Worcester city manager explores job with developer
http://www.telegram.com/article/20130917/NEWS/309179885/1116
Manager O'Brien has demonstrated for all to see and reflect on why we need to get rid of the Weak Mayor/Strong Manager form of government. This unelected official was accustomed to negotiating deals in secret and then getting the Council to rubber-stamp them. Rarely would they stand up to him, no doubt because to get anything done they had to stay on his good side.
Each time his position came up for review the Councilors would swallow what they were saying in private, heap praise on him and give him top marks to continue.
The last time Councilor Joe O'Brien, who had announced he wasn't running again, spoke some of the truth. The other ten punted. Joe had tried being Mayor for a term, but what's the point when the Mayor has so little power?
Now a series of deals Manager Mike made have been rejected, due to public demand and the exposure of the details to debate. He has several times stepped out of his role to advocate for them, clearly in distress, to no avail. The Hotel TIF deal, the Slots Parlor deal, the Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation ordinance and more, Mike couldn't deliver as promised.
Maybe the Council, which has finally found a backbone, will manage to manage the next Manager next time, and manage to not let the law that says the Manager works for the Council become a fiction again. That will depend on the active involvement of the public as much as anything.
But maybe this is the time to look at a Charter Revision, so we won't again have a Manager acquire the power to intimidate the Council, rule from behind the scenes and deliver for the developers in secret!
It takes a lot of work and trouble to elect a Mayor to represent the people. A lot of organizing and canvassing by a lot of people went into electing Joe O'Brien Mayor, into convincing the voters it was worth bothering to come out to the polls and vote. When Joe quit as Mayor and now as Councilor, he was telling us we had wasted our time!
This is not what democracy looks like!
Showing posts with label Mike O'Brien. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike O'Brien. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Worcester bank "fee" "backfires on struggling homeowners"
In response to Telegram and Gazette article
Worcester bank fee backfires on struggling homeowners
http://comments.telegram.com/assets/article_comments_html/104299945_ZA1.html
................
The ordinance requiring banks to register with the City and post a $5000 bond when they file an Intent to Foreclose petition with the State has made a visible difference. Properties foreclosed in the last few years that are going to ruin now seem less common around town compared to properly secured and weatherized ones. But the practice of passing this deposit on to the borrower needs to be outlawed. City Manager O'Brien deserves applause for his statements and for pursuing the banks on this.
This is just one more example of an endless litany I hear from people. There often seems to be no logic, rhyme or reason - or decency - to the things these big banks do. Their behavior of toward their borrowers makes a mockery of all of our notions of fair dealing or even what banking is.
For example, when people run into trouble on their mortgage payments due to some circumstance like a layoff or divorce and go to the bank for help - sometimes just with catching up - many report being told (illegally!) that they need to first be three months behind on their payments. So they let themselves fall three months behind and then find themselves in a nightmare world of negotiations often dragging on for years, leading almost inevitably to foreclosure. Fees and penalties pile up, days spent on hold or re-faxing paperwork the bank couldn't find.
And just when the borrower thinks they have a deal, the bank invents a new rule - or just forecloses anyway! The example here of a bank foreclosing after having completed the loan modification is typical.
This is not banking - or even capitalism - as you learned about it in school. These banks are mostly merely servicing loans that have been placed in a trust against which mortgage-backed securities were issued. They notoriously show little concern for recovering the investment. They get handsomely paid out of the trust fund, and their biggest payoff is for the foreclosure! Their victims include the borrowers, the City - and the investors who bought those securities!
Now we need the City Council to pass Mandatory Mediation next week, which has been highly effective wherever it has been tried.
......................
By the way, many of those hollowed-out and semi-fraudulant Mortgage Backed Securities have been purchased by the Federal Reserve Banks as part of their Quantitative Easing programs. The Fed is a private institution, fully owned by other mega-banks, but they issue our public money. Their buying of these securities contributes to a growing lack of confidence throughout the world in the stability of the dollar.
In the end we will all pay the price for this vast system of fraud.
Worcester bank fee backfires on struggling homeowners
http://comments.telegram.com/assets/article_comments_html/104299945_ZA1.html
................
The ordinance requiring banks to register with the City and post a $5000 bond when they file an Intent to Foreclose petition with the State has made a visible difference. Properties foreclosed in the last few years that are going to ruin now seem less common around town compared to properly secured and weatherized ones. But the practice of passing this deposit on to the borrower needs to be outlawed. City Manager O'Brien deserves applause for his statements and for pursuing the banks on this.
This is just one more example of an endless litany I hear from people. There often seems to be no logic, rhyme or reason - or decency - to the things these big banks do. Their behavior of toward their borrowers makes a mockery of all of our notions of fair dealing or even what banking is.
For example, when people run into trouble on their mortgage payments due to some circumstance like a layoff or divorce and go to the bank for help - sometimes just with catching up - many report being told (illegally!) that they need to first be three months behind on their payments. So they let themselves fall three months behind and then find themselves in a nightmare world of negotiations often dragging on for years, leading almost inevitably to foreclosure. Fees and penalties pile up, days spent on hold or re-faxing paperwork the bank couldn't find.
And just when the borrower thinks they have a deal, the bank invents a new rule - or just forecloses anyway! The example here of a bank foreclosing after having completed the loan modification is typical.
This is not banking - or even capitalism - as you learned about it in school. These banks are mostly merely servicing loans that have been placed in a trust against which mortgage-backed securities were issued. They notoriously show little concern for recovering the investment. They get handsomely paid out of the trust fund, and their biggest payoff is for the foreclosure! Their victims include the borrowers, the City - and the investors who bought those securities!
Now we need the City Council to pass Mandatory Mediation next week, which has been highly effective wherever it has been tried.
......................
By the way, many of those hollowed-out and semi-fraudulant Mortgage Backed Securities have been purchased by the Federal Reserve Banks as part of their Quantitative Easing programs. The Fed is a private institution, fully owned by other mega-banks, but they issue our public money. Their buying of these securities contributes to a growing lack of confidence throughout the world in the stability of the dollar.
In the end we will all pay the price for this vast system of fraud.
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