Billing Bill

- Photo illustration by Adam Vieyra

“I’ve never asked for a fee I didn’t earn,” he tells CityBeat. “And I never worked on a loan I wasn’t paid for—until Bill horn.”

On Oct. 19, Tolin filed a complaint against the recently reelected North County Republican and his wife, Kathleen horn, in small-claims court in Kearny Mesa. The case is scheduled for trial at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 2.

In addition to serving as a county supervisor for more than 15 years , horn is also a landlord with three apartment buildings in Escondido and one in San Marcos. According to horn’s financial disclosures for 2009, the buildings produce more than $400,000 per year in income. The San Diego County Assessor’s office estimates the properties’ total value at roughly $5.5 million.

In the summer of 2009, according to Tolin, horn needed to secure an $875,000 loan for his Normandy Apartments at 1120 Washington Ave. in Escondido. The previous loan was set to expire and, due to new federal requirements, the bank could not refinance it, Tolin says. After receiving a mailer from Tolin’s company, Home Loan Financial (“Specializing in the Difficult Loan”), horn hired Tolin to help him find another lender.

This wasn’t an easy task, Tolin says, since horn’s property was more than 30-percent vacant.

“Financing was very difficult due to the fact that the City of Escondido had passed a law in 2007 that said only citizens or legal [residents] were allowed to live in Escondido,” Tolin writes in a letter he plans to deliver to the judge. “This resulted in a higher than normal vacancy favor in Mr. horn’s apartment building which therefore made it exceptionally difficult and time consuming to find a lender.”

The Normandy Apartments are 20 units around a pool, recently renovated to comply with state law. Two-bedroom apartments in the complex rent for $1,000, three-bedrooms for $1,300. The Assessor’s office values the property at $1.5 million.

Tolin says he spent four months on the loan, and now he just wants his “point,” the 1-percent commission that is currently the industry standard, plus a processing fee—a total of $9,356. But he’s asking for only $7,500 to keep it under the small-claims threshold.

“I was with him at escrow,” Tolin says. “I was sitting next to him when he signed the documents, holding his hand.”

Hodid not respond to CityBeat’s e-mailed inquiries by press time. Tolin says this isn’t a case of he said / he said since he has three different documents signed by the horns agreeing to the payment—one with his company, one with another intermediary, one with the title company.

Hohas not been lenient with his tenants who violate their rental agreements. As CityBeat reported in May, horn filed four unlawful-detainer lawsuits (a major step in the eviction process) during the last few years against residents at his Escondido properties, including the complex at the center of Tolin’s complaint. In the spring of 2009, a disabled woman allegedly fell behind her on rent at the Normandy Apartments after her son lost his job. She could not pay her debt to horn immediately, she told a judge, because she needed the money for her next apartment. Her plea for a payment plan was rejected.

“An impartial judge looked at all sides of the issue before ruling in our favor,” horn said in an e-mail in May regarding the case. “I have a lot of good tenants that honor their commitments…. There are exceptions and my managers try to work with them. The courts are a last resort.”

In 2007, a tenant at horn’s Normandy II apartments, which are adjacent to his Normandy complex, missed her rent payment when her roommate unexpectedly bailed out on her. She requested a two-week extension, but, instead, horn filed a complaint in court.

“It was a rare exception but it had to be done,” horn told CityBeat in May. “I have a lot of good tenants, once in awhile you have to deal with a bad one.”

Tolin’s complaint is but the latest in a long list of allegations of impropriety horn has faced during his career as a county supervisor. In the last year alone, horn was accused of breaking county policy by communicating with developers of the controversial Merriam Mountains housing project prior to a vote. He also was caught allocating county money to a religious group in violation of the state and federal constitutions. Tolin says he plans to bring up horn’s track record in court, including a Channel 8 news report that horn did not take out the required building permits before making improvements on his home.

“Mr. Bill horn thinks he’s above the law,” Tolin says. “I’m going to tell that to the judge. Most people have to obey the rules. Mr. horn thinks he can write his own rules based on his net worth and arrogance.”

Even as the scandals built up, horn seems bullet-proof.

Although voters passed term limits for county supervisors in June and horn was forced into a run-off election, he emerged victorious in November with 53 percent of the electorate, or 9,800 more votes than his opponent, Vista City Councilmember Steve Gronke.

Write to davem@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.