BUILD BELMONT WITHOUT BB BOND FUNDS, PANEL SAYS.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

A citizens panel recommended late Monday that the Los Angeles school board not use voter-approved Proposition BB to finance construction of the controversial Belmont Learning Complex.

The Board of Education will make its decision Monday, but the 9-1 vote by the Blue Ribbon Citizens Oversight Committee could force the district to delay - or abandon - the $87 million project downtown that some have dubbed the ``Taj Mahal'' of high schools.

However, the committee overseeing spending of the $2.4 billion bond left open the possibility of reconsidering its decision if the board gets a guarantee of matching funds from the State Allocations Board.

The state board will consider the issue June 25.

``At this time, BB funding for the project is not appropriate until we know more about the SAB's opinions,'' said David Barulich, a committee member representing the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Without state relief, the committee's decision could force the board to draw against the L.A. Unified School District's general fund to proceed with Belmont.

``It wasn't what we had hoped for or expected,'' Rich Mason, general counsel for the district, said of the committee vote. ``We'll review it with the Board of Education.

``We're grateful that the committee has not precluded (reconsideration) but disappointed that they have not authorized a portion of BB money'' for the project, he said.

Said Steve Soboroff, chairman of the oversight committee: ``One of my chief goals in this BB process is a sense of value for the taxpayers. What we chose tonight is to wait and see if we get state moneys, (and) not jamming a whole bunch of BB money in one area.''

Voters approved Proposition BB in November to repair and renovate badly deteriorating schools.

Public outrage over the Belmont project erupted in late April when the school board announced it intended to use $43.5 million of the bond money for the $87 million Belmont contract - without a recommendation from the oversight committee.

The board's action prompted a lawsuit, and a judge barred the district from proceeding until the committee's review. Mason said he will seek to have the injunction lifted today.

The 11-person committee's vice chairman, Timothy Lynch, a deputy city controller, cast the sole dissenting vote. A representative for committee member Richard Slawson, who was absent, abstained from voting.

``At this time, the committee recommends that the Board of Education use COP (certificates of participation) funds for the Belmont Learning Complex and to diligently pursue SAB funds for the project,'' the resolution states.

``However, at the future request of the Board of Education, the committee is willing to reconsider the approval of BB funds for the project if the facts and circumstances merit a review.''

Some fear that the district will not get a matching allocation of state funds for Belmont because the project was not competitively bid.

Lyle Smoot, assistant executive officer with the board, told the panel in a conference call preceding the vote that a key lawmaker on the board, state Sen. Leroy Greene, D-Sacramento, remains undecided about what the state's role should be.

``I would not go as far as to say that the senator is 100 percent into the project,'' Smoot warned.

If it is built, the Belmont project - which would include a mix of retail space, low-income housing and public recreational facilities - would prove the costliest school in the state.