Foreclosures and the Register of Deeds - Special Guest: Curtis Hertel, Jr.

With the crazy news about foreclosures, I thought it would be a good idea this week to invite Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr. to this week's Ingham County Blog. Curtis has been on the forefront of weeding out foreclosure fraud and has been the subject of several media reports lately. Thanks for everything, Curtis. Great job!
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Hello!

On the heels of some fairly big news here in the Ingham County Register of Deeds office recently, Andy asked me to stop by the blog and share some information about what we’ve been up to. My name is Curtis Hertel Jr., and I am the elected Register of Deeds for the county.

I wanted to talk briefly about foreclosure fraud, in which certain steps in the process to foreclose on a home are either skipped or mishandled by the bank that is trying to foreclose.

Foreclosure fraud is something that we’ve always suspected was taking place, in county offices across America. Until recently, we never had any hard information that would allow us to pursue it and actually be able to hold the responsible parties accountable.

That all changed with an excellent piece of investigative journalism on the national news program “60 Minutes”, which aired on April 3rd. The segment gave us some very certain information that we could use to begin searching our records and try to identify those who had been frauded.

The specific fraud, at least in this case, goes something like this: You probably are aware that many mortgages, if not your own, have been transferred between many different banks, throughout the last decade. Every time a mortgage is transferred to a new bank in this way, the bank is supposed to file a document called an “Assignment of Mortgage” in my office. This establishes which bank is the new servicer of that mortgage.

Many of these banks, instead of immediately filing the proper assignments when they take place, will actually wait to file that paperwork until they need to take some other action with the mortgage, such as a foreclosure or a modification. This saves them from paying money into our local economy in the form of filing fees. In Michigan, they are actually legally allowed to do this.

So when it came time for many of these banks to foreclose on a given mortgage, they began the process of filing the assignments… and found that they had lost the original paperwork.

The solution? Many banks contracted with a small company called DocX, whose primary business was to employ low-paid hourly workers to sit at a desk and forge signatures. One day an employee could be Linda Green, a vice-president for Bank A. The next day they could be Korell Harp, the assistant vice-president at Bank B. And then the next day they might find themselves as Linda Green again, except this time they were the assistant secretary at Bank C.

It’s almost laughable that some of this forgery was so obvious, but now that my office has some names to look for, like Linda Green and Korell Harp, we can begin searching our own records and looking for forgery. And we have – so far we’ve found over 80 mortgage assignments that were signed by the names in question.

I am currently working with the FBI, and the Attorney General’s office, to see what sort of larger legal action can be taken against the banks, on behalf of all the register’s offices across the state. I have also filed a criminal complaint with the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office and a complaint in Fulton County, Georgia, where most of these fraudulent documents were notarized.

I truly believe that these names – Linda Green and others – are just the tip of the iceberg. As we continue to investigate fraudulent documents in our records, and compare notes with other offices, it becomes more and more evident that this is not a problem that was isolated to the small DocX sweatshop in Georgia.

So what can you do? Well, if you are going through foreclosure, I would definitely recommend that you give us a call, or stop into the office to examine the records associated with your property. Take note of anyone who signed an assignment or other action on your mortgage, and check the name to see if they are a known or suspected forger. You should also ask your lender to show proof that they actually own your mortgage, in the form of a recorded assignment from my office, before they foreclose.

If you find that there ARE fraudulent documents associated with your foreclosure, or that paperwork is missing, it may not save you from your situation, but it can certainly buy you some time while the banks get their act together. Hopefully a little extra time could be exactly what you need to get through a crisis.

Curtis Hertel Jr.
5176767245
Rd_hertel@ingham.org
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CurtisHertelJr

2011 Budget starts, Taxable Values Plummet, 911 Center Takes Final Steps, Hertel Catches Fraud, and Fundraiser Reminder

This week, we took the first steps to starting our budget. Every year, the first step in the budget process it to pass a resolution establishing the priorities to guide the development of the 2012 budget and activities of county staff. In the two committees that I serve on - County Services and Finance - there was little controversy. I understand that there was controversy in the Law Enforcement committee, and I assume we will hear more about that next week at the full Board meeting. We scaled back the resolution from previous years and didn't have to make big priority cuts. Our recent past years have seen us having to make big structural changes like closing a jail post, closing a park, eliminating road patrol, and other things. These changes have lead to the deficit this year being lower than it could have been. While a $5.5 million budget deficit is not easy to solve, it could have been much worse.

