Belmont: Don’t Throw Good Money After Bad

Re “Cleaning Up Belmont Is No Job for the LAUSD,” by Bryan Steele, Commentary, Feb. 18: I have watched in horror as the LAUSD board members started the process again to try to make the Belmont school site usable and perhaps also repair their image as government bureaucratic bunglers. I believe the figure they now put forward is another $80 million to make the school site “safe.” I just wonder what the yearly upkeep of all these remedial environmental systems will be. Undoubtedly in the millions of dollars (above and beyond normal operating costs).

My guess is that the school board members feel that the well of taxpayer money is so bountiful that they can continue to afford to throw good money after bad (this while they complain about how badly underfunded they are). Their arrogance toward the taxpayer is incredible. As Steele pointed out, how long do we think it will take (weeks, months) before the first round of lawsuits is filed on behalf of students claiming to have been injured by some toxic leakage? Will the school board then simply set up a fund for those and all the other lawsuits that will be filed, or will it declare that the “contractor” is at fault and the school site will have to be abandoned anyway?

Is there anyone in government (in Los Angeles) who has anything close to common sense?

Rex Howen

Valley Village