COLLEGE BONDS 35% SHORT FOR PROJECTS.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

Just two years after Los Angeles community college officials won voter approval of a $1.2 billion bond issue to upgrade facilities, they plan to ask for nearly $1 billion more because they underestimated the cost by one-third or more.

In 2001, supporters of Proposition A assured the public that, as one wrote in a published column, the projects were carefully chosen and the projected costs determined by ``independent construction management, engineering and architecture firms.''

Now officials admit they didn't develop master plans for the projects - including $446 million for Valley, Pierce and Mission colleges in the San Fernando Valley - until after the bond issue passed.

And they missed their cost-estimate mark so badly that Chancellor Mark Drummond, who heads the nine-college system, says the $1.2 billion will pay for only about 65 percent of the promised projects.

``We know what we need,'' he said in an interview last week. ``It's not a rolling crap game. We know. Anybody who wants to - we can sit them down, show them the map and even what the buildings look like. We just don't have the money to build all those buildings.''

Only $136 million of the bond issue money has been spent - almost entirely on planning and design work - and officials said no detailed planning was done until the bond issue passed.

``None of this was due to inappropriate planning,'' said Pierce College President Darroch ``Rocky'' Young. ``It was probably due to lack of planning, but the planning that has now occurred couldn't have occurred without Proposition A. Now we have this accurate picture of what it's going to take to complete these master plans at all these colleges.''

Proposition A added $14.23 per $100,000 assessed valuation to property taxes, or about $43 a year on the average home. District officials plan to place a $980 million bond on the ballot - possibly as early as May. It would add an additional $11.45 per $100,000, or about $34 a year on the average home.

``It is our hope that taxpayers realize what they've already been saddled with from the first bond measure and the fact that this particular bond measure has not been thought out at all,'' said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Taxpayer advocates deride district officials' explanation of the lack of planning and note that bond issues voters have approved in recent years for city, county and school projects have driven the average homeowner's tax bill up by hundreds of dollars annually.

``It seems to me that you want to have a very carefully selected capital-improvement plan before you go before the taxpayers to ask for higher property taxes,'' Coupal said.

That didn't happen when district officials asked voters to approve Proposition A to renovate and modernize colleges that have received little maintenance since the 1960s and improve a system that had been accused of poor management for years.

Land-use plans had been developed for some campuses, such as Pierce College, which was allocated $166 million from Proposition A, but no campus had detailed capital-improvement plans.

Drummond said that, without such critical information, the amount of needed money was vastly underestimated.

``It didn't seem to be a good idea to go forward with a higher number we couldn't, frankly, justify.''

But on April 5, 2001, the Daily News published a pro-Proposition A column by Cathy Maguire, then-chairwoman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, who wrote that projects to be financed by the measure ``were determined through comprehensive faculty, staff and community participation.'' She also wrote, ``Independent construction management, engineering and architecture firms determined the projected costs of the projects.''

When contacted Friday, Maguire declined to comment and referred questions to current VICA chairman Fred Gaines, who said he needed to study the issue before commenting fully.

``In general, we are very supportive of the community colleges and especially rebuilding the facilities at Valley and Pierce, which have deteriorated over time. At the same time, we're concerned about bonded indebtedness. I don't want to say I'm disappointed or there was any kind of misrepresentation'' until VICA officials have studied the proposal.

Drummond blamed the lack of planning on decades of anemic state funding, leaving the district without the means to deal with current crises, much less those in the future.

``The last building that was funded was in 1980. It's been that long since we've had new buildings funded,,'' Drummond said. ``If there are no new buildings being funded by the state, there's no point in spending time and money doing master-planning.''

So far, district officials have committed nearly $136 million of Proposition A funds to master plans, environmental reports, predesign and design studies, reports on earthquake faults and other geotechnical issues, infrastructure surveys, site acquisition, modernization, program management and legal fees.

In the process, campuses have encountered unexpected costs, many due to 30 years of neglect.

The renovation of Pierce College's main parking lot, for example, cost more than anticipated. Once construction began, officials learned that water pipes and the valve system under the asphalt had deteriorated to the point that they had to be replaced, too, Young said.

WHAT WAS PROMISED

Below is a list of Proposition A projects that were planned for the San Fernando Valley's three community colleges and the total amount allotted to each campus. Now those projects are in jeopardy because college leaders vastly underestimated the amount of money needed to do the work.

Mission College - $111 million

--General academic instructional building

--New parking structure

--Health and fitness facilities

--Expansion of student services building

Pierce College - $166 million

--Classroom renovation

--Library renovation

--New science/agriculture/nursing building

--New student store and support services building

--Parking Lot 7

--Swing spaces

--Removal of trailers

--Perimeter fence

--Site documentation and infrastructure study

--Technology center building

Valley College - $165 million

--Remodel gymnasium for disabled students' use

--New library building

--New media arts building

--New allied health sciences building

CAPTION(S):

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WHAT WAS PROMISED (see text)