It seems the discussion between the Board and their lawyers during the last meeting was in response to my submitted comments prior to the meeting. Since I don't see that they've been posted by the Board, I am including them below for discussion. You will note that nowhere did I threaten to sue anyone. I have in the past said that if the Board takes any collection action against me based on this Notice, I will counterclaim against them, what choice would I have?
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I received the notice of assessment from the PASRD Board and have the following objections. My earlier comments sent to the Board and Directors over the last two years are also within the Noon, May 24, 2021 deadline and are also part of the record.
I'm in favor of paving. I'm happy to pay for it according to the County assessment and levy laws. For the following reasons I won't be paying this PSARD any property assessment unless and until I get a notice from the Deschutes County Tax Assessor or Tax Collector .
1. There has been no valid Panoramic Access Special District District election and there can be no valid assessment.
An SRD election which excludes district electors (registered voters) based on property ownership is prohibited by the Oregon Constitution as well as the ORS. The property owners' vote conducted by the Board excluded resident electors if they did not own property in the District. It was therefore not a valid SRD election, and the Notice of Assessment based on that invalid election has no legal effect, none.
2. There is no Panoramic property owners' association so the property owners' vote conducted by the Board has no legal effect on anyone. This is exactly what one Board member and road committee member/speculator were told in person by the County Assessor. A valid assessment requires either an SRD elector vote on an ad valorem assessment, an elector vote to form a Local Improvement District, or whoever wants to can pass the hat for voluntary contributions. The Board has simply refused to comply. In the process the Board has misspent District funds on a property owners' vote. The District's (our) misspent funds can hopefully be recovered under the District's E&O insurance coverage by the next Board.
3. Oregon statutes prohibit an SRD from either collecting or holding SRD assessments. Our property tax assessments may only be collected and held by Deschutes County.
4. Oregon statutes only authorize SRD property assessments on an ad valorem basis, (per thousand dollars of property value.) SRD lump sum assessments are not authorized nor permitted.
5. The current assessment is unfair. In addition to the few wealthy homeowners and unscrupulous speculators primarily driving this attempt to bypass a levy vote, there are many working families and retirees living in Panoramic for whom this assessment would be an unfair burden. The Board has expressed zero empathy for those families or the unfairness of this assessment. ("Well, maybe not everyone can afford to live here.") Indeed, not all can afford to cough up or finance the $6000 (or whatever the amount turns out to be, there is no contracted project cost, only a windage estimate.) The Board appears to have not taken that into consideration.
In light of all that, if I receive a notice or property tax statement from either the Deschutes County Assessor or Tax Collector that a paving assessment has been levied, I will gladly pay it and support the paving project. I will not be sending this Board any payment on this Notice of Assessment.
Sincerely,
Glenn Brown
I am glad you are willing to jump in and contribute. I hope you will run for my husband's position which ends this year. We personally are done. You want dirt roads - you got them. Sadly without more money this community will have dirt as roads rather than even good gravel. So, jump in and take over Glenn. Quit being just a whiner.
Attn: Mr. Glenn Brown;
Have you already submitted a ballot measure to the county?
The Board for the last 2-3 years has been trying to run Panoramic as a property owners association, but it's just not and it's too late tor that now. A property owners association is most often done when the property is subdivided (didn't happen here) or later by agreement of all property owners (not going to happen here.)
So here we are. PSARD was formed as a Special Road District by registered Oregon voters living in the District. That's what we are today, a District of registered voters who must be permitted vote before the District can assess its properties for paving.
That was the point of the Board's Christmas 2021 lawsuit against us - to avoid letting us all vote. Instead the Board asked the Court to grant the Board the authority to lien our properties without our consent, or even legal notice. Let's say that again - the 3 commissioners tried to lien our properties without our consent or even legal notice. And used underhanded tactics to try to deceive and buffalo us along the way just for good measure, including their amateurish Christmas 2021 filing to try to slip their lawsuit past us all over the holidays. I will apologize to no one for refusing to be intimidated by the Board, their lawyers' and their Keystone Cops shenanigans, or for calling all of them out to stop it.
