EDITORIAL RIGGED BIDS.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer is so committed to completing construction of the nation's costliest high school that he apparently doesn't care how much more it costs or whether it ultimately causes harm to staffers.

He mocks the district attorney's criminal investigation into the scandal around the $175 million Belmont Learning Center, and doesn't even bother to disguise his true intent after conning the school board into letting him take bids to sell it or complete it if it can be made absolutely safe.

When about two dozen prospective bidders showed up Wednesday to hear Los Angeles Unified School District officials pitch how they'd like to dispose of or build out Belmont, they weren't given the option of buying the 35-acre property outright.

Instead, the group had a single choice: bid to build, including the price of indemnifying the district from lawsuits if mitigation measures someday prove inadequate for dealing with explosive and toxic gases seething through the property from old oil wells.

District officials acknowledged the build and sell options had not been placed on the same footing but said that was unavoidable.

Of course it was. Romer never had any intention of following the board's insistence on including a sale option as an alternative to completing Belmont.

Romer seems to have the Midas touch with school funds - no raise is too much, no project too costly, no request too out-oounds. A reasonable person might wonder why we have a school board at all.

Of course, he won't be around long enough to suffer the consequences of his actions. It's the staff and children who will pay Romer's bills years from now.