Oxbow ND Boondoggle “an” Elaborate Taxpayer Shakedown

Skulduggery is too polite a word to explain the actions of decision makers tied to the (OHB) Oxbow, Hickson, Bakke ring-dike-levee which has, thus far, largely benefited Oxbow’s elite.

The key player in the debacle is Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof, who indicated in an email to city council members that the (OCC) Oxbow Country Club was around $600,000 in the debt (read more…) before any of the OHB mess began and presented a Oxbow Country Club membership “mandate” scheme (read more…) that would require every property owner within Oxbow to subsidize the playground (read more…) for the wealthy.

Did Oxbow Country Club squirrel away millions for a rainy day or disperse funds to “select member shareholders” similar to what Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof eluded to in his email (read more…) to city council members…, who knows? Either way, Oxbow still was able to get the FMDA to shell out additional millions for a wholly unnecessary project.

It is key to understand that Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof has had a long history of meddling and mixing the affairs of the Oxbow Country Club and the City of Oxbow, however, his 2011 emails specifying an attempt to encumber property owners jointly or severally liable for Oxbow Country Club debt via a trojan horse membership tactic.

It is also important to note that Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof was meeting and conspiring with persons working on behalf or in conjunction with FMDA (Fargo Moorhead Diversion Authority) without council consent long before the final decision was made to pursue a ring-dike-levee at Oxbow, ND.

March 8, 2012 FMDA meeting minutes indicate that Nyhof submitted a development plan (read more…) for Oxbow, Bakke and Hickson yet March 5, 2012 (read more…) and March 22, 2012 (read more…) Oxbow City Council minutes show no authorization for Nyhof to do so.

Equally odd, is that on June 14, 2012 Oxbow mayor Jim Nyhof questioned the FMDA “Land Management Committee” as to why (page 2) “housing of last resort” (read more…) was not included in the draft Land Management Plan.  (part of the Kool-aid and Cookies that would be offered in an (MOU) Memorandum of Understanding a year later to Oxbow property owners – as enticement to stay and relocate with Oxbow on the state and local taxpayer dime)

Once again Oxbow City Council minutes from May 24, 2012 (read more…) and June 20, 2012 (read more…) make no mention of and discussion regarding housing of last resort.

So why would Nyhof be skulking around and trying to make deals behind the backs of his city council and residents that were staunchly opposed (read more…) to the Fargo Dam and FM Diversion project? This is long before the FMDA (read more…), Fargo Forum (read more…) or USACE (read more…) made any public reference to an “informational” meeting on whether the OHB project should proceed.

The agreement to move forward with the OHB project was not announced until August 13, 2013 (read more…). Was it all a bluff to see if Fargo would back away from the FMDA’s Class 1 High Hazard Dam, while secretly crossing fingers in hopes of a taxpayer funded windfall?

If it was all just a bluff, Oxbow played Fargo and Cass County to a tee…

It took several players to lay the groundwork for the “MOU” (memorandum of understanding) that would undergo several revisions and later be exploited for unjust enrichment’s and betterment’s that would ultimately more than double the $65 million cost estimate – at the taxpayers expense. Several meetings and many more emails flew back and forth between Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof, Fargo City Attorney Erik Johnson, Fargo City Administrator Pat Zavoral, Fargo City Engineer April Walker, Oxbow Attorney Joe Turman, Fargo Diversion Chair Darrel Vanyo, Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt, Sean Fredricks of Ohnstad Twichell, Tom O’hara and Bruce Spiller of CH2MHill, Cass County States Attorney Birch Burdick, Mark Brodshaug and Rodger Olson of CCJWRD, Eric Dodds and Rocky Schneider of AE2S as well as Lee Beauvais and Jeff Volk of Moore Engineering (read more…).

In the fairy-tale world of alleged checks and balances how is it possible for the OHB project to exceed the original cost estimate by nearly 100 percent, with this many people involved and many more not listed, if they weren’t complicit in working against the best interests of state and local taxpayers?

Take the 10.5 million to Oxbow Country Club listed as “Relocation Assistance” (read more…). How did the old Oxbow Country Club -House, with an approximately 13,500 in square footage and around a 2,600 square foot pool, valued a little over 1 million dollars, justify a $10.5 million dollar buyout?

So how did the Oxbow Country Club finagle a brand new 33,556 square foot clubhouse, two concrete patios boasting 5,917 of combined square footage, a 1,376 square foot pool/warehouse and two swimming pools with a combined area of 4,224 square feet ~ not including the approximate 9,919 square foot pool/sun bathing deck?

