Facilities Official for L.A. Schools Is Demoted

Los Angeles interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines on Monday demoted the school district official in charge of the massive program to repair and build schools, just days after he fired six members of the private firm assisting on the project.

Cortines is reshuffling the department responsible for overseeing thousands of school repairs funded through the $2.4-billion Proposition BB, as well as the program to build 150 schools.

Cortines said in a memo to school board members that he had decided that the change could not await the districtwide reorganization that he expects to announce in March. Chief Operating Officer Howard Miller “continues to aggressively search for an interim or permanent head of facilities with the skills and competency needed at this time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cortines removed Lynn Roberts after seven months as facilities chief and put her back in charge of school maintenance and operations. Roberts had been outspoken about difficulties in the working relationship between the district and its outside program manager, 3D/I-O’Brien Kreitzberg.

On Friday, Cortines ordered 3D/I-O’Brien Kreitzberg to remove six of its own staff from the program, including manager Rob Robinson. In firing Robinson, Cortines cited a threat that he allegedly made against Roberts to another district employee last December, on the same day she said publicly that she had concerns about the firm’s performance and cost.

Roberts told The Times last week that there is “a real struggle over who is running the [Proposition BB] project. Is it the program manager or is it the district staff?”

However, district officials insisted Monday that there was no connection between the removal of Roberts and the 3D/I-O’Brien Kreitzberg managers.

In his memo Monday, Cortines emphasized “the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors working on our projects. This is not about control, but about making the best decisions and using the money wisely on behalf of our schoolchildren.”

Miller said the reorganization has been in the works for some time. “It is a make-over of facilities, with the goal of having the best people in the most vital jobs to get this job done efficiently,” Miller said. “We really want to end the infighting and have everyone work together as a team.”

Cortines assigned responsibility for new school facilities to Kathi Littman, who joined the district staff recently. A veteran district official, Julie Crum, was directed to head a unit overseeing existing school facilities.

Cortines ordered that all financial operations involving school facilities be placed under the district’s new chief financial officer, Joe Zeronian.

O’Brien Kreitzberg President Alan Krusi said he intended to meet with Cortines on Monday evening to ask him to rescind the order that six of his team be fired, a move that he contended was based on erroneous information.

“It could seriously set back the program,” Krusi said.

He added that the reduction in program management staff appeared to counter the concept of private sector management of Proposition BB spending.

“Our role is to provide checks and balances in the implementation of the bond program,” Krusi said.

Cortines declined Monday to elaborate on his memo to the board, which listed five examples of problems in the school repair program that he concluded demanded “immediate change.”

He cited communication breakdowns that kept 26 elementary schools waiting for portable classrooms and resulted in interior painting at Hollywood High School being done before roof repairs were completed. He cited poor work at Washington High School that caused “paint on the floor that resembles a kindergarten classroom.”

The changes come at a critical time for the district, which is struggling to overcome environmental fiascoes that forced it to abandon the Belmont and South Gate high school projects. It also is trying to jump-start a construction program that would add 120,000 classroom seats in the next six years.

Unable to find the large parcels required for high schools, Miller has launched a plan to build 150 primary centers for kindergarten through third grade. Existing elementary schools would be converted to grades four through eight and middle schools would be converted to senior high schools.

Steven Soboroff, chairman of the citizens committee that oversees Proposition BB spending, said he spoke with Cortines about the changes in the district’s management and supports them.

“I encourage this rearranging of the deck chairs,” Soboroff said. “I don’t think this is the final answer. It is an acknowledgment that it is the bureaucracy that is failing.”

Soboroff, a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, maintained that Cortines was wrong to fire the 3D/I-O’Brien Kreitzberg manager and repeated his mantra that the private sector is key to completing school repair and construction projects. “This bureaucracy is too big and too burdensome and doesn’t know how to handle the magnitude of work,” he said.

Some district officials said they were surprised by the back-to-back shake-ups and were uncertain what they signaled.

“I don’t know who sits down next to me,” said Board of Education member David Tokofsky, who heads the board’s facilities committee. “Rob Robinson is now gone. Lynn Roberts is now gone. Maybe Howard Miller is going to come to a facilities committee meeting.”

The ambitious effort to implement the Proposition BB repairs has been marked by constant tension between the district and its critics on the oversight committee who want to maximize the role of the private sector.

Concerns about the amount of management fees paid to 3D/I-O’Brien Kreitzberg and the 10 project managers that report to it led Miller in December to ask for an investigation. The board authorized chief investigator Don Mullinax to look into whether the program and project managers have been overcharging for their services and have engaged in overstaffing.