Resident: Carolyn Cosby Refuses To Disclose Financial Information

The following letter to the editor was written by Canton resident John Konop:

Tea Party activist Carolyn Cosby, an independent candidate for chair of the Cherokee County Commission, is on the campaign trail calling everyone involved in the failed, taxpayer-financed Bobo Recycling Plant project a crook.

Ironically, Cosby herself has a failed business real estate investment that looks a lot like the Bobo deal, right down to leaving taxpayers holding the bag for nearly $1 million of her bad debt. Cosby’s real estate deal is one red flag after another, and citizens, local media, and now perhaps the FBI, have a lot of questions:

How was Cosby able to increase the debt on the six-acre property from $76,500 in 1999 to $1.2 million in 2007 with an income of $16,500 (as reported during her 2009 bankruptcy)? Did she, like many borrowers during that time, misrepresent her income to lenders?

Before she declared bankruptcy, Cosby gave her daughter two of the six acres. How is that possible when all six acres were used as collateral for the ballooning debt?

Cosby currently lives on those two acres. How was she able to walk away from the over $1 million in debt during bankruptcy, while still keeping one-third of the property for her family (and leaving taxpayers to reimburse the bank for its losses on her government-backed mortgage)?

Cosby initially favored open and transparent campaigns, but not anymore. She has effectively told voters to disregard her business fiasco when deciding whether she can handle the county’s budget with competence and integrity. She has consistently refused to meet reasonable disclosure requests. That’s not good enough.

We deserve answers. I hope Debbie Dooley, the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, will help us get full and complete disclosures related to Cosby’s real estate deal. Specifically, will Cosby:

• Answer all questions from press and public about this mess?
• Release tax returns and credit applications for the defaulted loans to prove she did not misrepresent her income to lenders?
• Pledge to voters that her behavior related to the real estate deal, and subsequent default, was both ethical and legal?
• Sign an affidavit affirming that neither she nor her family kept, and or sold personal items for her family, such as furniture, fixtures, building supplies on her defaulted debts, and did not ever exaggerate her income on credit applications?

Debbie Dooley has been one of the loudest voices in our state for political and ethical reforms. It is time to see if she will hold Tea Party candidates to the same standard.

(Photo credit: Patch file)