Bill could cut Wake County school system out of any say in school construction

WCPSS has proven themselves to be morons....tell me again why they should be trusted with our tax dollars for school buildings? They are incompetent...did you hear the one where they didn't get appraisals for the land they purchased. MORONS!

Board reverses itself on Apex school land

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CORRECTION

A Page 1B story published June 20 in some editions about the Wake school board's decision to nullify an $8.7 million land purchase in Apex for new schools gave the incorrect title for Ed Bonner at Trademark Properties. Bonner is the chief operating officer.

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RALEIGH -- The Wake County School Board voted Tuesday to nullify a $8.7 million land deal that would have financially benefited key public supporters of last year's school bond referendum.

The vote, which was not scheduled on the agenda distributed before the board's meeting, came less than two weeks after The News & Observer filed a public records request asking the school system to provide all documents and internal e-mail pertaining to the purchase of 108.4 acres off Humie Olive Road in Apex.

The school board voted Feb. 6 to buy the land, which was to be the site of a new high school and middle school, at a price of about $80,000 an acre. The property is owned by Apex Olive LLC, a development company in which Cary software mogul Jim Goodnight is a partner.

Apex Olive had bought the tract in April 2006 for $3.25 million. Under the purchase price approved by the school board, the company would have netted a 168 percent profit in less than a year.

Goodnight was a strong public advocate of the $970 million school construction bond approved by voters in November. In addition to his work with the pro-bond group Friends of Wake County, Goodnight sent an e-mail message to thousands of employees in his Cary company, SAS Institute, asking them to support the measure.

After a Feb. 23 article in The N&O detailed the land's purchase price and sales history, Wake County commissioners and others became concerned that the school board was paying too much. The commissioners must approve such land purchases before they become final.

Goodnight could not be reached Tuesday night. He declined to be interviewed about the deal in February but said through an intermediary that any profit he gained from the sale would be refunded to the school system.

Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, was among those who thought the $8.7 million figure was far too high. A real estate lawyer who lives in Apex, Stam hired a certified appraiser of commercial property to make an independent evaluation of the site. The appraiser determined the land was worth about $3.8 million.

Stam then made the appraisal available to county officials, who then passed it on to the school board. Skeptical school administrators quickly hired a second appraiser to value the property.

Copies of those appraisals, which are public records under state law, were among the items requested from the school system on June 7. Michael Evans, the director of communications for the school system, did not respond to calls Tuesday asking when they would be made available.

A copy of the April 10 appraisal commissioned by the system was provided by school board member Ron Margiotta, however. It shows that the value of the Apex Olive property at $4.3 million -- less than half the price the school board agreed to pay.

"There's an awful lot of unanswered questions about how this happened, especially considering some of the people involved," said Margiotta, who is from Apex.

More scrutiny likely

The fallout from the derailed deal is likely to lead to scrutiny of those who stood to benefit.

When it started looking for land near Apex to build schools, the school board hired Coldwell Banker Commercial Trademark Properties, a Raleigh real estate company. Trademark brought the Apex Olive tract to the school system's attention and helped determine what was a fair market price.

Trademark is owned by its president, Billie Redmond, a well-regarded local broker. Redmond also serves as the co-chairwoman of the Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee, a group appointed by Wake commissioners and charged with helping the school system spend its bond money in a cost-efficient manner.

Ed Bonner, the chief executive officer of Trademark Properties, was also an active member of Friends of Wake County. Bonner spoke in favor of the bonds at several public forums and locally televised debates.

If the sale of the Apex Olive property to the school system had been finalized, Trademark Properties would have received commissions in excess of $250,000.

Redmond said Tuesday she saw no problem with her service on the advisory committee and her company's contract to help the school system buy land. The same went for Bonner, she said.

"Ed is a civic-minded individual with two children in the Wake schools," Redmond said. "I think it is clear that my company acted in good faith. There is no conflict here."

Redmond said the recommended purchase price for the Apex Olive property was arrived at after an exhaustive review of comparable sales in the Apex area.

The two independent appraisals performed by certified firms were just wrong, she said.

"We didn't just pick that price," said Redmond, who was recently named Realtor of the Year by the Triangle Association of Realtors. "We worked very hard. We reviewed reams of in-depth information."

Goodnight and his wife, Ann Goodnight, were named Tar Heels of the Year by The N&O in December. Redmond was named a Tar Heel of the Week by the newspaper in September 2000.

Margiotta, the school board member, said questions about the land sale are not likely to die with the abandonment of the deal. And under an agreement approved Tuesday, Trademark will continue to be retained by the system to help find other sites to build schools.

"I don't know if anything illegal happened here, but it smells to high heaven," Margiotta said. "This isn't over."