Ex-Head of School Board to Oversee Facilities

The Los Angeles Board of Education appointed a former board president Tuesday to oversee plans for 100 new schools and restructure the district’s disjointed facilities operations.

Bypassing a formal selection process, the board reached back into its own history to name real estate lawyer and developer Howard B. Miller to the hastily crafted position of facilities reform executive.

Miller was a board member from 1976 to 1979 and was president when recalled in the voter backlash against the use of forced busing to integrate schools.

Miller will be paid up to $25,000 for one month to evaluate the district’s construction and maintenance functions, which are scattered among several divisions, and recommend how to bring them all under one line of authority.

He would then head the newly constituted division for a year, reporting directly to the board rather than to Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

The absence of clear responsibility was cited by district auditor Don Mullinax as a primary cause of the management breakdowns behind the environmentally plagued Belmont Learning Complex. Mullinax said everyone who should have been responsible claimed to have been only a coordinator.

“What’s been lacking in the district is someone who had authority, responsibility and accountability all together,” Miller said.

The appointment, however, sharply divided the board for the first time since a new majority took office in July.

In the 4-3 vote, new board member Mike Lansing split from the other three board members who had been backed by Mayor Richard Riordan in the spring elections.

Lansing said he supported the concept of a facilities executive, but thought the job was not sufficiently defined.

Veteran board members Victoria Castro and Julie Korenstein said they opposed the board’s rush to make a major management change without consulting the superintendent or going through the usual process of advertising high-level positions and consulting executive procurement services.

“I’m shocked,” Korenstein said.

Asked by board President Genethia Hayes for his opinion, Zacarias said that he had only seen the proposal on Tuesday, but supported the concept. He added that he agreed with Lansing that the job was poorly defined.

Backers said they were able to commit to Miller because of their knowledge of his integrity and skill.

They argued that it was necessary to act swiftly to prove to the public and the Legislature that the district is correcting its management problems.

The Belmont fiasco and other real estate blunders have eroded confidence in the district’s ability to construct schools, just as it is caught in a race to find land and draw up plans for 100 new schools before state bond funds run dry next July.

Board member David Tokofsky, who put Miller’s name into the running, said Miller has been his mentor for years and was the person he sought out for advice when he ran for the board in 1995.

The citizen committee that oversees use of the district’s $2.4 billion in local bond funds also endorsed him.

Miller is an affiliate with U.S. Managers Realty and Brickstone properties. He said he has built residential and commercial developments in Boston, Philadelphia and Atlanta, but not in Los Angeles.

He also is in private practice in real estate litigation and co-founded the USC Law Center Financial Services Institute.