On the Trail of Charter School Funds

The chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has requested a probe into who approved $7,000 in funding to a charter school that is under a state investigation for allegedly misusing public funds, according to a memo obtained by The Times.

Supervisor Dennis Hansberger’s request that county lawyers investigate two previously undisclosed payments over the last two years is the latest development in a growing controversy involving Victorville-based California Charter Academy, the state’s largest charter school operators.

But it seemed the mystery of the funding was solved late Thursday when an aide to Supervisor Bill Postmus revealed that it was Postmus who approved the $7,000 funding to pay for school uniforms for California Charter Academy.

In March, state Supt. of Public Education Jack O’Connell launched an investigation and an audit of California Charter Academy in response to questions about its financing and the management of its satellite schools. The organization serves more than 9,000 students from Butte County to San Diego County. Among other things, the investigation will also look into how much was spent on teachers and administrators.

Despite the investigation, supervisors voted 4 to 1 last month to award the organization a $77,000 contract to provide after-school programs for young adults. One of the instructors at California Charter Academy is former police officer Bill Postmus, father of Supervisor Postmus, who voted for the contract.

After the vote, Hansberger, the only supervisor to oppose the contract, ordered county officials to investigate all other county funding provided to California Charter Academy.

In response, the county counsel’s office issued a memo noting that the county approved a $24,999 contract on Jan. 8, 2003, to have California Charter Academy train young adults to pursue careers in law enforcement. Contracts of $25,000 or less can by approved by county administrators without the consent of the Board of Supervisors.

But on June 17, 2003, the board voted to increase the contract by another $24,999 for a total of $49,998, according to the county counsel’s report.

The $49,998 in federal grant funding was in addition to the $77,000 contract approved by the board last month.

But in a July 1 memo to County Counsel Ronald D. Reitz, Hansberger said a separate search of all county spending through the county’s Financial Accounting System uncovered two other payments to California Charter Academy that the counsel did not include.

In his memo, Hansberger said he found out that the county’s Economic Development Department paid California Charter Academy $2,000 in June 2003 and an additional $5,000 last June.

“I would like all pertinent information including who authorized the payments and for what purpose was the money allocated,” Hansberger said in the memo.

Brad Mitzelfelt, chief of staff for Postmus, said the supervisor approved the two payments to California Charter Academy from a discretionary account controlled by the supervisor. He said the payments were made by the Economic Development Department but the original funding came from a discretionary account that Postmus uses to fund worthy programs and events in his supervisorial district.

Hansberger could not be reached for comment Thursday.