ARCHITECT FILES SUIT VS. SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

A local architect has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Palmdale School District, claiming it discriminated against him in negotiating and awarding contracts because he is African-American.

The suit by Emmanuel Ikharebha also claims the district has exhibited a pattern of harassment and retaliation against African-Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech.

``They have a total disregard for the law,'' said Ikharebha, who has criticized the district over its Head Start program. ``Look at how I'm treated. I'm discriminated against, and they went back and tried to defame me as well because I exercised my First Amendment rights.''

The suit was filed Dec. 21 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against the district, Superintendent Nancy Smith and board member Larry Logsdon. The suit also accuses the Antelope Valley Press of defamation for running an Oct. 17 story that contained statements by Smith and Logsdon that Ikharebha considers false and libelous.

Ikharebha said he submitted a $8,500 bid in October 1997 to provide architectural services for the installation of two portable buildings at a Lancaster church that would house a Head Start preschool program.

District officials said they were changing the scope of the project, which resulted in Ikharebha submitting a revised bid of about $19,000, the lawsuit said. The contract was subsequently awarded to PSWC Group, which submitted a $14,585 bid.

The Head Start project was completed in November 1998, and Ikharebha discovered the district had not changed the scope of the project, the lawsuit said.

``Plaintiff believes that (the district) told him that they changed the scope of the project so he would submit a higher bid . . . and that then (the district) awarded the contract to a non-black contractor because it was the intent of (the district) to discriminate against plaintiff in the making of contracts due to his race, African,'' the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also charges that Ikharebha was given bid documents by the district that were different from those given to non-black architects.

Smith said Ikharebha and PSWC Group were each asked to submit a revised bid, and that PSWC Group's cost estimate came in lower.

``It had nothing to do with race. He was not the most qualified person at the best price,'' Smith said. ``He was never the lowest bidder.''

Smith added that every firm is getting the same contract documents. ``Everyone is getting the same thing. It did change at some point in time, and since then everybody has gotten them,'' she said.

As for the claim that she made defamatory statements about Ikharebha, Smith said, ``Everything that I said was true. I'll stand by it.''

Ikharebha demanded a retraction from the newspaper regarding the article. City Editor Dennis Anderson responded in a letter, ``Various of the statements made in the Valley Press attributed to either Trustee Larry Logsdon or Superintendent Nancy Smith certainly are statements that they made, and thus are not subject to correction or retraction,'' court records show.

The lawsuit said Ikharebha is a member of the Antelope Valley Coalition for Empowering Consumers, and on Sept. 1, presented the board with a list of concerns focusing on the district's management, personnel, financial and human relations practices of the district.

Smith and Logsdon engaged ``in a course of conduct which included subjecting plaintiff to disparate treatment and differential treatment because of plaintiff's race and in retaliation for plaintiff's complaints of defendants' discriminatory treatment of plaintiff and other black people,'' the lawsuit said.

``Smith and Logsdon defamed him because they wanted to stop plaintiff from speaking about concerns focusing on management, personnel, financial and human relations practices of the Palmdale School District,'' the lawsuit said.