Taxpayers For Good Government? The Story Behind the PAC
This is my version of the Taxpayers For Good Government (TGG) PAC story and why its important to the residents of the High Desert / San Bernardino County to learn from. TGG was the prototype for the PAC as the mechanism to buy the elected offices that the building industry (BIA) needed to control. It was started in 2004 and was terminated in 2008 but it was a major controlling factor in who was put into office and how they could vote to benefit the Building Industry Association. The local version of the developers “owning” the local politicians was created with the TGG pac. The result of developers actually running local governments is what we have now in the new scandal a week political environment. Many other PACs have sprung up since 2004 and fund special interest groups political hopes, but none have had the negative effect that the TGG has had on the High Desert and consequently our lives.
TGG was the first of its kind for the High Desert, a developer funded PAC. Staggering amounts of money were moved from developers into political campaigns over the 4 years of its existence. Starting up in 2004, TGG received $276,381.00 from developers and spent $265,169.00 on political campaigns. In full swing in 2006 , TGG received $512,268.60 in contributions and spent $500,593.51 in political expenditures. At the end for TGG , in 2008, contributions received were at $33,500.00 and expenditures made totaled $37,070.89. For TGG ,a rough 4 year money total of $822,149.00 developer dollars invested into TGG while spending $802,832.00 on getting their developer friendly candidates elected.
Local politicians that got funding from the TGG PAC over the 4 years are or were, Anthony Adams, Tad Honeycutt, Dennis Nowicki, Josie Gonzales, Glenn Aylor, Bob Almond, Scott Nassif, Ted Burgnon, Tim Silva, Julie Hackbarth-McIntire, Scott McCauley, Mike Page, Bev Lowry, Jim Ventura, Elliot Fajardo, Jiles Smith, Bill Postmus, Brad Mitzelfelt, Ed Pack, Jim Lindley, Bob Hunter, Gary Ovitt, Mike Rothschild, Rudy Cabriales, Joann Almond. These are the High Desert or County level names you may be familiar with. The offices that TGG was trying to buy were County Supervisors, City and Town Councils and local water agencies such as Baldy Mesa and the Mojave Water Agency. TGG was also instrumental in many other SB County elections and at the State level.
How much influence the TGG/Developer money had on these individuals is based on your opinion of how they have voted on developer related issues. What were their priorities while in office? How did they spend tax dollars? Who’s interests were and are they representing? How did the taxpayers fair? How did the developers fair?
A Little Background
For clarification, the historical name of the pac on the Secretary of State website is Empire Land - Taxpayers For Good Government (TGG) ID# 1265009. On 4-5-2004 Empire Land LLC gave TGG its first contribution of $10,000.00 to get the ball rolling.
Empire Land was one of many building interests owned and operated by Jim Previti Sr. Empire Land, an Ontario, Calif.-based land development company, filed for bankruptcy protection on April 25 2008 in the Riverside Divisional Office of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California.
Empire Land, LLC engages in acquiring, securing the entitlement, coordinating, and developing land in California. Empire Land, LLC operates as a subsidiary of Empire Companies. On December 9, 2008, the voluntary petition of Empire Land, LLC for reorganization under Chapter 11 was converted to Chapter 7.
Jim Previti, Sr. launched Empire Land LLC after he sold Forecast Homes to Hovnanian Enterprises in 2002 and entered into a non-compete agreement preventing him from building entry-level product and capping the total number of homes he could build.
In 2006, Empire Land had 7,500 units planned in its two largest communities, controlled 13,500 lots, and had another 5,000 lots in various stages of acquisition.
In January 2006, Previti transferred his home building assets to son Jim Previti Jr.'s Frontier Homes. Jimmy Previti Jr is currently the 2010 BIA Baldy View Chapter president and shows up in the Sunday Daily Press promoting new home sales.
