Money That Gains Interest

By RALPH FRAMMOLINO

April 17, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

As a group, Los Angeles school board members received most of their political money from the same unions and district employees that lobby them for raises and other job benefits, a computer analysis by The Times shows.

In all, employee groups or individuals drawing a Los Angeles Unified School District paycheck accounted for 58% of the campaign funds and in-kind services contributed to the seven incumbents since 1995, the analysis shows.

And the top giver was the group with perhaps the most at stake: United Teachers of Los Angeles, the bargaining unit for 36,000 of the district’s teachers, counselors and other employees with teaching credentials, records show.

Those findings, say board members, confirm the common notion that the politics of the nation’s second-largest school district is largely controlled by the people it employs, not necessarily the parents and students it serves.

They blame public apathy and the flight of middle-class parents--and with them, their checkbooks--for an electoral void that gives teachers, janitors, counselors, campus police officers and principals undue clout in picking their bosses.

“This means that those organizations with a particular interest in the school board have a disproportionate influence,” said school board member Jeff Horton. “They are in a smaller pool of people interested in contributing.

The Times studied 2,400 campaign contributions listed on public reports by school board incumbents between January 1995 and December 1997.

However, the analysis didn’t include the names and affiliations of hundreds of donors who gave $99 or less, contributions that need not be publicly itemized.

But board members said The Times’ analysis underscored the realities of school board politics. Among the findings:

* Of the $756,697 in itemized donations to the incumbents, $439,190 came from at least 10 employee unions or interest groups, as well as 660 individuals who identified L.A. Unified as their employer.

* Teachers unions gave the most. UTLA donated $253,405 and the statewide California Teachers Assn. gave $20,000.

* Next were classified employees such as janitors, whose unions gave $37,850, then school administrator groups ($21,400) and L.A. Unified police officers ($14,700).

Horton blamed public apathy for the sheer volume of money donated by unions and individuals interested in an L.A. Unified paycheck, giving at least some of the individual board races the feel of a self-perpetuating machine.

“It’s hard to raise money other than from those unions, because a lot of people say, ‘What school board? We don’t care. We care about City Council and [state] Assembly,’ ” said the veteran board member, whose district includes West Hollywood and parts of the San Fernando Valley.

When it comes to union power, Horton knows the score.

In 1991, he won his first bid for his district largely on the strength of UTLA money, which he estimated made up about a third of his political war chest.

But once in office, Horton said he immediately alienated the teachers by voting to impose pay cuts on them as well as other employees during an agonizing L.A. Unified retrenchment. When it came to run for reelection in 1995, UTLA didn’t give him a dime.

Instead, Horton said he was forced to approach other L.A. Unified-related unions, where he received a warm reception because he sided with them on how to make the cuts, making sure they fell lightest on employees making the least.

The result: The classified union, its affiliates and individual contributors with non-teaching L.A. Unified positions gave Horton 30% of the money for his successful reelection, The Times analysis shows. Other blue-collar unions followed suit.

“He was there for us on that,” said Tom Newbery, chief negotiator for the Service Employees International Union.

UTLA President Day Higuchi makes no bones about putting the union’s money where its friends are.

“I think its our obligation to support people who will listen to our issues and support the position of our membership,” said Higuchi. “I don’t feel apologetic about that at all.

“You want access to people who are receptive and friendly to your point of view. The other school board members have, you know, voted for pay cuts, have taken inimical positions on policies relating to the welfare of our members.”

Both Higuchi and Newbery stress that union campaign contributions aren’t based on bread-and-butter issues alone. The groups back candidates who are also aligned with them on policy issues, such as teacher mentor programs and reforming far-flung L.A. Unified bureaucracy.

George Kiriyama credited his L.A. Unified support to personal associations he formed over 31 years as a teacher, administrator and principal.

“I got it from gardeners, from maintenance workers. I got it from secretaries. And although I didn’t get money from the teachers union, I have a lot of friends who are teachers, because I was a teacher for 13 years.”

Teacher unions, by far the richest source of campaign money, targeted their donations on just three races between 1995 and 1997--those of board President Julie Korenstein, and newcomers David Tokofsky and Valerie Fields.

The Times analysis found that these groups accounted for 30% of Field’s itemized contributions, 73% of Tokofsky’s and nearly 82% of Korenstein’s.

