Plumber’s Ties to O.C. Schools Are Questioned

A major contractor for the Capistrano Unified School District has employed relatives of at least five district employees, including the son of the superintendent and the wife of a top administrator, raising questions in a district already being audited for construction spending.

Montano Plumbing Co., which has an exclusive contract to handle the district’s plumbing, has been paid more than $1 million annually in recent years, and a total of $8.5 million over the last 24 years.

The company’s bookkeeper, Sherry Bauer, is the wife of Mark Bauer, the district’s director of construction, and one of its summer workers was Sean Fleming, the son of Supt. James A. Fleming.

Gil Montano Jr., owner of the Capistrano Beach plumbing company, said that although both Bauer and Fleming were recommended to him by district officials, he never felt pressure to hire them. “Even though it may create the appearance of a conflict [of interest], there is, in fact, no conflict,” he said. “I’ve run a tight ship, just in case one of these days comes along. I feel confident my little company is doing everything correctly.”

But one government watchdog organization called the hirings questionable.

“It’s not illegal, but it certainly seems unethical, [and] it looks terrible,” said Robert M. Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization in Los Angeles. “It really looks like there is a quid pro quo even if there isn’t.”

The revelations are the latest in a string of controversies at the 50,000-student Orange County district, including a failed attempt to recall the district’s seven trustees, accusations of fiscal mismanagement and allegations that the superintendent maintained an enemies list of teachers, parents and others who received pro-recall e-mails. Fleming denies the existence of such a list.

The Mission Viejo City Council has hired auditors to look into the district’s construction funds. The audit was triggered in May after the council learned that the district’s new $35-million administration center was being partly paid for with Mello-Roos fees paid by homeowners.

District spokeswoman Beverly de Nicola noted that as the largest employer in southern Orange County, the district is bound to have situations in which employees’ relatives are employed by a company that contracts with the district.

“Our school district employs 6,000 people. It’s hard within our community not to have relationships with populations in various ways,” she said.

Montano said that his company had done work for the district since 1982, and became its exclusive plumbing contractor about 12 years ago.

Nearly a decade ago, Montano said he talked about being overrun with paperwork to Mark Bauer, who was the district’s manager of construction at the time and is now director of construction. Bauer suggested the company hire his wife, Sherry, who had bookkeeping experience, Bauer and Montano said.

“He needed somebody to straighten out his books,” Mark Bauer said. I thought it “would be a one- or two-day thing. I suggested he talk to her. I had no idea that it was going to be a job.”

Bauer said he checked with Deputy Supt. Daniel J. Crawford to make sure it was OK. “I went to him first and said, ‘Gil needed somebody on a temporary basis to straighten out his books for just a few days. Would it be a conflict of interest for my wife to do that?’ ” He said no, he didn’t think it would be,” Bauer said.

Attempts to reach Crawford and Sherry Bauer were unsuccessful. Among her duties is to prepare bills to the district, which Montano then signs.

Terry Fluent, the district’s director of purchasing, said checks and balances ensure that no one person has control over the spending of construction funds. Work request forms are typically signed by seven or eight people, Fluent said, and the final work order that is sent to a vendor is signed by herself.

Before payments are made, they are reviewed by the Orange County Department of Education. And the district’s construction spending is audited by an outside firm.

Fluent said she was unaware that Bauer’s wife worked for Montano, but was not concerned because of the fail-safes in place.

De Nicola said that the district solicited bids for its plumbing contract, and Montano had come back with the lowest prices in the last three bidding rounds. Bids are put out for one year, with four possible renewals.

Montano also hired Sean Fleming to work as a laborer for the summers of 2003 and 2005. James Fleming said that his son wanted to work in construction but didn’t know anyone in the field, so the superintendent asked Crawford to compile a list of local companies.

“I didn’t ask Dan for a list of [district] vendors. I said, ‘Dan, do you know of anybody in the construction area where Sean might go and inquire about a position?’ Dan gave him some telephone numbers. He called Montano, [who] needed a laborer. He hired him as a laborer.”

Attempts to reach Fleming, 23, were unsuccessful.