KOCH CONTRACT TERMINATED ROMER SAYS OTHERS CAN COMPLETE JOB.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Los Angeles School Superintendent Roy Romer on Thursday defended awarding a $58,500 consulting contract to a former top administrator dumped over the Belmont Learning Center, saying he was qualified and highly recommended.

After board members protested the contract to former Chief Administrative Officer David Koch, Romer terminated it Wednesday. He also acknowledged Koch has a previously undisclosed $13,490 contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Romer said he only had a sketchy history of Koch's involvement in Belmont, and that it didn't occur to him that hiring the former top administrator for a relatively brief consulting job would cause a problem.

``I wanted a guy who would be aggressive ... somebody who would go in and kick butt, and get it done,'' Romer said, saying the district needed to figure out better procedures to pay its bills faster.

When board members learned of the contract and protested its appearance, Romer said he decided to cancel it.

``I can find others to complete it,'' Romer said.

Romer said Koch's contract was widely known among staff. The board's policy is to delegate agreements under $250,000 to Romer, then to ratify contracts of between $25,000 and that amount later en masse.

Koch, who worked 20 years for the district, said he was flattered that Romer had asked him to help.

``I still have a deep and abiding interest in the institution,'' Koch said.

Koch said after the protests, the superintendent called ``and advised me of the situation.'' It was decided the best solution was to terminate the contract, he said.

``It was amicable,'' said Koch, who has spent the three years since the board bought out his contract for $100,100 as a consultant.

In 1999, LAUSD inspector general Don Mullinax recommended Koch and others be disciplined for failing to properly supervise Belmont, the $175 million, unfinished downtown high school that sits atop a shallow oil field seeping toxic and potentially explosive gases.

Thursday, Koch called his Belmont involvement ``peripheral.''

School board President Caprice Young said she was ``pretty dumbfounded'' by the consulting contracts but considers them ``an isolated incident ... not a systematic problem.''

``I can tell you the superintendent is not going to do this again,'' Young said. ``I think he realizes how upset the members of the board were when they found out.''

Romer said Koch was initially recommended to him by a top official representing an association of large school districts, and that he was paid $13,490 earlier this year to search for a chief operating officer and chief human resources officer.

Romer said based on that work, and a staff member's recommendation, Koch was later hired to improve procedures for accounts payable and receivable.