It was a fabulous demotion for our outgoing Rotary president Mike Ojeda. Brad Miller put together an all star cast of characters and asked Bob Harbicht to emcee the festivities by leading an investigation into how Ojeda became so wealthy all of a sudden after reading the infamous article published in major media about Arcadia’s housing boom. I mean, “come-on”! In his year as Rotary President he sold a house, bought a house, remodeled a kitchen, re-landscaped his yard (a photo appeared showing a pool, spa, lazy river and gorgeous landscape), shopped for a new car (Bentley?), etc., etc. Harbicht asked several people up to the witness stand to answer questions relating to who the single person could be that put all these housing deals together. Tony Parrille was called up and asked to confirm that housing prices have skyrocketed from 7/1/14-7/1/15. Naturally they have. Imy Dulake was reminded to tell “mostly the truth” on the witness stand when questioned about the housing connection and the shady dealings from the mysterious middleman. Terry Earl was called up together with Dave Freeman who introduced their “Earl-Freeman Plan”, which lets sellers stay in their home as long as they want after the sale. And who orchestrated all the escrows for these hundreds of homes being sold? Lizette Freeman of course, from Premium Escrow. When Asked by Harbicht about escrow she responded by the definition of escrow first……..“In French escrow means thief”. The group on the stand was asked how to explain the 125 houses that were sold but not lived in. They all answered together, “It’s all Mike Ojeda’s fault!”

Ana Ojeda called to the stand was asked if she noticed any difference in Mike’s behavior in recent months and she thought Mike could have just been tired, maybe had a girlfriend since he always came home late with a lot of money. Apparently Mike began spending big chunks of cash on a new Post Alarm system from Rob Post, bought a huge generator in case of power outages, even a new boat was mentioned, all very odd when even Ana says one word when describing Mike…”Cheap!” This was so uncharacteristic that Harbicht called Brian Hall to the stand to get to the money trail. Brian said that since 7/1/14 Mike had been making large deposits, just under the $10,000 range to avoid federal reporting, and then several withdrawals as well. Bruce Snell was called up to the stand. Bruce specializes in kitchen and bath design. He said Mike was a good client who always paid in cash. Next was Steve Fong who is the finance manager for Sierra Honda. He was asked if Mike had made contact with him and answered that yes he had but was not interested in a Honda, that he wanted something like the BMW from the lot next door. The highest end 700 Series was available with everything including autopilot for $132,000. Mike wanted to upgrade to a Bentley and no sale was made.

It was determined that Mike was the culprit of the housing bubble and has completed his Presidential year at the greatest Rotary Club in the World. Thank you Mike, for a great year of service.

(Pat Dolphin)