District Insider Is Named Business Czar for L.A. Schools

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias announced his decision Monday to fill the long-vacant position of business czar with a district insider.

In a closed meeting Tuesday, the Board of Education gave its assent to the appointment of district Business Manager David Koch to the position of chief administrative officer, which has been vacant since Jan. 1.

Zacarias also announced that he is forming an advisory counsel of business leaders to assist Koch. Roy Anderson, formerly head of Lockheed Corp., will lead the group.

Koch, 54, has been business manager of the 681,000-student district for 12 years. Before that, he held the same post with the Kansas City school district.

Koch said he plans to launch a comprehensive evaluation of the district’s personnel and business practices and, using a business metaphor, said he will “write off our slow-moving inventory.”

He will earn $139,000 in the new position.

In seeking the superintendent’s job last year, Zacarias pledged to appoint an outsider to shake up the district’s business practices. His first choice, a former executive with Kaiser Permanente, resigned unexpectedly after only two months on the job.

School board member David Tokofsky said he was disappointed that the search to fill the position did not produce another qualified outsider, but that he respected Koch as “the most market-savvy civil servant I’ve seen in the district.”