State Agency Probes School Land Buys

The complaint alleges appraisers Albert Stricklen of Umatilla, FL and Thomas Riddle of Winter Park, working together, inflated the price of the land, then owned by David L. Brown on Round Lake Road in the Mount Dora, FL vicinity.

The school board paid $500,000 or $16,667 per acre (38 cents per sf). Round Lake Elementary School replaced the aging Roseborough Elementary School in Downtown Mount Dora.

The complaint alleges the appraisers had initially valued the dirt in late 1997 at $540,000 and later amended their appraisal to $510,000. But when the school board negotiated a contract for the land at $500,000, the appraisers changed the value again to match the contract price.

Stricklen and Riddle couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com at publication deadline. But their associates tell GlobeSt.com the appraisers have asked for a state administrative judge to hear the allegations. A hearing date is expected to be set within the next 120 days, agency staffers in Tallahassee tell GlobeSt.com.

The appraisers deny any wrongdoing or unethical conduct. If found negligent, they could lose their licenses and be out of business.

At the same time the school board was buying the Brown land, the board was also closing on another 30-acre site in Clermont, FL for the new Windy Hill Middle School near the King's Ridge retirement development in south Lake County. The board paid $358,586 or $11,953 per acre (27 cents per sf) for the Clermont land.

The state agency wants to know why there was such a large price difference on the two parcels. School board superintendent Pam Saylor couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com at publication deadline to learn if the board would start its own investigation on the price differences.

But in a published report, Saylor says she hadn't heard of the state's complaint and wasn't planning to probe appraisals on other land purchases made by her department over the past several years.

Saylor wasn't the superintendent when the appraisals were made five years ago. In charge of school site selection then was former assistant school superintendent Jerry Cox. Cox has said in the past he favored the Round Lake Round site because of its proximity to Mount Dora and aggressively backed the board to buy the property. He later became principal of the new school.

The state agency's complaint was triggered by several letters from Umatilla real estate agent Gus Heim who has long criticized the board for overpaying on land purchases for new school development. He had offered the board less-expensive sites for the new Mount Dora area school.

School board member Mary Fletcher also contacted the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation after hearing of Heim's complaints three years ago. But the agency at that time did not pursue the objections to the new school site purchase by either Heim or Fletcher.

Agency staffers tell GlobeSt.com they have no explanation why earlier investigations were not made on the allegations of overpayment for the land.