BIDDER WANTS ANOTHER CHANCE 'FINISH THE DREAM TEAM' WANTS TO COMPLETE BELMONT LEARNING CENTER.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

The bidder disqualified from completing the Belmont Learning Center has made a last-ditch appeal for reconsideration by the Los Angeles Unified School District board, which is expected to revive the project today.

The so-called ``Finish the Dream Team'' - which includes the Eastridge Cos., disqualified by Superintendent Roy Romer because of a perceived conflict of interest - asked that its bid to finish the nation's most expensive high school be considered when the board meets at 3 p.m.

``We don't believe any of the teams should be disqualified. You could make out the appearance of conflicts of interest for any of the teams where there aren't necessarily any real conflicts,'' said Charles Robinson, vice president of LFR Levine-Fricke, who helped draft the team's Belmont bid. ``The proposals should stand for themselves.''

Eastridge's bid was thrown out last month after Romer determined that one of its employees had access to confidential information on Belmont while working for the district under a separate contract. But Robinson said Romer's decision was arbitrary and the company didn't have access to any inside information.

A majority of the board - board President Caprice Young and members Marlene Canter, Jose Huizar and Mike Lansing - is expected to vote today to proceed with negotiations to complete the Belmont Learning Center atop a former oil field in downtown Los Angeles.

Genethia Hudley-Hayes, Julie Korenstein and David Tokofsky have been historically opposed to the project.

Four votes are needed to move the plan forward.

The vote comes after weeks of lobbying from political and civic leaders. On Monday, Mayor James Hahn urged the district to approve completion of the star-crossed school. Even the Sierra Club said it supports completion of the school, ``provided the pollution at the site can be safely and adequately mitigated.''

Of the three bids submitted to the district, the proposal drafted by the team known as the Alliance for a Better Community got the blessings of Romer and the hand-picked panel of experts he hired to help him assess the bids.

Romer said the proposal promoted by a team led by Komex H20 Science included unnecessary environmental testing and drilling to mitigate contamination on the site.

And he disqualified the Finish the Dream team after learning that an Eastridge employee also was working for the LAUSD's real estate division, where a division manager reported that he had greater access to the department's decision-making processes and was asking a lot of questions about Belmont.

District officials have since said there was no actual conflict of interest involving the Eastridge team.

In recent weeks, the losing bidders have raised questions about the contracting process, claiming it was eroded as the district courted the Alliance team.

Komex executives noted, for instance, that the Alliance was allowed to drop a provision that would allow Edison Schools, a controversial private school management company, to operate the new campus.

Others said none of the bidders was entirely independent of the school district. Komex continues to do environmental consulting work on a new school construction project. And the Alliance team has the financial backing of billionaire Eli Broad, who sat on the superintendent search committee that recruited Romer, a former Colorado governor, to the LAUSD.

``What distinguishes the ABC team from the other two teams is that ABC has a Teflon coating consisting of well-connected political players,'' said David Koff, a senior research analyst with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, who led the fight two years ago to stop construction of Belmont.

Alliance leaders stand by their proposal, maintaining that they had the best plan and have the best team for the job. And district officials, as well as members of the expert panel, say there's little chance of reconsidering the Eastridge bid.

``This happens every single time there's a major bidding process,'' said school board President Caprice Young. ``It consistently happens in the city of Los Angeles. It consistently happens in the MTA. It happens whenever one of the bidders doesn't win. It's totally part of the political process, and it's wrong.''