DISTRICT VOWS BB CLARITY.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Faced with the threat of resignation by a key member of its Proposition BB oversight committee, the Los Angeles Unified School District pledged Wednesday to be more cooperative in providing information on bond issue projects.

David Abel, who is City Controller Rick Tuttle's appointee to the oversight committee, had threatened to recommend to Tuttle that he pull Abel from the committee because the district had provided little information about how the BB funds are being spent.

LAUSD facilities chief Robert Buxbaum told the committee he agrees with the criticism, but said he has been working to straighten out the department since he was hired eight months ago and will start providing more information to the committee soon.

Some information on individual projects is available on the district Web site, he added.

Also, the committee plans to seek funds to have additional staff or consultants who can help members work with the district, and convert raw data into understandable reports. Currently, the committee has one staff member.

Buxbaum's statements were enough for Abel.

``Much progress was made today,'' Abel said after the meeting. ``But we haven't seen the results yet. We just heard there was agreement that we haven't gotten good numbers . . . and our concerns and frustrations were legitimate.''

BB committee members also heard emotional testimony from community members about their proposal to withhold funds for projects designed as alternates to the Belmont Learning Center until the now-abandoned project's environmental study is completed.

The school board voted in January to stop the study, believing enough information was available to stop the project, but Superintendent Roy Romer hopes to convince the board to resume the study, to help decide what to do with the property.

Parents in the Belmont area and Latino activists agreed the study should be completed, while anti-Belmont forces ridiculed the committee.

``Our community has waited for over 20 years,'' said Maria Rodriguez, a Belmont-area parent. ``We've seen people come and go, we've been promised so many things - promises that haven't been kept.''

But Richard Arthur, a former teacher and principal, argued that the risks and expenses were too high for a site that is on top of an old oil field and has been found to have a dangerous buildup of methane gas.