LAUSD USE OF TAX FUNDS QUESTIONED ROMERO SEEKING COUNTY INQUIRY ON REFORM BATTLE.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero plans today to ask county prosecutors to investigate whether Los Angeles Unified is misusing taxpayer money to fight Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school takeover plan.

The request comes after Romero was rebuffed in her request for detailed information on how much the district has spent on the fight.

``I believe Los Angeles Unified School District is using taxpayer dollars in a questionable way,'' Romero said. ``If they have nothing to hide or nothing to be ashamed of, they should open up the books and let us see how the money is being spent.''

Romero, a co-author of the mayor's legislation and member of the Senate Education Committee, sent a letter last Friday asking the school board for detailed financial information on contracts with lobbyists; travel expenses for parents from New York and Los Angeles who have testified against the bill in Sacramento and Los Angeles; and automated phone calls, e-mails and Web sites used to identify other opponents.

She also asked for information on any money spent on parents who support the mayor's proposal.

In her response, school board President Marlene Canter said the information had already been disclosed through the media and that Romero should concentrate instead on the substance of the bill.

``Rather than focusing on the District's efforts to inform the community about the potential impact of your legislation, I urge you to focus on the legitimate concerns raised by hundreds of parents and community members -- as recently as last Thursday evening at the Assembly Education Committee hearing -- over the provisions of AB 1381,'' Canter wrote.

Canter was not available for comment. But LAUSD general counsel Kevin Reed defended the district's expenditures and called Romero's actions ``a diversionary tactic.''

LAUSD officials recently told reporters the district had spent close to $250,000 to fight the mayor's plan, but did not provide documents to support that figure.

Romero said she believes the district has spent more than $300,000. She also said the information is a matter of public record and the district is required by law to provide it.

Romero said she is particularly concerned about reports that the district may have paid travel expense for parents who testified against the bill during a hearing in Sacramento, including per diem payments and housing at the Hyatt -- the upscale hotel where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lives.

Reed called Romero's actions an effort to intimidate parents who support the district.

The parents who traveled to Sacramento, Reed said, were elected representatives of district-based parent organizations.

``I don't think we can be legitimately criticized for doing the minimum to ensure that our elected representative parents have a voice in this debate, at the one hearing that was ever held by a policy committee,'' Reed said.

Some of the parents, he said, were lodged at the Hyatt because those were the rooms available on short notice. He was unable to say whether the parents also received per diem payments.

Villaraigosa recently disclosed in campaign finance reports, as required by law, that his political committee has raised nearly $1.1 million to promote his proposed takeover.

To fight the mayor's plan, the LAUSD is spending from the district's budget rather than from a separate political committee. It is therefore not required to file regular financial disclosure reports to the Secretary of State's Office on its political spending.

The district's documents, however, are public records and are subject to disclosure though the Public Records Act.

Reed said the district did not interpret Romero's letter as an official Public Records Act request.

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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