Fire District Says Sale of Vista Station Not Final : Homeless: First word that no signed agreement exists on the transfer to a group planning a homeless shelter gives the city an opportunity to try to cancel the sale.

The president of the Vista Fire Protection District said Wednesday that the sale of a surplus fire station to an organization that wants to convert it to a homeless shelter has not been made final and won’t be until the city of Vista decides whether it wants to intervene.

Mayor Gloria McClellan said the city may take ownership of the firehouse and stop the sale of it to Faith & Love Ministries.

Wednesday’s word was the first public acknowledgement by Duane Fellows, president of the fire district, that his board of directors has not yet signed the papers that put the firehouse sale into escrow.

That has been a central issue in the brouhaha, because critics of the sale have asked the city to take control of the firehouse, if possible, and stop the sale.

“We haven’t signed a sales contract . . . or the final escrow instructions,” Fellows said Wednesday. “We took their (Faith & Love’s) money . . . but there have been no signatures.”

Asked when the fire district plans to formally open escrow, Fellows said, “We don’t know yet. That’s the honest-to-God’s truth. Right now, everything is in limbo.

“We’ll wait until we find a direction to go. We don’t know whether the city will call for title (of the firehouse) or not, or use their equitable interest (in the firehouse) to stop us. Until that’s resolved by the city, we don’t know what we’ll do, so we won’t do anything.

“It’s fair to say that we won’t do anything until we find out what direction the city will take,” Fellows said.

McClellan said Wednesday that she wished Fellows had explained the status of the purchase during a special meeting of the City Council on Tuesday night.

He was asked to elaborate Tuesday night, but refused on the grounds that the fire district board of directors was not in attendance, and so he could not discuss district business.

By meeting’s end, all the council did concerning the controversy was instruct City Atty. Ron Null to request that the fire district share with him sales documents, so he can determine how far along the district is in the sale. He is then to determine what options the city might have if it wants to halt the sale.

Council members stopped short, however, of stating whether they want to do that.

“If we had known Tuesday night that the escrow hadn’t opened, we would have been way ahead,” the mayor mused. “This game playing is really sad.”

The controversy erupted after residents and business owners near the 45-year-old firehouse, in the 2200 block of South Santa Fe Avenue, learned that the fire district--which is politically autonomous--had advertised the sale of the firehouse once a week for four weeks in three newspapers.

Bids were opened within a month--versus the 60-day bidding process followed by the city of Vista--and the district said Faith & Love made the best offer: $245,000, with a $10,000 cash deposit.

Faith & Love director Janet Sucro has said that, given appropriate county approval, she wants to convert the firehouse into an outreach center offering housing for 24 homeless people and a variety of services for others, including job placement, light breakfasts and dinners.

Neighbors said they want nothing of that and challenged the fire district’s right to sell the firehouse in such a short time. Better offers are in the wings if the sale is reopened, critics contend.

Complicating the issue is the fact that, although the fire district holds title to the firehouse, the city owns 79% interest in it because of how the city and the fire district share revenue and assets.

McClellan said Wednesday that the city is concerned that the fire district didn’t follow the city’s guidelines in disposing of the surplus fire station by not advertising it over a 60-day period.

“What’s really bothering us is the procedures the district followed,” she said. “I think some of the council members want to take title to the fire station. If the council wishes to, I’ll support that.”

She said lawsuits seem inevitable: Faith & Love is expected to file legal action if the deal is reneged on, and opponents to the sale say they will file their own lawsuits if the sale is allowed to proceed.

“It’s doubly important that the city be very careful that the proper thing is done,” the mayor said. “We’re hanging out there. We’re flat hanging out there.”

Sucro said Wednesday that she thinks the sale of the firehouse to her organization is a done deal.

“When they accepted our bid, I thought that was the sales agreement,” she said. “But I haven’t signed anything yet.”

Fellows has steadfastly maintained that, even though the city has majority equity in the firehouse, the independent fire district is free to establish its own ground rules for the sale because it holds the title.

Fellows has also publicly maintained that there is “an open escrow” on the sale, even though escrow instructions have not yet been signed by his board of directors.

An escrow agent in San Diego, who asked to remain anonymous, said Wednesday that, even though a bid was technically received by the fire district, along with a cash deposit, escrow does not formally open until instructions are signed by both sides stating the terms of the sale.

“Escrow is not opened until both sides sign the papers,” she said. “You can say it exists, and maybe it has been assigned an escrow number and a file has been prepared, but technically, it isn’t opened until both sides sign the papers.”

She and a title insurance company executive cautioned, however, that the mere acceptance of the bid and the receipt of the cash deposit into a trust account could give ample grounds for the buyer to demand that the fire district make good on its promise to sell the site, even if escrow hasn’t opened.

“Verbal contracts have validity,” the escrow agent noted. “If the Vista Fire Protection District has made representation to the buyer that ‘you can buy it from me,’ the buyer will have legal recourse to either the fire district or the city.”

McClellan said another special City Council meeting will be called as soon as the city attorney has prepared his findings and listed options open to the city.