Broker Bill Arnold's Land Deals On Behalf Of The Amphi School District Get Court Scrutiny By Jim Nintzel FORMER PIMA COUNTY Supervisor David Yetman sued the Amphitheater School District last week, claiming Amphi violated state law when it signed contracts with Bill Arnold, a broker with Genesis Real Estate and Development, the firm that handled the district's land acquisition between 1992 and 1996. Yetman, an author who now works as assistant research social scientist at the UA Southwest Center, directed well-known local attorney Bill Risner to file the suit, which also names Genesis, Arnold, Amphi Board members Virginia Houston and Mike Bernal, and former Amphi Board member Vicki Cox-Golder as defendants. The suit alleges the district's "exclusive retainer agreement" with Arnold created a conflict of interest because it allowed Arnold to negotiate his fees with the seller, rather than paying him an hourly wage to work for the district. As a result, Arnold had a stake in the deals he was negotiating on behalf of the district. Between 1992 and 1996, Arnold brokered eight real-estate deals for Amphi, earning more than $150,000. The lawsuit demands Arnold turn over the fees he earned in the transactions to the school district. The contract between Amphi and Genesis, which was first uncovered by The Weekly last year, was never approved by the school board in an open meeting. Nor was the position ever formally advertised or put out to bid. When questioned about the selection process, Amphi Associate Superintendent Katie Frey, the official responsible for hiring Arnold, told The Weekly she couldn't remember who had recommended him for the job. The suit also asks the court to impose civil penalties on Cox-Golder, Bernal and Houston, who were on the board when the contract was approved, and to remove Bernal and Houston from the board. (Cox-Golder gave up her board seat last year in an unsuccessful bid for the District 3 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Arnold, her longtime political ally, chaired the Cox-Golder campaign.) "I decided a lawsuit needed to be filed," says Yetman. "There were gross conflicts of interest involved in that land deal. I believe the entire context in which the contract was voted on, awarded and carried out--all of that was illegal." Amphi Associate Superintendent Todd Jaeger downplayed the lawsuit. "I don't think the case has any merit," says Jaeger, who disagreed with Risner's assertion that the contract with Genesis meant Arnold was an employee of the district. He said the contract didn't need to be put out to bid because the sellers, rather than the district, were paying the broker fees. The suit comes as the Amphi Board struggles to build a new high school on one of the parcels Arnold purchased for the district. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the 73-acre site is prime habitat for the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, so Amphi has had to develop a mitigation plan before it could get approval to rechannel a wash on the property. Amphi paid $1.78 million, or more than $24,000 an acre, for the parcel, which was not appraised before the sale. A Weekly investigation last year showed that similar parcels sold for thousands of dollars less per acre around the same time. Following The Weekly's series, the district decided to terminate its relationship with Genesis and develop a new land acquisition policy. "I'm convinced they paid far too much for the land," Yetman says. "The district could have saved itself a lot of grief and a lot of scrutiny if it had just gone by its own rules and gotten an appraisal done."

Home | Currents | City Week | Music | Review | Books | Cinema | Back Page | Archives

		© 1995-97 Tucson Weekly . Info Booth