In conjunction with this, in Finance we received the annual Equalization report. we found out that 8 of the 13 townships and 4 of the 5 cities had negative taxable values compared to the year before. Of those that did not go down, it was because of agricultural property (Williamstown), new development panning out (Aurelius) and an industrial park coming back online for taxes (Mason). Otherwise, property values continue to fall and so do taxable values and tax revenues to communities. Not a good sign. Overall, taxable values in 2011 are a negative 244,061,553 (a 3.22% decline). Next year, in 2012, original estimations are that taxable values will go down another $300 million. This could be reduced to a negative $200 million, though, and our equalization director will keep us updated. These numbers will be used as we look at the status of our 2011 budget and as we start looking at preparing a 2012 budget. Total general fund revenues so far for 2011 are a negative $1,550,084. The estimated general fund revenues are expected to decline $1,905,360. Again, not a good
sign for keeping necessary services being provided. But we have great staff and great leadership, and we will make this work, as we have for the last few years. I am proud to be part of this process as the Finance Chair this year.

In addition to the budget, we took our next (and close to final) steps regarding the new 911 center. We passed a resolution to approve the final design plans and authorizing the Ingham County Building Authority to proceed with bid documents for the Ingham County consolidated 911 Dispatch Center project. This center will soon be built, and we will have finished a major consolidation that will centralize 911 dispatch resources and save dollars for the county moving forward.

I want to give a great bog shout-out and thank-you to Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr. He recently rooted out numerous cases of fraud after seeing a report on 60 minutes about a certain scam. Hertel found over 60 examples of the same exact pattern and the same fraud committed in Ingham County by checking signatures on the mortgage assignment documents. Check out the news story here - http://www.wilx.com/localnews/headlines/Ingham_Co_Investigating_Fraudulent_Foreclosures_120330264.html.

Thanks Curtis! We will hear more from him soon on this blog.

Finally, a reminder - I will be having my first Andy Schor for State Representative fundraiser next week on Wednesday. For more information, you can go to www.andyschor.com. I have received amazing support so far and I expect this to be a great event. Thanks to everyone who has already contributed, and I look forward to a seeing everyone there!

That's it. Have a great week, everyone...and thanks for reading and caring about important issues in Ingham County.

PLA's, farmland preservation, WIC, elder abuse, foreclosure and Land Bank forums

This week was a less contentious week for the Ingham County Board of Commissioners. We had only one controversial resolution.

As you probably remember, if you are a faithful reader of my blog, that a few years ago the Ingham County Commission passed a new policy that would require county staff to utilize Project Labor Agreements. These are certain agreements that require a general contractor or manager to negotiate with the bidders to ensure certain conditions are met when county facilities of $100,000 or more are under construction. To date, we have only had three of these. The County Board this week passed a resolution in opposition to HB 4287 and SB 165, which are state laws that would prohibit local units of government from entering into PLA's. Ironically, though, private entities would still be free to use them (such as Sparrow hospital, who has used these for years).

Commissioner Deb Nolan spoke in support of the resolution, saying that the locals should be allowed to govern how they choose. She said that the Legislature was not respecting local control and that we should be able to create our own contracting policies how we want. Commissioner Vickers disagreed, saying that the local control shouldn't infringe on personal rights. Honestly, I have no idea what he is talking about. PLA's don't infringe on personal rights. But oh well. The resolution passed 10-4-1 (one commissioner abstained due to being an advocate against the bill in the Legislature for a client).

Otherwise, we passed several non-controversial resolutions. One would approve selection criteria for ranking landowner applications to the Ingham County Farmland and Open Space Preservation Board. This would be a scoring system. We will be looking at another resolution this week on the same concept, but that will ensure that taxpayer dollars are considered first and foremost in negotiations. We also passed a resolution to create a Women, Infant, Children (WIC) satellite office at the Grand River head start site of the Capital Area Community Services. Another resolution we passed would authorize a grant subcontract between the City of Lansing and Ingham County Prescuting Attorney's Office for the training and prosecution of elder abuse.

