Travis County Commissioners Court
July 6, 2004
Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the travis housing finance corporation. Item number one is to approve minutes of board of directors meetings of March 30th, April 6th and April 13th, 2004.
>> so move.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimously. Number two, is to receive briefing from corporation attorney -- he's not here, right? Will this wait one week?
>> it can wait one week. I can also give you a briefing on this issue if you'd like.
>> in open court?
>> I think that would be fine.
>> okay. Then let's hear by implication a briefing by mr. Davis and take appropriate action regarding collection of past past due annual fees.
>> good morning. I'm harvey Davis, manager for the corporation. And according to our collection policy for the corporation, I'm required to bring before the board to your attention any time that we have an annual fee that is more than 30 days past due. And we do have one fee that was due on June the first. This is at the apartment complex -- the apartment complex is the parks at wells branch. The annual fee amount that is past due is $17,350. The owner is community housing corporation of america. They are based in minnesota. This is the second year that the fee has not been paid. This organization is a choto. The bonds were issued I think in June of 2002. The first year they did, as you know chodo's under the old law can apply to the appraisal district for exemption from local property taxes. Because of an error in their application, the first year they did not -- the appraisal district disqualified their application. So for 2002 they did pay property taxes, however, in 2003 they gained the exemption for the property taxes. In contacting the owner, they have said that they are under financial difficulty and were not able to pay the fee. The fee is paid through the trustee, and the money comes from a residual account that the trustee has, and money goes into the resaid al account when -- when all the bond payments have been made and other required payments and excess money goes into this residual account. And if there's funds there, then our fee can be paid. And I have confirmed with the trustee that there is not funds in that account in order to pay the fee.
>> i've got a question. Some of the benefits of being a chodo is that you are not required to pay property taxes, per se.
>> right.
>> the property is actually off of the tax roll. This fee of $17,350 that's owed, and they just now received their chodo reinstatement status, a prior year to that according to what you said, they had to pay the property taxes because they were at that time for application purposes not recognized as a chodo. But since that recognition has been established and of course the taxes have not -- will not be ordered them to pay for the property taxes, will that -- was that question posed to them. Well, you're not paying property tax, so since the property taxes aren't paid, what about the 17 -- in other words, it looks like there ought to be money available since they didn't have to pay the property tax.
>> well, I certainly agree with you. And I certainly appraise things in a similar way when I talk to the management of the company. I mean, there was some issues with the manager talking about all the difficulty they had with the Travis County appraisal district in getting the property tax exemption, which it seems like he was sort of in a way blaming the corporation maybe for their difficulty with the appraisal district, which is not our issue, it's their obligation to deal with the appraisal district and if they're having difficulty, it's not our fault. I do -- this is a very nice apartment complex, and it should do well. And I think with an improving economy that the -- you know, they should be -- should have sufficient funds to be able to pay the annual fee. I did request from the owner an estimate of when this fee -- they could start paying on this fee, which is really they have two years of fees. And he did not respond to that request.
>> (indiscernible) of this particular complex?
>> I don't know. I think it's in the '80's, but I don't know just offhand.
>> what action is requested today? Any?
>> no, no action.
>> do we need to send some sort of request for payment of fees?
>> we have sent the written request, the follow-up request.
>> you put a deadline in the request?
>> yes.
>> okay. Thanks for the update. I guess you'll let us know real soon whether or not we get paid.
>> I sure will.
>> we appreciate that.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified: Friday, October 28, 2005 12:50 PM