Grand Jury: Lawmaker's Land Deal Illegal

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July 05, 2007 4:33 PM

A California city government agency broke the law when it sold a four-acre parcel of land to a group of investors which included Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., an investigative grand jury has concluded.

Calvert and his partners planned to build a mini-storage facility on the property.  The land could have served as the only community park in a predominately Hispanic, lower-income neighborhood, according to a former local recreation official.

In 2001, the local park district had asked about buying the land for that purpose.

A Riverside County investigative grand jury found the Jurupa Community Services District failed to abide by state law, which required it to offer the parcel for sale to other government entities -- including the local recreation department -- before reaching a deal with private investors.

When the alleged violation was first reported by the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise newspaper last August, officials insisted they had followed the law, but could provide no evidence they had notified other offices.  Later, other officials confirmed to the paper that no notices were ever sent.

"We're taking it under advisement," a district official told the paper of the grand jury's determination.  The district has until September 27th to respond to the grand jury's finding.  The panel is an investigative body and does not have the authority to indict.

Calvert has said he was not involved in negotiations with the city over the land, for which his investment group paid $1.2 million. "I put up the money and let others do the work," he told the Press-Enterprise last year.  The congressman's office did not respond to a request for comment from ABCNews.com Thursday.

The head of the local park district has said the organization will seek legal action to force Calvert's group to return the land.

The deal is not the first of Calvert's land investments to raise eyebrows. 

In 2005, the Southern California representative paid $550,000 for a four-acre plot of land he sold a year later for double its value. What had changed? In the intervening year Calvert used his clout in Washington to fund the construction of a freeway interchange nearby, a possible factor in the land's quick rise in value, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.

Calvert has said the funding he won for that interchange – as well as several other improvements that were located near real estate he has owned – were not connected to his investments, and accused the paper of "trying to manufacture controversy."

"They haven't passed a law against investing yet," Calvert told the paper.

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