Investigation of School Land Deal Is Sought

Two members of the Soledad-Agua Dulce Union School Board are facing an internal investigation and demands that they resign over accusations that they acted illegally by carrying out a land deal without the board’s approval.

Because the deal was finalized by board members Laurie Browning and Joyce Field, the district has apparently acquired a 40-acre high school site in Agua Dulce that a developer was required to provide anyway--but without first getting the developer to guarantee the site will have a water supply, as the board had wanted.

District Supt. Tom Brown said Monday that he has asked a law firm hired to represent the district to determine whether Browning and Field acted illegally. At a school board meeting last Thursday, several citizens also demanded the pair resign.

School board member Nancy Kelso, a critic of the district’s dealings with the developer partnership that includes Watt Land Inc., said her colleagues’ action undermined the district’s leverage in seeking a guarantee that the district will not have to pay for the water connection.

“It’s totally wrong and it was ignorant too,” said Kelso, who has announced she plans to resign April 1 over that and other disputes with her colleagues over the school site. “I think they are afraid to have an open and public discussion of the land.”

Browning and Field could not be reached for comment Monday.

But district officials released copies of a single-page document signed Feb. 2 by Browning and Field accepting transfer of the 40-acre site from Narcissa Estates Inc., a developer-related entity, to the school district in accord with a supposed Oct. 22 school board action.

In fact, Brown, the superintendent, and Kelso said Monday, the school board never passed such a resolution and never gave Browning and Field any authorization to sign such a document. Brown said the two board members signed at the developer’s request, although Brown himself refused to do so and urged them not to do so either.

Although most officials in the three-school, 1,600-student district want the 40-acre site, where they hope to eventually build a high school to serve Acton and Agua Dulce students, they said they now must explore whether the land transfer can be canceled to regain their leverage.

According to Brown, the episode began when Don MacAdam, the developer representative for the proposed Rio Dulce Ranch and Sierra Colony Ranch projects in Agua Dulce, called Brown at home Feb. 1 on the last day of Brown’s vacation, urgently seeking to come by to have him sign the property acceptance.

Brown said he refused two such phone requests from MacAdam that day, agreeing instead to meet at MacAdam’s office the next morning. But when Brown saw MacAdam’s document and the reference to the supposed school board resolution, he checked by telephone with Field and Browning but did not sign.

Shortly after returning to his school district office, Brown said, MacAdam arrived there followed by Browning and Field. At that point, Brown said, MacAdam again “pressured” him to sign, and when he again refused, also “pressured” the board members, who signed despite Brown.

Brown and Kelso said they did not know why it apparently was so urgent for the developer at that time to obtain the district’s signed acceptance for the land transfer. Kelso speculated it might have involved some financing issue. County officials required the developers to donate an acceptable site for a high school in return for the county granting zoning changes, Kelso said.

MacAdam also could not be reached for comment Monday.