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"It's just sad."
That's what East Los Angeles College student George Escobar had to say as we looked in the direction of a new clock tower that was built crooked and had to be fixed at an additional cost of $157,000.
Sad, outrageous, scandalous, shameful. You could pick any of those words, or all of them, to describe the waste and abuse documented in a weeklong Times series about the Los Angeles Community College District's $5.7-billion building program.
Reporters Gale Holland, Michael Finnegan and others have been turning over rocks for a year and a half, looking at how billions in tax dollars from voter-approved bond measures are being spent, and worms might be crawling up your legs as you read this.
Near the formerly crooked clock tower on the East L.A. campus, heating and cooling equipment was installed upside-down. A ramp for the disabled was too steep for wheelchairs. Bonehead moves like that drove construction costs from $28 million to $43 million.
Sure, there have been solidly built, badly needed projects, too. But the new health center at Valley College had bad plumbing, cracked floors, loose ceiling panels and leaky windows.
At West Los Angeles College, $39 million was spent on buildings that couldn't be completed when money ran out.
At Valley College, a theater was renovated for $3.4 million and then scheduled for demolition when officials decided to build a new one.
At L.A. City College, $1.8 million was spent on an architectural design for a fitness center, but the school president decided instead to build the center on the other side of campus, so architects were paid $1.9 million for a new design.
Throughout this debacle, costs were often doubled because the district hired workers whose job was to hire workers. The bill for that kind of nonsense was in the millions.
It was a feast. A picnic.
And the following will not surprise you:
Contractors and labor unions donated to district trustees. Contractors and labor unions got jobs.
Contractors and labor unions donated to support bond measures. Contractors and labor unions got jobs.
Like vultures, some of the most politically connected players in L.A. swooped in and got fat contracts despite past investigations into their dealings. One player who got a piece of the action pleaded guilty last December to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge involving jobs in another school district — Los Angeles Unified.
As for the genius the college district hired to keep an eye on how the $5.4 billion got spent — Larry Eisenberg — you know you're in trouble when your oversight guy approves funds for a video biography of himself, complete with childhood photos and a soundtrack.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...2941157.column
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,4909175.story
That's what East Los Angeles College student George Escobar had to say as we looked in the direction of a new clock tower that was built crooked and had to be fixed at an additional cost of $157,000.
Sad, outrageous, scandalous, shameful. You could pick any of those words, or all of them, to describe the waste and abuse documented in a weeklong Times series about the Los Angeles Community College District's $5.7-billion building program.
Reporters Gale Holland, Michael Finnegan and others have been turning over rocks for a year and a half, looking at how billions in tax dollars from voter-approved bond measures are being spent, and worms might be crawling up your legs as you read this.
Near the formerly crooked clock tower on the East L.A. campus, heating and cooling equipment was installed upside-down. A ramp for the disabled was too steep for wheelchairs. Bonehead moves like that drove construction costs from $28 million to $43 million.
Sure, there have been solidly built, badly needed projects, too. But the new health center at Valley College had bad plumbing, cracked floors, loose ceiling panels and leaky windows.
At West Los Angeles College, $39 million was spent on buildings that couldn't be completed when money ran out.
At Valley College, a theater was renovated for $3.4 million and then scheduled for demolition when officials decided to build a new one.
At L.A. City College, $1.8 million was spent on an architectural design for a fitness center, but the school president decided instead to build the center on the other side of campus, so architects were paid $1.9 million for a new design.
Throughout this debacle, costs were often doubled because the district hired workers whose job was to hire workers. The bill for that kind of nonsense was in the millions.
It was a feast. A picnic.
And the following will not surprise you:
Contractors and labor unions donated to district trustees. Contractors and labor unions got jobs.
Contractors and labor unions donated to support bond measures. Contractors and labor unions got jobs.
Like vultures, some of the most politically connected players in L.A. swooped in and got fat contracts despite past investigations into their dealings. One player who got a piece of the action pleaded guilty last December to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge involving jobs in another school district — Los Angeles Unified.
As for the genius the college district hired to keep an eye on how the $5.4 billion got spent — Larry Eisenberg — you know you're in trouble when your oversight guy approves funds for a video biography of himself, complete with childhood photos and a soundtrack.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...2941157.column
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,4909175.story
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