Schools Sued Over Bond Campaign

A local Libertarian Party member has sued the Los Angeles Unified School District over the recent Proposition BB campaign, alleging that the district illegally used public school funds and facilities to promote the $2.4-billion bond measure instead of remaining neutral.

The lawyers for the plaintiff, West Los Angeles resident Neil Donner, are affiliated with the Individual Rights Foundation, a Libertarian group, and one sued the school district five years ago over alleged misuse of school resources in a political campaign.

“They say they used the funding for informational activities. They say they have a [right] to inform voters of the bond information through community meetings and debates,” said Patrick Manshardt, the foundation’s general counsel.

“But that’s not what they were doing,” Manshardt said. “They were running campaigns out of the schools.”

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks the return of an estimated $100,000 in district funds that were used to help disseminate information about the bond measure.

In addition to the school district, the suit names as defendants outgoing Supt. Sid Thompson, district facilities manager Beth Louragand, and Earl Barner, a middle school principal who allowed a banner announcing the bond measure to be hung on his campus before the April 8 election.

Dozens of Proposition BB banners were posted on district buildings in the weeks before the election. The district also allowed its schools to be used for public meetings in which paid political consultants and campaign volunteers urged the measure’s passage, the suit says.

After failing to garner the necessary two-thirds vote last November, the bond measure passed this time with 71% voter approval and repairs have already begun at campuses throughout the district.

School board President Jeff Horton acknowledged that school funds were used to print banners and brochures discussing the bond’s proposed use. But he said that all was done legally and appropriately.

School district attorney Howard Friedman said Los Angeles Unified has been sued before over its role in controversial ballot measures, and has prevailed each time.

One of Donner’s lawyers, Manuel Klausner, filed suit in 1992 on behalf of proponents of Proposition 174, which would have allowed state tax dollars to be used to subsidize private school tuition. The suit alleged that LAUSD used district resources to denounce the measure, which failed.

The district was sued again in 1994 by another group for allegedly taking an active role in fighting the passage of Proposition 187, which seeks to limit the tax dollars spent on government services for illegal immigrants.

“Virtually every time the district has been involved in a bond measure or taken any role in a campaign issue we’ve been sued,” Friedman said.

“Uniformly, the district has ultimately prevailed in the position that it hasn’t engaged in campaign activity and not only is it legally allowed to, but has a fiduciary obligation to inform people on the various impacts of a bond or a measure like Proposition 187,” he said.