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.