School Board Won’t Release Belmont Papers

A state investigation into the nation’s costliest high school hit a wall of secrecy Monday when Los Angeles Board of Education members refused to release crucial documents.

Voting in closed session before its regular meeting, the board agreed with legal counsel that attorney-client privilege should protect a range of letters and contracts related to negotiations for the Belmont Learning Complex, already under construction near downtown Los Angeles.

But board members David Tokofsky and Valerie Fields favored turning over the documents. Tokofsky complained that the board was not even given the list of requests before it voted.

“Were we supposed to base our decision on theory alone?” he asked. “I guess we were.”

That indeed was the recommendation, said Los Angeles Unified School District General Counsel Richard K. Mason, because waiving the attorney-client privilege would set precedent and limit the candor such communication requires.

Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), who made the request for information as chairman of the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee, said he would not back away from his investigation even if it means seeking subpoenas.

“I’d rather have this remain a cordial interaction,” Wildman said in an interview from Sacramento. “I’m somewhat surprised [by Monday’s vote], since we’ve been working with the district for the last four to five months on the premise that there would be cooperation.”

Wildman agreed to launch the investigation into the $200-million high school last spring at the behest of state Sens. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) and Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who were concerned about escalating costs, whether there was favoritism and how the deal came together. But the probe’s intensity increased in the past two months after a team of contract investigators was hired.

“We’ve turned over a ton of records to them over the past five weeks,” Mason said.

The board’s action Monday merely increased the suspicion of longtime foes of the project, first presented to the board three years ago as an innovative public-private partnership.

“Trying to keep the lid on the pot is becoming more and more difficult for the LAUSD,” said David Koff, senior researcher with the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union and a longtime critic of the high cost and private negotiations. “But this is not a private corporation, it is a public entity.”

Among the items requested by Wildman were correspondence between the district and private attorneys it hired to negotiate both the deal to buy land near Temple Street and Beaudry Avenue, and the development contract with a group headed by the Japanese firm Kajima International.

But Wildman also raised concerns that district Planning and Development Director Dominic Shambra could be destroying or disposing of documents now that he is leaving the district. Shambra announced last week that he would retire later this year, leaving for an extended vacation in early February.

Mason said Shambra has assured him that his files remain intact.

Behind the scenes, a more complicated political struggle is building, nudged forward in part by Shambra’s attempts to persuade other members of the state audit committee to rein in Wildman. Mason said Monday that a letter from Shambra to state Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), dated Jan. 15, was a personal appeal from Shambra, not a formal district appeal.

In it, Shambra accused Wildman of acting outside his authority, “conducting an unauthorized action for political purposes [and] abusing the power of his office.”

Wildman on Monday reiterated his contention that the audit committee rules allow him, as chairman, to initiate investigations without a vote of the full committee.

Though he is a former United Teachers-Los Angeles staff member--and UTLA joined the hotel workers union in challenging the new high school in court--Wildman said the investigation is motivated by increased interest among school districts about similar public-private development.