Korenstein couldn’t be reached for comment. UTLA lavished most of its money and in-kind services on the former high school teacher, who beat a rival backed by the classified unions to win his maiden campaign in 1995.

Tokofsky said the race for his district--covering the eastern San Fernando Valley, Eagle Rock and other parts of northeast Los Angeles--was a political grudge match that grew out of the 1989 teachers’ strike.

“Nobody was under the mistaken belief that this was two individuals who didn’t have a battle behind them of unions that went back to the strike of 1989,” said Tokofsky.

He pointed out that his campaign had more than 400 small donors who participated in his race “under the radar screen” because they gave $5, $10 or $20--amounts below the mandatory $100 reporting limit and not included in the Times analysis.

Yet he acknowledged that those were dwarfed by the teachers’ largess. And he agreed with colleagues that there is a “predominant belief that organized interests play a heavy part” in the politics of who will run the $6-billion public enterprise.

“Would it be better to have more constituents involved with the public schools? Absolutely. We have scared off the middle class to Agoura.

“Over the last 20 years, they’ve checked out,” he said. “And as they’ve checked out, their checks have checked out. . . . The more people who have abandoned the public schools, the more they have left it to a smaller core of involved people.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Funding the Campaigns

Nearly 62% of itemized campaign donations to Los Angeles Unified School District board members in the last three years came from employees on the district’s payroll or their unions. Here are taillies reported by the campaigns of individual contributions from Jan. 1, 1995, through Dec. 31, 1997. Contributions of $99 or less do not have to be listed on public campaign reports and most were not included in the category “Itemized Total.” The totals in The Times’ analysis, therefore, may be less than reported by board members on campaign forms.

Barbara Boudreaux

District 1: Crenshaw, South-Central L.A.

Itemized Total: $21,913

Number of Donors: 61

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 13 for $1,688

Top 2 Contributors: $5,000 from Service Employees International Union representing classified employees. $2,900 from L.A. Unified Police Officers Assn.

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources: 56%

Victoria M. Castro

District 2: Boyle Heights, Vernon, Maywood, Bell, Huntington Park, Cudahy, South Gate

Itemized Total: $51,414

Number of Donors: 203

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 110 for $18,190

Top 2 Contributors: $5,000 from Associated Administrators-Los Angeles; $2,500 from O’Melveny & Myers law firm

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources: 57%

Jeff Horton

District 3: West Hollywood and portions of North Hollywood

Itemized Total: $122,107

Number of Donors: 389

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 79 for $10,188

Top 2 Contributors: $15,200 from Service Employees International Union representing classified workers: $10,000 from L.A. Unified Police Officers Assn.

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources: 35%

Valerie Fields

District 4: Western San Fernando Valley

Itemized Total: $208,948

Number of Donors: 547

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 14 for $2,049

Top 2 Contributors: $55,000 from United Teachers-Los Angeles; $5,000 from California Teachers Assn.

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources: 32%

David Tokofsky

District 5: Eastern San Fernando Valley, Pacomia, San Fernando, Eagle Rock, Northeast Los Angeles

Itemized Total: $214,230

Number of Donors: 241

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 101 for $16,526

Top 2 Contributors: $145,669 from United Teachers-Los Angeles; $10,000 from California Teachers Assn.

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources:

Julie Korenstein

District 6: Central San Fernando Valley, Sunland, Tujunga, Reseda

Itemized Total: $66,960

Number of Donors: 52

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 21 for $2,759

Top 2 Contributors: $50,000 from United Teachers-Los Angeles; $5,000 from California Teachers Assn.

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources: 93%

George Kiriyama

District 7: Gardena, Carson, Lomita, San Pedro, portions of South-Central Los Angeles

Itemized Total: $73,099

Number of Donors: 372

Number of Donors Working for L.A. Unified: 243 for $38,485

Top 2 Contributors: $10,000 from Service Employees International Union representing classified workers; $2,500 from Associated Administrators-Los Angeles

Itemized Donations From L.A. Unified Related Sources:

Employee, Union Contributions

A breakdown of the donations shows the extent of giving by unions and district employees.

* Donations to Board Members

Money: $690,474

Services and materials: $66,223

* Major Contributions Came From:

Teacher’s groups: $273,405

Individuals working for L.A. Unified: $89,885

Other L.A. Unified employee groups: $54,500

Administrator groups: $21,400

Top Donors to the School Races