Santa Ana Trustees Cancel Pact With Law Firm

Citing a series of miscues and the high cost of the state’s first proposed space-saver school, the school board has unanimously voted to cancel its contract with the project’s lead law firm.

Santa Ana Unified School District trustees said they were bothered by conflict-of-interest allegations surrounding Irvine-based Palmieri, Tyler, Wiener, Wilhelm & Waldron and partially blamed the law firm for contributing to the space-saver school’s projected $42-million price tag--more than triple what some believe is necessary.

“I don’t necessarily want to bad-mouth the attorneys,” trustee and onetime space-saver opponent Rosemarie Avila said after the meeting. But “they were part of the decision-making process that did not produce very prudent action for the taxpayers.”

From the beginning, the space-saver school came under fire for a report pricing property for the school site at $22 million. The price tag was considered by some to be too high, and the district ended up paying $18.5 million for the site.

The Times later revealed that the site appraiser, Michael Waldron, was the son of senior Palmieri, Tyler partner Robert F. Waldron.

At the time, the elder Waldron said he was unfamiliar with the project and had nothing to do the firm’s hiring of his son. On Thursday, Michael Greene, a managing partner at Palmieri, Tyler, said the firm always had acted ethically, and that the responsibility for district decisions lies with the trustees, not their law firm.

“We only provide legal advice,” Greene said.

While the state already has spent more than $18 million for the space-saver school, the district is awaiting an additional $23 million in construction funds that the state will provide only if a March bond measure is approved by California voters.

But the critical comments directed at Palmieri, Tyler and an acrimonious debate that surrounded the hiring of its replacement show that feelings surrounding the innovative and controversial space-saver school still run deep.

Tuesday’s debate also foreshadowed a likely campaign issue, said Avila, who along with Trustee Audrey Yamagata-Noji and newly elected Board President Sal Mendoza, are up for reelection.

Mendoza, Yamagata-Noji and Trustee Robert W. Balen have supported the space-saver school, while Avila and Trustee Tom Chaffee have opposed it.

Last March, they split 3 to 2 on whether to spend the $18.5 million to purchase the land for the space-saver site. Avila and Chaffee have said their concerns center around the site’s high cost, with Avila maintaining that the school should have been located at one of two alternative sites valued at $6.6 million and $6.9 million.

District staff and other trustees, however, say those sites do not meet space-saver criteria.

After dropping Palmieri, Tyler, on Tuesday, the school board voted 3 to 2 to hire the Newport Beach-based firm of Alvarado, Smith, Wolff, Sanchez & Villa to perform work on the space-saver and Raymond A. Villa Intermediate schools. The contract for the work is estimated at $38,000.

That move was opposed by Yamagata-Noji and Balen, who leveled charges of favoritism and unfairness against the other board members.

District staff told the trustees that Alvarado, Smith is not expert in the area of laws governing space-saver schools, and that the district’s legal fees will rise by as much as $25,000 as the firm bills extra hours to familiarize itself with the case.

The space-saver school is so named because it would be built vertically rather than horizontally, and be placed near existing developments.

While there is no litigation surrounding the space-saver and Villa schools, attorneys are needed for the day-to-day legal issues that might arise.