District to examine threat of suit over KOCE

Marisa O’Neil

Coast Community College District’s board of trustees will reexamine

its decision to sell KOCE-TV to the station’s fundraising arm in

light of a legal challenge from a spurned bidder.

Trustees will discuss tonight in closed session a lawsuit

threatened by Daystar Television Network, which has drawn up the suit

but not yet filed, said Milford Dahl, attorney for the district.

Daystar believes it, not the KOCE-TV Foundation, should have been

declared the highest responsible bidder and wants the district to

allow it to purchase the station’s license.

The California Education Code states that community college

districts may sell property “for cash” and must sell to the highest

responsible bidder. Daystar’s attorney, Richard Lloyd Sherman, said

that means his client should have won.

But Dahl said he has not found any precedent for defining the word

“cash” in that part of the code.

“I don’t see how we can [allow them to buy the station],” Dahl

said. “We’ve got other bidders -- the [KOCE-TV] Foundation, the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- who’ve all threatened to sue.

We can’t respond to one without responding to all of them.”

The KOCE-TV Foundation was the only one of three final bidders

that promised to keep the station’s public television format. Daystar

and other suitors involved earlier in the process -- Almavision

Hispanic Network, LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation and Trinity

Broadcasting -- all air religious programming.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has threatened to sue for

the return of roughly $20 million in grants and equipment if the

station’s format changes, Dahl said. Foundation members and even

members of KOCE-TV itself could also sue if the format changed

because they pledged money based on the expectation of public

broadcast programming.

Almavision, which came in with the highest bid at $35 million,

threatened to sue after the district rejected it, citing worries that

it did not have the money. The network never took any action, Dahl

said.

Daystar, however, recently sent the district a letter saying that

it had the highest cash bid at $25.1 million. The foundation offered

$8 million cash and $24 million on a long-term note.

“I believe that we will choose to defend our decision,” district

trustee Jerry Patterson said in a written statement. “That will have

to wait until the full board decides what to do based upon our legal

counsel. The final word on the sale may be decided by a judge after a

priority court hearing seeking a declaratory judgment.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].