Questions Arise on Firm’s Ties to Appraiser, Umberg

Local real estate appraiser Michael Waldron was recommended for a controversial $25,000 contract at the Santa Ana Unified School District last fall because he was a “reputable and reliable professional,” skilled in a range of commercial property issues.

So said a letter from the law firm that recommended him.

What the letter did not mention, however, is that Waldron’s father is a senior partner at that same firm.

The firm, Palmieri Tyler Wiener Wilhelm & Waldron in Irvine, is providing legal advice to the school district on the possible purchase of an 11-acre site in a shopping plaza where the school district wants to build a so-called “space-saver” school, and the law firm recommended Michael Waldron’s company do a preliminary appraisal.

Waldron, 38, president of Newport Beach-based Waldron & Associates, said in an interview that he sees no potential conflict in the arrangement, because it was the school district that approved his contract, after his father’s firm had recommended him.

His father, Robert F. Waldron, said he is “really not even familiar” with the school project and had nothing to do with his firm recommending his son for the contract.

The appraiser completed his work on the contract last November with little fanfare, estimating that the district--and ultimately the state--would have to pay nearly $22 million to a local developer for the land at Bristol Marketplace.

But Waldron’s report--and his relationship with his father’s law firm in getting the job--have now attracted new scrutiny because of financial questions that have dogged the project in the last few weeks.

The district has also contracted with Waldron’s company and two other independent appraisers at a cost of $25,000 each to provide full-fledged appraisals in connection with the shopping plaza project.

Michael G. Vail, the school district’s senior director of facilities, also said he did not see a problem. Vail said the law firm picked Waldron for the job only after other appraisers indicated they couldn’t do the work quickly enough, and he said the close relationship should actually help ensure “a higher level of accountability . . . and trust.”

But several members of the school board said they have questioned district staff members about the appearance of a conflict of interest in the father-son connection.

“If you’re going to be doing a big deal in the public eye, I don’t think there should be any associations like that,” said Sal Mendoza, the board president, who voted Feb. 16 in support of the Bristol Marketplace project. The plan passed on a 3-2 vote.

“Hopefully, our staff and we (on the board) learned our lesson,” he said. “I don’t want to see it done again.”

Questions have also arisen over the same law firm’s relationship with state Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove). Officials disclosed that Umberg had lobbied state officials in support of the project, even as he remains a member of the Palmieri law firm and collects a monthly salary.

A lawyer who is now running for state attorney general, Umberg is not working for the law firm on the school project. The assemblyman says he would not profit personally from the law firm’s contract with the school district.

Umberg’s firm has already billed the district for nearly $40,000 for legal advice on this transaction since last July, school officials said, and the firm stands to make at least double that amount in total fees if the state approves the project.

Umberg, meanwhile, has pushed at the state level for approval of the “space-saver” school, including a Nov. 29 letter to the state agency that authorizes money for school construction.

Santa Ana school board member Tom Chaffee said he found Umberg’s connection to the law firm “pretty incredible.” He said that the situation raised questions about an appearance of a conflict. “It just makes you wonder,” he said.

But Ruth Holton, executive director of California Common Cause, a Sacramento political watchdog group, said: “I think it’s pretty minor. Someone could say that there might be some appearance of a conflict, but I don’t think it’s that significant.”

Umberg said he had only a “vague recollection” that the law firm has represented the district in the past, but didn’t consider it any sort of conflict to act as an advocate for the space-saver school.

“I don’t see any conflict in any way, shape or form,” Umberg said. “The school district asked me to advocate on its behalf for money to build a school, and that’s one of my duties as a legislator--to do what I think is best for the people and various entities I represent. Santa Ana Unified is one of them. I certainly derive no benefit from it.”