Brad Jordan is Chairman of the CdA Planning and Zoning Commission. He also sits on the LCDC Board.
Brad is a local realtor and was an owner of GMAC Realty, which has now closed its doors. Brad and his partners in Jordan, Hill and Hall, Inc. have declared bankruptcy, leaving a total of $650,000 in assets and $5 million in debts.
This morning’s Press ran the article about it, but we can’t link to it because it’s not online. The Mayor, Tony Berns from LCDC, Deanna Goodlander and other officials all were quoted in the paper as saying it’s no problem at all. Do you agree?
The Press article said the bankruptcy filing was in January 2009 shortly after its franchise corporation closed the office.
Here is a link to a relevant Illinois Federal District Court filing naming Jordan and others as defendants. The Illinois complaint was filed December 23, 2008.
Comment by Bill — May 21, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
In a word…”no”. For just a few reasons. If he can’t run his business any better than that, why should I believe he can do any better on LCDC. The recession and drop in the RE market is universal. However, not all RE offices have filed for bankruptcy. And 5 million in debt for a local RE office?? Am I missing something here? More to the point, the article also stated that the major portion of the debt is local. We’re talking real estate here. LCDC = real estate. A conflict could arise should someone owed a large debt came for a handout from LCDC, with a “hey buddy, you owe me”. Recusing himself is a joke. Given the CDA council and LCDC past records…need I say more.
Comment by Faringdon — May 21, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
The positions Jordan holds in the City (Chairman, Planning & Zoning Commission; Commissioner, urban renewal agency) roughly correlate to what are called “Public Trust Positions” in the federal government.
Public trust positions usually involve duties and responsibilities which may include policy making, major program responsibility, public safety and health, law enforcement duties, fiduciary responsibilities, and other activities demanding a significant degree of public trust.
Public trust positions also involve access to, operation or control of proprietary systems of information such as financial or personal records, with significant risk for causing damage to people, programs, or an agency, or for realizing personal gain.
In determining the suitability of an applicant to hold a public trust position, the applicant for a federal public trust position is required to truthfully answer, completely disclose, and help resolve any issues in response to several questions including these:
The federal government looks closely at personal finances (and other suitability factors) even if the applicant is not applying for a job requiring a security clearance. The issue is one of public trust. Someone in a position of handling the public’s money or making decisions involving spending the public’s money must be worthy of the public’s trust and confidence. I have the same expectation of local and state officials.
Comment by Bill — May 21, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
Well, it’s understandable that Bloem, Burns, and Goodlander would say there is no conflict here. They believe that a different set of rules applies to them and their buddies. Still, I think the article in the paper today was only the first shoe.
Comment by Dan — May 21, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
Bill, so interesting that you would show the expectation of the Federal level: personal fiscal responsiblity? I wish we had those questions on our disclosure forms for public officials here. We can’t even make them disclose their business relationships. Remember when the State Attorney General found that LCDC’s Charlie Nipp violated state statues for conflicts of interest by signing 6 loans between LCDC, when he was chairman, and Mt. West Bank, where he is a board member and owner in the parent holding company but he didn’t disclose those facts? What did the community leaders do in response to this situation?—they gave Charlie a big party at Crickets to tell him what a great guy he is! And the LCDC did not change their very minimal disclosure form.(much shorter than Post Falls’) They did not change their policy. They certainly did not apologize to the taxpayers and reassure us they would be more forthcoming in the future.
Comment by mary — May 21, 2009 @ 6:38 pm
Mary,
There is a time-proven reason for compelling financial disclosure from applicants for public trust positions and for investigating their answers to be sure they were truthful: Applicants with significant financial issues are vulnerable to recruitment and control for illegal or corrupt purposes.
Here is the SF-85P, Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions,, that federal applicants for Public Trust Positions must complete. If the job being applied for also requires a security clearance, there’s even more information sought and verified.
Comment by Bill — May 21, 2009 @ 6:56 pm
I imagine the people or institutions that are owed 5 million dollars have an opinion. Some would want him to resign out of decency.(get rid of the salt in their wounds). Some would want him to remain, hoping to recover financially with LCDC taxpayer money. I doubt they don’t have an opinion in the issue.
Comment by citizen — May 21, 2009 @ 8:40 pm
I think we would all be better served by more open financial disclosures on the part of elected officials in general. But it seems like our legislature is absolutely death on the issue and consistently blocks any attempts for more sunshine in this area. I think there was another bill just this session that would have provided some very basic background information about financial holdings etc. for candidates and office holders that again got flattened like a pancake on the legislative freeway.
Any speculation on why our state office holders are so against these kind of reforms that the public (including the ones who elect them) seems to be crying out for?
Comment by Dan English — May 21, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
Guffaw. What a laughingstock.
Comment by Pariah — May 21, 2009 @ 8:57 pm
Having been to the legislature a couple of times, I can say that a lot of the legislators are afraid of any change. They either don’t know, don’t want to know, or don’t care. They vote “No” on things because it’s safe. There is also a lack of leadership in the Senate.
Comment by Dan — May 21, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
One thing we must admit, LCDC and the CDA council never disappoint. They can always be depended upon to do or say the self serving thing. In the years I have lived here, I have developed “yet again head shaking syndrome”.
On a happy note, it is always a pleasure to see a Dan English comment. He is always reasonable and informative. Welcome back Dan, please come more often.
Comment by Faringdon — May 22, 2009 @ 8:24 am
Maybe some of the real estate people who post here can help answer some questions.
First, is it likely that GMAC filed the trademark infringement lawsuit because the defendants had not made required payments to the GMAC parent company in Illinois for the privilege of using the GMAC name? (This is probably answered in the full complaint, but I’m too cheap to buy a copy of the complaint.)
