Charges Urged Over Belmont

Venting their rage Monday over the Los Angeles school district’s handling of environmental issues at the Belmont Learning Complex, four state legislators demanded prosecution of those responsible and systemic changes to ensure that a school will never again be built on contaminated land that has not been cleaned up.

“I’m afraid the state was defrauded when it released the funds for Belmont,” said state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) at a news conference Monday at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters. “Those responsible will be held accountable.”

“Heads have to roll,” said state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

He added that “getting rid of a few individuals is not going to solve the problem,” and proposed having state agencies take over the school district’s huge program to build 51 schools in the next 10 years.

“The district should get out of the business of building schools and cleaning up toxic sites entirely,” Hayden said.

Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) announced that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which he heads, will convene hearings in March to question witnesses under oath on the half-finished project on a former oil field near downtown.

Hayden said the criminal investigation should look into a possible cover-up of public information, reprisals against whistle-blowers, conflicts of interest and violations of campaign finance law.

In an analysis sent Friday to the attorney general and Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, Wildman alleged that district officials broke the law by withholding information about environmental problems that would have triggered state scrutiny.

A spokeswoman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said he will have staff attorneys review Wildman’s report, but will follow the normal procedure of leaving criminal matters to the local district attorney. A spokeswoman for Garcetti said she could not comment until the document has been reviewed.

The school district is reeling from last week’s disclosure that district officials pushed ahead with construction of Belmont although they knew five years ago that its environmental problems had not been adequately assessed.

A new team of environmental consultants is now conducting a $700,000 study that probably will determine that millions of dollars worth of remedial work is necessary to make the half-completed school safe. The ambitious $200-million complex, which includes space for a shopping center, sits atop land contaminated with methane and carcinogens such as benzene.

Supt. Ruben Zacarias released a statement Monday afternoon in which he appeared to join the chorus of demands for an accounting of Belmont’s problems. He requested the office of the state auditor to examine the “processes and procedures of the Belmont project so the district never finds itself in a situation similar to the one we are in today.”

Zacarias appealed to the district’s critics to help with the difficult task of selecting school sites in “an urban environment which is often toxic some way or another.”

But Hayden said the district should get out of the business of choosing land for schools. Besides doing a poor job of it, he said, the real estate decisions are distracting officials from their primary mission of educating students.

“Board meetings behind closed doors, mostly preoccupied with real estate, litigation and damage control, have reached unprecedented levels,” he said.

Hayden suggested the state General Services Administration could do a better job.

If the district wishes to avoid such radical change imposed from outside, Hayden said, it must undertake a painful internal reform that would include creating an inspector general, removing environmental review from the real estate branch and a temporary ban of campaign contributions from developers to board members.

School board member David Tokofsky, who attended the news conference, did not endorse any specific proposal, but said he would consider relinquishing power over school construction.

Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh (D-Los Angeles) said he has introduced legislation to make the California Department of Toxic Substances Control responsible for certifying the safety of land purchased for all new schools in the state.