another day another scam a day in the life of los angeles unified

Los Angeles Unified, much like the innocent children given to its care, hasn't learned much since it last made the headlines with it's iPad scandal four years ago.

The Board of Supervisors Realty Show

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Agenda Item for Tuesday, February 6, 2018 contains the sanitized details. A splendid time will be had by all, unless you get your two cents in. There's going to have to be a lot of two-cents to add up to the $1.4 BILLION rip-off.

Important Additional Materials

This article is broken out into a couple logical sections. Read them to get a fuller understanding of the lawlessness at Los Angeles Unified.

Establishment of Blue Ribbon Citizens Oversight Committee for April 1997 School Repair Bonds

LAUSD School Construction Bond Citizens' Oversight Committee Charter and Memorandum of Understanding

Suggested Letter to Five Kings and Other Public Crooks

Brief History of Borrowing

I apologize, that was a joke. Click here to skip past the long history of debt at Los Angeles Unified.

The district wants another $1.4 billion right now. The district is so confident that the Five Kings will approve it that it's already scheduled the sale of over $1 billion. (Light green rows.)

What Did Voters Approve?

Voters have been very generous with a failing Los Angeles Unified, approving every Proposition 39 bond measure the district has put on the ballot.

Prior to the Proposition 39 bond era, voters even rejected a $2,400,000,000 bond in November 1996. In a bit of legal jujitsu, the district put the same measure back on the ballot and got it passed in a historically low-turnout election as Measure BB in April 1997.

Thirty years, $20 billion of debt ($40 billion in taxes), and two major scandals (remember Belmont Learning Center where a student accidentally discharged a gun on campus the other day) later, what do the students and parents of the district have to show for it. Oh, that's right, the most expensive school ever built in the entire country. But, it's for the kids, right?

Thank Goodness for the Oversight Committee, Right?

Unlike the debt history, the history of the actual oversight performed by all the committees going back to 1997 could be written on the head of pin.

Right after the Measure BB passed, the district was sued to establish some authority for an oversight committee of which it was in complete control.

Then after the 2002 Proposition 39 election, the district just ignored the Strict Accountability in Local School Construction Bonds Act of 2000 and went along its merry way with its own oversight.

Today, the oversight committee is populated with every special interest you can think of.

The so-called taxpayer member was allegedly "nominated" by a Sacramento lobbyist posing as the California Tax Reform Association. It's main purpose is to end Proposition 13, so the district can take more taxes out of your community.

You just can't make this stuff up.

For each of the four Proposition 39 bond measures (K, R, Y, and Q), the district promised, and the law requires, a new oversight committee. Keeping promises does not fit the district's agenda, so it just paid a lawyer to write a few words to add the newly approved bond to the pre-existing oversight committee.

The oversight committee adopts dozens of resolutions every year, rubber-stamping everything that the district wants to do. This gives the district cover for the hundreds of millions of bond funds it misuses. The oversight committee simply says it was all done legally.

You see, when there's this much money up for grabs, everybody wants their piece of the pie. And the best way to do that is to lie to your face and keep you in the dark.

Except for the public notice for meetings requirement, the district continues to ignore every other oversight mandate set out by the legislature. Just to keep the public in the dark, the oversight meets only at the Beaudry headquarters at 10:00 a.m. on a weekday. It wouldn't want to inconvenience all it's high-powered members, who are almost all public employees (and therefore compensated by your taxes -- another violation) when they meet.

Will the Board of Supervisors Do the District's Dirty Work?

The Vegas bookies have it 10-1 that the Five Kings, who have their own agent on the oversight committee will just rubber stamp it. It doesn't cost them anything after all.

If they can keep you from finding out, so much the better.

MORE TO COME

LAST UPDATED: 2018-02-03 6:00 PM