Bakersfield FCIC hearing will target community banks, real estate, foreclosures, loan modifications

Representatives of the community banking and real estate industry have been scheduled to testify next week when the congressionally appointed Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission convenes in Bakersfield, Calif.

Tuesday’s hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 7, will the first in a series of four “field hearings” commissioners will conduct in their year-long investigation into the causes of the nation’s economic meltdown. Other field hearings will be held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 8; Miami, Fla., Sept. 21; and Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 23.

The Bakersfield hearing will focus on local banking; residential and community real estate; the local housing market; and foreclosures and loan modifications. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in the Kern County Board of Supervisors Chambers on Truxtun Avenue.

Scheduled witnesses will include Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield; Kern County Supervisor Ray Watson; and Bakersfield City Councilwoman Irma Carson. Bankers will include: Arnold Cattani, chairman of Mission Bank; Steve Renock, president and CEO of Kern Schools Federal Credit Union; and D. Linn Wiley, vice chairman, CVB Financial Corp. and Citizens Business Bank.

Testifying from the real estate and development industry will be Gregory D. Bynum, Gregory D. Bynum and Associates; Warren Peterson, Warren Peterson Construction; Gary Crabtree, Affiliated Appraisers; Lloyd Plank, Lloyd E. Plank Real Estate Consultants; Brenda Amble, Ticor Title; and Realtors Laurie McCarty and Jeannie McDermott.

Members of the public who wish to testify are asked to go to the commission’s Website www.FCIC.gov/contacthttp://www.fcic.gov/contact/ and fill out the “comment box” including a description of the testimony. If selected to testify, a member of the FCIC staff will respond with additional information.

Created by Congress last year, the 10-member bipartisan commission is headed by California’s former Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides. Former Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of Bakersfield is the vice chairman.

The heavyweights of Wall Street and federal regulatory agencies have been called to testify before the FCIC in year-long hearings conducted to examine the causes of the nation’s deepest recession since the Great Depression. Commissioners have a Dec. 15 deadline to report their findings to Congress.

Tuesday’s Bakersfield hearing will be webcast live at FCIC.gov. Dianne Hardisty also will be blogging at www.DianneHardisty.blogspot.com during the hearing. She has written extensively about the commission’s inquiry, including conducting an in depth interview with Vice Chairman Bill Thomas in December. The interview was published in The Bakersfield Californian.

Bakersfield broker: Main Street becomes Foreclosure Alley; federal panel heads to hard-hit communities to investigate economic meltdown

Glenn Porter

Bakersfield, Calif., real estate broker Glenn Porter contends Washington has reneged on its promise to reform Wall Street.

In a heart-wrenching opinion article published in The Bakersfield Californian today, Porter, who owns RE/MAX Golden Empire Realty, wrote, “We were promised there would be change and we would hold Wall Street to a higher standard. But instead, we have taken Main Street and turned it into Foreclosure Alley.

“It breaks my heart to sit in the living room with a family and tell them they have no hope of keeping their home because our own government would rather allow it to be sold to someone else so that Wall Street can make even more money from the ongoing financial meltdown.”

Porter will be among Bakersfield residents to submit testimony during a “field hearing” of the Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission next week.

Created by Congress last year, the 10-member bipartisan commission is headed by California’s former Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides. Former Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of Bakersfield is the vice chairman.

The heavyweights of Wall Street and federal regulatory agencies have been called to testify before the FCIC in year-long hearings conducted to examine the causes of the nation’s deepest recession since the Great Depression. Commissioners have a Dec. 15 deadline to report their findings to Congress.

Tuesday’s hearing in Bakersfield will be the first time commissioners have taken their inquiry outside of Washington, D.C., and New York. In an interview with The Bakersfield Californian, Thomas said the focus would be on Main Street, rather than Wall Street.

“I am sickened by the scenario that plays out involving many banks, including some connected to the largest names on Wall Street, who were at the heart of the financial meltdown and who have received millions in taxpayers’ dollars because they were ‘too big to fail,’” Porter wrote in advance of next week’s FCIC hearing in Bakersfield.

“This scam belies statements posted on the government’s MakingHomeAffordable.gov Website. Americans are being led to believe they can get loan modifications. This simply is not true.”

Porter detailed the treatment of homeowners who struggle unsuccessfully to modify their loans or receive other concessions from banks.

“Why are banks doing this? Because they receive tax dollars to do short sales, not loan modifications. And sadly, families who are losing their homes could have afforded to keep their homes for the prices they are being sold to other people,” he writes.

