Land sale to developer who is among the biggest campaign contributors
On 11/27/2024, behind closed doors, the board “sold” (option to buy) 39 pieces of property totalling 1,252 acres in Etiwanda Heights in Rancho Cucamonga for $93 million. There was no auction or opportunity for the public to bid on it. It was a no-bid contract. That works out to about $74K an acre. In Rancho Cucamonga. But the deal gets better. They didn’t have to actually pay the purchase price, they paid a deposit of $2.5 million, a downpayment of 2.7%. But wait, the deal gets better. They don’t have to pay property tax (Section 13(d)). But wait, there’s more. There’s no obligation to actually buy the property. If at any point, the buyers decide they don’t want it, the county has to take it back (Section 4(iv)(3)). If the buyer decides to sell the property that is really owned by the county, they get to keep half of the profit.
The buyer was Rancho Etiwanda LLC. It was formed just a week before the board agenda item. The LLC is ultimately controlled/owned by James “Jimmy” Previti. Previti has a long history of promoting (manipulating) San Bernardino County politics.