Panel Urges Tighter Review for Small School Repair Contracts

The committee overseeing the Los Angeles Unified School District’s use of a $2.4-billion school bond recommended Wednesday that high-level officials review all contracts that do not require full competitive bidding.

Members of the oversight committee--responding to a district attorney’s investigation into school district contracting practices--said they think the use of small contracts that can be awarded with only informal bidding is valuable in speeding up more than a billion dollars in repairs being done with Proposition BB funds.

However, in an 8-1 vote with one abstention, they said those contracts, typically below $15,000, should be reviewed by the program manager hired by the district to conduct the Proposition BB contracting.

The resolution concerns the practice of breaking large jobs--such as painting a school--into small jobs, typically below $15,000, the threshold at which more demanding bidding requirements kick in.

A Times computer analysis of the district’s contracting records found that more than 20 companies had received two to more than 10 contracts on the same campus. Under district practices then in effect, dozens of batches of these contracts were awarded by low-level employees on the basis of telephone bids.

District officials said that it would be illegal to split a large job into small pieces to avoid formal bidding, but that a job spread across a school campus could be bid building by building.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office has confirmed the existence of an investigation, but did not disclose who was its subject or what precipitated it.

The bond committee resolution, which is only advisory, must still be endorsed by the Board of Education.

School Board President Julie Korenstein, who attended the oversight committee meeting, said she had no complaint with the action and would present it to the board as soon as possible.

“I’m in perfect agreement with the recommendation of the committee,” Korenstein said. “I want safeguards and safeguards and safeguards.”

In the wake of concerns over its procedures, the district now requires any such contracts, called A Letters and B Letters, to be approved by Beth Louargand, general manager of the Facilities Services Division.

Oversight committee member Clifford Mansfield, a representative of the PTA, dissented, saying he doubted that the program manager, who was hired by the district, would be able to make an independent decision.

David Barulich, representing the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., abstained. Barulich said he thought that the review of contracts by Louargand would be sufficient.

Also on Wednesday, the Proposition BB oversight committee adopted a resolution recommending that the board direct the program manager and district staff to devise a safety mechanism so that window security grilles can be opened in an emergency, providing an extra exit from classrooms.

In response to complaints about the possibility of students being trapped in classrooms with only one door, Korenstein on Tuesday instituted a moratorium on the installation of security grilles.

Korenstein also called a March 18 emergency meeting of the school board’s safety committee to consider whether to require escape latches on the grilles, which are intended to prevent break-ins.

Korenstein said her primary concern is single-story portable classrooms with only one door.

The California State Architect requires only one exit on classrooms that house fewer than 50 students.

School officials said they do not know exactly how many grilles have been installed with Proposition BB funds on such classrooms.

Altogether, 20,000 grilles have been constructed, and about half of them installed, said Lynn Roberts, director of the district’s Maintenance and Operations Branch.

Roberts told the committee that she had decided to go ahead with the installations because they met state building codes and because many of the bungalows have fixed plastic windows that would prevent escape anyway.