L.A. Unified Hires Czar for Business Divisions

Los Angeles school Supt. Ruben Zacarias, fulfilling a pledge he made when he took the job, hired a former health maintenance organization executive Monday as business czar in charge of most noneducational functions of the school system.

The L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved Zacarias’ appointment of former Kaiser Foundation Health Plan vice president Hugh Jones for the new post, which will oversee business operations ranging from cafeterias to computers, at an annual salary of $146,000.

“When I assumed this job, I said I wanted all the people to report to the business czar, so I could focus on instruction,” Zacarias said, brushing his hand across an organizational chart of four business division heads who will report to Jones.

Jones, 56, will assume two of the district’s toughest challenges. The information division was criticized in a recent audit as highly ineffective, and the facilities services division is overseeing $2.4 billion in repairs and new construction financed by Proposition BB, the massive school bond approved by voters in April.

Jones resigned from Kaiser in June, when a yearlong reorganization of the medical side of the operation swept through the business side. In the consolidation, his job was eliminated.

He said he was on the brink of leaving Los Angeles when he saw the ad for the L.A. Unified job and decided that it would be a good match for his experience in a not-for-profit HMO.

“In each case, the true focus is quality of service that is of a personal nature--health care is personal, and educating people’s children is personal,” Jones said. “You are working with professionals, whether it’s in the examination room or in the classroom.”

Kaiser’s assistant medical director said Jones’ respect for those providing service to the public was among his greatest strengths, prompting him to ensure that the perspectives of the company’s medical professionals and its business leaders carried equal weight.

“This cooperative relationship we have now is something that Hugh and the medical directors established, and it’s really become rather unique in the health care industry,” said Dr. Joel Hyatt. “Almost no decision is made without considering the other partner.”

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The field of 25 finalists reviewed by a citizens panel reportedly included two district insiders who now will report to Jones: Chief Financial Officer Henry Jones and Business Manager David Koch. Two names were forwarded to Zacarias, with Hugh Jones the committee’s “clear favorite,” Zacarias said.

Though such splitting of administrative duties has become common in corporate structures, it was attempted only once before in L.A. Unified--and proved to be a disaster. Former Arco executive William Magee took a similar job three years ago, but left in disgust five months later, saying then-Supt. Sid Thompson had consistently overruled his personnel decisions.

Zacarias has promised to provide his business czar with more hiring and firing power, but Jones said that topic was never broached during his interviews for the job.

“That was not a specific issue of mine,” he said. “In my career, I’ve always had to talk about key personnel issues with other people, and I appreciated their insight so I could check my own decisions.”

Zacarias said Monday that he expects Jones to examine both the personnel and the structure of the four divisions that will report to him, and that he expects to see changes to increase decentralization and improve service.

“Absolutely. Whatever makes the overall organization more efficient--that’s what he’s there for,” Zacarias said. “I don’t expect him to do it outright, but over time.”

Also appointed to key positions in Zacarias’ cabinet were Steven Marks, as assistant superintendent of special education, and Ramon Castillo, as assistant superintendent for parent and community services. Both jobs have salaries of more than $104,000.

Marks had been acting head of that division since his boss, Beverly Watkins, quit last February. As Watkins left, she said efforts to overhaul services for the district’s 69,000 disabled students, prompted by a class-action lawsuit, were disjointed.

Board member David Tokofsky abstained from that 6-0 vote, objecting to the lack of a search process to draw in outside candidates.

“When we appointed Steve Marks as the interim director, there were a number of us who said we didn’t want it to be an unfair, inside track,” Tokofsky said. “He’s universally loved by people, but that’s not a substitute for process.”

The appointment of Castillo, a regional administrator assigned to the northeast San Fernando Valley, has been more controversial because he is married to Deputy Supt. Liliam Castillo, who previously held the parent services job. Some board members raised concerns about the appearance of nepotism.

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Zacarias said he doesn’t believe that a job candidate should be penalized for being married to another employee “unless there is a conflict of interest, and there isn’t one.” Ramon Castillo will report to one of the other deputy superintendents.

But board President Julie Korenstein abstained in the 6-0 vote confirming Castillo. Later she said she admired his work as a cluster administrator in her district, but found the marriage issue troublesome.

“It was just my personal struggle,” she said.

Next week, the board is to take up the final link in the management chart, which is also one of its most important in a time of increased emphasis on improving schools: assistant superintendent for instruction. Zacarias is said to be favoring Carmen Schroeder, who is doing the job on a temporary basis, but some board members are continuing to push for a full-fledged search.