In other news, the Ingham County Treasurer has announced a series of Community Forums designed to provide information on the tax foreclosure process, the Ingham County Land Bank and property taxes. A short program on the work of the Treasurer’s office and the Ingham County Land Bank will feature City of Lansing Maps showing foreclosure activity and Land Bank projects as well as discussion of the current status and future of Community Gardening. The goal of the forum is to provide information and solicit public feedback. Light refreshments are provided.

Forums will be held from 7-9 p.m. on the following dates:
Wednesday, April 13th at Gone Wired 2021 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing 48912
(yes, we are a bit late for this one!)
Wednesday, April 27th at the Human Services Building “B” 5303 S. Cedar, Lansing
Wednesday, May 11th at South Side Community Center 5815 Wise Road, Lansing 48911

Have a great week!

Guest Blogger: Commissioner Todd Tennis (Health Dep't Review, FQHC Funding, and Road Patrol)

This week, I have once again asked a fellow County Commissioner to "guest blog" for me. This week, you get to hear from Commissioner Todd Tennis. Todd is the Chair of the county Human Services committee and has been an excellent representative of his constituents on the south part of Lansing. He is one of the people that I use as a sounding board on issues, and I trust and value his opinions greatly. Thanks, Todd, for providing your views this week!

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Greetings readers! Andy has asked me to step in and write a guest blog this week, so please pardon the interruption from your normal dose of Schor goodness. As chair of the Ingham County Human Services Committee, this week’s blog will be more health department-based than normal. Please bear with me.

First some good news. Every three years, the Michigan Department of Community Health reviews our Ingham County Health Department’s organizational plan to ensure that we possess the administrative capacity to perform our required duties. In March we received word that, once again, our Ingham County Health Department has been approved for another three years by the state. Our Ingham County Health Department is run so well that this comes as no surprise to me and my fellow Commissioners. Nonetheless, I want to give credit to Health Department Director Dean Sienko and his outstanding staff for making this process smooth and uneventful.

Now for some bad news. The budget wrangling in Washington could have a huge negative impact on the Ingham County Health Department’s status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The county health department was granted this status in 2009, which allows us to receive a greater share of federal dollars to provide primary care services to Ingham County Residents who are on Medicaid. These extra dollars help us provide increased capacity for Ingham County residents who do not have access to health insurance.

Some of the massive federal spending cuts being considered could wipe out our FQHC status, potentially causing the Ingham County Health Department to lose out on millions in grants and reimbursement for the provision of primary health care. I encourage everyone who wants our county health department to continue to be a national leader in the provision of services to contact Congressman Mike Rogers, Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Carl Levin and urge them to ensure that funding will continue to support our FQHC status.

And what would good and bad be without ugly? Many of you may have seen our favorite onlooker John Schneider’s column recently about the lack of police protection in rural townships after the county cut funding to the Sheriff’s Office for rural road patrol. It told of the experience of an Alaiedon Township business owner who, after a burglary, received less response from the Sheriff than he expected. Sheriff Wriggelsworth suggested that he contact the County Commission, since we were the ones who cut his funding.

I do not blame the business owner or the Sheriff for being upset that funding for road patrol was cut. However, the vast majority of county residents pay taxes for police services over and above their county tax rate. As Mr. Schneider pointed out, Alaiedon Township residents narrowly defeated a millage question last year for police services. Also, as the article stated, the Sheriff would have investigated the incident, just not as rapidly as the business owner would have liked. With reduced capacity, the Sheriff must reserve his officers for immediate response to the most serious calls, and burglaries are not going to rise to that level. When my house was burglarized several years ago in Lansing, an officer was dispatched to take a report that same day. However, in hindsight, I would have gotten the same result if I was asked to file the complaint online (as the business owner in the Schneider article was asked to do).

The bottom line is that the county budget is not improving as fast as our economy. Until housing prices start to rise again, the County Commission will have to make more and more difficult and often unpopular decisions on county services. Some of these will include shifting costs (like we did by implementing a fee for hazardous material storage inspections), raising fees, or reducing or eliminating county programs. Our fiscal situation is further complicated by potential reductions in funding from the federal government (see above) and the state government (e.g. the Governor’s proposal to cut our Revenue Sharing funding by $2 million). There may be light at the end of the tunnel, but it is still a ways off for Ingham County.