School Bond Panel Chief Fumes Over Question of Conflict of Interest

The chairman of the committee overseeing the spending of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $2.4-billion bond fund on Thursday lit into a district administrator who questioned whether there was a conflict of interest in the chairman’s drive to expedite air conditioning of schools.

It is true, said Steven Soboroff, that the city Department of Water and Power is a member of a consortium seeking to air condition 301 schools. And it is true that Soboroff is Mayor Richard Riordan’s senior advisor as well as chairman of the committee overseeing school bond spending, which includes cooling schools.

But it is not true, an angry Soboroff said, that those dual roles have influenced his support of the consortium’s air-conditioning proposal, as suggested in a recent review by school district independent analysis director Roger Rasmussen.

At a meeting of the Proposition BB oversight committee, Soboroff passed out a legal opinion backing his position, which informs the public that there would be no conflict of interest as long as he did not stand to gain financially should the bid by the utilities consortium, the Energy Alliance, be accepted.

Holding up a flashlight as a prop, Soboroff joked that he “was obviously so concerned” about the potential for conflict that he had his power turned off at home, thus necessitating the flashlight.

At that point, school board member Jeff Horton, an audience member, had had enough. He stepped forward to take the flashlight from Soboroff.

“I don’t think it’s fair to make light of this situation,” Horton said. “I don’t think anybody alleged any personal interest. I think it was an institutional conflict . . . The school bond money should not be spent for the benefit of the city of L.A., it should be spent for the benefit of the children.”

Timothy Lynch, an oversight committee member and the city’s deputy controller, accused Rasmussen of “character assassination,” even though Lynch was not named in Rasmussen’s internal memo.

“A schoolteacher gets elected to the school board--should they be barred from voting on things involving teachers and schools?” he asked, aiming his criticism at Horton, a former teacher.

Horton pointed out that district employees must resign when they are elected to the board.

In other action, oversight committee members also:

* Suggested the school district examine ways to use the playground repaving funds more creatively--for trees and green areas rather than just for blacktop. Soboroff said he got that idea from the TreePeople, who have asked him to sit on their board.

* Agreed that the district should begin preparations, including buying land, for building an elementary school on the Bell/Cudahy border.

* Discussed ways to increase flexibility in school bond allocations to schools that either discover ways to save money or have previously completed some of the planned work.

* Asked that a comprehensive work plan be submitted in September so they can track whether projects are being completed on time and whether they are over or under budget.