City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2020 01 28

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1/22/2020 Metro districts in Colorado have little transparency on transfer fees, community funds "It's like a black hole," Gertson said. "I got stalled for months and months with no answers back, mostly that they were trying to figure out who had control and where it was." Wendy Aiello, a spokeswoman for the foundation, told The Denver Post it expected to file a tax return in November and would not offer any additional information about its finances, except to say it is paying for movies in the community's park, nor would she address Gertson's difficulty in getting any information. The foundation had not provided The Post a copy of its tax return as of press time. That any of the transfer fee money goes to a nonprofit is a relatively new process. Until 2011, residents in nearly every metro district across Colorado were required to pay a transfer fee of as much as 3% of the sale price of their home to the metro district. The entire amount was given to the developer. Lawsuits forced a legislative change so that developments built after October 2011 are prevented from charging any transfer fee. Districts that existed before 2011, such as Thompson Crossing, could continue to make the transfer fee assessment, but had to give a quarter of the money they collect to a nonprofit that could only use the funds to support "cultural, educational, charitable ... and recreational" activities, among other things — and not necessarily in the district. A few metro district boards, typically controlled by the developers who are building the community, created their own foundation, as Oakwood Homes did at Thompson River Ranch. Others, such as North Creek Farms in Adams County, funnel the funds to a trustee who later is to disperse them to "one or more nonprofit" groups for the "direct or indirect benefit of the community." There is no requirement to let anyone know where their money went. ' RELATED. Read more from this Denver Post investigation here. .................................................................................................................................................................. As with Thompson, The Post could not locate any information about funds sent to the Florida -based trustee named in North Creek's transfer -fee documents, CovenantClearinghouse.com. Its website only says what the fees are for, not where the nonprofit portion of those fees is to go. Efforts to reach the trustee were unsuccessful. https://www.denverpost.com/20l9/l2/O9/metro-districts-transfer-fees-nonprofits-foundations/ 48 4/9