School Board President Hayes Endorses Groveman for D.A.

Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Genethia Hayes took the unusual step Wednesday of endorsing challenger Barry C. Groveman for Los Angeles County district attorney, attacking incumbent Gil Garcetti for not investigating allegations of criminality in the controversial Belmont Learning Complex project.

Calling Garcetti a “do-nothing D.A.,” Hayes said she will back Groveman--who played a key role in the replacement of Supt. Ruben Zacarias--because she believes he will work closely with the school board to combat school violence. Characterizing Garcetti as “a supposed D.A.,” Hayes said the incumbent ignored her request for a meeting to discuss school violence problems.

“I personally placed a call to the D.A. to discuss school violence, and have not had the call returned,” Hayes told reporters in a news conference with Groveman in front of Marshall High School.

According to Hayes, the long-delayed, $200-million project to build a new campus for Belmont High School should have been investigated by Garcetti for possible violations of law. “Mr. Garcetti should have investigated without being asked. That’s his job,” she said.

Groveman and prosecutor Steve Cooley are challenging Garcetti in the March 7 primary election.

Garcetti declined to respond to Hayes and Groveman, but his campaign spokesman, Bill Carrick, said Garcetti has no record of Hayes’ phone call.

Carrick also pointed out that Garcetti is endorsed by numerous California members of Congress, state legislators, a majority of Los Angeles County supervisors and City Council members and dozens of mayors in the county.

Cooley called the Hayes endorsement “predictable” due to “the incestuousness of school board politics.”

Groveman, an environmental defense lawyer who also has been a paid legal advisor to the school district for 10 years, leads a Los Angeles Unified task force investigating toxic hazards at school sites. As head of that group, Groveman pushed the school board to bring in former board member Howard Miller as chief executive, beginning the chain of events leading to the replacement of Zacarias.

Groveman said that if elected, he would require all minors caught with guns at school to be detained in juvenile hall until released by a judge. He would do so by asking local police and the county probation department to sign a memorandum of understanding with the district attorney establishing a mandatory detention procedure. Currently, Groveman said, most students caught with guns on campus are sent home on probation.

Groveman would also assign specific prosecutors to handle school crimes, and would create a county school safety task force with police agencies and school district officials.

The call for a crackdown on guns comes after years of declining firearms seizures at Los Angeles Unified campuses, according to district figures. In the 1998-99 school year, 45 guns were taken by school officials, compared with 120 guns confiscated in the 1988-89 school year.

School board member David Tokofsky, who opposed the replacement of Zacarias, said the focus on school violence by Hayes and Groveman “perpetuates a fear based on something that is not real.”

Tokofsky also questioned Hayes’ assertion that Garcetti did not investigate possible violations of law at Belmont, saying he and other board members would not know about pending criminal investigations.