School Construction Fees a Key Issue Among Board Candidates

For more than a year now, the city and local school board have been at odds over fees that residential developers must pay to finance new school construction.

School officials, contending that the city does not levy high enough fees, have filed nearly three dozen lawsuits against Corona and its developers. They also lodged a conflict-of-interest charge against the mayor for voting on such “mitigation fees” while he held an interest in developing a Corona apartment project.

The dispute has cooled a previously cooperative relationship between Corona and the Corona-Norco Unified School District, and has become a key issue for the nine candidates competing in this Tuesday’s election for three seats--a potential majority--on the school board.

At the heart of the dispute are so-called “student generation factors,” the numbers used to project how many students a housing development is likely to add to the district’s enrollment.

The school district’s projections assume the average new home will add 0.74 student to the rolls; the city based its projections on a student generation factor of 0.64.

The differences are significant because the school board has asked Corona to set a range of fees--from $2,079 to $5,389--based on the square footage of each new dwelling, explained Paul Britton, assistant superintendent. The average fee would have been about $4,054 per unit.

Board’s Fee Scale Rejected

But the City Council rejected the board’s fee scale. Based on the city’s student generation factors, and the school board’s own estimates of school-building costs, the City Council raised its flat school fee from $1,973 to $2,610 per dwelling.

Along with the difference in student generation factors, the city also took into account an estimated $900 in interest that the fee for each dwelling will earn during the time between its collection and use for school construction, Wheaton said.

A city-commissioned consultant’s study said the actual ratio of students to homes in Corona last year was 0.63, and that the student generation factor will likely continue its historic decline, reflecting an aging population, smaller homes and lower birth rates.

Some city officials also suggest that the growth of private, Christian schools in the area is reducing the school district’s enrollment burden. According to school district figures, 16,917 students are enrolled in the public schools, while 1,134 students attend private schools within the district’s boundaries.

Lawsuits Filed

Despite the report, the school board filed suit against Corona and the developer of every project that does not meet fee levels that are acceptable to the district.

There are about 20 such lawsuits pending in Riverside Superior Court, said Ariel Calonne, an attorney representing the city.

About a dozen more suits were settled, Calonne said, when developers agreed to join special community facilities districts, thus allowing the school district to sell bonds for school construction. The bonds are repaid from higher property taxes paid by the eventual homeowners over a 20-year period.

Meanwhile, responding to a complaint filed by school board President Sally Hoover, the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the Riverside County district attorney have been examining Corona Mayor William Miller’s participation in two preliminary votes on fees for a planned apartment project in which he held an interest.

‘Technical Violation’

A deputy district attorney concluded “that there was at least a technical violation” of the state’s Political Reform Act of 1974, Dist. Atty. Grover Trask said. He added that charges probably will not be filed against Miller unless the state commission recommends such action.

Miller defended his actions, saying: “The result of my vote actually resulted in a detriment to my project, not a benefit” by raising its fees by $46,728. The mayor has since sold his interest in the apartment project.

The lawsuits and conflict-of-interest charges have soured the relationship between the council and the board, and they prompted one school board candidate to suggest that the only way to break the impasse between the two sides may be to fire both the city manager and the superintendent of schools.

The debate over fees has become “a battle of egos, personalities and sandbox bickering,” said candidate Robert L. Brooks of Corona, a Santa Ana police officer and president of the Santa Ana Police Benevolent Assn.

Firings Suggested

The district has suffered, he said, from the “inability of some of the school board members to think independently of the superintendent.”

“It all boils down to this: We have two big kids on the block,” Brooks said. “. . . Perhaps we can make an agreement with Corona to fire (City Manager James) Wheaton, if we fire (Superintendent Don) Helms.”

Helms has been on vacation and unavailable to respond to Brooks’ remarks. Wheaton, however, said: “This city deserves better candidates for school board than someone who would make an outrageous statement like that.”

Other school board candidates have taken differing positions on the dispute.

Candidate Daniel Roberts of Corona, a financial planner, said the lawsuits serve only to increase tensions between the school district and the city.