The June 10, 2013 version of the MOU (read more…) specifically stated:

6. that the replacement of the club house facility including the practice area, pool, and parking lots be based on the current square footage at a one to one ratio (read more…);

A July 2013 version of the MOU (read more…) suggested that the Oxbow City Council agreed to support the OHB project, however, Oxbow Council Minutes clearly indicate the council was split with two dissenting votes (read more…). Rather convenient for Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof, the person pushing the OHB project, had the opportunity to break the council tie…

Even more curious is this email from Oxbow Mayor Jim Nyhof (read more…) to CH2MHill admitting that ballots had been mailed out and Oxbow residents essentially had one week to vote on the “MOU”, which did not contain finalized wording. Wording that would be prostituted in favor of the Oxbow Country Club a mere 21 days later.

What rational person would provide one week for residents to respond, unless they intended to railroad a favorable decision? Potential mail delays during a time when families take vacations, involving a matter of great significance, yet refuses to send ballots to 79 homes in Hickson and Bakke that are being forced to endure the whim of project proponents (read more…) without representation. The level of blatant moral turpitude is astonishing…

June 13, 2013 proposed revisions to the Oxbow MOU made no mention of a change the in square footage. (read more…)

Yet a July 19, 2013 version containing suggestions from Fargo City Attorney Erik R. Johnson strikes language that restricts “square footage at a one to one ratio” (read more…) and replaces it with open-ended and ambiguous terminology that essentially handed the Oxbow Country Club a blank check.

Why would Erik Johnson, Fargo’s own city attorney (read more…), be working to encumber Fargo and Cass County taxpayers with such loose language that would end up being so easily exploited?

Exploited in what way?

For starters, the Oxbow Country Club received $10.5 million in relocation assistance, yet claimed only $4,453,000 in building permits (read more…). Which Vanguard Appraisal (read more…) incorrectly classified as “Hotel/Motel Common Facilities” (read more…) with a Cass County Tax Valuation of $2,747,100 (read more…). How is it possible for the brand new Oxbow Country Club-House to valued at only 61 percent of the “values” claimed under construction permits, when North Dakota state law requires true and correct valuation to be above 90 percent? We won’t even get into “certain” Oxbow residents, in this article, making a claim that they had a letter exempting their replacement property from tax appraisal from Vanguard Appraisals. Those property addresses can be discussed in another article.

Let’s focus on the Oxbow Country Club-House floor-plan (read more…):

Even more curious is the extremely low values tied to Oxbow Country Club permit applications (read more…). Oxbow Country Club is trying to claim that the clubhouse was built for around $79.88 per square foot. At least if you include the two pools it in bumps up the construction cost to $101.91 per square foot.

The only problem with that scenario is that is highly improbable and arguably inaccurate.

Using a simple construction cost estimating tool (read more…) that uses over 160 U.S. Cities as reference for residential and commercial projects, using a national average – the Oxbow “Hotel/Motel” would cost around $4.4 million (82.79 sq/ft) (read more…). However, does anyone really believe the Oxbow Country Club should be classified as a “Hotel/Motel Common Facilities”?

A more accurate description for Oxbow Country Club would be “social club” which would have cost around $9.4 million (175.54 sq/ft) (read more…) or at the very least classified as a “restaurant” which would have cost around $8.4 million (156.69 sq/ft) (read more…).

If the Oxbow Country Club were properly classified and appraised, shouldn’t they be paying between $63,637.76 to $71,294.47 in property taxes on just the clubhouse and pools?

Instead, the Wealthy Welfare at the Oxbow Country Club continues with a paltry $33,730.69 (paid in 2017) (read more…). To date around $30 million to the Exclusive Oxbow Country Club (read more…) in gift’s, betterment’s and enrichment’s that Oxbow Country Club has received and continues to receive from state and local taxpayers.

I guess there could be a silver lining in all this. If the Oxbow Country Club does go belly-up, it would be convenient to convert the Oxbow Clubhouse into an actual “Hotel/Motel Common Facility” so traveling friends and relatives wouldn’t have to stay in Fargo.

ND State Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger has very specific duties (read more…) that he must carry out.

If you feel the Oxbow Country Club should be looked into further;

OFFICE OF STATE TAX COMMISSIONER
600 E. Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, ND 58505-0599
701.328.3127
Phone Directory
Taxinfo@nd.gov

As you cast your 2018 ballots remember that candidates, that are up for re-election, failed to be fiscally responsible and allowed Wealthy Welfare to occur at Oxbow, ND;

Every one of the above candidates allowed the excesses of the Oxbow Country Club to occur, including the high end buyouts averaging over 364 percent.

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