ENCINITAS -- With a tie vote Wednesday, the Encinitas City Council left the future of the old Pacific View School site undecided.

"If it's a 2-2 vote, the council has not said no (to a school district proposal to sell the land)," City Attorney Glenn Sabine told council members, as they discussed what the night's tie vote would mean. "It's not a decision, it's simply no action at this time."

In other votes Wednesday night, the council decided to make more of an effort to publicize existing state laws related to public meetings and the release of city documents, but not to pursue an additional "Sunshine" ordinance that would have expanded what's required of the city.

The public-meetings issue and the school property's future have been hot topics in recent years.

The Encinitas Union School District has offered a series of proposals for the old school, which closed in 2003. The latest plan calls for selling the 2.8-acre property on Third Street to the city for $10 million. In a letter in early May, district Superintendent McLean King wrote that the city needed to respond by next Monday to the offer, or the district would consider putting houses on the land.

Councilmen Jerome Stocks and James Bond voted Wednesday to immediately tell the school district that the city wasn't interested. Stocks said the city didn't have the money to redevelop the land as a park and ought to admit it now, while Bond said he thought the district has handled the school closure badly.

Councilwoman Teresa Barth and Mayor Maggie Houlihan voted against that proposal, saying they didn't have enough information about the district's offer at this point. Houlihan said she wanted to know how the district arrived at its $10 million price tag for the property, and said she thought it might be on the high side.

Councilman Dan Dalager owns property across the street from the old school, so he could not participate in Wednesday's discussion.

This is the latest proposal for the property. An earlier plan for a mixed-use project with homes and commercial buildings faced strong neighborhood opposition and failed to find favor with the city's Planning Commission.

District officials now say they may put a housing-only project on the land.

That would require a zoning change with the approval of four of the five City Council members, city officials said Wednesday.

While council members were divided over whether the city should buy the school property, the public speakers were overwhelming in favor of the land becoming some kind of a city park. Neighbors, a city arts commissioner and the leader of the Encinitas Historical Society all said they thought it was a great idea.

"This is an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime at best," Arts Commissioner Terri Zimdars said, adding that she would like the city to use part of the property for an arts center.

The council was in partial agreement when it came to the state public-meeting and open-record law issues. Council members all said they could be doing a better job of avoiding situations such as their recent testy exchange of e-mails over the Orpheus Park tree-cutting controversy.

"We've goofed," Bond said, adding that council members have been chastised by the city attorney for their actions.

The e-mail exchange has been one of a series of items that avid followers of City Hall politics have taken issue with lately. Others have included last-minute postings of special council meeting announcements and various difficulties in obtaining public documents.

"There has been improvement, but there still needs more to be done," Cardiff resident Jerry Sodomka told the council.

He said he believes he's keeping better records these days than the city is of its actions. He and others proposed that the city adopt a "Sunshine" ordinance that enhances the public-access provisions required by state law.

A majority of the council said they could support adding statements about the existing state meeting and public-records requirements on council agendas and in various spots on the city's Web site, but did not support creating a city "Sunshine" ordinance that could expand what the city is required to provide.

"Half the time, I feel if we get any more transparent around here we're going to have to put in Plexiglas walls," Stocks said.

Barth disagreed, saying there was plenty of room for improvement.

"We should strive to do the best, not the least (required by law)," she said.

Call staff writer Barbara Henry at 760-901-4072.