An assemblyman has quietly introduced legislation to allow an Orange County community college district to sell its public television station to a well-connected local foundation for less money than a Dallas-based televangelist network has offered.
The bill was introduced in late June by Tom Umberg (D-Anaheim) after a court ruling voided the 2004 sale of KOCE-TV to the foundation because it was not the highest bidder, as the law requires.
Milford Dahl, attorney for the Coast Community College District, which sold the station to the KOCE-TV Foundation, said the bill was his idea. Jerry Patterson, a former congressman who sits on the district's board of trustees, said he helped write the bill. Umberg said he was carrying the bill at Patterson's request.
Richard Lloyd Sherman, lawyer for the televangelist network, Daystar, said district officials were surreptitiously trying to create an exception for themselves under state law.
"They broke the law, so now they're trying to change the law to suit their needs, and you can't do that," he said.
The bill has received a hearing in the Senate Education Committee, which approved it 8 to 1, with Umberg and Patterson testifying in support. They were the only people who testified. Daystar was not notified of the bill or the hearing.
The legislation must receive approvals from both houses of the Legislature before it reaches the governor's desk.
The legislation is the latest attempt by the college district to sell the station to the foundation, the fundraising arm of the station before the sale.
Many of Orange County's wealthiest and most influential people have supported the foundation's bid, including drug company executive David Pyott, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, technology executive Henry Samueli and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana).
Despite its tiny viewership, operating losses and the fact that much of its programming duplicates that of Los Angeles-based KCET, the public station is a source of civic pride, offering PBS programming,a tiny bit of Orange County news, and public affairs shows and telecourses through Coastline Community College.
The district decided to sell the station after subsidizing it for years for about $2 million annually. District trustees have said they preferred to sell the station to the foundation because it would retain the PBS affiliation and increase local programming.
