Your question is thoughtful and well-taken. I think that we could have a long discussion over what constitutes friendship, but long and short, I would flag anyone with whom I have current or recent business dealings, major donors to my campaign, fellow elected officials, and anyone whom I hold a close personal relationship with.

Logistics are actually the easy part. Once compiled, my list would be entered into our database so that any time a name from that list shows up on a document, the computer automatically flags it for review. There would be no political cover under which I could claim not to have noticed a transaction. It's simple enough that I am surprised my opponent has not pursued it yet after sixteen years in office.

All I can think of is George W. Bush cutting IRS tax enforcement budget by 30%.  I don't believe Republicans, especially hard core anti-tax ideologues like Cuccinelli and Frey really care about collecting (or maybe even paying) taxes.

My question is this:

Do you have any reason to believe that there are any other deals like this that have been missed by Mr. Frey?

Doesn't a lien, usually filed in a court of law, require some kind of evidence of unpaid debt to the filer?  I think filing this kind of a lien sounds much more suspect than the transaction itself, well except for the unpaid tax, that is.

We used to file liens in court against homeowners who refused to pay their quarterly assessments in my homeowners' association because they were legally obliged to pay.  They were meant to secure our association monies in any future transaction.

Not anybody can just walk in and file a lien--there has to be a legal merit for doing so.  IS THIS WHAT JOHN FREY DID FOR KEN CUCCINELLI!??!?!?!?

The only reason I can think of for doing a real estate deal like this is that the owner of the property wanted to realize a gain on the house, and agreed to sell out to the investors at the price they could get at that time.  Then the investors would be guaranteed of some kind of gain by placing liens against the property for acceptably increased amounts.  So the owner loses that gain to those investors when he sells (and takes a huge risk if the market prices are declining), but would still retain any gain over the amounts of the liens in total.  So, presumedly, when they sold it again for $600,000 the owners retained the surplus that appreciated over the 3 x $185,000 ($555,000) which would have been about $45,000.  I don't know if I'm thinking about this one correctly or not.

Is this even possible?  Is it legal?

Is this a normal real estate investment process?

Is it legal?

How could he file a lien--on what legal basis?  Wouldn't John Frey's office have to verify that the lien is legitimate?  How would that be done?

How does one buy an "interest" in a property without actually buying it?  Did Cooch and his partners actually buy it and then convey it back to them in another transaction---shouldn't that have been two instances of grantor's tax paid?

My campaign delivered a letter to the Mr. Frey's office Monday morning at about eleven o'clock.  He wasn't in the office at the time but I'm confident that he was given the letter. Unfortunately, Mr. Frey has remained silent on these very significant questions.

The follow text is an excerpt of that letter:

There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, but I think the citizens of Fairfax deserve to hear it. Therefore, I would ask that the Clerk of Court's office immediately look into the following questions and forward any unresolved matters to the Commonwealth Attorney for further investigation:

?What procedures have you implemented to make sure that people are paying their grantor's taxes, especially given that the General Assembly has designated the funds collected from this tax to pay for our County's roads and highways?

?Have you ever conducted an audit of such exemption claims? If so, what triggers an audit?

?What steps did your office take to verify that the 12/15/05 deed transferring Senator Cuccinelli's interest in the property into the Trust was legitimately exempt from taxes?

?The transaction raises a number of red flags, from its rapid increase in recorded value to its unusually high interest rate. Has the Cuccinelli real estate deal already been reviewed by the Clerk of Court's office? If not, why not, and how was it allowed to occur on your watch?

Thanks

Unfortunately, what I have found since contemplating and ultimately declaring my candidacy is a long history of complacency in the Clerk of Court's office.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the CPAN records management system, but if not, you may be surprised to hear that without any identity verification or background check, citizens or organizations from all over the country can gain access to your personal information - including social security numbers - for only $25.00/month. Mr. Frey shrugs this off as a non-issue. I disagree.

One could also point to his chronic absenteeism, his consistently failed audits and the $10 million taxpayer dollars being wasted on computer systems which the State Auditor told him not to purchase in the first place.

People in Fairfax work hard. They deserve a Clerk who will work just as hard for them.

