LAUSD'S OPENNESS ASSAILED STATE SENATOR QUESTIONS PRIVATE MEETINGS.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- A prominent California lawmaker asked state and county prosecutors on Thursday to investigate Los Angeles Unified for alleged violations of laws governing open meetings, open records and political activities.

In a sharply worded letter to LAUSD board president Marlene Canter -- and sent to Attorney General Bill Lockyer and District Attorney Steve Cooley -- Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, cited several instances in which she believes the district violated state laws while working to oppose Assembly Bill 1381 and to search for a replacement for retiring Superintendent Roy Romer.

``It has become evident that under your leadership, the Los Angeles Unified School District has taken the position that it is not subject to the laws of the state of California,'' Romero wrote to Canter.

District officials dismissed the complaint as a politically motivated diversion to undermine the district's resistance to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed school takeover plan.

But among Romero's charges:

The district violated the Brown Act, which governs open meetings by local governments, when its superintendent-search committee met privately without advance public notice.

The board conducted ``serial meetings'' in which members held sequential private conversations to get consensus on an issue.

The district improperly used public funds to promote a partisan position, including paying for parents to travel and stay in Sacramento.

The district failed to comply with a California Public Records Act request that Romero filed.

Romero asked Cooley to require that anyone found to have conspired to use taxpayer funds for illegal purposes reimburse the district out of their own pocket.

District officials did not address the substance of each charge, but general counsel Kevin Reed said the district and other public agencies have the right to spend taxpayer money to lobby the state Legislature.

``In the meantime, the mayor has amassed a $1.1 million war chest,'' Reed said in a radio show interview. ``And when we shoot back, that's our right. And to be attacked for it is a diversionary tactic.''

Officials with Lockyer and Cooley's offices said late Thursday they had not had a chance to review the complaint but would examine it and take appropriate action.

D.A. spokesman Joseph Scott noted Cooley has had a particularly strong interest in issues relating to public integrity, open meetings and public records.

When Cooley took office in 2000, he specifically created a Public Integrity Division within the office to handle such issues, Scott said.

Romero's complaint was, in part, sparked by her anger at the district refusing to give her information on use of public money on lobbying against the mayoral takeover legislation.

Another state legislator also complained Thursday about a similar situation in which LAUSD officials refused to provide requested public information.

Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who has authored a pending bill to reduce the high school dropout rate in California, recently requested detailed and comprehensive information about student LAUSD records.

District officials told him he was not entitled to the information, at least in the form he requested, because federal law restricts the release of such information based on student privacy concerns.

Alarcon had requested the names of the individual students be withheld to protect their privacy, but district officials said by requesting dozens of categories of information about those students, they could be identified by someone who takes the effort to piece the data together, and therefore the request could violate federal law.

Alarcon remained unconvinced. ``Sometimes it's like pulling teeth,'' Alarcon said. ``That's exactly how the school district administration acts sometimes.''

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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