OVERSIGHT PANEL FAULTS LAUSD ON WORK DELAYS.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer Members of a citizens oversight committee accused LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) officials Thursday of circumventing construction management companies hired to oversee the Proposition BB repair projects, creating a ``crisis of confidence'' in the district. In its zeal Zeal Bows, Mr. crippled fiddler with intense feelings. [Br. Lit.: Pendennis] Cedric of Rotherwood zealous about restoring Saxon independence. [Br. to maintain control over air-conditioning work rather than turn it over to a private company, the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. delayed other promised repairs to many schools, committee members said. Expressing deepening frustration, committee members said they are not able to do adequate oversight because they have not been given accurate information from district officials about costs, projects that are under way and who is monitoring the work. ``We've relied on the sincerity of the staff for information, but we've been mugged, fooled and bamboozled,'' said David Barulich, a Proposition BB Blue Ribbon blue ribbon denotes highest honor. [Western Folklore: Brewer Dictionary, 127] See : Prize Citizens Oversight Committee member representing the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association helped sponsor Proposition 13, the property tax-cutting initiative in California in 1978 which slashed property taxes by fifty-seven percent and initiated a national tax revolt. It was founded by California republican Howard Jarvis. . Echoing his concerns was BB panel member Timothy Lynch, deputy controller of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , who said: ``I want to see figures validated, but what I hear and what I understand is very different. This committee is having a real crisis of confidence.'' The program manager who had been charged with monitoring all BB work - Dennis Martinez from the construction management firm 3DI/O'Brien-Kreitzberg - said the company has been supervising all work and he was ``surprised'' by the committee's stance. ``I believe we're on top of the projects,'' Martinez said in an interview. ``I don't understand why there is such a wide divergence divergence In mathematics, a differential operator applied to a three-dimensional vector-valued function. The result is a function that describes a rate of change. The divergence of a vector v is given by of opinion.'' A task force of committee members, district officials and Martinez will look into the concerns. The LAUSD official in charge of the bond work - Beth Louargand, general manager of facilities - did not return repeated phone calls. Superintendent Ruben Zacarias said he knew little about the committee members' complaints, but vowed he would not ``let the work fall apart.'' BB committee members have harshly criticized the board for failing to push through a plan to allow a private company to install air conditioning air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air is conditioned and regulated to maintain the temperature-humidity ratio that is most comfortable and healthful. in schools on a fast-track process, allowing the district to protect its turf and maintain control of the work. They also charge that the board is stalling a ``greening'' proposal to landscape hundreds of Los Angeles schools The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. , and that the district staff has responded by pushing forward its contracts to lay down asphalt asphalt (ăs`fôlt, –fălt), brownish-black substance used commonly in road making, roofing, and waterproofing. Chemically, it is a natural mixture of hydrocarbons. . To help steer a system in apparent disarray dis·ar·ray n. 1. A state of disorder; confusion. 2. Disorderly dress. tr.v. dis·ar·rayed, dis·ar·ray·ing, dis·ar·rays 1. To throw into confusion; upset. 2. To undress. , the BB oversight committee Thursday unanimously passed resolutions urging the board to push ahead with both projects. In April, voters approved the massive $2.4 billion Proposition BB repair bond, which promised that a citizens oversight committee would monitor work. Then the district announced it would be hiring construction management team 3DI/O'Brien-Kreitzberg to monitor the entire project, as well as 10 project managers to oversee all regional work. Barulich has presented a scathing indictment of the BB work, finding that those construction management companies were not being used. Instead, the district's maintenance and operations staff was doing most of the work. He further surprised the committee by reporting that none of the construction management companies had received any payment from the LAUSD. ``I have fundamental questions about whether the district has any commitment to using their expertise,'' Barulich said. ``There's no project management, no one is getting paid - the LAUSD has become the de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. project manager.'' The committee said that information Martinez submitted at the meeting showed that the 10 project managers were doing little work except for air conditioning. Martinez told the committee he was just getting started, and looking into innovative plans such as grouping together projects to be bid in a large, cost-saving package. Soon, he promised, there would be a ``tidal wave'' of projects under way. However, he said there was a ``political'' consideration that projects should not be made too large to exclude small firms from bidding. ``We're trying to be sensitive to that issue,'' Martinez said. Later in an interview, Martinez added that the committee had not recognized that many jobs were in the planning stages. Louargand told the committee that payments had not been made because the construction managers had not submitted their claims until Dec. 15, and they ``can't blame the district.'' |
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