‘Community Is Losing’

“A lawsuit is no way to solve that kind of a problem,” Roberts said. “The community is ultimately losing, because they have to pay for both sides of the lawsuit. It’s kind of like suing your wife, or your kids.”

The parties agree on the basics, he said, noting that “the city is willing to collect mitigation fees; only the amount is in dispute.”

School officials--both elected and appointed--”appear arrogant” not only on the issue of fees, but also in their dealings with teachers and community members, Roberts said. “City officials are certainly intelligent, concerned people, too,” he added.

Roberts and two other candidates, parent Karen C. Stein and attorney Charles H. Carter, both of Corona, believe the school district should consider alternatives to the fees for building new schools, such as allowing developers to donate land or build school facilities for the district.

“Before you file lawsuits, you should consider every possible avenue,” Carter said.

Alternative Measures

Because no state aid is available to build schools, Stein added: “I feel that we do have to have a mitigation fee right now.”

Candidate Philip Lance, also of Corona, agreed the board should consider alternative mitigation measures, but he does not think that they are likely to prove practical.

“It might be a bit impractical to try to coordinate several builders” whose individual projects that would not justify building a school, Lance said. “It is something we can talk about if somebody comes forward and wants to do that kind of thing.”

Meanwhile, he said, the city and school board must recognize that they share the same interest: providing “appropriate facilities” for the city’s children.

“As any impasse is resolved, we must go item by item and number by number and see what our differences are,” he said.

George Beloz of Corona said the burden is on the school board to resume negotiations with the city. The board should take the first step by using the city’s figures as a “starting point,” he said.

Candidate’s View

“Whatever the fees have to be,” Beloz said, “they (must) be equitable and reasonable.”

But Beloz, an analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense in Los Angeles and a former educator, said he is “not (running) against anybody. . . . I just believe there should be a good representation of the residents, the different constituencies in Corona and Norco. Being Hispanic, I would want to give them representation on the school issues.”

Most other candidates, while expressing some doubts that lawsuits are the best avenue to settle the board’s differences with the city, essentially support the school board’s stance on mitigation fees.

Louis VanderMolen, a Norco businessman, has been on the school board for 12 years. “As long as I have been on the board,” he said, “we have had a good relationship with the City of Norco and the City of Corona.”

VanderMolen said he is “not a hard-liner” on school fees, but he believes that the school board needs to correct “the misconception that the City of Corona has” about fees that the board needs to build new schools.

In Favor of Fees

“I’m definitely in favor of mitigation fees,” he said, “but I’m not in favor . . . of resolving this through lawsuits.”

The other incumbent in the race, Peg Schumate of Coronita, believes that the school board should “continue on in the fashion we’ve been doing.” The district, she said, has “made great strides” in dealing with problems associated with its rapid population growth.

A third incumbent, Margaret Jameson, said she chose not to seek reelection for personal reasons. She has served on the school board for a single, four-year term.

“I agree right now with where the school board is on the builders’ fees,” said candidate Van Barbre of El Cerrito. “We’re going to see such rapid growth and we’re not going to have the money to build new schools. . . . I don’t know why (the City Council) wouldn’t want to see that the schools are taken care of.”

‘Threat’ to School System

Barbre, a postal clerk in Corona, said his primary reason for entering the campaign, however, is to combat “the humanistic philosophies that are infiltrating the school system today. (They) are a real threat to parents’ authority, and also to respect for the government (and) respect for the free enterprise system.”

In other election issues, voters in the Corona-Norco area will help elect two board members for the Riverside Community College District, which stretches from the Orange and San Bernardino county lines east past Moreno Valley and south to Lake Perris and Glen Ivy Hot Springs.

Competing for seats on the board are incumbents Wilfred J. Airey and Frances Nelson, retired bank executive Reita M. Dykes, secondary school teacher Beatrice Kelly, physician James M. Bayless and William H. Wood, professor emeritus at Riverside City College, all of Riverside; attorney Sharon King-Jeffers and investor J. Joseph Schwab of Norco, and Boy Scouts of America executive G. David Trosko of Mira Loma.

Riverside County voters will be asked to decide if the county’s superintendent of schools should remain an elective office or should be appointed by the county Board of Education.