Back to property owners associations, any property owner(s) could form a Panoramic Property Owners Association today, tomorrow, or anytime. They could register it with the Secretary of State, adopt bylaws, elect officers, have meetings, get a website, discuss improvements including the roads and anything else. Why haven't they? Because it would just be a social club - they themselves would not be able to lien our properties to raise money from us. Instead they decided to use our road tax funds to pay for their property owner association lawyers, polls, elections, litigation, etc. They're playing us here, playing store with our public tax money, and using it to get for themselves a reduces paving assessment on the backs of their less wealthy neighbors . Daring anyone to complain. Oh well, there's always some glass bowl who complains, might as well be me.
That's why I'm asking for an audit. It's not that I believe any Board member is putting dollar bills in their pockets per se. But they are spending our district tax funds on something not authorized and in an unfair way against us. They're doing it despite County officials from the Assessor all the way to County Counsel telling the and me they had to do a levy election through the County. They're flipping them and us off. They're appointed Commissioners, we can't recall them. What else to do?
Audit the District - get a Court or the Secretary of State to shine a light in here and make sure we aren't owed reimbursement for some or all of the Board's spending on all this. (Maybe the Treasurer can post on here just how much money that is.) If their spending was not authorized, we might be able to recover our money from the District and the Board's law firm's insurance companies. The State Bar also has a fee mediation process for dissatisfied legal clients that will examine what was done, if it was justified and legal, if any legal opinions were at least arguably correct or not, and what they charged all of us for for all of that. We could use it to start with, it's free.
Aside from the money, I'm determined to protect our property and voting rights. I will not let a few newcomers and a couple of crooked speculators come into our neighborhood and lie to us, misspend our money, defraud incoming owner/buyers, delay the paving, and generally screw things up for the rest of us. Now they want to say never mind, turn tail and run leaving their mess for us. Let's clean up their mess right now while their money is tied up here and we have leverage over them here and now - the gravel roads in front of their expensive homes.
Everyone must understand and accept that their expensive homes and investment properties will be sitting on those gravel roads for the foreseeable future - years - if everyone doesn't get behind passing a ballot measure for the paving. It is the shortest path to getting it done, and the only path forward. I have begun the process for one, but realistically unless the Board and its peeps also support it, I doubt it will pass. It has to be the Board do it.
That is the Board's job - secure the funding for the road improvements by holding a district election. There is a funding path available to do it, it needs to be tried and the Board is best-suited and equipped to do it. If they continue in their refusal to do so they should resign. In the meantime I am going to ask the county what our total assessed value is in PSARD so we can calculate a rate per thousand for an ballot measure assessment. That might help people figure out where they stand and want to do. About politics and taxes, I did not mean to offend when I said take politics to the legislature, or learn more about Oregon tax laws. Oregon is not a tax friendly place for high earners, capital gains, residential landlords, retirement income taxation, etc. You might be in the wrong state if those are deal breakers for you. But stay or go, complaining about somebody else voting to tax your property in Oregon is a waste of breath and a divisive distraction here. In the real world we live in a rule bound little road district that operates under long standing county and Oregon state tax laws. Those laws have been tested before in Oregon's Supreme Court, and we're not going to change all that.
So let's try the funding method that is available to us to get the roads paved.
Glenn Brown
From the County to the Board
John Laherty <john.laherty@deschutes.org> To:'Glenn',Panoramic Road District Garry Miller (Treasurer) Cc:Board
Thu, Jun 3 at 2:20 PM
Mr. Brown: As I’ve previously informed you, I do not represent you and cannot provide you with legal advice. Likewise, I do not represent the Panoramic Access Special Road District or its Board. I strongly suggest that you consider retaining an attorney of your choosing to assist you in this matter. Thanks, John