Trustee Censured for Alleged Leak of School Land Data : Controversy: Santa Ana board’s Rosemarie Avila denies any violation linked to property price dispute.

Fueling the continuing controversy over two multimillion-dollar land purchases, trustees of the Santa Ana Unified School District on Tuesday censured a board member for allegedly leaking confidential documents related to the deals.

“Censure of a board member is a pretty drastic step, but I think there’s some serious violations going on here of the board’s trust,” Trustee Robert W. Balen said before the board voted to censure trustee Rosemarie Avila.

Avila said she will “fight any action of censure in court, because I did not violate any law of confidentiality. If you want to censure me, you can expect to see me and my lawyer in court.”

More than a hundred residents jammed a school board meeting Tuesday to debate whether the Santa Ana Unified School District pays too much to acquire land for future schools.

District officials said they had called the meeting to fully explain the district’s process of buying land and to defend themselves against allegations that they paid millions of dollars too much for two sites.

The district plans to build a school on 11 acres, despite contentions that the nearly $22-million price tag for the land is more than twice what it is worth. Some proponents of the plan argued Tuesday that the price should not be an issue, since the state has agreed to fund the project.

But others said they want a full investigation because they believe taxpayer money is being squandered. In addition to that purchase, they complained about the district’s 1990 acquisition of a new school and headquarters at Grand and Chestnut avenues.

Financial data showed that the district paid $18.5 million for an 18-acre industrial site that had sold for $12.6 million just a few months earlier.

On the motion to censure Avila, Trustees Balen, Audrey Yamagata-Noji and Sal Mendoza voted in favor. Trustee Tom Chaffee opposed it.

The attorney for the school district advised the board to distance itself from the release of the documents in case any of the matter they contain leads to litigation.