JJ Bonds
Victor Valley College

Written by Free Press                                                                                 3-09-2010



JJ!  Sounds like the name of a rap group, playing high volume music with an emphasis on bass drums, ta-dumb, ta-dumb.
    
Actually, the JJ bonds were an item on the 2008 general election ballot.
You may remember seeing signs on the roadside, Yes on JJ, No on JJ, no new taxes? How did you vote? Members of the Yes on JJ committee flooded the mails and media with ads explaining the JJ issues and reminding the voters why they should vote favorably on the matter.  You might also have seen alleged students in front of the college and on Main St., Hesperia, painting a picture of the positive virtues of the JJ bonds. I can imagine President Silverman of Victor Valley College singing a rap with JJ and the Jets! while he’s performing a suede, soft-shoe to massage the public.

To be serious, the JJ issue was arranged and manipulated to provide the public with little more than grand generalities about the JJ virtues. We possess, we believe, copies of all of the political leaflets and media text surrounding the issue. If not all, then most of the advertising had no SPECIFIC dollar amounts or yearly time frames, projected total dollar amounts to repay the bonds, the dollar amounts the public would have to pay on their annual property tax bills, the total number of years for the bond project and a host of other missing critical data. Simply put, the public was manipulated to wrest as much as $1,000,000,000 (Billion) dollars from their savings, at a time when the economy had already headed into a nosedive.
    

And, the tragedy is, very few people knew what they were voting for. Prior to our summarizing what we felt the financial issues were surrounding the JJ bonds, we obtained official data from the college and summarized based upon that information. The information was alarming enough that two individuals contacted the Daily Press and the Hesperia Star and offered copies of the data for potential publication prior to the election. Both newspapers declined the offer. Why? The calculated plan to limit the understanding by the public of JJ took several paths. On one occasion President Silverman spoke to the Hesperia City Council regarding JJ.  A city council member inquired of Mr. Silverman “...how much money will the taxpayer have to pay each year on their property tax bill?”  Mr. Silverman stated that the average homeowner of a $200,000-$250,000 home would pay approximately $60.00 per year.

It is, however, interesting to note that Mr. Silverman did NOT reveal to the council and the public that $60.00 per year would only pay for the first years sales of bonds. He also omitted to state that under JJ, the college was authorized to sell bonds for ten years. The resulting annual tax bill to the public will end up, potentially, costing several hundred dollars per year.
    

Further, Mr. Silverman referred to the JJ bonds as a thirty year project. Not so! JJ bonds encompass a forty year period. Bonds will be sold for ten years. It will take thirty years to pay off all bonds from the date of sale. That means that the bonds sold on the tenth year will not be paid in full until the fortieth year.

We could write paragraphs regarding public statements in support of JJ made by supporters and politicians. Suffice to say that quite often what was being said was misleading.

Misleading the public has continued long after the election. The August 2009 edition of the Victor Valley Link, a publication of the Victor Valley Foundation, had a page one, headline article titled “Foundation receives prime land donation.” The land being referred to is a five acre parcel on Main St., in Hesperia, somewhat east of state highway 395. The donated land was given by a developer who benefitted greatly by the gift. The college purchased from the same developer real property on the side of a hill and containing a flood wash. The purchase of 55 acres was reported as in excess of $10,000,000. The Victor Valley Link did not report the property purchase to the public nor did they report that the $10,000,000+ purchase was paid for by JJ bond money.  The JJ bond money which was touted as being desperately needed, as you can now see, is being used for among other things, real estate speculation. Additionally, we question the wisdom of spending $10,000,000+ on land speculation in the middle of a major recession.
 

Whether or not a real estate appraisal was obtained for the purchase, appraisals of this type tend to be very unreliable in a rapidly declining real estate market. The purchase of 55 acres for over $181,000 per acre, on the side of a hill and in a large gully is additionally suspect when one considers the amount of funding necessary to develop the property in preparation for construction. Costs for engineering, grading, and on and off-site improvements will be enormous, not to mention the actual cost of construction of buildings. It is believed that beside the $10,000,000+ that the developer received, he will also receive a tax write-off for the five acres that he “donated.”

The JJ bonds appear to be part of a formula exercised by those who would profit from bond sales and land speculation. When the Victor Valley College board hired Mr. Silverman, they were aware of a book titled “Teaching  Against the Neon Palm Trees,” written by Lee Ryan Miller. Mr. Miller is from Nevada and involved in education. In his book he refers to Mr. Silverman on multiple occasions and Mr. Silverman’s ruthless style of dealing with people and related business matters. Despite the board’s prior knowledge, Mr. Silverman was hired because they knew he would do what was necessary to pass the JJ bonds.

This update regarding the JJ bonds was justified and is necessary because the local press has decided that a debt of $1,000,000,000 is not worth mentioning and revised reporting. We will attempt to report in the future how much money was actually spent advertising and lobbying for the JJ bonds and from whom the money came.
    

We also suggest that the public determine which Victor Valley College board members voted to hire Mr. Silverman and then ascertain if any of those board members are running for political office in 2010. We believe that at least one board member will be a candidate for the Victorville City Council in 2010.

Considering Victorville’s existing massive debt, would it be wise to place a Victor Valley College board member on that council, considering the board member voted to create $1,000,000,000 worth of debt that will take forty years to repay?