Government watchdog Jonathan Pelto, a petitioning candidate for governor, shares his latest piece about school board member Ken Moales.
The controversy surrounding Reverend Kenneth Moales, Jr. expands even further.
Documents on file with the Connecticut Superior Court and the City of Bridgeport reveal that while Reverend Kenneth Moales, Jr. and his family collected more than $8 million dollars from a Midwestern mortgage company that specializes in providing construction loans to evangelical and other churches, the building that Moales built was only a fraction of what was required in the loan agreement and corresponding documents.
Where the rest of the construction money went raises even more questions about Moales’ financial operations.
Full story here.
I am amazed Moales hasn’t been hauled before a court yet. It is just never-ending with Moales. He received $8 million dollars to build a church that included a sanctuary, pool, hall, basketball court, bowling alley and classrooms and he only built the sanctuary and some of the classrooms. Good question Pelto, where are the MILLIONS of dollars that were supposed to be used to build all the amenities? Moales is one of Finch’s BIGGEST supporters and even allows Finch to speak from the pulpit of his church. Finch has repeatedly stated he has a “zero tolerance policy” for city employees and elected officials who demonstrate unethical behavior. Prove it Mayor Finch, publicly demand Moales immediately resign from the Bridgeport Board of Education. Actions speak louder than words.
Are we still talking about this? I would like to know what all of the candidates running for office think about this. This of course will be a real thorn in Mayor Finch’s ass in the next election cycle. This investigation is bound to go on for some time giving any contender some serious ammunition to mortally wound the Mayor, making a $200,000 war chest irrelevant.
This is not a defense of Moales as much as a general condemnation of this tactic.
1st off, this is between Moales and his bank. If the bank is unhappy with the terms of the loan, take the property.
Secondly, I am sure this building loan works like any other building loan. This is a bank that specializes in building loans and the bank SHOULD know what it is doing but if they made a bad loan, too bad for them.
After the builder puts down 20% (usually this is the property) the bank money is delivered in thirds. You submit your plan and the bank gives you 1/3 of the money. Once this is gone there is a loan to value assessment and the bank decides if they want to continue or foreclose to recover the appropriated money. I.e., sell the land to recoup their investment. If the building process is showing value to investment progress the second third of the money is allocated and construction continues.
This is just a hatchet job to discredit Moales. Building plans change all the time. The bank has a guy whose job it is to watch all this stuff.
All the stuff Pelto has fussed about and no cops, no charges and in the only investigation that happened Moales was found to have made an error and the BOE paid him. The BOE specializes in paying to educate kids and the BOE SHOULd know what it is doing. Dave–don’t scream ‘fraud’ unless you can prove it. I have a letter that says ‘error.’ The only thing this shows is you can bill the BOE for anything and get paid. It is up to the buyer to make sure you are buying what you want. “Buyer beware.”
BOE SPY, there you go again giving a defense for Moales. BOE SPY, who is paying you for comments on OIB?
You are, Ron. I am a Democrat blogging lobbyist paid for by the contributions of people like you.
www .opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000135
International Association of Firefighters (IAFF):
LOBBYING $392,000 (2013)
ranks 700 of 4,149 in 2013
No, just kidding. I am just some guy with a computer. No one pays me. Well, maybe the CIA pays me a little. Sometimes I work for the Culinary Institute of American.
BOE SPY, feel free to send a check payable to Momentum Communications.
