CONSULTANT BIDS ON BELMONT INSIDE POSITION OPENS QUESTIONS OF CONFLICT.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

A firm that has submitted a bid to complete the Belmont Learning Complex had a $4.3 million real estate consulting contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District even as it was drafting its proposal, the Daily News learned Tuesday.

A key figure with the firm who was co-writing the Belmont proposal was simultaneously working on the consultant contract.

Asked about the potential conflict of interest, some school board members said they would demand a thorough review of the issue.

An administrator in the office of LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer, the driving force behind completing the nation's costliest high school, was asked by the firm to approve its dual role.

Officials said they approved the Eastridge Cos., a Washington, D.C.- based real estate development firm, to continue as a consultant on real estate while bidding on Belmont but made it clear the firm should keep employees from having a dual role to avoid a conflict of interest.

``In the stock market, they call it insider trading,'' said school board member David Tokofsky, who called for a review to determine whether Eastridge had greater access to information relating to Belmont's completion than the two other bidders.

``Being inside the building certainly gives you more access.''

School district staff said they initially saw no conflict in Eastridge's dual relationship as both a consultant for and bidder of LAUSD facilities services.

Eastridge executives said they contacted the school district months ago to confirm there would be no conflict in their submitting a bid while continuing to work as consultants with the district.

``We specifically went to the Superintendent's Office with this,'' said CEO Susan Eastridge.

Anne Valenzuela-Smith, executive administrator in Romer's office, said she told Eastridge she saw no conflict of interest in the dual role.

LAUSD General Counsel Hal Kwalwasser said he requested that Eastridge ensure that employees working on the Belmont bid be kept separate from those on the consulting team.

Facilities staff confirmed that one Eastridge employee who worked on the Belmont bid had been hired as a consultant for the district between June and August 2001 and was assigned to property acquisition and new school construction in the San Fernando Valley.

Eastridge said she pulled the employee off the consulting team to work full time on the ``back end of the Belmont proposal.'' She maintains that neither that employee nor others who work for the school district have access to privileged information of any sort, including Belmont.

``We have a number of employees that work with the school district that are not involved with the effort for Belmont,'' Eastridge said.

Board member Jose Huizar said there are a number of companies who do business with the district; the fact that one sought additional work does not necessarily mean a problem.

``If they were given a preference or if there's favoritism, then that's a problem,'' he said. ``But we haven't seen anything.''

Last week Huizar's office asked the district for a list of all the companies involved in the Belmont bidding process and their previous contract relationships with the LAUSD.

``My office is interested in ensuring a clean and fair process so when we vote on the bids, we vote on the merits and no conflicts of interest will arise,'' he said.