EDITORIAL SPIN CONTROL THE LACCD EYES ABUSING BOND MONEY FOR PR MANIPULATION.

OFFICIALS at the Los Angeles Community College District say they need some advice on public relations, to which we offer the following tip, free of charge:

Don't waste $395,000 of the taxpayers' money on a needless contract with a politically connected, downtown PR firm. That would be, as the media gurus call it, a public-relations disaster.

Despite a sour economy, Los Angeles voters have in recent years approved two bonds measures worth $2 billion to support the LACCD. The purpose of those bonds was to build classrooms, restore aging facilities and spruce up the LACCD's nine campuses - not to pay for overpriced spin doctors.

Yet now LACCD officials want to dip into those funds to cover their annual six-figure contract with downtown PR giant Fleishman-Hilliard.

Bad idea. The LACCD already pays $340,000 a year to its own, in-house PR pros, and that should be more than plenty.

To bolster its reputation, the LACCD need do nothing more than educate students and spend the taxpayers' money wisely.