Commentary regarding Public Programs and Mayor Brown's Home Purchase

[Cheshire Cat]

I remember a few years ago when the block were on the market. I was "ghost writing" for a real estate investor who talked about the government money that could be extracted from buying in neighborhoods north of downtown. In my view there needs to be some reform in the system to make that money unavailable for investors.

Just for everyone's information.  Our current Mayor is quite adept in this particular area of expertise.  He used his connections and government funding to purchase his Jacksonville home, which is why he is here.  That is the ugly truth.  Too many people who are supposed to be working for the taxpayers avail themselves of the government dollars and programs to serve their own needs.  There are several who did this in Springfield as well as throughout the city.  Not just for personal homes but to build private businesses, shopping centers and to direct funding for roadways to tie into said business efforts. 

[Cheshire Cat]

To my point above.  What people don't want to realize about Mayor Alvin Brown and how he works government programs and benefits to his own ends. Are you paying attention now Jacksonville?

"I always believe in my heart that I was called to run," Mayor-elect Alvin Brown said during a recent interview. "God gave me a vision and I ran with it. And my message is going to be for young people that when God gives you a vision, you've got to go for it, even though other people can't see it."

It's a common refrain, repeated often by Jacksonville's newly-elected mayor.

Brown went on to explain that his faith is "a testament to how I've lived my life, that I've always prayed about it, and everything that I set out to achieve has mostly come to pass."

Praise the Lord.

That, and a little help from his politically-connected friends in high places — an impressive list of benefactors that includes, among others, former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and flamboyant lawyer Willie Gary, a multimillionaire philanthropist who took Brown under his wings.

There's also U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and wealthy businessman Peter Rummell, a prominent Republican fundraiser and chairman of the Jacksonville Civic Council whose decisive support proved to be a turning point in the May 17 mayoral election.

Curiously, they've all been mere mortals.

The former Winn-Dixie meat-cutter, to be sure, has had no shortage of guardian angels in his seemingly rags-to-riches climb. On closer scrutiny, Brown also seems to have been blessed when it comes to even the most basic things in his life, including something as simple as selling a house.

That appears to have been the case in the spring of 2005 when Brown and his wife, Santhea Hicks, sold a property on W. 16th Street in Jacksonville for $89,000 — more than twice what they had paid for it in September 2001, only 43 months earlier.

Brown had purchased the three-bedroom property for $43,000 on September 25, 2001. It was financed with a $63,500 mortgage through the Oklahoma National Bank in Tulsa, a de novo bank founded a year earlier. It was a curious loan for a start-up community bank with seemingly no ties to Jacksonville, a city more than a thousand miles away.

God acts in mysterious ways.

While housing prices in northeast Florida jumped significantly in the period 2001 to 2005 — shortly before the nationwide housing bubble, fueled by relaxed lending standards and relatively low mortgage interest rates, began to burst so spectacularly in early 2006 — in most cases, they didn't double in value.

According to the House Price Index, a weighted repeat sales index covering 380 metropolitan areas and published annually by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the median price for single homes in Jacksonville — and that percentage fluctuates considerably depending on the particular neighborhood involved — appreciated by 38.8 percent during the relatively brief period in which Brown and his wife owned the property on W. 16th Street.

The fact that Brown was able to turn a handsome profit on his property really isn't the issue. Buyers and sellers set the price in a free market.

On the other hand, the buyer of that property could turn out to be somewhat embarrassing for the mayor whose background was never seriously scrutinized during the recent mayoral campaign.

It turns out that Brown's property at 1518 W. 16th Street was purchased by the Community Rehabilitation Center, a federally-funded entity with more than its fair share of critics.

Brown's property was one of five or six single family dwellings purchased by the rehab center, which offers programs for mental health, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS prevention and job training.

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The Mayor-Elect Sold His Home to the Federally-Funded Community Rehab Center for a Significant Profit in 2005

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According to its website, Brown — who takes office on July 1 — currently serves as an adviser to the non-profit organization, a post he shares with U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and several other local luminaries.

