EDITORIAL CHEAP TRICKS ROMER USES ENVIRONMENTAL BAIT-AND-SWITCH TACTIC ON BELMONT.

THROUGHOUT his tenure as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Roy Romer has never been one to pinch pennies. Whether it was boosting staff and administrative salaries or renting expensive offices and furnishing them well, the cost to taxpayers was never a problem.

But when it comes to protecting the health and safety of LAUSD students and teachers, Romer's all too eager to find a bargain.

In his mad rush to complete the nation's costliest school, Romer sought bids for the safest conceivable systems to reduce risks posed by toxic gases seeping from old oil wells and the insurance to cover any eventuality for the 70-year life of the Belmont Learning Center.

But when the only two bidders estimated the cost of completing Belmont and making it safe at $98.1 million to $141 million, old Roy got a bad case of sticker shock. Since $175 million already had been spent, Romer realized it would be impossible to justify that kind of money for this star-crossed project.

Romer insists the consultants he has hired believe turning the Belmont eyesore into a school would cost a mere $60 million to $80 million.

But inoculating children and teachers from the danger of toxic hydrogen sulfide and potentially explosive methane comes higher, according to the two bidders. They say extensive mitigation systems would be required and they would be costly to maintain. Plus, the school would need an expensive insurance policy to safeguard against the obvious liabilities.

That's when Romer developed his newfound passion for cutting costs.

At the prices the contractors have quoted, completing Belmont makes no sense. It would be more economical to start a new school from scratch elsewhere, which, no matter how sophisticated Belmont's mitigation systems, would never cause the same kind of worry among faculty and parents. Nor would it invite the inevitable lawsuits that will come with Belmont.

But for Romer, Belmont has become something of an obsession. If the cost of doing it right is too high, well, he's willing to make some compromises.

And safety is the prime place to start cutting corners.

Romer has suggested that the district bring down Belmont's price tag by scrapping environmental studies. He's also rejected plans to install depressurization gas wells that would relieve pressure under the school's shallow oil fields. And he's not sure new insurance policies are needed at all.

He's confident his bargain-basement approach to school safety can work, and he's busily trying to convince the school board to trust him.

We've heard this song before. Maybe it would work. But we remember, back when Belmont was started, before Romer decided to take up a second career in education, all the assurances about the school's safety. Then the state came in and said otherwise, shutting down Belmont in 1998, which led the school board to vote to abandon the project and get on with the task of building safe schools that are so badly needed.

That's something the school board should keep in mind today when it meets with the Proposition BB oversight committee to discuss Belmont's future. Never has there been a project so tainted, so rife with medical, legal and financial hazards.

School safety - especially on this project - is hardly the place to start skimping.

The best way to save money on Belmont is simple: Kill it once and for all.