Government entities duty is to protect and serve their citizens not to gain money off of and expose them to criminal behavior.

I am not an industry expert on the ten fold increase in identity fraud, but I do have personal experience with it.

I find it especially troubling that there is not proper controls placed on data that we as citizens entrust to our government to protect.

I wonder if a citizen of Fairfax County has grounds for a lawsuit against the county misuse of personal data?

It seems there must have been some reason Mr. Cuccinelli was the one doing this for this particular family/trust.

What do you know about the family who sold and bought back the property from Cuccinelli? Did they have any kind of business or political connection?

Whenever someone suggests a solution to a problem, he says it can't be solved. For almost 16 years, interested people and groups have been asking the Clerk to take action to stop his sale of our personal information to people and businesses all over the country. His response has been to call them names and block every effort they have made to pass legislation to stop this practice. I can see no viable reason that someone should be allowed to buy and have access to our Social Security numbers. My Republican opponent does.

Additionally, when the State Supreme Court and the Auditor for the Commonwealth suggested to the Clerk, in one of his 6 failed audits over the last 8 years, to replace his computer system, since he was failing to collect and report fees (their comments), he did. But instead of doing what they suggested, getting a system that would interface with the legal system computers and the State Supreme computers, he bought one that stands alone and doesn't interface with any other computers. Cost the taxpayers approximately $5 million. Now he wants another $5 million to buy another computer system, since the first one has never worked. He refuses to work with anyone to find money saving solutions. He apparently feels our tax dollars are his mad money to spend, spend, and spend.

Having worked with the public for as long as I have, I  see the value in good customer service.  The Clerk's office needs to accept and seek out feedback on what it is doing from all of the stakeholders involved - particularly from the public.  The office needs to be accessible to all and offer assistance to those who need it.  My Republican opponent doesn't seem understand this - despite holding the office for 16 years, very few people even know who he is or what he does.

I'm proud to have been endorsed by a number of groups like the Fairfax Deputy Sheriffs Coalition.  These individuals work with the Clerk's office on a daily basis.  They see the need for change and I want to listen and use their input.

audits are a matter of public record and should be reviewed by those interested in its contents. i am not familiar with the details of the transaction in question. generally speaking the clerks office is neither responsible or empowered to investigate the validity of liens. if the lien is not valid it cannot be enforced. the same oversight should be applied to all documents and the same rules applied, regardless of who presents them. flagging specific names would be a pointless waste of time.  mechanics liens can be filed without documentation and require only the signature of the unpaid contractor or his representitve. in order to exempt a transaction from the full payment of recording taxes the document must contain certain language and the code section permitting this exemption. many family to family transactions are  exempt. in most offices the deputy clerks review and record the documents presented. if an unusual document or dispute about fees arises the clerk will make the final decision based on his interpretation of law.

i am not familiar with the cast of canidates available to fairfax voters. many of the concerns voiced by mr evans exhibit a lack of knowledge about the resposibilities and capabilities of the circuit court clerks office. many clerks are elected with little knowledge of the office but he should be prepared to correct that deficiency through hard work if elected. management is truly the key issue in a large and busy clerks office. good management does not require the constant presence of the clerk once his team is properly trained and established. mr evans may find that because this is an elected office he will have to use the flexibilty of his schedule to lay the groundwork for his re-election. i think mr evans would do well to be much more specific about audit findings  as these are proof of a failure to perform the clerks function. it is not the auditors place to recommend or engage in purchasing decisions made by the clerk so drop that one.
  mr frey needs to lose based soley on the issue of the availability of records online and his apparent lack of interest on the issue. in the closing days of this race mr evans might be best served by attention to identity theft and specific audit results. the rest sounds like garbage. (yes, i am a little jaded by campaign rhetoric too) then he can expect to spend eighteen hours a day for the next two years learning exactly what the clerk and his office do. after that it should be smooth sailing.

i have drafted some handouts about public records online. if anyone wants to email me i will be glad to send them. 

we distributed these at a political forum last week and plan to continue to distribute them around the area to increase awareness about the issue. i am a title abstractor and the other people who form the "we" are also title abstractors. there is a cover sheet, letter than can be used as is or edited and sent to elected officials, and copies of documents i downloaded from the virginia watchdog website. i am hoping that the isuue will take legs once more people are aware of the impications.

laurie wallace
roanoke, virginia 

I don't know much of anything about the Clerk's office. I hope this isn't rude, but if I'm not planning to buy or sell any property any time soon, why should I care who the Clerk of Court is?

