Residents urge Bassett Unified to halt Flanner property lease to developers, allege prior Brown Act denial
Summary
Multiple residents urged the Bassett Unified board to cancel or rethink any lease of the Florence Flanner property to Storm Properties, calling for community uses; one speaker alleged a Brown Act violation at the prior meeting and criticized contract awards to vendors linked to district associates.
Several community members used the board’s public‑comment period on Dec. 9 to press the district to stop or reconsider any lease or private use of the Florence Flanner (Flanner/Florence Manor) property and to raise procedural concerns about the board’s handling of public comment.
Manuel Maldonado, who identified himself as a long‑time local property owner, said the Flanner property "has a lot of potential" for preschool services, special education catch‑up programs and after‑school uses and urged the board to consider community uses rather than private development. He also warned that narrow neighborhood streets could create emergency‑access problems if heavy development proceeds.
Sam Brown told the board he was "utterly disgusted" about what he described as a Brown Act violation at the prior meeting, saying a timely public commenter was denied the right to speak. Brown also criticized recurring large contract awards and singled out a vendor and a named individual (Paul Solano) in the critic’s remarks as having outsized influence; Brown said the district should pause contract awards while fiscal pressures are discussed. Those are allegations raised in public comment and were not adjudicated during the meeting.
Other residents echoed opposition to Storm Properties and to leasing public land to private companies. Jorge (as transcribed) urged the board to "cancel the contract with Storm Properties if there's a contract going already," called the district’s share of revenue (described in one comment as 10%) insufficient relative to the company’s expected profits, and said the district should keep public land for community uses. Another commenter (Luce) said the community is losing parks and expressed concern about affordable housing pressure in the area.
Board members and the interim superintendent repeatedly invited speakers to follow up with district staff outside the dais for additional discussion. The meeting record shows no board action to authorize or cancel a Flanner lease during this session; the public comments were recorded and the board moved later to other agenda items and into closed session on unrelated matters.
Next procedural steps noted on the agenda: the board will reconvene for the next regular meeting on Dec. 16, 2025, when public comment will be available again and agenda items may be scheduled for future consideration.
