SCHOOL LOBBYIST HITS PAY DIRT CRITICS SEE CONFLICT IN REPRESENTING BOTH LAUSD AND ITS CONTRACTORS.

Byline: BETH BARRETT and NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writers

A prominent lobbying firm that the Los Angeles Unified School District has paid more than $1 million since 2002 for political advice and other services has simultaneously represented clients in Sacramento that have won more than $12 million in district contracts, the Daily News has learned.

The disclosure comes four years after Rose & Kindel came under fire for running an informational campaign for a $3.3 billion school district building bonds program while also representing clients that could have benefited from the construction work.

Superintendent Roy Romer did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Lucy Okumu, the district's director of external affairs and administration, denied any potential lobbying conflicts of interest. She said a strict fire wall is in place to keep lobbying efforts in Sacramento and LAUSD separate.

``LAUSD's accountability to the public requires that we ensure that Rose & Kindel not use its work for LAUSD to benefit its clients with LAUSD. ... We ensure this by prohibiting Rose & Kindel from lobbying LAUSD on behalf of any client,'' she said.

Michael Gagan, Rose & Kindel deputy managing director, said the lobbying firm has similar rules to avoid conflicts of interest.

``We don't represent any clients before those public agencies. We won't even make a phone call,'' said Gagan.

Rose & Kindel, LAUSD's longtime lobbyist in Sacramento, currently has a $168,000 contract with LAUSD. It has won a dozen district contracts in the past four years.

The disclosure comes as the legislative and political battle for control of the schools heats up between LAUSD officials and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The mayor and others questioned the role of Rose & Kindel.

``Even if they say they're not lobbying the district on behalf of these clients, it's a massive conflict of interest, especially because they are operating at the highest level of the district,'' said Nathan James, a spokesman for the mayor.

``They have (lobbying) contracts directly through Romer's office, and it's an unbelievable level of access.''

Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, questioned why LAUSD even pays an outside firm since the district has its own in-house governmental-affairs staff.

``It's hard to believe (Rose & Kindel is) paying full attention to the interests of their taxpayer clients when they're also representing interests or firms that are seeking to do business with government agencies,'' Vosburgh said.

``Even if it's not illegal, it doesn't make it right.''

The district's Okumu called Villaraigosa's criticism a diversionary tactic.

``The Mayor's Office knows this because they've been engaging in the use of public funds to support their legislation. School districts, like other public agencies in the state of California, have for more than half a century had a right to lobby the Legislature for or against legislation, and this is exactly what Rose & Kindel is doing on behalf of L.A. Unified.''

LAUSD board member David Tokofsky said the mayor has no room to criticize.

``It's the pot calling the kettle black,'' Tokofsky said. ``If the mayor's suits think Rose & Kindel is a threat, I think they're mistaking people who are part of the insider, good-government operation of Los Angeles for 40 years for some killer consultant.''

Others noted that Villaraigosa's political committee, formed to press his school agenda, has received $275,000 from developers with interests along Santa Monica Boulevard.

A. Jerrold Perenchio, who recently agreed to sell the Univision Spanish- language television for $12.4 billion, contributed $500,000, nearly half the money in the mayor's school reform fund. The developers' committee also has paid $25,000 for consulting services to SCN Public Relations, a firm whose principal, Ace Smith, was key in the mayor's election campaign.

Evading issue?

Janelle Erickson, spokeswoman for the mayor, accused district officials of evading the real issue.

``Instead of a direct response -- and bringing its contracting practices into the light of day -- the district is slinging mud at the mayor. ... The district should answer the concerns of its spending practices squarely and honestly,'' she said.

City Councilman Jose Huizar, the former LAUSD board president who backs the mayor's takeover legislation, said the school district has lax lobbying and ethics policies.

``In the city (government), you have a lot more checks and balances, a lot more eyes and ears on decisions being made on these (lobbying, construction and other) contracts, even though the city has a long way to go as well,'' Huizar said.

``LAUSD is a shadow government where very few people are aware of how these expenditures are made.''

LAUSD's Okumu said the district's lobbying program, originally modeled after the city's, has been redesigned to reflect what she described as the best practices of more than 30 domestic and international agencies' lobbying programs.

New guidelines 

In May, the district also adopted new ethical guidelines for lobbyists intended to provide more transparency and improve compliance.

LAUSD's code of conduct for contractors, as well as language in the contracts, warns against the appearance of conflicts of interest as well as actual conflicts.

But James, the mayor's spokesman, noted Rose & Kindel worked to pass legislation in October 2005 on behalf of the district to provide more flexibility in selecting technology providers.

Just a few months earlier, SAP Public Services Inc. -- one of Rose & Kindel's clients in Sacramento -- had won an $11.1 million LAUSD software contract. An amendment a few months later added $1.1 million.

``There are so many conflicts of interest here that it's just shocking,'' James said.

SAP Public Services spokesman Andy Kendzie in Washington, D.C., said Rose & Kindel didn't lobby for the legislation on behalf of SAP and has not lobbied for SAP on anything before LAUSD because of the ``potential conflict.''

LAUSD officials said that because Rose & Kindel doesn't lobby the district on behalf of clients, there was no conflict between the firm's lobbying for the district on the bill and having a Sacramento tie to SAP.

``It's not a conflict because it's not the same entity on both sides of the issue. It would be a conflict if (Rose & Kindel) lobbied on our behalf in Sacramento and then lobbied LAUSD for SAP. But this was not the case,'' Okumu said.

SAP Public Services has paid Rose & Kindel more than $110,000 to lobby in Sacramento since 2000, as well as $182,000 to lobby the city of Los Angeles since 2003.

Four years ago, Rose & Kindel ran into similar controversy when it was hired by the district -- with a $100,000 donation from civic leader Eli Broad -- to run an informational campaign for a district bonding program.

At the same time, the firm was representing clients that could have benefitted from the construction work.

Maureen A. Kindel, the firm's president, said at the time that the firm was ending its dealings with those clients to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest while representing LAUSD.

Rose & Kindel's Gagan contended the firm is the gold standard for ethical operations in the state and dismissed the current criticism as an effort to deflect debate from the issue of mayoral control.

``It has nothing to do with the substance of the issue being debated. It's undue concentration on appearances that may surround ... the issue.''

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

[phone]