The company owned or had interests in 11,800 properties across 14 California land projects as of March 31, according to court documents. Its sister company, Aviat Homes L.P., owned 330 residential properties - some unfinished - in California, with projects in Hesperia, Moreno Valley and Brentwood. There are some unfinished homes in the Mission Crest development in Hesperia that I have seen, I’n not sure of the Frontier tracts. There are some Frontier homes stories that are posted on PaveRoadsFirst and some have been removed due to possible legal actions. Jimmy Previti and Frontier Homes loaned then Hesperia Mayor Tad Honeycutt money in 2004 that enabled Honeycutt to make $300,000.00 in a four month land flip. That story is posted as Resorter Honeycutt Story on PaveRoadsFirst.com.
On to the TGG treasurer Frank Williams. Currently, Mr. Williams is Executive Officer of the Building Industry Association (BIA) Southern California, Inc. Baldy View Chapter since his appointment in April of 1992. Back on 2-4-2004 Frank Williams the CEO of the BIA opened a post office box for $101.00 for TGG. On the original Statement of Organization Recipient Committee California Form 410, the Treasurer of TGG is listed as Mr. Frank Williams.
The boom in housing in the High Desert can be linked to the election of TGG backed candidates starting in 2004. The connections between the BIA and First District County Supervisors Bill Postmus and Brad Mitzelfelt goes back to the1990’s. In 1993, Brad Mitzelfelt worked as a public affairs representative for the local BIA Baldy View Chapter, while Russ Blewett was president. On Mitzelfelt while working for the BIA ,“He was very impressive. He ran a lot of campaigns for us,” said Blewett. Blewett is a former Hesperia planning commissioner (appointed by TGG funded Councilman Ed Pack) and a former Building Industry Association president. The circle was completed when Blewett was appointed by Mitzelfelt to become a San Bernardino County planning commissioner in 2007.
Mitzelfelt became Postmus’s Chief of Staff in 2000 after his 7 year stint at the BIA and remained as chief of staff for more than 6 years. Postmus appointed him as First District Supervisor in November of 2006 after becoming County Assessor. Mitzelfelt raised and spent over $850,000.00 for his 2008 County Supervisor campaign. Mostly from the same developers who made up the TGG pac funding.
Hesperia’s Expensive City Council Seats.
One of TGG’s first expenditures was to then Hesperia councilman Dennis Nowicki’s campaign in 2004. Tad Honeycutt was also running that year and TGG gave to both Hesperia Council campaigns. Nowicki received $18,769.77 and Tad Honeycutt got $22,743.94 from TGG. In 2006 TGG funded a number of candidates in Hesperia. Glen Aylor got $35,200 from TGG. Ed Pack got $82,850 and Jim Lindley rounded out the TGG funding with $79,350.00 for a total of $238,912.00 spent in Hesperia for the 2 city council races in 04 and 06. Councilman Ed Pack spent $151,616 for his 2006 reelection, a record at the time.
In 2008 Mark Kirk set the all-time city council amount of money spent record of $167,048.00 in a losing bid for a Hesperia City Council seat. Kirk who is chief of staff for County Supervisor Gary Ovitt ( a TGG recipient) and the son of school board president Robert Kirk came in third place for the 2 seat election. In addition to the $167,048 spent , the Mark Kirk for City Council campaign committee was $52,226 in debt as of February 2, 2009. Russ Blewett also ran for Hesperia City Council in 2008, spent $65,315 and came in 4th out of 2 seats up for election.
The Boom and the Bust
Population surged nearly 30% in the Victor Valley between 2000 and 2006. In Hesperia, city officials approved about 1,500 permits for single-family homes in 2006 and expect ed about 2,000 houses to be completed by 2009 . In the valley as a whole, nearly 97,000 homes had been built during the boom, according to Hesperia officials and the Victor Valley Assn. of Realtors. Then over the last couple of years the bottom fell out of the market and the tax base that pays for everything. There is another election this year for a number of local offices. Check back here around June or July and I’ll let you know who’s running and where they get their money from. After that the decision is yours as to who to vote for. But remember TGG and how that turned out for us.
You are at www.paveroadsfirst.com based in Hesperia California. Our goal is to improve the quality of life in Hesperia for the people who live in Hesperia.
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