EDITORIAL DOESN'T LOOK GOOD ROMER'S FUND-RAISING RAISES ETHICAL CONCERNS.

SO Ron Tutor, president of the scandal-plagued Tutor-Saliba Corp., gets a phone call from Roy Romer, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Tutor-Saliba, which has made millions on some questionable public contracts, just so happens to be working on a $36 million LAUSD project, building a high school in the East San Fernando Valley.

And Romer just so happens to be looking for a donation to the campaign on behalf of Measure R, the $3.87 billion school bond that voters approved back in March.

So Tutor obliges with a $15,000 donation, calling Romer's solicitation and his response an act of ``community service.''

That's one way to look at it.

Another, more cynical view is that Tutor had the good sense to keep the golden goose well-fed. With the passage of Measure R, the LAUSD would have billions of dollars to build more schools - contracts for which Tutor's company could fairly compete.

Then there's a third, even more cynical interpretation: Tutor's contribution was an investment. It was a thank-you for contracts past, or a tribute paid to ensure favorable consideration for contracts future.

No, no one's ever demonstrated any such arrangement, let alone proved a crime of any kind. But then, political quid pro quos are rarely provable - public officials know to stay discrete, to make only implicit promises of favoritism.

Just look at ongoing probes into the burgeoning ``pay to play'' scandal in City Hall.

And it's not as though the LAUSD has a squeaky clean record. Memories of the botched Belmont Learning Center and the bungled appropriation of Proposition BB funds still give the public plenty of reason to doubt the way the district manages its contracting, despite Romer's overhaul of its facilities division.

Romer says he guards against corruption by making all or most of the fund-raising calls himself. Facilities staffers aren't allowed to solicit contributions, nor do they get to see the list of donors.

There's no reason to doubt Romer's word, but even if no favoritism exists, it's easy to see how - especially in this city - contractors might think it does. Getting a call from the top boss himself would only add to, not take away from, the perceived pressure to pay to play.

Surely it's no coincidence that some 29 contractors contributed a total of $361,000 to the Measure R campaign, or that those very same contractors already have $256 million worth of contracts with the district.

Nor does it help appearances that the district now publicly worries that perhaps it's building too quickly, rushing to meet a demand for new schools that, in light of future demographics, might never materialize.

Even if no crimes are being committed, the way funds are currently raised inevitably lends itself to the appearance of corruption - and provides fertile ground for the real deal.

There's something unseemly about a superintendent hustling money from his contractors, and contractors ``investing'' by seeking what amounts to tax hikes for everyone else.

And nothing short of comprehensive campaign-finance reform will change that.