City Councilman to Testify in Grand Jury Investigation : Probe: The panel will look into a Laguna Niguel transaction in which open space that had been set aside for the public was deeded to a developer.

City Councilman Paul M. Christiansen said Thursday that he has been asked to testify before an Orange County Grand Jury panel being convened to investigate a transaction in which public control over 96 acres of open space was deeded to a developer.

Christiansen, a critic of the transaction, said district attorney investigators asked him to appear before the panel on Oct. 16. He was a member of the Laguna Niguel Community Service District board in 1988, when then-vice president James F. Krembas signed a deed relinquishing the public’s right to the land to Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd.

The property, which had been set aside by another developer as public open space, is now part of Taylor Woodrow Homes’ Marina Hills Planned Community.

Since questions were raised about the transaction earlier this year, executives with Taylor Woodrow Homes have maintained that county officials had approved the transfer and that Krembas’ signature was only ministerial.

“My role at the grand jury may be to verify the case that the district attorney has put together,” Christiansen said.

Krembas, who is now a member of the City Council, has said he signed the deed thinking that it involved different property. He also has said it is only coincidence that his wife went to work for Taylor Woodrow Homes three months after the deed was signed.

Under fire from citizens who were outraged by the deed signing, the council ordered its own investigation into the actions of James S. Mocalis, the district chief executive who also signed the deed, and James S. Okazaki, an attorney who notarized the signatures.

Mocalis and Krembas were unavailable for comment Thursday and Okazaki said he knows nothing about a grand jury investigation and has not been asked to appear before a panel.

Mayor Patricia C. Bates, who was also a member of the community service district before Laguna Niguel became a city, said through an aide that no one has asked her to appear before a grand jury.

Bates, along with other former members of the community service district, have said they knew nothing about the land transaction and would have opposed it. Taylor Woodrow Homes executives contradict that, maintaining that the board, in fact, voted its approval.

District attorney officials would neither confirm nor deny Thursday that Christiansen had been notified about a pending grand jury investigation of the land transaction.

A spokesperson for Taylor Woodrow Homes said the company has not received any official notice of a grand jury investigation and that company President Gordon Tippell was attempting to get more information before making any comments.

The land in question had been dedicated to the county in early 1985, when another developer offered it as open space.

Tippell argues that in November of that year, a few months after Taylor Woodrow Homes purchased the land, the county Planning Commission approved a plan that allowed his company to build on the open space.