According to the Records Research section of the “Rochester & Associates Executive Summary” of the 2016 Land Deal – 21 out of the 51 total tracts of land that the POA “Bought” from the Developer were already owned by the POA according to Dawson & Pickens County Tax Assessor Records.
Ref Document (See Pg 2 under Records Research):
http://www.bigcanoe.themountainsvoice.com/docs/Big_Canoe_ExecutiveSummary_-_FINAL.pdf
EXCERPT IMAGE:
There are a few disturbing things here, and some loose ends that need clearing up…..
DISTURBING THINGS:
1) When you look at the excerpt pictured above, you’ll see that “Records Research” consisted primarily of reviewing documents provided by the Developer’s attorney, Jim Crew.
2) When they discovered that 21 of the 51 parcels showed in Tax Records as being already owned by the POA, they simply relied on an email from the Developer’s Attorney (the “Sellers”) that all was good, these are “actually owned by the Big Canoe Company”.
3) How did they handle this discovery and contradictory set of facts? Did they launch an actual Title Search? NO! To quote…. “No actual deeds were provided nor examined”
NO ACTUAL DEEDS WERE PROVIDED NOR EXAMINED! That just has to be repeated in Caps. You’ve got evidence in the County Tax records of conflicting ownership – and an “All is Good, No Worries” email from the Seller’s attorney clears that up. $9,400,000.00 Land Deal.
NINE POINT FOUR MILLION DOLLARS …. All good, no worries. Nothing to see here.
LOOSE ENDS:
A) If we bought land that we already owned, then it seems to me that we need to claw back some money from the Developer. Or rescind some new rights granted to them in “Exhibit B” documents that are going to possibly allow easements into new areas of development land (The people on the backside of Wildcat may be in for a shocker in coming years).
B) For the sake of argument, lets just suppose that Jim Crew’s email actually was the legally defining missing link, and the Developer did own those tracts, and everything was above board. I’ve already done the detailed research on 9 of those 21 “POA Owned” tracts (a total of 74 acres involved so far), and it is important to understand that we were not just listed on the records as the owners…. the POA WAS ACTUALLY PAYING THE ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX BILLS GOING AS FAR BACK AS 1998! Here is a reference report I compiled on just a few of the Parcels …
www.bigcanoe.themountainsvoice.com/docs/BCDBLD-016-157_Report.pdf
Surely we are owed some back taxes? And how did this all happen?
That is really the part that gets me…. nobody in Big Canoe really seems to care that every 10 years or so these issues just keep popping up over and over and over. For example, here is an excerpt from the October 2007 Smoke Signals…
“The inaccuracy of some county records raised the question of POA ownership of some of our common property.“
The POA is getting taken for saps, and the Board is not only content, they are actively trying to cover it up.
They’d rather shoot the messenger than deal with the situation.
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