The Los Angeles Times completed an exhaustive six-part
series yesterday on the Los Angeles Community College system, which charged
that out of billions in bond money "tens of millions of dollars have gone to
waste because of poor planning, frivolous spending and shoddy workmanship." Ironically,
some members of the community college board of trustees are running for
re-election in Tuesday’s election.
While little attention is spent on races such as the
community college board, the Times articles should open the eyes of the
property taxpayers who back the bonds and pay for the waste mentioned in the
article.
Board of trustee candidates for re-election are filling
mailboxes with campaign literature, one even boldly claiming that he "fights to
protect taxpayers."
The Times noted, "The waste has not been limited to
construction. Bond money that was supposed to pay for new buildings has gone to
public relations, travel and promotional videos."
I was going to write about the juxtaposition of the Times
series and Tuesday’s election but decided I couldn’t top Times columnist’s
Steve Lopez entry on the subject. You can read his take on the matter here.
Lopez noted criticism the Times is taking because the series
ran so close to the election and he had a response….
Actually, Los Angeles Community College
District Chancellor Daniel LaVista might have been wise to keep his mouth shut,
too, because here’s part of what he had to say in an official statement after
the first two parts of the series:"After ignoring the good news of the
program for years, The Times spent 20 months on this investigation and now
picks at a few issues in what appears to be a sensationalist series published
right before trustee elections. The timing is suspect, and the reporting is one?sided. So far, we are sorely
disappointed."He’s sorely disappointed?
I’ll be disappointed if he’s still on the
payroll by week’s end.
You can read the entire six-part series, chiefly written by
Michael Finnegan and Gale Holland, with contributions by Doug Smith and Paul
Pringle, here.