But according to Ron, I do this to get checks. 🙂 Not give them out. 🙁
BOE SPY, the lender is ALREADY attempting to “take the property,” that is why Moales is embroiled in an $8 MILLION FORECLOSURE. Moales and the lender went through foreclosure mediation and that ended in March with no agreement reached. The foreclosure is proceeding. The lender had nothing to do with purchasing the property, Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love already owned the land before they received the first $6.2 million loan. The lender is in the midwest which means they would have had to rely on inspection reports from local contractors regarding the progress of the building. While Moales was Chair of the BBOE, he was caught double-billing the BOE and the Connecticut State Department of Education to the tune of $75,000 over a four-month period. Moales knew an audit was initiated in July and he was informed of the audit findings that were issued in September 2013. Instead of coming clean, he and superintendent Paul Vallas purposefully and intentionally kept it from the remaining eight BOE members and the public. Instead of coming clean, Vallas filed an appeal with the CSDE in October, on behalf of Moales. He did this without the BBOE’s knowledge or authority. In January 2014 the CSDE Appeals Committee rules Moales MUST repay the $75,000. Ms. Baraka is now the Chair of the BBOE and there are four new members and they still aren’t told about the double billing. You keep believing it was an “error.” It was purposeful and intentional and Moales got caught.
Please post a link you have to prove any of this. Where does anything say ‘double billing?’ Do you have difficulty with comprehension? I said the lendee puts down 20%. That is usually, but not always, the property. Whoever the midwest bank relied on to assess the construction is their problem. If the bank’s assessment contractor was wrong the bank should take it up with them. Why the property is in foreclosure is anyone’s guess. I would GUESS the loss of property value after the ‘crash’ put the property in a negative capital recapture position (underwater). The bank called for the church to reduce the loan to an 80% liability and the church could not do that. The foreclosure was contractually triggered by the loan to value situation. Not by anyone’s inability to pay or refusal to pay. The loan was renegotiated. Probably just put under a new contract eliminating the ‘underwater’ foreclosure clause.
BOE SPY, there is no “link” to post because this information is based on quite a few emails between Deborah Adams, CSDE and Kenya Moales-Byrd, Kingdom’s Little One Academy. Deborah Adams explains the double billing in her repeated emails to Kenya Moales-Byrd and Kenneth Moales was carbon copied on quite a few of them. He even attended a meeting with his mother and sister and the CSDE while he was Chair of the BBOE. I had this same friend go down to the Superior Court House yesterday to pull this foreclosure file. Moales missed his February, March, April and May 2013 mortgage payments. On May 16, 2013 the lender sent him three certified mail demand letters, one for each loan. In June 2013, the lender filed the foreclosure action against Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. As I just stated, the first payment missed was in February 2013. This was also the first month he submitted an invoice for, in which he “double-billed” both the BBOE and the CSDE.
So the BOE had no idea they paid him twice. I commonly get doctor bills I have already paid. The accounts receivable and accounts payable do not seem to be in touch. However, I do not pay the same bill twice. But I know what I am doing. What does this say about how the BOE manages our money?
BOE SPY, if the ZBA grants you a conditional approval that states the building must conform to the approved plans; can you please share with us how Moales arbitrarily decided he wasn’t going to build a pool, a 500 seat hall, a basketball court, a bowling alley and an entire wing of classrooms? He would have had to file another application with the ZBA BEFORE the alterations to the plans were made, to seek a new approval based on proposed changes. Was that done? No, it was not. State and municipal laws don’t apply to some, they apply to all and that includes Moales. The repeated and constant effort by state and municipal elected and appointed officials to do everything within their power to help Moales circumvent the laws the rest of Connecticut and Bridgeport’s citizens have to comply with is completely wrong. We have an illegally built building, illegally operating the building without a CO, an illegal daycare, an illegal K-8 school, illegal double-billing of the BBOE and the CSDE, potential fraud with his out-of-state mortgage; what will be next? Moales must resign. Let’s see if the Mayor who claims to have a “zero tolerance policy” for unethical behavior will call for Moales’ resignation, but don’t hold your breath.
I showed you this before. Maybe you do not remember, did not read it or ignored it because it does not fit into your view of reality.
www .bridgeportct.gov/filestorage/89019/89540/97356/155339/155342/195115/155348/ZBA_MINUTES_-_September_9,_2013.pdf
Page 3
In 2006 they were granted approval for a development plan for the construction of a house of worship. He said the plan was to build it in 3 phases. Phase 1 has been completed and includes a full sanctuary, Classrooms for K-8 and a day care facility. They employ 37 employees, 92% are Bridgeport residents.