Porter is pressing for law changes that would end existing “predatory practices” and force banks to give fair consideration to struggling homeowners.

Those wishing to attend next week’s FCIC hearing in Bakersfield, or one of the three subsequent hearings in other foreclosure-plagued communities will find an RSVP option on the commission’s Webpage www.FCIC.gov under “contact.” The commission’s other field hearings will be: Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 8; Miami, Fla., Sept. 21; and Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 23.

Dianne Hardisty will be blogging at www.DianneHardisty.blogspot.com during the FCIC hearing in Bakersfield Tuesday. She has written extensively about the commission’s inquiry, including conducting an in depth interview with Vice Chairman Bill Thomas in December. The interview was published in The Bakersfield Californian.

Wall Street heavyweights testify before FCIC as economic inquiry heads for Bakersfield, Calif.

Phil Angelides, left, and Bill Thomas

As the congressionally appointed Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission prepares to begin “field hearings” in four economically devastated cities, it has announced that a lineup of Wall Street and federal heavyweights will testify before commissioners this week in Washington, D.C.


Wednesday’s hearings will focus on Wachovia Corp. and Lehman Brothers, with witnesses including: Scott G. Alvarez, general counsel, the Federal Reserve System; John H. Corston, acting deputy director, Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; Robert K. Steel, former president and CEO, Wachovia Corp.; Thomas C. Baxter, Jr., general counsel and executive vice president, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Richard S. Fuld Jr., former chairman and CEO, Lehman Brothers; Harvey R. Miller, business finance & restructuring partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; and Barry L. Zubrow, chief risk officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Thursday’s hearing will focus on the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., with witnesses including: Ben S. Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman; and Sheila C. Bair, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman.

Commissioners will hold their first “field hearing” in Bakersfield, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Subsequent hearings will be held in Las Vegas, Nev.; Miami, Fla.; and Sacramento, Calif. California’s former Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat of Sacramento, is chairman of the FCIC, with former Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of Bakersfield the commission’s vice-chairman.

The commission was created by Congress last year to hold hearings and investigate the causes of the nation’s economic meltdown. The 10-member bipartisan FCIC is required to report its findings to Congress by Dec. 15.

On the same day the commission announced its new round of hearings, President Obama challenged Congress to set aside politics and pass his administrations Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, which includes tax cuts and incentives for small business. The act is being blocked in the Senate primarily by Republican opposition.

“Holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth,” Obama said in a Rose Garden speech Monday. “I know we’re entering election season. But the people who sent us here expect us to work together to get things done and improve this economy.

“There is no reason to block it besides pure partisan politics,” said Obama. “Small business owners and the communities that rely on them, they don’t have time for political games.”

In a statement released before Obama’s remarks, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio once again urged the president to fire his economic team, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

In announcing next week’s hearing in Bakersfield, Thomas told The Bakersfield Californian, “This is the first time we’re going out to the community level … There’s (comparison of) Main Street versus Wall Street. This is going to be Main Street.”

Central California, including Bakersfield, is staggering from high foreclosure and unemployment rates.

From Wall Street to Main Street: FCIC Takes Economic Inquiry to Bakersfield, Calif.

Phil Angelides, left, and Bill Thomas

The pain just doesn’t go away as the nation’s economic problems continue to devastate millions of American families. Members of the Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission will listen to real people’s pain on Sept. 7, when they hold their first “field hearing” in Bakersfield, Calif., in the heart of the foreclosure crisis.

The 10-member bipartisan commission was created by Congress last year to examine the causes of the financial meltdown. Its chairman is former California Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat, and retired Bakersfield Rep. Bill Thomas, a Republican.

Wall Street financial giants, economists and federal regulators have been hauled before the commission during a series of often contentious hearings held this year in Washington, D.C., and New York. Commissioners have a Dec. 15 deadline to present their findings to Congress.

Commissioners announced Thursday that they intend to take their inquiry on the road, with their first stop being in Bakersfield, Thomas’ home town. Three additional field hearings have been scheduled: Las Vegas, Nev., on Sept. 8; Miami, Fla., on Sept. 21; and Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 23. Sacramento is chairman Angelides’ home town.

The focus of the hearings and list of witnesses who will be called has not yet been announced. However, the hearings are intended to highlight how actions on Wall Street have affected life on Main Street. Plummeting property values, a persistently high unemployment rate, record-setting foreclosures and community bank failures are effects that are evident on the streets of Bakersfield, the city that will host the commission’s first field hearing.

The one-day hearing is expected to be filled with testimony from witnesses representing the financial and real estate industries. People who are victims of the financial crisis also will have an opportunity to testify and present written comment.