The controversial community rehab center has been in the news frequently in recent years, largely because of its ties to Rep. Brown, whose daughter, Shantrel, works as a lobbyist for the non-profit agency. The center had paid Alcalde and Fay, the Arlington, Virginia-based law firm that employs the congresswoman's daughter, at least $185,000 since 2005.

Rep. Brown herself has requested more than $3 million in earmarks for the center since 2008.

In 2008, Brown secured $147,000 for Pearl Plaza that was earmarked for the Community Rehabilitation Center, whose top officials, coincidentally, owned three profit-making businesses that lease space at a reduced rate in the plaza.

The center is totally dependent on taxpayer subsidies. Last year, for example, more than $2.3 million in government grants and another $2.4 million in Medicaid payments accounted for the vast majority of the center's revenues.

It's unclear precisely what Alvin Brown's relationship with the Jacksonville Community Rehabilitation Center might have been in 2005 when, according to records in the Duval County Property Appraiser's office, the non-profit purchased his home, but by the time he sold his property that spring he had completely mended fences with Congresswoman Corrine Brown, a onetime adversary whom he had challenged unsuccessfully in the 1994 Democratic primary.

It's hard to determine what caused the new mayor's good fortune that spring, but divine intervention certainly wasn't the reason.

By 2005, the mayor-elect had contributed at least $2,750 to three of Brown's reelection campaigns, twice giving the maximum individual amount allowed. According to the Federal Election Commission, he has donated another $4,000 to Brown's congressional campaigns since then.

Then again, it could turn out to be just a weird coincidence, one of those inexplicable things where of the more than 21,600 homes sold in Jacksonville that year, the rehab center just happened to have its eyes on the property owned by Alvin Brown.

And pigs fly.

Jacksonville's new mayor can continue to speak endlessly — and piously — about prayer and the "vision" that God supposedly provided him, but his political success is largely attributable to his willingness to exploit his political connections, both personally and professionally, to a degree that would probably embarrass even the most shameless practitioners of "politics as usual

http://www.jaxobserver.com/2011/06/16/alvin-brown-and-the-power-of-prayer/

[tufsu1]

That appears to have been the case in the spring of 2005 when Brown and his wife, Santhea Hicks, sold a property on W. 16th Street in Jacksonville for $89,000 — more than twice what they had paid for it in September 2001, only 43 months earlier.

and the point is? 

I bought my first home in Tampa in January of 2001 for $76,000....sold it in May of 2005 for $176,000....bought a second one pre-construction in September 2004 for $264,000...moved in May of 2005....and then subsequently sold for $334,000 in March 2006 when I got transferred to Jacksonville.

I had no help from "connected people"....that was just the market conditions then.


Diane...we get it...you don't like Mayor Brown....you wanted Mike Hogan elected and still hang closely with Glorious Johnson.

[Cheshire Cat]

That appears to have been the case in the spring of 2005 when Brown and his wife, Santhea Hicks, sold a property on W. 16th Street in Jacksonville for $89,000 — more than twice what they had paid for it in September 2001, only 43 months earlier.

and the point is? 

I bought my first home in Tampa in January of 2001 for $76,000....sold it in May of 2005 for $176,000....bought a second one pre-construction in September 2004 for $264,000...moved in May of 2005....and then subsequently sold for $334,000 in March 2006 when I got transferred to Jacksonville.

I had no help from "connected people"....that was just the market conditions then.


Diane...we get it...you don't like Mayor Brown....you wanted Mike Hogan elected and still hang closely with Glorious Johnson.

