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Report: LAUSD consultants profit with little oversight
Monday April 21, 2003LOS ANGELES (AP) The Los Angeles Unified School District has paid real estate consultants handsome fees in its multibillion dollar school-building program while providing little oversight or accountability, according to a newspaper report.
A 12-page report by an inspector general found that the nation's second-largest school district contracted with senior facilities executives at ``absurd'' rates without competitive bidding or any measures to evaluate performance or cost effectiveness, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Sunday.
The four executives examined in the study by Inspector General Don Mullinax's staff were paid between $200 and $300 an hour for long-term, full-time assignments a rate that one real estate expert said is two to three times above industry standards.
According to the audit, one consultant, who initially lacked a real estate broker license, billed the district nearly $1 million for work he did over a two-year period far exceeding the $250,000 annual salary of Superintendent Roy Romer.
The report highlighted several instances where consultants billed the district thousands of dollars for attending meetings.
Jim McConnell, the district's chief of facilities, said the consultants helped the district acquire 440 acres of land for 80 school projects in a very short time, apply for $839 million in state funding, and move projects forward at a pace once thought to be impossible.
``We have 90 percent-plus of the land at our disposal now to build these schools. That's phenomenal,'' he said. ``When I got here two years ago, I don't think there was any hope that we would be able to do that.''
McConnell said that since the Inspector General's Office launched its investigation a year and a half ago, new procedures have been put in place to ensure adequate oversight. The district has since gone out for bids on its facilities consultant contracts and have set the hourly rate at $175 to $225.
There are now also greater budget controls in place with a project's expenditures broken into real estate, design and construction.
``Things have changed quite a bit,'' McConnell said. ``The greatest evidence is that we have these positions bidded through an RFP (request for proposal).''
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