One Last, Tough Eye on Belmont

A fresh look at the Belmont Learning Complex fiasco by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office should do more than determine whether laws were broken. A tough and thorough investigation by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley could also reassure all who might live nearby, or eventually go to school or work there, that public health and public millions will be protected.

So much went so wrong during the planning and construction of the unfinished campus, which is in the crowded Temple-Beaudry area just west of the Civic Center. The high school was built on an abandoned oil field without a full environmental review or safeguards needed to protect students and staff from toxins and potentially explosive methane gas. While the lawyers and consultants who advised the school district got rich, $175 million was squandered on a campus that may never open as a school.

Cooley could have walked away from this scandal; his predecessor had already taken a pass. Instead, he has set up a new task force, which shrewdly includes the Los Angeles Unified School District’s inspector general and chief watchdog, Don Mullinax. The task force will investigate possible environmental crimes and give the project one last look. Investigators will also decide whether contractors, accustomed to feeding at the public trough, overbilled the school district. The district attorney’s office has the subpoena powers needed to compel witnesses and to look at bank records. Cooley has set a deadline of four months for the investigation. Good. There is no need to drag out a task that should have been long completed.

The fate of the campus remains uncertain, although Mayor Richard Riordan told the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion this week that the project will be completed. The mayor’s office says he favors a school or business. Supt. Roy Romer wants it to open as a school, and private companies are expected to propose new environmental solutions. Such goals will not be easily or cheaply reached.

The Belmont Learning Complex should be filled today with students. That it is not is a crime, and reason enough for the district attorney to investigate.