Page 19
FOR THE FOLLOWING REASON:
THE ADDITION OF A POOL AND BOWLING ALLEY WAS NOT FEASIBLE AT THE TIME OF CONSTRUCTION.
**COMMISSIONER GRACE SECONDED
**THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
BOE SPY, how are you related to Reverend Kenneth Moales Jr. because I’m sure you guys are family?
Yes I am. I am Moales’ white uncle. Kind of ‘the black sheep’ of the family.
Once again, I am just some guy.
Forgive me father for I have sinned, I agree with BOE SPY. The minister’s financial problems are between him and his lending institution, they know how much he borrowed, what it was used for and what was built and/or not built. If they have a problem with what he did or didn’t do with the money he borrowed they the certainly know what steps to take to remedy the situation. After all, I’m damn sure he wasn’t their first rodeo.
Mr. Day, I disagree with your point of view. I would think his parishioners who pay hefty tithes to attend this church have a vested interest in the foreclosure. I also think all the parents who have their children enrolled in his three daycares and K-8 school have a vested interest as well. If all of his properties are successfully foreclosed on, what happens to all the daycare services these children and parents rely on? What happens to all the parishioners who rely on his church for their religious services?
Don’t worry, Dave. The BOE will bail him out. I GUARANTEE it.
BOE SPY, I did read the minutes you posted previously and I also responded you needed to read the minutes from 2006. The minutes you provide only serve as further evidence he was granted approval to build a “House of Worship” in 2006. According to Moales’ own comments in a CT Post article in 2006, the project was to be built in two phases, not three. NEITHER his ZBA application in 2006 or 2013 requested an approval for a daycare or school. Both applications were seeking approval for a “House of Worship.” If you don’t fill out an application for a daycare or school, then you clearly do not have the ZBA or ZB’s approval. In closing, the 2013 minutes detail how the pool and bowling alley could not be built at the time of construction, but there is no mention of the missing basketball court, 500-seat hall or the entire wing of missing classrooms.
OK, post the link. This info could be moot. Zoning approvals do not, necessarily, build on each other. They usually negate each other. I.e., I file to build a porch. Then I file to build a three-season room in the same place. Then I file to make it a garage. I simply changed my mind and I do not need to build a garage with a porch and three-season room in it. If I end up building nothing, that is okay too. If I filed to build all three in different places and end up only building the garage, that is okay. The zoning approval just gives me permission to build the project. It is not a promise or contract to build it and I do not have to tell zoning I did not build the stuff. I could just not build and let the zoning approval expire.
Why do you say you read the minutes and then refute what they say? This a copied from that the zoning guy said ‘In 2006 they were granted approval for a development plan for the construction of a house of worship. He said the plan was to build it in 3 phases. Phase 1 has been completed and includes a full sanctuary, Classrooms for K-8 and a day care facility.’ Pay special attention to the part that says ‘Classrooms for K-8 and a day care facility.’ Yet you continue to say ‘NEITHER his ZBA application in 2006 or 2013 requested an approval for a daycare or school.’ What does it take for you to understand what you read?
If Moales told the paper sometime before construction began it would be a two-phase project, he must have thought that at the time. Building loans always come in thirds. I would guess his plans changed once this was discovered.
Since it said ‘THE ADDITION OF A POOL AND BOWLING ALLEY WAS NOT FEASIBLE AT THE TIME OF CONSTRUCTION,’ I would guess he still plans on building those things. Possibly in phase two or at some later date or never. Like I said above, I file to build A, B and C. I only build B. So what? Since it makes no mention of the basketball court, 500-seat hall or the entire wing of missing classrooms, I would guess those things have been cancelled, you just made that up or they were stolen by aliens. I do not know. They were not mentioned.
*** TYPICAL BPT POLITICIAN READY TO LEAD HIS VOTING BLINDLY PEOPLE, “NOWHERE FAST!” ***