I found this:
http://www.nvar.com/...

What's Cuccinelli claiming?  That he didn't understand a tax that he himself voted to raise?

Thanks to everybody who joined me earlier. -D.E.

My question is;  Doesn't this look a lot like what you have found with this transaction involving John Frey and Cuccinelli ???? Maybe this is how they have funneled money into candidates pockets to compensate them for their efforts to run for a $17k a year job......

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

As I understand the sequence, Ken "bought" a 1/3 interest in the property, so  presumably he paid a sales price of $160,000 to the owners of the property... who exactly WERE those owners, who was in that family trust? Perhaps a friend of Ken's, a relative of Ken's, a contributor to Ken's campaign? One wonders, was the money being laundered somehow, because Ken almost immediately re-conveyed the part-interest back to the people who first "sold" it to him, in exchange for which Ken now held a lien against the property for $185,000.

IMPERTINENT PERTINENT QUESTIONS:
When did the parties involved learn that the property was going to sell and settle for $600,000 (1/3 of which would have been $200,000, not $185,000 or, for that matter, $160,000--- why did they choose those amounts?  Did Ken's name show up on the HUD-1 settlement statement for that $600,000 sale, and if so, in what capacity--- part-owner, or a line item payoff of lein, which was described--- how? Was this a way of paying Ken back for what amounted to a LOAN on the original, initial conveyance? Why not use a simple second trust if the original family trust wanted some money in the meantime, and were willing to pay Ken a handsome vigorish (Mafia term for usury)?

Why go through the contortions described--- except to give Ken an enormous short-term profit or rate of return on his "investment." Had the owners of the property already given Ken money, and wanted to conceal an additional donation? Or, was Ken merely helping out a friend with a short-term loan? Hmmm I feel I'm missing something crucial here.

How about that time you left Michigan and went to Florida for a couple of years?  What exactly did you do there?

Why did you drop out of law school after 2 and a half years?

One last thing.  Could you clear up what college you went to?  Was it University of Michigan or University of Michigan-Flint?  As the educated readers of Raising Kaine must know, there is a HUGE difference. 

I had just heard some things and wanted to get the story straight.

Thanks.

Forgive me, but before I answer your questions, I have a question of my own.  You seem to have done a lot of research into my personal background. I also can't help but notice that you just created this identity today, that this is your first post, and that your username brings up an individual I ran against many years ago in Michigan.

Do you work for John Frey or for Ken Cuccinelli? Some of my good friends up in Michigan have been receiving calls soliciting personal information about me, and this seems like the kind of post that a campaign would use to distract attention from its own failing record. I apologize if I am incorrect.

As for your questions:

I was employed by the Smokeless Tobacco Council doing state government relations for four years. In that time, I worked with the legislature in Washington State to pass legislation restricting the access of young children to tobacco products.

I went to Florida in 1983 when my mother became very ill and required major surgery. I stayed there for three years caring for her, and worked as a probation officer for the State of Florida in Broward County. It was a valuable experience in learning about some of the challenges faced by those in the judicial system.

As for law school, my father died on March 6, 1979. After completing the semester, I decided to pursue a different path in my life. While I have pursued a different career path since then, I never lost my interest in the judicial system, and I am pleased at the prospect of serving the citizens of Fairfax County as their new Clerk of the Circuit Court.

And last but not least, I graduated from the University of Michigan. Go Wolverines! I attended classes at the University of Michigan - Flint campus and completed my bachelors degree in political science two years early in 1977.

I encourage everyone to do their research and focus on the issues important to this race and citizens of Fairfax.

I hope that I have your support on November 6th.

With Appreciation,

Dale Evans
Democratic Candidate for Clerk of Court

www.DaleEvansForClerk.com