COLLEGES PONDERING BOND SOARING COSTS LEAVE DISTRICT $2 BILLION SHORT.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Community College District needs nearly $2 billion more to complete projects approved under two earlier bond issues and might ask voters to pass a third bond to cover those costs - and possibly an additional $1 billion for other improvements, officials said Tuesday.

Soaring costs fueled by a worldwide construction boom have forced the nine-campus district to put many projects on hold. In addition to the $2 billion needed to complete work approved under the $2.2 billion Proposition A/AA bonds, officials estimate they'd need nearly $1 billion more to wrap up work detailed in the campuses' master plans, and meet newly identified needs.

``We have a number of these projects that are basically sitting on the shelf. If we got more money, we'd just take them off the shelf, blow the dust off and put them on the street,'' said Larry Eisenberg, the district's executive director for facilities management.

LACCD trustees voted last week to pay a consultant $42,750 to survey 1,000 registered voters and gauge support for another bond.

``The board is interested in learning more about the funding gap and understanding community expectations about our building program,'' said Trustee Sylvia Scott-Hayes, president of the board.

Local public policy experts said the success of a third bond measure would depend on timing, the state's economy and how well the district makes its case.

``At some point, the voters are going to say, 'enough is enough,' but if you don't try, you don't get it,'' said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Government Studies in Los Angeles. ``It doesn't hurt them to put it on the ballot. It's just a question of picking their time.''

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior scholar at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development, said voters might be more likely to support another bond if the district can demonstrate that it spent its money wisely. It also should enlist community and business support by stressing both its academic and career training elements, particularly in the training of nurses, Jeffe said.

``Voters like education,'' she said. ``What they don't like is the perception that their funds are not being used and used efficiently.''

Voters approved the $1.2 billion Proposition A bond in April 2001, and the $980 million Proposition AA in May 2003.

To date, the LACCD has spent $363 million of the $2.2 billion, and completed 95 of 457 projects, including the renovation of the art building's gallery ceiling at Valley College and construction of a student store at Pierce College.

The district expects to have 168 projects completed by next March; currently, 122 projects are in the design phase, with 60 more under construction.

At that point, the district estimates it will have spent $1.1 billion, but will need $1.99 billion more to complete 145 remaining projects.

But the district estimates it would cost an additional $586 million to build out 39 projects to complete the campuses' master plans and it has identified 31 new projects, at a cost of $389 million. That sends the total close to $3 billion.

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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Spiraling costs

SOURCE: Pierce, Mission and Los Angeles Valley Colleges 

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist