Security Chief Investigated for Phone Bills : Management: More than $8,000 was billed in two years to the cellular phone assigned to a school official. Included were calls to Nebraska and Utah.

More than $8,000 over a two-year period was billed to the cellular telephone assigned to the Pasadena Unified School District’s head of security, telephone records show. Many of the calls were to numbers in other area codes and other states.

The bills for the phone of former Blair High School Principal Charles Parcell ran several times higher than those for other district phones, reaching $577.80 for one month, and included calls to Utah and Nebraska as well as more than 100 to the 805 area code.

Parcell, who was placed on paid administrative leave as security chief in October, is also facing a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report in connection with a missing district computer that has since been recovered.

The Board of Education has met twice recently in closed session to confer with its attorneys regarding Parcell. A district employee familiar with the discussions said they covered the use of the telephone and the disappearance of the computer.

Supt. Vera Vignes said Parcell was placed on paid leave Oct. 16, pending an investigation into alleged misuse of district property. She has declined to give any details about the investigation, but a district official said Parcell has not been billed for the calls because it has not been determined whether the calls were improper.

Parcell could not be reached for comment. His attorney, James Farley, said, “All calls by Mr. Parcell were made in accordance with district policy.” Farley said he has not seen the bills.

From Aug. 1, 1990, to last Aug. 29, a total of $8,416.13 was billed to Parcell’s phone.

The monthly bills ranged from a low of $169.53 for September, 1990, to a high of $577.80 for last July, with $45 of each bill paying for a monthly access charge. In July, there were 407 calls for a total usage of 20 hours and 1 minute.

Rey Monteroso, the district’s director of fiscal services, said an investigation began this summer after he discovered that Parcell’s telephone bill ran to several hundred dollars a month.

Monteroso said that, by comparison, the district pays $100 to $120 a month for cellular telephones used by other officials.

Vignes said district telephones are meant to be used exclusively for school district business. She said that, although the purpose of any school employee’s phone is to “maintain communication with the district,” there might be reasons to call outside the district. However, she said, there should be no reason to place a call out of state.

According to the telephone bills, numerous calls were placed from Parcell’s phone to the Santa Clarita area, Los Angeles, Sun Valley, Sunland-Tujunga, La Crescenta and Davis. Between Feb. 28 and Aug. 29, 94 calls were made to the 805 area code, most to Saugus High School in Santa Clarita and another 33 calls in the same period to an auto wrecker in Sun Valley.

There were eight out-of-state calls, including one to an inn in Provo, Utah, one to a home in Walton, Mass., and four to Imperial, Neb.

Several times, Parcell’s bill showed that the telephone was used from outside the district, including San Diego, Santa Barbara, Fresno and Bakersfield. There were also many incoming calls, including one of 39 minutes and one of 34. Incoming, as well as outgoing, calls are charged to a cellular phone.

Parcell has entered a not guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report in relation to the disappearance of the computer. A pretrial hearing is scheduled Jan. 11.

It is alleged that Parcell removed the $1,800 computer from the district’s special education department and reported to police on Sept. 3 that it had been stolen. District employees allegedly saw the computer in the security office on Aug. 25. It was later recovered in a trash sack in the security office.