Thread by @RileyInOmaha

I'm starting to take a look at documents provided to @im_carney regarding Legacy Crossing that he received via a FOIA request.

I'll start the🧵 here.

As you all know Vukota Capital Management ("Vukota") took ownership of Legacy Crossing in 2018.

Vukota boasts being an investment firm that manages $1,000,000,000 in assets/investments.

I'd love to share more on them, but it appears that Vukota's website has recently expired.

Anyway, Vukota is located in Colorado.

They appear to be represented by attorney Jonathan Nash who works for Senn Law based out of Denver.

Jon Nash had been in contact with Omaha's chief housing inspector, Scott Lane, regarding Vukota's property since before Thanksgiving.

Jon Nash's contact with Scott Lane appear to be mostly regarding the sale of Legacy Crossing, but as early as December 8th, 2022, Nash was reaching out to Scott Lane about the steps being taken about both the building and fire safety of the building.

There are 1,400+ pages of documents from this FOIA request, so just scratching the surface, but my first thought at this point would be why did the City of Omaha wait so long in between being given direct updates on the building from Vukota's attorney and telling residents there?

I believe this portion of Jean's public comments was included (as recommended by Anna (Bespoyasny, I believe, who is a superintendent of building and development for the city).

Just wanted to point this out, because it reads as if the mayor, and those beneath her, are justifying the ordinance which they say is working, not to tenants who were most negatively impacted by the ordinance clearly not working here, but justifying it to *landlords*.

It reads like a shoutout to *landlords*, as if to say, "Yes, we know you don't like having to register or face inspection, but look! It's working!"

Another example of how the wellbeing of tenants is not the first priority of the city, but instead the landlords who make money.

And @im_carney points out, the mayor did leave out the suggestion by Anna (Bespoyasny) that the ordinance "is working."

July 28th, 2022—Omaha fire captain Duane Eivins contacts Lisa Mendoza, property manager for Legacy Crossing, and informs her that little has been done to alleviate fire code violations and issues an $864 fee for violations at 8 buildings.

Violations were known back in May.

The timeline here is important because again, if buildings remain in violation of fire codes for month after month, and the total fees for the violations amounts to maybe one tenant's monthly rent, is the city truly incentivizing bad landlords to fix the problem?

Does this sound like a system set up to protect the tenants paying rent to live in a building that violates the city's fire code, or does it sound like a system set up to allow landlords to let violations linger with nothing more than a slap on the wrist?

August 5th, 2022—Fire captain Duane Eivins is informed that Vukota no longer plans to pay for repairs on Legacy Crossing, and will instead choose to simply pay fees charged by the city of Omaha.

Why were tenants, who were continuing to pay rent, not immediately informed by the city that their landlord was choosing to forgo building repairs, therefore risking the safety of tenants, and instead just pay the city for its noncompliance?

November 4th, 2022—Fire captain Duane Eivins informs Scott Lane and Jared Jensen (Douglas County Health Dept.) that Legacy Crossing may be in the middle of a sale...or maybe not!

Adds that it may take "at least another 45 days" for a sale to occur.

Further endangering tenants.

So keep in mind, this is November 4th.

45 days later is December 19th—the week of Christmas.

In a best case scenario where a sale occurs and the new building owner begins repairs, how quickly could they possibly happen?

None of this was realistically safe for the tenants.

As a reminder, the city easily could have contacted tenants and kept them aware of the ongoing situation.

At that point in time, weeks before Thanksgiving even, they knew that the online payment portal was shut down and repairs were not being made.

Why leave tenants clueless?

Y'all, I'm like 30 pages into a nearly 1,000 page document, and this whole thing already reeks of city officials who were so much more concerned with working with landlords than informing tenants of the noncompliance of their landlord and the dangers they have put the tenants in.

December 8th, 2021 (not 2022)—City of Omaha officials Scott Lane & Kevin Mulcahy give Vukota a "FINAL EXTENSION" to solve existing property violations.

Vukota gets a final date of March 9th, 2022.

More than 9 months later, Vukota had given up on repairs and endangered tenants.

Vukota had received a list of property violations, all which reached the threshold of "high severity level" and dated back to October 2020.

The city was aware of high level property violations by Vukota for years. It was clear that the current means of regulation wasn't working.

