ARMY MAY SETTLE BELMONT'S FATE.

Byline: Greg Gittrich Staff Writer

Los Angeles Unified's top two administrators said Wednesday they want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the environmentally troubled Belmont Learning Center and guide the district to a final decision on whether the nation's costliest high school should be completed.

Chief Operating Officer Howard Miller said he and incoming Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines will recommend at next week's school board meeting that the Army conduct a six-week fact-finding mission on scandal-tainted Belmont, the nation's costliest school project.

Responding to the Daily News' disclosure that U.S. Army Secretary Louis Caldera had been a big backer of Belmont, Miller said he was not worried about a potential conflict of interest because the federal officer had no influence in the decision.

Along with supporting Belmont while he was a state legislator serving the downtown area, Caldera also was once employed by O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm the district is suing for its handling of key matters related to the project. The federal appointee could not be reached for comment.

After the Monday announcement the agency will manage the district's billion-dollar school building program, Miller had denied he and Cortines wanted to use the Army at Belmont. On Wednesday he said the decision wasn't made until that day, and he argued the Army's expertise is needed to give the board all the facts before it votes on the fate of Belmont.

``We want to engage the Army Corps of Engineers to gather information we need to manage the decision process, so we finally all have the same information to make a decision,'' Miller said, announcing the planned action at a special public meeting in Belmont's attendance area.

If approved by the school board, the Army will be asked to determine how much it would cost to complete the school and whether state funding would be available. The corps also would have the task of determining how long it would take to finish the school, and it would investigate alternative sites for high schools in the attendance area.

Miller said the added time would allow the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to give the district more detailed information on environmental hazards at the school, which is located atop an oil field seeping potentially deadly and explosive gases.

Miller added an advisory committee of students, teachers, parents and administrators will be formed to guide the board's final decision, which most likely would come in February.

Standing before more than 200 students in the library of Belmont High School, Cortines said his previous endorsements to finish Belmont were largely based upon emotion and that more fact-gathering is needed.

Board President Genethia Hayes endorsed the administrators' plan and changed her previous position on Belmont, saying the amount of money it will take to build the school safely is no longer an issue.

``I have not made up my mind,'' Hayes said, after listening to students plead for the completion of the school. ``My only issue is safety. It is not about money for me.

``I know that is a danger, to rush. We need to have all the information.''

Board member Victoria Castro, an ardent Belmont supporter, said she will be courteous and allow the Army to conduct its review but Belmont must be completed regardless.

``There is no doubt in my mind this school has to be built,'' Castro said, wiping tears away from her eyes. ``We must build this.''

The district has sunk $170 million into Belmont, but it called off all new construction and padlocked the property last month.

On Monday, Miller and Cortines broached the subject of state aid during a private meeting with Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa but came away without a definite answer.

The citizens commission that reviewed the public works project determined it would take $112 million to complete the campus and concluded the school could not open for five to eight years.

Critics of Belmont lined up Wednesday night to denounce Miller and Cortines' plan to involve the Army at Belmont, focusing on the secretary's past involvement in the project.

The critics charged that the engineering corps is in no position to do an impartial study of Belmont since the Secretary of the Army is a Belmont supporter who once worked for a law firm involved in the project.

``The Army Corps cannot be considered an independent analyst because of the conflict of interest that exists at the top,'' said state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles. ``No study should begin under the shadow of suspicion.''

Hayden worried that the move was really an effort to pry loose new state funding for Belmont by convincing state lawmakers the project was in capable hands.

``There does seem to be an orchestrated campaign under way to save Belmont, and it's about profits and reputations,'' he said.

The potential conflict of interest involving Caldera also troubled Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, who chairs a state commission that funds school construction.

While the Army may be able to help the district build schools, Wildman said the Army should not work on Belmont. He argued that the district should kill Belmont now rather than search for new ways to save it.

``We need to get rid of the district's obsession with this compromised project,'' he said.

Many of the topics Miller now wants the Army to address were already covered by the commission that voted 4-3 to finish the school but its decision was clouded by the opposition of its nonvoting head, former District Attorney Ira Reiner.

But commission member and former state Sen. Charles Calderon said there was still room for another study to determine costs and a timetable.

``They're moving targets, difficult to pin down, because you have to make a lot of assumptions about, for instance, the value of the land if you could sell it,'' Calderon said.

``If the board feels it needs more information, I'm for whatever it takes to get them that information.''