PALMDALE - After casting unanimous votes Wednesday to add it as a new subject to their closed-session agenda, members of the City Council discussed suing Antelope Valley College for its alleged misuse of funds from the $139 million Measure R passed by Antelope Valley voters in 2004.
In a public report about the closed session, City Attorney Matt Ditzhazy said the council discussed "possible civil litigation arising from the possible waste or misuse of bond funds.
"Facts and circumstances exist that could result in litigation by the city to prevent the waste or misuse of Measure R bond funds," Ditzhazy said.
As a result of the private discussion, Ditzhazy said, "Council directed the city attorney to research this issue further and report back at the Oct. 15 meeting."
The research is to include consulting with "outside litigation counsel regarding possible causes of action regarding the alleged misuse of bond funds and inaction by the board of Antelope Valley College and the (bond) oversight committee," he said.
Steve Fox, vice chairman of the college board of trustees, asked the City Council not to investigate the use of the bond revenues generated by Measure R.
"I've always found investigations to be a waste of public funds and use," said Fox, who attended Wednesday night's City Council meeting.
Instead of pursuing possible legal remedies, the council could consider convening a joint meeting with the members of the college board to discuss the bond spending, Fox suggested.
"I don't have the authority from the college board" to arrange such a meeting, he said. "I wasn't nominated to be here" to speak on the board's behalf.
"But as a citizen of Palmdale, I suggest … a joint city council-college board meeting to try to work out things and to find out information and then ask the key question: 'What can the City Council do to help us get that college in Palmdale?' " Fox said.
"While I may not agree with the (college's) current administration and direction … I don't think they've done anything illegal," he said. "I would urge you to work with the college board and see what we can do together instead of throwing stones."
Questions about the college's use of the bond money were raised in a letter sent Tuesday by Mayor Jim Ledford to college President Jackie Fisher.
Ledford said he and other Palmdale officials were "appalled and outraged" by what he called "bait-and-switch tactics" used to obtain bond money that will not be spent as promised in the South Valley.
Responding to Ledford's letter, Fisher said the college has met its obligation to Palmdale by leasing space for classrooms in an office building on Palmdale Boulevard at 15th Street East, he said.
District officials are making efforts to attract enough students to the temporary location to have it qualify as an education center - a designation that is required before state officials will consider approving construction of a new permanent campus, the college president said.
After Measure R was passed, the cost of construction rose dramatically, Fisher said.
"We had to make a decision on the projects here on the Lancaster campus and the project in Palmdale without jeopardizing the projects we had approved," Fisher said. "If we didn't come up with additional matching funds, we would have lost those projects here in Lancaster."
On Wednesday, councilmembers Steve Hofbauer and Mike Dispenza echoed Ledford's sentiments, with Hofbauer asking for a public explanation from a representative of the college at the council's next meeting.
"We didn't have any problem getting a crowd of people up here giving us a lot of promises and telling us what we were going to get and telling us we needed to work together with them" to get Measure R approved, Hofbauer said.
"We've got a whole list of community members here on an oversight committee" who should be able to explain the spending decisions, he said.
That committee, headed by chairman Olaf Landsgaard, is composed of 18 residents of the college district.
"I take real issue with people trying to blow this off as 'Construction costs went up. Sorry, you don't get your college,' " Hofbauer said. "That's baloney. It's hogwash. We were flim-flammed, and I'm furious about this."
"The whole bond was a dishonest statement," Dispenza added. "Maybe they could not do all that they wanted to do, but (Palmdale) should not have been in there because I don't think they ever intended to have a campus over here."
City Manager Steve Williams said he would schedule the matter for a public hearing at the council's Oct. 15 meeting "and we will send a letter to the Antelope Valley College folks and request that a representative be here at that meeting."
Councilman Tom Lackey supported scheduling a public hearing.
"I think there's a number of issues that deserve to be communicated, and in fairness, let's have the college come and try to communicate what has happened, because on the appearance, it looks like Palmdale really did get sold down the river," Lackey said.
Fisher, in a meeting with Ledford and Dispenza about a month ago, said that, except for the $5 million spent in December 2007 for land for a new community college in Palmdale, the rest of the $139 million in local funds had been earmarked for improvements at the campus in Lancaster.
The 2004 bond measure, which costs property owners $19.50 a year per $100,000 of assessed valuation, allowed the college to acquire up to $229 million in state matching funds for a variety of construction projects.
In April, Fisher, Ledford and other dignitaries attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Palmdale campus on land acquired at 25th Street East near Barrel Springs Road.
In his letter, Ledford said Fisher and other college representatives garnered the Palmdale council's support for the bond measure by falsely promising that as much as $52 million would be spent on the Palmdale campus if city voters cast ballots to help approve it.
In response, Fisher confirmed there was no bond money left to construct a Palmdale college and that the college district had no permission from the state to build such an institution.
Fisher also said the Measure R text did not specify how much Measure R money was to be spent in Palmdale. (ed note, BS. See the Ballot Text!!!)
In a 2004 cost analysis, Palmdale officials were shown that $16.4 million in Measure R funding could be combined with $35.6 million in state matching funds for on- and off-site infrastructure and for initial facilities construction, Fisher said.
Together, those sums equal $52 million, the estimated cost of the initial improvements considered for Palmdale.
Copies of college documents provided by the city show that architectural renderings of a Palmdale campus were contained in a 2003 facilities master plan for the college district.
In a list of five prioritized projects valued at $95.9 million, the initial construction of a Palmdale campus at a cost of $52 million was listed third in the master plan:
After plans for expanding the Lancaster campus child-development center at a cost of $4.5 million.
After plans for constructing a new health and science building on the Lancaster campus at a cost of $24 million.
Before plans for expanding the Lancaster campus learning center at a cost of $2.2 million.
Before plans for constructing a student services building on the Lancaster campus at a cost of $13.2 million.
Wording in the text of the measure presented to voters said that the college district would use an unspecified portion of the bond money to "establish (an) Antelope Valley College Education Center in (the) Palmdale/South Valley area to accommodate growth and increasing student enrollment: Provide permanent classrooms, labs, job training and college-transfer counseling buildings facilities in the Palmdale area, including the acquisition of a site to allow local students greater access to an affordable education."
The college's Web site lists a new health and sciences building, a new 400-seat theater, a new agriculture lab and greenhouses, a new auto-body repair training facility, a new shipping and warehouse building, a new campus telephone system, various infrastructure and parking-lot improvements, and the renovation of Marauder football stadium and several physical-education fields in Lancaster plus the acquisition of land for a future Palmdale campus as projects funded by Measure R.
bwilson@avpress.com