Attorney General Pam Bondi needs help spending $300 million.
The attorney general has set up a webpage for the public to make suggestions on how to distribute Floridas share of the national mortgage servicing settlement.
You have to give your name, a phone number and email address, along with your comments that take up 1,000 characters or less. The character count includes spaces and punctuation.
The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request about what kind of suggestions are being accepted.
Input is being accepted through 5 p.m. on May 14.
The money was part of $25 billion that state attorneys general negotiated with the countrys five largest loan servicers: Ally/GMAC; Bank of America; Citi; JPMorgan Chase; and Wells Fargo.
According to the settlement, state and federal investigations found that the five loan servicers routinely signed foreclosure-related documents outside the presence of a notary public and without really knowing whether the facts they contained were correct.
Part of the settlement went to Florida borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011.
The settlement agreement lists permissible uses of the settlement funds, including: housing counselors, state and local foreclosure assistance hotlines, state and local foreclosure mediation programs, legal assistance, housing remediation and anti-blight projects, and training and staffing of financial fraud or consumer protection enforcement efforts.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
