Event:2015/08/24 Until the Revolution Working Group

Omni "Buy the Building" working group meeting - Monday August 24, 2015

last week: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/08/17_Until_the_Revolution_Working_Group

lender

• still waiting to hear back. most likely still travelling. biggest question mark in this process right now. when we do hear back, it will either be good news or bad news.
• if he can't tolerate the 30 year term: we research other options? omni can probably not afford 10k/mo anytime soon and this would be a big problem for us
• if he no longer wants to lend to us: what then?
  • notify the omni community immediately
  • research other options
  • look for more donors
  • start bankruptcy proceedings?
• if it's good news: he still wants to go through with it, at terms we can afford. next steps would be:
  • figure out exact terms of loan, probably by meeting with jesse first
  • get consent for those terms from delegates
  • then all meet together (us, lender, jesse, maybe land trust)
• jenny might send him a personal ping

lawyer

• yar: Jesse couldn't make it tonight, so when's a good time to meet him? alternatively, should we delay scheduling this meeting until we hear back from the lender?
• laura: still lots to talk about. getting 501c3 for instance
• daniel: do we want to find an additional lawyer to consult, just in case?
  • ambivalence, confidence in jesse

501c3

• Jesse apparently has already "spent a significant amount of time figuring out how it could work"
• can we just tell him to submit it? maybe some decisions or value judgements would have to be made
• finance working group said they were taking this one on. should check in with them.

owner

• Option agreement says once we formally notify the owner, we have to open an escrow account with 5k within 10 days. so we don't need to notify them quite yet. but if we want to buy by october, we need to think about notifying in a matter of weeks...
• matt: do we want to let him know informally? let the cat out of the bag? risk him hearing on the grapevine?
• less time for him to stew, get weird ideas...
• being more open can be a good thing, but might create risk
• maybe even ask him for a personal gift, to reduce the cost. "early christmas present"
• want to do this sep 1
• matt is a "shysty bastard"
  • after some research it is determined this phrase is probably antisemitic. fuck.
• wondering whether he'd want to make a donation to 501c3 or avoid capital gain tax by just subtracting from option price

land trust

• yar: I propose we go with BACLT because it's the lowest hanging fruit and we are overworked already. I propose we schedule a meeting with BACLT people ASAP, possibly with Jesse present. Questions for that meeting:
  • what entity will hold the ground lease?
  • what language and conditions can/should be put in the ground lease?
• Then we make a proposal to the delegates about giving the building to BACLT and taking a ground lease.
• Once things get serious, Brewster might also want to meet with both Jesse and the BACLT people as well. Might have to schedule that meeting well in advance.
• Might as well set up a meeting with Northern California Land Trust too, no? It seems like those are the strongest bets, and there's just two. Happy to help -- Matt.
• yar: need to decide asap so we can meet and figure out ground lease terms, so we can make sure lender is ok with those terms...
• laura: what are they gonna say about "why we're better"?
• matt: ask about the health of the organization. NC had bad years, but then they recovered (I think)?
• rumors that NCLT hasn't been totally cool with Long Haul
  • matt: you could be aggressive enforcing terms of contract
  • jesse says they "squandered money"
  • LH has a "lifetime lease for $1200/mo" - from article on internet
• yar wants to know how much money land trusts charge us to own the building... if we give them the building outright we don't need to pay "rent" but are there fees? another question to ask.
  • matt says they could access the capital or equity in theory but we don't want them to do that!
• let's go talk to BACLT this week
• our friend praveen lives in a SF land trust property. but that's SF...
  • matt: BACLT is mostly berkeley people anyway
• is this good or bad for the land trust? more property, some hype, but also more work?
• wondering how many properties BACLT has. only 2 on the website.
• matt agrees BACLT is probably our best bet. willing to confirm & seal the deal this week. but wants inside info. there was a coup inside a credit union recently.
• yar's prediction is that within a few years we'll all BE the land trust because half of us will become land trust organizers. they all seemed excited for younger people to be involved. this is a great opportunity for that reason too. also this is a way for omni organizers to pivot to sustainable affordable housing activism by doing volunteer work. land trust talks about wanting people to knock on doors asking people to bequeath their properties to keep it off the market. but needs people to do that. we can offer that.
• laura: let's invite them to the Becoming Omni process
• matt: let's ask them if they know any millionaires...
• Sample community land rust ground lease http://cltnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Model-Lease-01-2011.pdf
• Questions:
  • What does a typical ground lease look like (what is ours going to look like?)
    • Possible to transfer to other land trusts at certain times?
  • How far can we take the purpose of the ground lease ("mission" to scope Omni Commons use, and future use)?
    • yar wants our mission written in the lease to be "an active threat to capitalism". fun thought experiment about how a judge would interpret or enforce that. actually not fun, scary
  • How does BACLT work, what's the history been, have there been conflicts, major changes, concerns, etc?
  • What's BACLT's "bus factor"? And what damage might there be in case of bus accident?
    • yar: omni's bus factor has gotten scary low lately. at least halved by a few months
  • What's the future of BACLT, how might the Omni Commons community be playing into that by forming a relationship?

subleases

• yar: we may want to look at existing subleases for groups. some groups may not have sublease agreements because they signed the lease directly. so we'd want to consider writing new agreements for them, and possibly renegotiating existing subleases for when we become owner. Not sure what the laws are for "upgrading" lease agreements like that. Also, what entity will be doing the subleasing long-term? Another thing to ask Jesse?
• people telling yar everyone has a sublease, but yar isn't sure, wants to double check
• matt is pretty sure we'll have to rewrite them all anyway

San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music (SFFCM)

If you would like to work on the following goals, contact matt:

• Bringing free musical events to Omni Commons (public benefit and accessible events)
• Bringing funding to give directly to artists
• Other forms of partnerships to apply for grants or otherwise receive $$$
  • Possibly up to $1 million?