No tufsu1, you don't get it.  This is about corruption not about who was elected the last time around.  If you can't see that, I don't know what to say to you or others beyond stating that this type of defense and denial of inappropriate behaviors on the part of elected or appointed officials is not something anyone should accept or allow and a mindset like that is what allows this type of abuse to continue.  Tufsu1, I am not shallow minded or uninformed so please do not attempt to paint my commentary here as anything other than connecting the dots to corruption. Whatever storyline your have repeating in your head about the reasons for my concern with our city and it's officials is just that, your personal story line.  There is no truth to it so don't try to apply your fantasy to my actions. Please remember this in future interactions.  Thank you!   By the way Alvin Brown, sold that home he doubled his money on to Reggie Gaffney's non profit, the one he used to scam medicare to the tune of 1.4 million.  There is an inside group in government that uses what is meant for the people to enrich themselves.  They are working the system right now with the creation of a non profit for
Springfield in order to try and secure for themselves all city owned "surplus" properties in the area.  That's enough about Hogan by the way.  He has nothing to do with this, that election is over and we are now dealing with Alvin Brown!  Stop the nonsense and pay attention to the facts.  What has gone on and continues to go on in our city is the abuse of programs and moneys meant for the citizens not for players without need working the system for profit. That is the bottom line in all of this.

Do I have an agenda?  You bet I do and that agenda is to stop the corruption inside our city offices, expose the players and return this city, it's programs and the officials representing it to the citizens so that it works for them and our future, not for a select and greedy few.  I do not support corruption in any form period!  This is not a game and this is not politics.  It is our government structure that needs cleaning up. I don't believe I can be more direct than this!

[Cheshire Cat]

It may be time to move this discussion to a thread of it's own.  Here is one last post with regard to how our governmental system and programs are manipulated and used.

Here is Gaffneys "non profit" that is currently at play.  This is a non profit driven by a guy who has been caught with this hand in the cookie jar of public moneys more than once.  Take a look at how this effort is funded.

CDBG

The Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) supports economic expansion among low- and moderate-income individuals and develops suitable housing and other living environments.

Funds from the 2011 CDBG are being used to increase the CRC Institute, the educational component of CRC. The expansion of approximately 2,000 square feet will create more classrooms to enlarge course offerings and add office space to house career managers. The construction project will bring under one roof all aspects of the Institute that are currently in separate locations.

CDBG funds are provided by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and disbursed by the City of Jacksonville.

http://communityrehabcenter.org/grant-programs/current-grant-programs/cdbg/

Alvin Brown was connected to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department before he came here and is now the Mayor of the City that is handing out said federal funding.  On tap for that funding is a non profit run by a guy who it has already been proven, falsely billed Medicare to the tune of $1.4 million dollars.  Anyone see the potential problem here?

Still don't see the red flags?  Try this link! 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19870625&id=rgEyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BeoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5666,2945343

[tufsu1]

While, I agree that she has an agenda...did you see who he sold the house to?

I understand...but to say that the value only went up because of that is disingenuine....fact is, most people saw huge increases in value during the early 2000s

[Cheshire Cat]

Tufsu1, did you happen to notice that I did not write the article, nor did I publish it? lol Whose facts are you arguing anyway?  Sounds to me that the argument is in your own head.  I don't recall saying that the property value doubled because of the deal with Gaffney's non profit.  Whatever the reason for the uptick in value might be, that has nothing what-so-ever to do with issue under discussion right now. Nothing!  In the meantime, if you have further questions about the article shared, perhaps direct those questions and comments to the author of the article and the folks who published it. I posted it for the sake of sharing the information with the readers of the forum. What is made clear via the article is that Alvin Brown and Gaffney had connections to federal funding and used federal funding in a deal struck between Brown and Gaffney's non profit group. This connection was in place before Alvin ever took office. That is a matter of record and for many folks, it is a matter of concern.

[tufsu1]

I don't recall saying that the property value doubled because of the deal with Gaffney's non profit. 

you sure did intimate it

[Cheshire Cat]

I don't recall saying that the property value doubled because of the deal with Gaffney's non profit. 

you sure did intimate it

Bless your heart.  Still working that internal dialog I see.  lol  How you could have missed the issue at the heart of the discussion is hard for me to understand, but I will no longer ponder that question. It really doesn't matter and doesn't impact the facts as listed in the article shared which again I did not author but that reality apparently isn't going to keep that imagination of yours in tow.