The latest reform effort to stop self-dealing developer debt at the residents' expense and add meaningful disclosures failed on an 8-5 vote in the House Committee yesterday.  

Rep. Cathy Kipp of Ft. Collins lead the metro district industry charge to force through a bill that legalizes the unethical practice of developers holding their own debt.   Debt which the developer imposes on the residents before they take control of the boards and debt which pays the developer large amounts of interest determined solely by the developer.

The bill also contained so called "transparency" measures but even the bill's co-sponsor declared that without the section legalizing self-dealing developer debt, the  rest of the bill (the actually "transparency" part) was worthless.  

Both also admitted that no effort whatsoever was made to include residents in the process of writing the bill.  It was a pure metro district industry product and Rep. Cathy Kipp was proud to lead the way.

Sadly.

Thank you all for every story you have shared with us and your elected officials.  Thank you for getting on your boards and beginning to stop the abuse.  Thank you for passing the information and education along to others.

We will keep the flame alive and with the recent momentum, continue to educate, identify issues and offer potential options for change.