Barron and the Banks

Last week, Northampton County Controller Steve Barron did what he does best - spread manure. He does it from his mouth. In fact, he's so good at it that Upper Mount Bethel's new sludge facility should hire him. Let me give you the details.

Barron, who failed the bar exam, wants the County to sue a bank. Hey, who likes evil banks? So he's identified a target hated by one and all, except bankers. He claims that Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems (MERS), which tracks mortgages, has stiffed the County $6.81 million since 2004. In addition to firing off a memo to County Council, County Solicitor and Executive John Stoffa, he alerted the press to his very significant findings. Then he took it upon himself to appear at Council's Finance Committee hearing on Thursday and accuse MERS of fraud.

"The fraud exists," claims Barron, who should know that's a pretty serious accusation.

When you take out a mortgage with a bank, it is often sold (we call them assignments) to another bank. Not always. According to Barron, MERS refuses to record these assignments so it can avoid paying the recording fee, of which $30 goes to the County.

But looking at his own math, he's wrong.

Our numbers guy excels at self-promotion. Math, not so much.

In memos and news conferences, Barron claims that there have been 49,770 MERS mortgages since 2004. I'll agree because he got this information from the Recorder, instead of coming up with it himself. Now let's assume that every stinkin' one of these MERS mortgages was sold, but this holding company refuses to record the assignment. That would mean lost revenue to the County totaling $1.49 million over a period of 8 years. That's well below the $6.81 million figure Barron was using.

Let's assume that every one of these mortgages was sold twice. That's still only $2.98 million, not even close to Barron's figure.

For Barron's figure to be correct, every one of these mortgages would have to have been sold five times.

That's just nuts.

Barron claims he was turned on to this because his mortgage has been sold five times. But guess what? His holding company is not MERS. Moreover, Barron should know, after his T-Mobile experience, that using the power of his office to pursue a personal vendetta is, at the least, unprofessional. It makes one wonder about little things like extortion.

Barron points to Montgomery County, which is supposedly considering a class action lawsuit. But I've seen no action filed, just election year rhetoric.

Although MERS can be an annoyance, I've seen no groundswell of protest among title agents in Northampton or Lehigh County. They would know if there's a problem, not Barron. Mortgages are still being satisfied when they are paid off, at least in Northampton County. In fact, I'm unsure whether MERS even has a legal obligation to record an assignment every time a mortgage is sold. I mentioned all of this to Barron, right down to his bogus figures, right before he put on his little show last week. He agreed with me. Then went on to make the same claims, knowing he is fill of shit.

And he talks about fraud?

Do I think this should be investigated? Yes. Will it result in a $6.81 million windfall to the County? No. Has there been fraud, or anything remotely approaching fraud? No.

Does Barron know what he's talking about? I'll let you answer that one yourself.