Vista Council Votes Against Firehouse Sale : Government: Split decision will probably stop Faith and Love Ministries from buying the station for a homeless shelter. A meeting to discuss the controversy is set for Tuesday.

The Vista City Council has ordered its attorney to inform all parties in the controversial sale of a surplus fire station that the city, which owns 79% of the property, has not consented to the sale.

The council’s action probably will kill the sale, according to the fire district that plans to sell the firehouse and the agency for the homeless that plans to buy it. Neighbors of the firehouse vehemently oppose plans to turn the firehouse into a shelter and job center for the homeless.

On Wednesday, Duane Fellows, board president of the Vista Fire Protection District, called a special meeting of the joint powers agency--composed of the city and the fire district--to thrash the matter out.

The joint meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Vista Fire Department headquarters, 175 N. Melrose Drive.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if, at that meeting, the city called for the title to Fire Station 2,” said Fellows. He explained that the title is in the fire district’s name because the property is outside the Vista city limits. “Vista is the lead agency in the joint powers authority and the city has the right to take over the title.”

The council’s 3-1 action late Monday night followed a recommendation from City Atty. Ron Null to clarify the city’s stand against the sale.

The city opposes the sale because the fire district failed to follow city bidding procedures, Mayor Gloria McClellan said Wednesday. The district was in the process of selling the firehouse to Faith and Love Ministries, which planned to turn the 45-year-old building into a shelter for about 24 homeless men and women.

That plan, which nearby neighbors and business owners have complained would bring crime to the South Santa Fe area and hurt property values, and the city’s objections to it have led to threats of lawsuits by the ministries’ officials, neighbors and those involved in the sale.

Jenene Nickerson, a ministries board member and an attorney, said Wednesday that the Vista council’s stand against the sale probably would end it because no title company would close escrow on a sale to which the major property owner was opposed.

Nickerson, who had written the city informing it that the charitable group’s board position was that the fire station sale was a legal one, said that the matter “probably is going to end up in the courts with everyone suing everyone.” The attorney said that she is not a trial lawyer and will not represent the ministries in any legal challenge.

Janet Sucro, founder and operator of Faith and Love Ministries, was not available for comment Wednesday, but said after the council’s decision that the group would seek legal advice about filing suit against the city or the fire district if the sale is canceled.

Mayor McClellan said the city did not act to take over the title to the fire station, but that “that may be a future possibility.”

The fire district board awarded the bid to buy the firehouse to Faith and Love Ministries in June after the group’s bid was determined to be the highest in which all bid requirements, including a 10% down payment, were met.

Fellows said opposition surfaced immediately from residents and business owners around the fire station property.

“I’ve never been yelled at so much in my life,” Fellows said. “I still say that we followed the rules, and we have an open escrow (with Faith and Love) that will have to be dealt with.”