September 20th, 2022—Sean Connors, Director of Facilities for property management firm Avantic Residential, asks Tyler Dewaele of city planning for Omaha about how re-inspections turned out.

Tyler notifies him Sep. 21 that all notified cases except for one re-failed inspection.

November 11th, 2022—Fire captain Duane Eivins warns that a recent fire at Legacy Crossing "could have wound up much worse, and possibly hurt[] someone[]" due to existing fire code violations.

November 11th, 2022—Eivins says on a conference call Jon Nash (Vukota's lawyer) "sound[ed] as if he was wanting to compromise the life safety of tenants to get to the possible closing date [of property sale]."

"...sounds like they are yet again asking for more time or a pass..."

November 11th, 2022—Eivins says tenants could not be moved to other buildings on property as "[e]ven the best buildings on location have black mold or...water damage..."

Eivins says Vukota had months to repair, but waited "at the expense of their tenants health and safety."

November 11th, 2022—Eivins specifically calls this behavior by Vukota "inexcusable," and then goes on to say that Vukota's attorney "admitted this to us during today's call" regarding Vukota wanting to wait on paying for repairs for the buildings to be sold.

December 7th, 2022—Tyler Dewaele of city planning for Omaha contacts Jon Nash, Vukota's attorney, and asks "if everything is progressing smoothly on the current sale of...Legacy Crossing..." and if Vukota is "attempting to maintain...safe and habitable living conditions?"

December 7th, 2022—Tyler Dewaele also states that city planning is "hopeful that this sale of the property is completed at the end of next week" which would have been December 16th.

But remember!

Fire captain Eivins already informed people within city planning that he believed that it would take "at least 45 days" from November 4th, 2022 for the sale to be completed, if at all!

That date would have placed a sale date by no sooner than December 19th, 2022.

Almost 250 pages into the first 918-page document.

Had to take a break. I’ll continue to dig into this though, hopefully tonight.

July 9th & July 15th, 2022—Vukota is notified of a violation at 5616 N 106 PA, Apt 4.

Six days later a re-inspection finds that the property violations had not been resolved, and consequently (I believe), the unit is ordered to be vacated by the city.

November 28th, 2022—Fire captain Eivins emails Scott Lane and said the previous Wednesday (Nov. 23rd) he was at Legacy Crossing with the prospective buyers of the property.

He continues, "[h]e was on location with some loan lender people or was it money laundering people." 😳 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

December 16th, 2022—Omaha Fire Department battalion chief, Scott Fitzpatrick, informs inspectors that Legacy Crossing would be vacated on Monday, December 19th and says planning had begun since Wednesday, Dec. 14th.

There's no indication that tenants were given advanced warning.

The plan to remove all tenants from Legacy Crossing was told to inspectors on Friday, Dec. 16th, but rather than inform tenants that day, and letting them make future arrangements over the weekend and before vacating the building on Monday, they just...said nothing until Monday.

December 19th, 2022—The day the city vacates Legacy Crossing.

Scott Fitzpatrick states in an email to the entire Omaha Fire Department (I believe) that "...the most important part is to make sure these residents have a safe place to stay and keep our crews as safe as possible."

I'm not saying the irony of the city knowing about these violations for months and doing next to nothing to help tenants along the way is Scott Fitzpatrick's cross to bear, but it's clear that making sure residents had "a safe place to stay" was not "most important" to the city.

Spot on from @im_carney here.

Mayor Stothert made it clear that they just couldn't wait any longer because conditions (that they knew about!) were so bad.

But they did.

A plan was in place three days earlier to do this, but tenants weren't told.

December 20th, 2022—Omaha fire battalion chief, Scott Fitzpatrick, says that media coverage of the city vacating 150+ tenants days before Christmas in sub-freezing temperatures "was mostly positive," but opined that there were "some negative questions asked by @KETV."

No context provided with these pictures, but I'm assuming these are property violations documented when tenants were being vacated from Legacy Crossing.

November 9th, 2022—Jared Jensen of the Douglas County Health Department informs Vukota that they must correct "cockroach and mouse droppings" and "standing water and black mold" problem.

Vukota is given 14 days to comply before it "result[s] in further action."

October 18th, 2022—Jared Jensen sent an almost identical letter to the one sent on November 9th regarding other units owned by Vukota.

All of these final notices that state "NO FURTHER NOTICES WILL BE ISSUED" were sent multiple weeks or months before the city notified tenants.