15 Dec
2023
15 Dec
'23
2:14 p.m.
What I'm curious about is who would that 2 million go to? Omni Commons is
made up of several collectives. Collectives that have come and gone as
well. How would that money be split up? How would working groups be
included in the division? Would collectives that got banned also earn a cut
of the sale? Also in reality the 1st million payment on the building was
from an anonymous donor. The last 9 years of Omni Administration was mostly
done by volunteers in working groups. The administration didn't do so well.
What will make the LLC strategy any different from our burnt out operating
body?
Best option would be to work with a non-profit that can take on that work
we struggle with while staying in the building! We can also negotiate our
needs and desires in operations with prospecting groups. I also think
offering a space to community led Black and or Indigenous folks from
Oakland/Ohlone is work towards collective reparations. I was under the
impression Omni was operating as anti-capitalist, it feels extractive of
all the free volunteers who made Omni stay afloat for maybe some lucky
collectives to gain profit.
On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 12:01 PM Taylor Alexander via sudo-discuss <
sudo-discuss(a)sudoroom.org> wrote:
(sending to sudo because I don't think I am on
other lists, please forward
as needed)
Just had a conversation about the current situation. It sounds like
People's Programs essentially want to completely take over legal and
administrative control of Omni Commons. I would be against this as it seems
it would spell the end of Omni Commons. I also want to put up front that
Omni's Lawyer has made clear we have more than 90 days to resolve this as
foreclosure cannot take less than 90 days.
But what I wanted to talk about was the assets of the Omni Commons
organization, specifically the building. Using very rough numbers, Omni
Commons owes $900k on a property worth roughly $3m (I am told).
It seems to me that would mean that Omni Commons has $2 million in assets
by way of the property. Even if the bank foreclosed on the property, the
value of those assets does not disappear! If the bank foreclosed on the
property and sold it, one would expect that after they take their $900k and
some fees, they would have to pay the balance back to Omni Commons. This
would leave the organization with no building BUT with $2 million dollars
in cash. That seems to me the worst case scenario we should accept! Worst
case Omni vacates the property and then looks for where to spend its $2
million for a new property.
So we have a few scenarios ahead. One option is to find a new single large
lender to give us a 5 year bridge loan to continue in this property, or to
do the same with an LLC and multiple smaller community lenders (low risk
bridge loans from a number of supportive community members).
Or we could let People's Programs spend $900k to acquire a $3 million
property, essentially giving away Omni's $2 million in assets?? That seems
like a terrible idea.
We absolutely should not give away $2m to any organization for any reason,
and any support we receive must be contingent on Omni Commons maintaining
legal and administrative control of our assets. It seems the best path
forward is to form an LLC and seek low risk bridge loans from community
members, with the backstop option of taking our $2 million somewhere else
and setting up a new location.
-Taylor Alexander aka Sequoia
_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss(a)sudoroom.org
To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave(a)sudoroom.org
More options at
https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/