Pomona Unified Watchdog Group Is Forgotten in Wake of Facilities Staff Layoffs

In the wake of layoffs that wiped out the facilities staff in the Pomona Unified School District, the citizen group tasked with overseeing $235 million for school construction projects has been ignored, members say.

The Measure PS Citizen’s Oversight Committee, which is scheduled to meet four times a year, met for the first time in eight months on June 22.

Not only are the members of the group concerned, but one school board member also voiced her displeasure at the marginalizing of the committee.

Simply, this advisory group of parents, residents, and taxpayers assembles to make sure the bond measure, a loan funded by taxpayer money, is used in the way it was intended.

The primary check on district spending is an annual audit of recent projects, which committee members said they had not reviewed for the 2010-2011 school year.

"We have to do a report to the board by June," committee member Jim Popovich said. ", in essence, the committee went through the cracks."

Measure PS

Bond Measure PS, which allows the school district to take on $235 million in loans, was approved by voters in 2008 with the goal of improving facilities throughout the district over 10 years. Projects like are funded with this bond money.

This summer marks the start of many facilities projects funded by Measure PS, with $35 million in renovations scheduled.

See the full list of projects funded by Measure PS at the district website.

Layoffs and Consultants

The $235 million bond program is now being managed primarily by two outside architecture firms, an arrangement Superintendent Richard Martinez said at a January board meeting would save the district $700,000 annually in comparison with keeping full-time staff on board.

Outgoing Capital Facilities Director Scott Stark disputed the $700,000 yearly savings in a letter to the board, which suggested that full-time staff be paid with bond money.

The state concluded that facilities bond funds could legally pay the salaries of administrators overseeing these projects in a 2004 decision by former Attorney General Bill Lockyer, but Martinez said the district would not do that because it had promised voters that none of the $235 million would be used for salaries.

Oversight committee member Phil Ripa said he felt having consultants running the program could leave the district vulnerable.

"It's hard to keep an eye on (facilities projects) without someone keeping an eye on it all the time to make sure that we're not being taken by a consultant or contractor," Ripa said.

The district's director of purchasing, Nate Holt, said the contractors were already doing the bulk of the project management work before the capital facilities staff was laid off.

Holt still functions as the district's director of purchasing and took on managing facilities projects after the department was eliminated.

Meetings

School board member Roberta Perlman urged the group at the June 22 meeting to develop a regular meeting schedule after the board voted for the group to meet four times a year.

An attorney for the district said that the meeting delays were "an aberration" caused by the elimination of the facilities department in January.

A previous meeting scheduled for June 14 because the agenda and minutes were not properly noticed to the public.

Perlman said that ensuring the committee meets regularly is "incredibly important."

"It's important for the community to trust how we're using the funds," Perlman said.

Perlman suggested that the group draft bylaws to set regular meetings, which Holt said he would do with a recommendation from the Superintendent or school board.

Committee members said that many of the projects reviewed at the June 22 meeting were presented to them for the first time during the meeting, which Holt said was a result of frequent adjustments a list of priorities set by the superintendent and school board.

"We've made some major changes in (the projects) we've brought forth and we want to make sure that we're giving (the committee) correct audit information," Holt said.

The group projected its next meeting to be set in October, with no definite date.

Committee Member John Murray said he hoped the group could find a solution.

"How do you make sure this doesn't happen again?" Murray said.