Sunday, February 13, 2005
Each property deal the LACCD Board makes is ACTIVE NEGLECT of educational opportunities for Los Angeles Community College students. There is no effective citizen oversight of the improper spending of Proposition AA money, since the oversight committees meet only 4 times a year or less, making them "RUBBER STAMP" committees. To be effective, the citizen committees should meet at least once a month and be told exactly what the choices and options are with each proposal. Yet, the Board continues to spend on dubious projects beyond the terms stipulated on the Ballot AA measure. Teacher morale, vocational opportunities, and student attendance continue to drop to new depths, yet the board is preoccupied with outrageous real-estate-development deals.
An internal audit found 6 areas of internal communication that "need improvement". This means people who should be communicating are not doing so, and the inevitable result of this is WASTED TAX DOLLARS. MISCOMMUNICATION COSTS MONEY. And the foremost group this cloistered board must communicate with are the TAXPAYERS.
An internal audit found 6 areas of internal communication that "need improvement". This means people who should be communicating are not doing so, and the inevitable result of this is WASTED TAX DOLLARS. MISCOMMUNICATION COSTS MONEY. And the foremost group this cloistered board must communicate with are the TAXPAYERS.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Property Deal #1 ...Rural Education Asset Partnership ("REAP") was proposed in a recent LACCD Trustee report as a collaboration with a school district in Mexico. LACCD gives them our "surplus" furniture, computers, and equipment and LACCD gets to use its landfill. Why does LACCD need a landfill? Maybe for the waste material from...
Property Deal #2...the 27-acre Ameron Co. property (on Firestone in South Gate) that LACCD has declared an extension of East LA College. The intention is to make a multiuse commercial property, with residences, retail stores, (if we are lucky) classrooms. All this is explained as meeting the needs of underserved areas, and eliminating blight. (This sounds like what a superhero would do!) Does this Ameron property have industrial waste that local landfills would refuse? Was there an EIR done on the Ameron property?
The trustees are now becoming sophisticated international Brokers in Land Development.
It's all very clever, and entrepreneurial, but is that their job? The overhead management costs of keeping this shopping mall solvent will consume any "profit" generated creating a NET FISCAL LOSS. Let's not inflate government with layers of fat, and let's leave speculation to the Private Sector, not bureaucrats.
I suggest their real estate activities are an ACTIVE NEGLECT of community college education, and the people they are obligated to serve.
Property Deal #3...LACCD wants to spend $600,000 for a furniture showroom (over 6 or more years), with an option to pay another $600, 000. The furniture presumably would be from 770 Wilshire, as it is refurbished. (Maybe the furniture will end up in that Mexican School district?)
Property Deal #4..The 770 Wilshire LACCD headquarters deal (closing escrow on March 31st) is the landmark property deal, with a cost of $20 million ($5M for refurbishment) to shelter the 500 bureacrats who generate "zero" student-affiliated income. (Question: is it proper to use Proposition AA money on this deal, when such expenditure was not stipulated in the ballot measure?)
Property Deal #5 ...the 4050 Wilshire Property was sold for a $6 million loss, to make way for the 770 Building. Also lost into the black hole, the $3 million meant to refurbish the 4050 building.
Verdict: Trustees spend too much time being property developers, and not enough time listening to the community of teachers and students they were meant to serve.
Property Deal #2...the 27-acre Ameron Co. property (on Firestone in South Gate) that LACCD has declared an extension of East LA College. The intention is to make a multiuse commercial property, with residences, retail stores, (if we are lucky) classrooms. All this is explained as meeting the needs of underserved areas, and eliminating blight. (This sounds like what a superhero would do!) Does this Ameron property have industrial waste that local landfills would refuse? Was there an EIR done on the Ameron property?
The trustees are now becoming sophisticated international Brokers in Land Development.
It's all very clever, and entrepreneurial, but is that their job? The overhead management costs of keeping this shopping mall solvent will consume any "profit" generated creating a NET FISCAL LOSS. Let's not inflate government with layers of fat, and let's leave speculation to the Private Sector, not bureaucrats.
I suggest their real estate activities are an ACTIVE NEGLECT of community college education, and the people they are obligated to serve.
Property Deal #3...LACCD wants to spend $600,000 for a furniture showroom (over 6 or more years), with an option to pay another $600, 000. The furniture presumably would be from 770 Wilshire, as it is refurbished. (Maybe the furniture will end up in that Mexican School district?)
Property Deal #4..The 770 Wilshire LACCD headquarters deal (closing escrow on March 31st) is the landmark property deal, with a cost of $20 million ($5M for refurbishment) to shelter the 500 bureacrats who generate "zero" student-affiliated income. (Question: is it proper to use Proposition AA money on this deal, when such expenditure was not stipulated in the ballot measure?)
Property Deal #5 ...the 4050 Wilshire Property was sold for a $6 million loss, to make way for the 770 Building. Also lost into the black hole, the $3 million meant to refurbish the 4050 building.
Verdict: Trustees spend too much time being property developers, and not enough time listening to the community of teachers and students they were meant to serve.
