Home Ranch money distribution debated

Lolita Harper

Parents, teachers, principals and residents packed the conference

room in City Hall on Tuesday for a chance to tell City Council

members what they think should be done with the $2 million from the

Home Ranch development agreement.

Council members invited the public to Tuesday’s study session so

they could get a better idea of how to disburse the $2-million

payment from the Segerstroms -- who own the 93-acre Home Ranch

development -- for educational purposes.

Speaker after speaker asked the City Council to consider two

separate foundations: one for Costa Mesa High School and another for

Estancia High and TeWinkle Middle schools. Each would receive $1

million to start their foundations according to an idea represented

during Home Ranch negotiations a year ago.

In July, the Segerstroms sent the city the $2 million, which has

since been sitting in an interest-bearing account while city

officials decide who will manage it.

After much deliberation, a committee that included Councilman Gary

Monahan and Councilwoman Karen Robinson recommended that the City

Council form a single, seven-member foundation to control the money.

Members of the foundation, governed by state open-meeting laws, would

include one City Council-appointed member, two community members, two

members from Costa Mesa High School, one from Estancia High School

and another from TeWinkle Middle School.

Tom Antol, Estancia’s principal, said the suggested foundation was

much too small and too general to truly understand and effectively

address the needs of the individual schools. Costa Mesa High School

officials, who serve grades 7 to 12, have different visions and goals

for their students than officials on the Westside of town, he said.

Robinson argued that the Estancia-appointed member should know the

needs of Estancia students and therefore be able to adequately

represent them. But Antol disagreed, saying it was too great a

responsibility to place on one person alone.

“You need people who are close to the students on site to truly

get an understanding,” Antol said.

Costa Mesa High School principal Fred Navarro agreed.

Navarro said the visions, needs, test scores and populations of

each school are too different to be governed by the same body. He

stressed a need for direct connection between the foundation members

and the schools they are serving.

“I make it a point not to make isolated decisions far away from

the classroom,” Navarro said, suggesting the same intimacy for the

foundations. “The closer you can get to where the money is going, the

better results you will have.”

Monahan said he knew coming into the meeting that the idea of a

single foundation was not the most popular.

“This is obviously not the easiest thing to put together, or we

would have had foundations a long time ago,” Monahan said.

Robinson stressed the importance of creating a governing

foundation that would have the entire city’s benefit in mind because

the money came at a high price to the residents.

“This is something that the citizens have gotten as the result of

the burden of this development,” Robinson said. “This is city money.”

Robin Leffler, a Mesa Verde resident who no longer has children in

the school system, was one of the few who agreed with the council’s

suggestions.

“I can see how one foundation might be more efficient,” Leffler

said. “I think that anyone that is community-minded and really cares

about these students will be fair-minded enough to think about the

benefits for the entire community.”

The formation of one or two educational foundations to manage the

Home Ranch money does not preclude any school or parent group from

starting an additional fund-raising foundation for that specific

school, she added.

The study session was designed to gather public input for a later

decision, so no vote was taken Tuesday. The subject will most likely

be on the Dec. 2 City Council agenda for a final vote, but officials

cannot confirm that date.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.