A Watchdog Needs Fangs

Los Angeles school board President Genethia Hayes says flatly, “There is no move in this district or on this board to limit our inspector general’s authority to do the investigative work that his charter calls for, including his subpoena powers.” For a while, however, things were heading in another direction.

If there is one post in the Los Angeles Unified School District that should have untouchable authority, it should be that of inspector general, but a memo written last week by the district’s new government affairs director, Fabian Nunez, actually recommended changes that would have revoked some powers of the chief investigator. The proposals included barring him from initiating investigations without board approval, requiring him to release reports through the board or superintendent and keeping all parts of investigations confidential. Nunez was reacting, as strange as it might seem, to pending state legislation, SB 1360, sponsored by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), that would actually extend the inspector general’s authority to subpoena witnesses and documents until 2005.

The school district’s inspector general, Don Mullinax, responded scathingly to the Nunez memo, charging that the proposed changes could be perceived as an attempt to muzzle the chief investigator. The two have since talked, and Nunez has softened his report.

That report is scheduled to be presented today to the school board. However, Hayes has rightly asked that the item be removed from the agenda: The board should first learn why any changes are needed in the inspector general’s job.

As the Belmont Learning Complex project proves, the district needs a pit bull IG to get to the truth in an arena where numbers change, the staff stalls and questions go unanswered. Mullinax, the district’s first inspector general, cut his teeth on the Belmont fiasco. He ferreted out the denials, delays and defense of the indefensible that led to the $175-million mistake. The board has since halted construction on the campus, which was being built on an abandoned oil field that turned out to be contaminated with potentially explosive gas and other toxic chemicals.

While finding waste and fraud is one of the roles of the inspector general, the chief investigator also conducts management audits, identifies what is being done wrong and recommends fixes. There is plenty that still needs fixing in the LAUSD. Sacramento is watching. So are parents and other taxpayers and voters. It would be hard to find a more politically tone-deaf symbol than an attempt to weaken the inspector general.