Attempts to Fire Maintenance Chief Abandoned : Management: School district says Commodore Reid is an excellent employee, despite his no-contest plea to theft in 1989.

The school district’s Personnel Commission has abandoned attempts to oust the maintenance director who returned to his job three years after pleading no contest to charges of stealing from Lynwood schools.

The decision means that Maintenance Director Commodore Reid, 58, will get to stay on the job with the Lynwood Unified School District.

“There is a just God,” a relieved Reid said Tuesday. “I have a very strong wife who stuck with me and I prayed very hard, and that’s what got me through it.”

The resolution of the matter comes almost a year after commission members expressed outrage over the school board’s decision to bring Reid back. At the time, the commission felt it had the authority to overturn the board decision.

Commission members changed their minds after reviewing a report from a hearing officer they selected to research the case. The hearing officer concluded that the commission probably had no legal authority to overrule the school board.

“My feeling is that (the case) has been through the hearing officer fair and square and we’ll abide by it,” Commission Chairman John Beimer said.

The outcome hinged on events that took place in 1989. Reid pleaded no contest in March of that year to one felony count of grand theft and one felony count of receiving stolen property. Reid was fined $200, ordered to pay $2,500 in restitution and sentenced to three years probation and 400 hours of community service.

In April, 1989, the school board gave Reid two choices: resign or be fired. Reid resigned.

By January, 1992, however, a narrow majority of school board members wanted Reid back. They argued that despite Reid’s well-publicized problems, he had always maintained buildings and grounds. The board voted 3 to 2 to offer Reid his old job.

The three-member Personnel Commission immediately balked. Part of the appointed commission’s job is to approve the hiring of all non-teaching employees except for some high-level administrators. Commission members argued that under state law, the school board could bypass them only if Reid left the district in good standing.

The dispute focused on whether Reid departed in “good standing.”

The commission hired an outside hearing officer, Angela R. Pickett, to review evidence. In late December, Pickett submitted a confidential opinion that was more than 90 pages long. In essence, Pickett sided with the school board majority and Reid, said Dale Hanson, the administrator for the school system’s Personnel Commission.

Because the school district had accepted Reid’s resignation unconditionally, Reid kept the right to return as maintenance director under the “good standing” rule, Hanson said. In a legal sense, Reid retained his good standing with the district.

Legal stipulations aside, some district officials, including Personnel Commission members and some school board members, still insist that Reid left the district under a cloud.

Before accepting a plea bargain, Reid had been charged with 10 counts of theft and one of conflict of interest.

The conflict-of-interest charge related to a personal loan Reid received from a carpet company that did business with the district. The stolen property Reid pleaded no contest to receiving included loudspeakers, planer tools, a tape recorder, an adding machine, a steel gate, shelving and a metal cart.

Much of the investigation centered on allegations that Reid had district employees work on Reid’s

property on district time using district materials.

District employees worked on Reid’s remodeling projects in Studio City and Inglewood, according to an accounting firm hired by the school system. One employee claimed “he worked approximately 20 days on personal projects of Mr. Reid, under Mr. Reid’s direction. This time was paid for by the Lynwood Unified School District,” according to the accounting report.

The report, which estimated losses in excess of $15,000, also documents several instances of contractor’s work under Reid’s authority that either was double-billed or paid for and not performed.

Without commenting on the criminal charges, Reid said he was determined to resuscitate his reputation. He had no previous criminal record.

After resigning from Lynwood, Reid left Southern California to become director of maintenance for the Bay-area Ravenswood Elementary School District. He worked there for Supt. Charlie Mae Knight, a former Lynwood Unified superintendent who thought highly of Reid.

Shortly before Reid left Ravenswood, Knight credited Reid with saving the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. Knight said some of Reid’s troubles in Lynwood resulted from paying more attention to maintenance than bookkeeping. As long as Reid had sufficient bookkeeping assistance, he would be an invaluable talent for any school district, Knight said.

Meanwhile, a judge reduced Reid’s felony counts to misdemeanor violations after Reid paid restitution.

Reid’s return became possible after the November, 1991, school board election. Incumbent Willard Hawn Reed, a Reid critic, lost to Cynthia Green-Geter, a Reid supporter. Green-Geter joined trustee Thelma Calvin-Williams and board President Joe Battle in voting to rehire Reid.

“He is an excellent employee and the district will benefit as a whole from his talents,” Green-Geter said Tuesday. “Too bad that we had to go through such a laborious litigation. But I’m glad it’s over.”

Reid said the tension of the extended dispute took its toll. He said he suffered a stroke and missed about 2 1/2 months of work from early August to late October.

But Reid takes pride in his progress on district maintenance, which he said was deplorable in his absence.

“The paint was deteriorating, the schools were filthy, the grounds unkept, and there were leaks everywhere,” Reid said. “The fencing was falling down at the high school. It was laying on telephone posts.”

Reid checked off a long list of recent projects. At the high school, Reid and his crews repainted buildings, repaired 85% of the fencing and installed a dining room in the home economics area. Work at other campuses included painting, landscaping and repairing ceilings.

He said his goal is to save money and local jobs by relying on district employees to perform work that had been accomplished by outside contractors.

Supt. Audrey Clarke praised Reid for finding an electrician who could coax some heat from the high school gym’s central heater, which had not worked at all in six years.

Reid oversees about 130 employees and a $4-million budget in this district of about 15,000 students.

The board members who opposed Reid’s return said they are pleased with Reid’s work over the last year. The cost of bringing Reid back, however, has yet to be tabulated. The district will have to pay for the attorneys on both sides as well as the hearing officer.

Supt. Clarke said she hopes the district will now focus more attention on educational priorities.

“I hope this is a sign that the Personnel Commission and the school board can work more in concert,” she said. “The bottom line has to be student achievement.”

Community correspondent Phillip Garcia contributed to this article.