Modesto Bee, CA
Sept 15 2005
Patterson MJC site develops wrinkle
Trustees find out that land donor has checkered past
By LORENA ANDERSON
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: September 15, 2005, 05:31:06 AM PDT
Plans for a new Modesto Junior College campus in Patterson are moving
forward cautiously after the Yosemite Community College District
found out its land-gifting angel has a bit of the devil in his past.
Michael Miroyan of Saratoga, one of the partners in Golden Eagle
Investments, offered the district a 30-acre donation for its West
Side center. But last weekend, YCCD trustees were shocked to read in
newspaper articles that Miro-yan has spent time in prison for drug
convictions.
Miroyan was arrested in 1988 in connection with a 23-member cocaine
trafficking conspiracy, according to the Los Angeles Times, and a
search of Internet databases shows an appeal before the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1978 based on a marijuana trafficking conviction.
Miroyan did not return calls seeking comment. He showed up at the
board meeting after a vote had been taken.
During the discussion about the land, YCCD board member Pat Dean said
she wished that Miroyan had come to the board members and told them
about his past before they read about it in the paper.
“I almost had a little heart attack,” Dean said during Wednesday
night’s meeting.
She reiterated that point to Miroyan when he stood before the board
to explain himself, said trustee Paul Neumann. Miroyan told the board
he thought people knew about his past.
“I think he’s an amazing character,” said Neumann, who made the
motion to begin negotiations. “He said he has made some bad choices
and is trying to make good choices now, and one of those is donating
land for the formation of a community college campus.”
Neumann said Miroyan presented the board with a financial statement
from his chief investor, an Armenian billionaire who made his money
from oil deals.
“I can’t imagine he’d lie with the paper on the table,” Neumann said.
Before Miroyan spoke, the other trustees agreed that the news was
troubling, but said they appreciate Miroyan’s offer for land on which
to build a $5million West Side education center to serve a growing
population.
The land Miroyan wants to donate sells for about $180,000 an acre,
Neumann said, and with the access road and utilities, that makes the
gift worth more than $5.4 million.
“If it was a performance, it was a great one, but if it was from the
heart – which I believe it was – then this is an incredibly generous
offer,” Neumann said. Without it, he said, the college could not have
the satellite campus it wants for the money it has to spend.
Trustees voted 6-1 to go forth with negotiations with Miro-yan’s
partnership, with the caveat that the YCCD can get out of the
discussions at any time.
Miroyan promised the community college district the 30 acres in his
Sperry Road Business Park development, as well as an access road and
utilities up to the property line, which the district will have to
pay to extend to the campus.
The board had also been approached by Keystone Pacific Business Park,
which sits about a mile away from the Sperry Road site.
However, after coming up with a list of specific wishes for the
building and giving the two developers until the end of August to
estimate costs, Keystone dropped out of the running.
YCCD board member Abe Rojas told fellow trustees that he wanted to
make certain the access road, utilities and Miro-yan’s ability to
actually donate the land – which he does not own yet – are set in
stone before the board accepts Miroyan’s offer.
The board directed staff to begin the negotiation process, which
could take about a month, YCCD Chancellor Jim Williams estimated.
Modesto Junior College’s acting president, Bill Scroggins, said
getting state approval for the new education center could take six to
nine months.
Board members said they feel strongly about sticking to their promise
to build the West Side center, and when the issue first came up
during Wednesday’s agenda, they seemed reluctant to bring up
Miroyan’s past.
Trustee Anne DeMartini said she’d be the one to “identify the
elephant in the room.”
She said she sees a “difficulty being in this relationship” with
Miroyan, but by the time the vote was called, she had joined five
other trustees in giving staff the green light to at least talk with
the developer. Trustee Delsie Schrimp was the dissenting vote, saying
she had been away and needed more time to consider the issue.
Several people stepped up to vouch for Miroyan, including a
consultant who said he never had any problems with Miroyan through
three joint projects, and Patterson resident and former teacher Mimi
Draper, who said Miroyan approached her last year about his idea for
the land gift.
She said he told her about his past, and she was sympathetic, having
known a former student who got into the same kind of trouble but
turned his life around.
“I see nothing wrong with Michael,” she said, “but as my kids tell
me, I believe everybody.”
Neumann said he was touched by Miroyan’s appearance before the board.
“He said, ‘I’ve done hard time, but I’m a different person,'” Neumann
said. “In education, if you don’t believe people can change their
lives, you had better get out of the business.”