Second, would Jordan/Hill/Holt’s employees here have been paying their employer money designated to pay the fees to the parent company? If so, would it have been lawful for Jordan, Hill, or Hall to divert for other purposes the money paid by employees who believed it was going to GMAC?
Comment by Bill — May 22, 2009 @ 9:10 am
I really enjoy Dan English joining the discussion. I am delighted that his offices will be handling the various elections around the county.
Question for Dan English: Is there a polling place on the East side of the Lake as there is on the west side of the lake (Mica Flats Grange)to serve the rural community?
Comment by citizen — May 22, 2009 @ 11:41 am
Another bowling pin falls. The big players seem to have overextended (over leveraged) their abilities. LIke Stone and Chesrown counting on a continued strong market they all laid down thin margins for safety and now they are dropping. Who will be next? The silver lining to all of this is that Stones $3 million dollar tax break for his water feature park was tied to a performance threshold that he will not meet. Of course if he goes teats up it won’t make much difference as he won’t be paying all his taxes anyway.
None of these folks should be in positions of public trust if they juggle the fiscal knives this poorly with their own investments. It is more than the fox watching the hen house. It is the really stupid fox watching the hen house.
Comment by Wallypog — May 22, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
Actually, it’s like the hens elected other hens to watch the hen house and now those elected hens are justifying why they’ve hired the fox to do the job.
Comment by Dan — May 22, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
“Question for Dan English: Is there a polling place on the East side of the Lake as there is on the west side of the lake”
Yes, there are three on the East side of the lake, Arrow Point Fire station, Harrison Sr. Center, and Harrison elementary school.
Comment by Dan English — May 22, 2009 @ 2:34 pm
If you go to kcgov.us and to our election page, one of the links is called voter information. Under that link one of the lists is for all of our polling sites for the whole county. For each polling site there is also a link to see in on a map. Individual voters can also use the “address look-up” link and see where they vote and a picture of their polling place.
[Bill’s Note: I hyperlinked the election page in red so you can click on it and go directly there. It’s a good place to start so you can see all the information available, including the link to the polling locations.]
Comment by Dan English — May 22, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
Under what chapter did Jordan file? Is it a personal filing or corporate?
Comment by Gary Ingram — May 22, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
Gary,
I assume from the Press article it was corporate, because it reads, “Jordan, Hill & Hall, Inc., claimed nearly $1 million in liabilities to around 150 creditors in its Chapter 7 filing.”
Comment by Bill — May 22, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
What are the odds of one of those 150 creditors going before the P&Z Board or the LCDC? Will Jordan recuse himself? From what was quoted by city officials on the paper, it seems like whether he recused himself or not wouldn’t be a big deal to them. That’s appalling.
Comment by Dan — May 22, 2009 @ 3:02 pm
Thanks Bill for adding the actual elections page link to my comment above. Especially since I was on autopilot and put “dot com” after the kcgov instead of the correct “dot us.”
Comment by Dan English — May 22, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Dan English,
I’m sure the county commissioners in Kosciusko County, Indiana, were thrilled at the deluge of hits their website (www.kcgov.com) got. To spare them needing to increase their server capacity to handle the bazillions of hits a mention on OpenCdA.com usually generates, though, I corrected the URL in your post.
Comment by Bill — May 22, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
Dan English: The link is really slick. It is now in my favorites. I’m glad to hear the rural area is covered by your dept. I think the consolidated elections at our known voting sites will be great. Am I correct that your department will also run school elections? Are NIC elections to be consolidated with public schools or with the other election groupings?
Comment by citizen — May 22, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
Yes, the counties will do all elections starting in 2011. This includes public school districts and NIC. If you go to the legislative website and look up HB 372 you can read all the details. The reason the bill runs to almost 100 pages is because they had to modify just about every section of election code for all those other districts from airports to cities to schools. You asked about NIC and schools. I believe they will have some new staggered terms of office in order to get them on the new cycle of dates. It will take a few election cycles I’m sure to get everything fine tuned. The only districts that aren’t covered are water districts because their election process is actual based on some kind of a share system vs. typical requirements for voter eligibility.
Almost all elections will be just on two dates a year, in May and November. The only other dates that are possible are in March and August for school finance issues but not candidates. Once the new election calendar goes into place the main dates each year for elections will be very predictable. While not every district will have an election every time there will be set dates for each type of taxing district like fire, libraries, etc. And for many of those districts, if only one person files for each opening by the cutoff date for filing then they don’t have to hold an election and save the expense.
[Bill’s Note: I added the hyperlink in red to the H0372.]
Comment by Dan English — May 22, 2009 @ 10:31 pm
Thanks, Dan. My only remaining question is about NIC. Will they be grouped with Public Schools with their election dates or with the larger consolidation?
Comment by citizen — May 23, 2009 @ 6:45 am
From a quick scan of the new law, it looks like both school districts and NIC will hold trustee elections on the 3rd Tuesday of May in odd numbered years. There’s also some language to convert NIC trustee terms to six years instead of 5.
Comment by Dan English — May 23, 2009 @ 9:47 am
Dan: Will these school elections be at polling places that are commonly in use by the public…your county voting sites?
Will the elections for school issues be taken out of the school facilities?
Comment by citizen — May 23, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
Yes, we will use all our regular polling sites which include schools, churches, fire stations, grange halls and other building with adequate parking and handicap access. Without the schools we would be in tough shape. Actually we need every polling site we have and sometimes have to scramble at that to find enough adequate sites spread around where we need them.
Comment by Dan English — May 24, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
To get this back on the topic and answer Mary’s original question:
The public officials’ conclusions that his corporate bankruptcy is no problem at all presumes they are aware of all the relevant facts. At best, their conclusion is premature.
Comment by Bill — May 24, 2009 @ 4:34 pm