CHICK DEMANDS RECORDS FROM EARLIER AUDITS CONTROLLER ASKS IF DISTRICT ACTED ON PAST SUGGESTIONS.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

Stepping up her campaign to audit the Los Angeles Unified School District, City Controller Laura Chick filed a public records request Tuesday with the school district, seeking audits, reports and studies for the past five years.

In a letter to district Superintendent Roy Romer, Chick also demanded to know what steps the nation's second-largest school district has taken to implement any audit recommendations.

``I am extremely serious in my efforts to obtain a clear picture of what is happening in our school district,'' Chick said. ``LAUSD officials have publicly stated that my independent audit is not needed, that they have been audited enough.

``So I am making a Public Records Act request to not only obtain the various audits and reports, but to see what actions have been taken to implement the various recommendations.''

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pushing to reform Los Angeles' public schools, Chick offered earlier this month to oversee a planned audit of the district's administrative operations.

Romer could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But last week, he said he opposed inviting Chick to audit the district - at an estimated cost of $800,000 - noting that he objected as much to the way Chick was demanding the audit as to the need for it.

Chick, a Villaraigosa ally, has no authority to audit any LAUSD operations and must be asked to conduct such a review.

Some school officials have questioned whether Chick's audit is needed because several audits already have been conducted and others are planned.

The district is about to engage in separate audits regarding its administration as part of an agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles and has planned a separate audit to be performed by the firm of KPMG.

Chick has said she wants to conduct her own review to provide an independent report to the public on how the district is operating.

In her request to Romer, Chick said she was particularly interested in audits that have been done by the U.S. Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, state Department of Education, state Controller's Office, Bureau of State Audits, county Office of Education, Scholastic Audit Intervention Teams, Bond Oversight Committee and Office of Inspector General.

School board member David Tokofsky said he welcomes Chick's request and believes she should review reports even older than five years.

``What she will be doing is ignoring perhaps the biggest decision of the school district - Belmont High School,'' Tokofsky said. ``If you want to look into the problems of the district, you have to start there.''

Tokofsky, who chairs the school board's audit committee, said he earlier had offered to provide Chick the information she is now seeking.

``I had all the people who know about these things in my office and I was talking to her on the phone,'' Tokofsky said. ``I told her we could tell her anything she wanted to know before she made a decision to make an audit. She said she didn't want to hear any of that.''

Chick said she didn't recall such an offer from Tokofsky, but welcomes any information he or the district can provide.

Rick Orlov, [phone]

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com