LA Times Community College Bond abuse series may sink hopes of re election for Board incumbents

LA Community College $6 Billion Dollar Bond Fund Abuse: Blockbuster Series of Articles to Go Up on LA Times Website This Evening  
The Series Will Be Published Starting In This Sunday’s Edition. 
District officials and Incumbents in Board race await the bad news, activists heartened by final publication.

Contact: 323-855-0764
        Miki Jackson, Van de Kamps Coalition
        vandekamps.org

A Los Angeles Times series on bond use and waste in the LA Community Colleges may go up on the Times website as soon as tonight.

"We are told they are worried sick about what these articles may expose. We have found very alarming emails and other documents while looking into their misuse of taxpayer bonds at the Van de Kamps Campus. Mona Field, who led the Board into this mess as President during some of the worst of it, is especially scared that it could sink her chances of getting re-elected on March 8. We are saying vote for "Anybody But Mona" on Seat No. 1.  Time for a change is really overdue." said Van de Kamps Coalition member Laura Gutierrez

After two auditors from his office flew from Sacramento to Los Angeles to meet with Van de Kamps Coalition members, State Controller John Chiang’s auditors spent 20 days of December 2010 doing a preliminary forensic audit of the bond program. It remains to be seen whether the LA Times series will prod Chiang to complete his audit of alleged massive bond abuse at LACCD.

Abuses may be widespread in the large District. Late last year District Academic President David Beaulieu wrote on the LACCD web site that some $100 million was committed under questionable circumstances by the President of West Los Angeles Community College. The post was taken down within hours. Beaulieu has repeatedly raised questions about spending and oversight of the huge building program to deaf administration ears.

Failures in the bond program are already the subject of four lawsuits by the Van de Kamps Coalition concerning the building of the Northeast "Van de Kamps" Innovation Campus. The district has been heavily criticized for switching the campus from a Community College Satellite Campus to a tenant based facility.

The final outcome of the articles can only be hoped to lead to new and better leadership in the troubled District, and to focus on what is important: the education of our young adults.