Criticism of Delta campus buried

Written by Ben Marrone Friday, 04 April 2008

M.J. Gravina/Sun Post

A BAD IDEA?: A planned Delta College Mountain House campus, just off Interstate 205, has met with a series of delays and skyrocketing costs since its kick-off in 2005. Newly uncovered documents show a consultant that same year told the college to scrap the site for one in Tracy, but a trustee said the report was hidden from the board.

As costs and delays continue to mount for San Joaquin Delta College’s planned campus in Mountain

House, newly uncovered documents show that a consultant told college administrators years ago to drop the project and build a campus in Tracy instead.

The consultant’s report never made it to the college’s board of trustees, leading some to accuse administrators of burying information that made the Mountain House project look bad.

The college in 2005 asked real estate consultants Public Private Ventures to compare Delta’s plan for a Mountain House campus with a competing offer from the City of Tracy to build on donated land at the east end of the city.

The series of reports, for which the college paid more than $30,000, clearly stated that Tracy’s offer was superior to the Mountain House plan, which involved a partnership with real estate developer Gerry Kamilos.

PPV claimed the Mountain House project would get bogged down in contract disputes and litigation. It advised the board to look into “exit strategies” to get out of their agreement with Kamilos, and accept the offer to build in Tracy instead.

But none of these reports were passed on to trustees, who were then in a heated dispute about whether to give up on the project in Mountain House over problems with Kamilos.

Trustee Ted Simas, who represents Manteca and Escalon, said he first saw the payment to PPV in a budget report last June and asked President Raul Rodriguez what it was for.

Complete article