the transaction as being a purchase of 50 acres. Although that was certainly what Conley represented in open court, the deal was subsequently structured as a purchase of a lesser portion of the whole at an exhorbitant price per acre with a donation of the remaining acreage "valued" at the same price per acre. This form over substance was designed to make the transaction a "tax free" sale from the perspective of the developer. However, donations to the county require that some individual be designated to approve/accept the donation. This is done in part to avoid gifts of liabilities to the county (i.e., which is what happened here). Was Mark Kennedy specifically authorized to accept the donation on behalf of Hays County?
The RoundUp might want to contact the attorneys for developers having judgments against SOS who appeared before Commissioners Court on 11/23/2010. The attorneys testified that they were monitoring the deal with the expectation that their clients were going to get paid out of this deal. If these judgment creditors did get paid then there's still more than meets the eye isn't there - since that would mean more financial side deals between the developer, WVWA, SOS, and these other entities that weren't disclosed.
Hey, Whinie E. Coyote. Late night (honest) Troll" is correct. You "tax governance" people are hypocrites.
Ii is OK for you to use your tax dollars to: 1) bail out banks and criminal businesses, 2)pay for disasters caused by oil companies, 3)give more money to the rich by cutting budgets that makes your class of people suffer and give up basic services to pay for the rich tax cuts, and 4) to send our children off to die and get maimed in wars because you hate a way of life other than a meaningless corporate supplicant existence, etc. etc.
At least the troll knows the truth about country Texans and the right (and wrong) side of America.
Thank you. Goober E. Coyote for remembering me. And, yes, I do agree 100% with the Anonymous you refer to. But your right wing paranoia is bringing out the worst in you.
Shall I call you a "right wing loon" - so we can be "fair and balanced", as your favorite hate propoganda channel so hypocritically uses?
"Using the willing and greedy simpletons at the WVWA to accomplish the task has worked. Does anyone else see the irony of a politician spending our money to get our votes? Is this what has become of our political system?"
Hey, Bubba, if you don't know that politicians have been using our money to get our votes for decades, you are already on another planet.
With your understanding of politics, the "simpletons" at WVWA are Einsteins compared to you.
is this the same WVWA that will be added to the county budget at $250,000.00 per year after the reserves of $400,000.00 is spent in the next two years? Is this the same Nature Consrevancy that will only charge $35,000 to handle the closing in the $5,000,000, purchase of the land for endangered specis that the voters did not vote for, and to charge only $15,000 in fees to close on the remainder of land paid for from Parks Bound Money?
This whole thing was nothing more or less than a taxpayer’s Bail-Out of the WVWA and the City of Woodcreek. They were facing the risk of a lengthy and very expensive lawsuit and Hays County (Will Conley) effectively bailed them out using our Park Funds. Does anybody really believe we will ever see anything like a park at the site? The WVWA intends to restrict the public from the property to protect their hole.
It is interesting that the land (R32876) acquired carried an agricultural exemption and was appraised in 2010 by the County at about $235,000 (AG Market) and only accessed at $6000 (AG Use). What a rip off. Using a legal scam, the land was subdivided into a bunch of 5 acre lots and there was no farming going on there unless weeds are a crop. Who paid the rollback tax for taking the land out of the so-called agricultural use? Now there will be no taxes paid at all to anyone due to the new owners being (wink, wink, nod) non-profit. I am amazed at the huge amount of land in this area that is exempt from property taxes. No wonder our home ad valorem tax rates are so high and yet our schools are suffering!Yee-Haw!
re Anon @ 2/16/11 9:20 AM "Now there will be no taxes paid at all to anyone due to the new owners being (wink, wink, nod) non-profit."
The new owner of the land is the county. The new owner of the development rights is the organization known as The Nature Conservancy. Perform a Google search on TNC and "scam". At any rate, TNC doesn't have to pay any taxes on the development rights ever even though they will control the 50 acre part of the county owned property.
As to the 31 acres of the 46 (or more) previously titled to the WVWA - that was likewise conveyed to the county - however WVWA and SOS control the county's use of the property that the county paid for. In addition WVWA kept the 15+ acres that the county paid for in their own name. (The county previously gave WVWA $2.6 million to dig itself out of a hole in 2008 to pay off the creditors for the land - but the county let WVWA retain title to the property the county paid for). WVWA and SOS don't have to pay taxes on the development rights they control.
Anon @ 2/15/11 9:57 AM is no doubt correct in the objective of Baker and Conley pulling off a shady land real estate deal. However, instead of the partial land sales and donation back of land - the scam is likely a little different now that the actual contract has been made available to the public (after-the-fact). I see one of two things happening.
I. Baker, Hollon, and Conley will come crying that the county needs to buy these taps from Westridge in order to "Save Jacobs Well" (and of course there will be a myriad of side deals between WVWA and the developer as Baker advises the county as to the value of the taps - just as he did for the land value of the land deal.); or
II. The developer will offer to "donate" its water utility rights to some entity in order to get a tax credit for the value of the donation. The rights are only good on that AquaTex system and the county's only interest near there is the worthless land they paid around $5 million for. There is no reason for the county to accept it since the county can't build anything on the property. Watch the developer "donate" the utilities rights to TNC or SOS and claim a tax write off. Again perform a Google search on "scam" and The Nature Conservancy. The fact that the utility rights were excluded from the contract to begin with illustrates that the groundwork for these shenanigans was intentional and planned as part of this transaction that involved another $1.7 million of taxpayer dollars.
The HTGCD could help put a stop to this scam by reducing AquaTex's permit by the 6 million gal/year that the utility rights for the developer represent. Let's see if Baker would recuse himself from voting in relation to such a reduction.......
The subdivision of the 50 acres was done what back in the 70s? 50s?. A really long time ago. How could it have been ag exempt? Anytime a piece of property is subdivided into residential lots, in this case, mobile home lots why was the land not re-classified? Unless the subdivision was vacated it should not have been ag? Who notifies the Central Appraisal District when land use is changed and subdivided? Definately should go after back taxes if it was Ag exempt
I think it is time we get a petition going to ask Cobb to get an outside special investigation going here on the Conley/WVWA deal. After reading these comments, there seems to be a lot more than what the article has in it. I think the public deserves to know everything about the two purchases - the well and 50 acres. I remember an internet petition to remove Conley for his temper tantrum in Commissioners Court a few months back. Whoever knows how to do that should start one for an investigation.
Anonymous said...“Who notifies the Central Appraisal District when land use is changed and subdivided?”
The short answer is hardly anybody since the rollback tax would kick in. I know of one property owner that converted her home to rental property and left the state and the property still carried a Homestead Exemption. The exemption in Hays County (probably the whole State) is rampant because appraisal districts are so busy trying to find new cheesy ways of increasing the valuation on small homeowners. Property Tax in the State is a fraud but since it finances schools the School Districts and the “Mommy Units” won’t allow any changes. I think I’ll put out a bird feeder and claim a Wildlife Exemption!
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