Vista Council Seeking Options in Station Sale : Homeless: City takes no action, but wants answers, concerning the sale of a surplus firehouse to a group planning to use the building as a homeless center.

Frustrated by a lack of information, the Vista City Council on Tuesday night ordered its city attorney to research the controversial sale of a surplus fire station and list what options, if any, the city would have if it attempted to block the sale.

It was unclear, however, whether council members want to stop the sale of the firehouse, in the 2200 block of South Santa Fe Avenue, to Faith & Love Ministries. Whether the City Council endorses or opposes the sale of the firehouse was not put to a vote by Mayor Gloria McClellan.

Before nearly 100 people, most of them apparently critics of the sale, the council instructed City Atty. Ron Null to ask the independent Vista Fire Protection District to turn over all documents relating to the sale of the firehouse, which has been deemed surplus by the fire district because two new ones have been built in eastern Vista.

Null said if a sales agreement has not yet been signed by the fire protection district and Faith & Love the city can, by prior agreement, take unilateral title of the firehouse and sell it.

But any further action by the city will not occur until its next council meeting Aug. 13, unless a special meeting is called before then.

Duane Fellows, president of the fire board, said escrow on the sale already has opened, but--even when pressed by council members for an answer--wouldn’t say whether an actual sales agreement has been signed.

Opponents of the sale are angry because, unlike the city’s guidelines that require a 60-day notice be given in the disposal of surplus property, the fire district, which operates under its own rules, sold the property after advertising it once a week for four weeks in three newspapers.

Critics contend that, if the sale had been better promoted, a higher price than Faith & Love’s $245,000 might have been paid.

Many residents have also argued that, sales procedures aside, they do not want the firehouse used as an outreach center, offering various services for the homeless, including the boarding of 24 people. Several people have said they would tender a higher bid for the 45-year-old firehouse and put it to a use other than as a homeless shelter.

Null told the audience Tuesday night that, if a sales agreement already has been signed, the city can’t stop the sale--even if the appropriate guidelines were not followed. Although the city owns 79% equity in the station house, its title is held by the fire district, which serves Vista’s unincorporated fringes.

He said the fire district should have followed the city’s guidelines that require 60 days’ notice to sell the firehouse because of the city’s equity in the building, but said little could be done to stop the sale if it is already under way.

Councilman Bernie Rappaport asked whether the city could take title to the firehouse, even if escrow has opened. “That depends on the conditions of escrow,” Null answered.

Rappaport criticized the fire board for not only ignoring the city’s 60-day time period to sell surplus property, but also for relying on a realtor’s estimate of the value of the property rather than getting a more precise estimate from a credentialed appraiser.

But Councilwoman Nancy Wade interjected, “We don’t want to appear we’re casting any naughty looks at the fire board.”

Null said the city wasn’t apprised of the fire district’s sale of the firehouse--even though the city is majority equity owner of it--because the fire district holds title to it and because, even though the two public agencies have signed a joint powers agreement on the region’s fire protection, the city has no representation on the five-member fire district board of directors.

Councilman Gene Asmus said, “We should have expressed ourselves to the fire board loud and clear (about the sales procedure), and apparently we didn’t do that.”

But Mayor Gloria McClellan concluded, “The fire board had the authority to sell it.”

Karen Kunze, a realtor who has emerged as a spokeswoman among opponents of the sale, said after the meeting that she remains frustrated that no action has been taken to try to block the sale and left open the option of taking legal action against the fire district.

Faith & Love founder Janet Sucro has said that, if the sale is reneged on, her organization will probably file its own lawsuit.