Sunday, October 17, 2010

DAILY NEWS ARTICLE detailing how F*CKED UP LAUSD Is When It Comes To Continuing To SPEND, SPEND, SPEND -- AND OVERPAY, OVERPAY, OVERPAY for BOGUS Construction Projects. (A HUGE RACKET!)

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LAUSD DAILY NEWS STORY:

THIS READS LIKE A COMEDY SCRIPT. But then you will get sick to your stomach. THERE IS ZERO PERCENT CHANCE OF LAUSD PULLING OUT OF THIS MESS. WE ARE WITNESSING THE END OF THE PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.  By 2013, it will be 60 kids per class in a room filled with trash and no books.

This article takes me back nearly five years, when Villaraigosa was taking over the LAUSD school board with Monica Garcia, Tamar Galatzan, and the rest of his "construction money" pirate crew. 

THE REASON: BILLIONS IN CONSTRUCTION MONEY THAT VILLAR NEEDED TO HAND OUT TO HIS CONSTRUCTION CRONIES. When you read this article, it's NO MISTAKE AT ALL that the district pays out all this extra money in questionable and irresponsible ways. IT'S NOT IRRESPONSIBLE...IT'S VERY RESPONSIBLE...AND CLEVER, AND CRAFTY -- AND A COMPLETE HIGHWAY ROBBERY ON THE SCHOOL PLAYGROUND.

LAUSD report comes as board gets ready to OK $320 million in loans
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer - 10/17/10

[THEY WERE ABOUT TO VOTE TO APPROVE THIS, WHEN AT THE LAST MINUTE, IT WAS MENTIONED THERE WAS AN AUDIT REPORT THEY HAD NOT LOOKED AT YET. AND THEY ALMOST DID NOT STOP THE VOTE. IF SOME HAD THEIR WAY, THEY WOULD HAVE VOTED, ANYWAY. (I think they probably DID read the audit. Which is why they said they didn't.)]

A new audit of Los Angeles Unified's massive $20 billion building program raises concerns about the district using overly optimistic projections in its budgeting and cautions officials about authorizing new construction projects.

The report comes as the school board is set Tuesday to finalize $320 million in loans for new capital improvement projects such as installing solar panels and relocating a police station. [WHAT? You DON'T want to spend borrowed money for staff & books -- for solar panels, in this economy? YOU WANT TO HURT KIDS! KIDS NEED THESE SOLAR PANELS TO GO ALONG WITH THE TALKING PARK BENCHES, YOU RIGHT WING KID HATERS!]

The report by Capital Program Management, Inc. warns the district that while it expects nearly $900 million in bond funds owed by the state, it should only count on receiving about $220 million for now.

That could force the district to dip into its general fund - used to pay for salaries, programs and supplies - to pay back future loans, rather than count on money it already has on hand in its bond reserves. [SO WHAT? www.SOLARPANELSNOW.com!]

The report has at least one board member rethinking Tuesday's scheduled vote. Board member Yolie Flores said the report makes her question whether the board should approve all $320 million, but she acknowledged that there are times when short-term loans are necessary.

"At home, sometimes you don't want to use a credit card but if it's an emergency and it's about your family sometimes you're just going to have to use it," she said. [SO OF COURSE...SPEND! AUTHORIZE THE NEW CONSTRUCTION! MUST...KEEP...SPENDING!!! So she re-thought about it, before saying, "but we need to keep spending."]

While the district technically still has billions of dollars in voter-approved bonds to build projects, most of the money has been allocated for projects and the rest is state funds that are not being released due to the economic crisis.

School board officials want to use certificates of participation - loans used by districts to fund projects and generally paid back from the same fund that pays for teacher salaries, textbooks and supplies - to borrow money in the short term and pay it back with bond program reserve dollars.

But this strategy could get the district into trouble, since the report says spending the reserves to make payments on new loans could leave the district's building program in a deficit if unexpected costs occur. [THAT MEANS, IT WILL!]

"Established practice in the industry is that reserves are generally kept intact until the end of the program, because it is impossible to predict the occurrence of the type of event that calls on use of reserves," the report said.

Using reserves to make debt payments could backfire if the state's finances don't improve [AND EVERYONE, INCLUDING LAUSD BOARD KNOWS IT IS NOT GOING TO IMPROVE] since the district's building program is already in a deficit if uncollected state funds are not included in the books, the CPM report says. [If "UNCOLLECTED" funds are not included. L-M-F-A-O!!! What's the percent of uncollected fund that are collected? Why don't you jump off a roof into a safety net, based on "uncollected funds and an optimistic economic recovery."]

"At present, if uncollected state funds are not counted in the totals, LAUSD's program is by its own accounting about $114 million in deficit," the report says. [DON'T FOOL YOURSELF WITH, "IF?" JUST SAY, "WHEN...," It AIN'T gonna be there. (Sorry for the poor grammar.)]

"LAUSD expects current funding from the State to materialize ... however, CPM recommends that the District not commit the money until it has been confirmed as secure," the report says.

District officials have said that most of these projects would have been funded by Measure Q, the district's $7billion voter-approved bond passed in November of 2008, but declining home values have also stalled the collection of these bond funds so district officials don't expect to begin collecting until 2016. [THAT'S NOT VILLAR'S CRONIES FAULT...I MEAN THE KIDS FAULT. KEEP SPENDING!!! DON'T WORRY IF THE MONEY ISN'T THERE. JUST KEEP SPENDING. MUST...KEEP...SPENDING!!! PILFER-MISSION...MUST...BE...ACCOMPLISHED! (Campaign...contributions...already....taken!)]

Still, LAUSD officials say they want to press ahead with projects now when it is cheaper to build than wait and pay much more later. [ALL OF THE SUDDEN THEY CARE ABOUT VALUE -- AFTER A HALF A BILLION DOLLAR SCHOOL WITH TALKING PARK BENCHES -- AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!! I SWEAR...I ABSOLUTELY SWEAR, TEARS ARE ROLLING DOWN MY EYES AS I TYPE THIS IN LAUGHTER. I literally haven't laughed this hard in about a year. LOL!]

"The current bidding climate is such that it is much more cost-effective to release work now than it may be in the future as the economy recovers and construction costs rise," said Neil Gamble, LAUSD's deputy chief facilities executive. [SO LET'S RISK EVERYTHING, INCLUDING SAFETY because the bidding climate MAY BE different in the future.GIVE ME A F*CKING BREAK. YOU DESERVE TO HAVE YOUR BRAIN REMOVED! YOU ARE NOT USING IT!
Don't think you have to worry about the economy recovering soon. ]

District officials said CPM was overly conservative in its study and they are not making any recommendations, positive or negative, based on the document. [WHENEVER THE STUDY SAYS "DON'T SPEND," IT IS ALWAYS "OVERLY CONSERVATIVE." THESE DUMMIES ALWAYS IGNORE THE WARNING SIGNS OF BAD ECONOMY AND BUDGET CUTS...BUT THEY STRUGGLE TO KEEP SPENDING LIKE A MENTAL PATIENT TRYING TO ESCAPE OUT OF A STRAIGHT JACKET. I hope these LAUSD boardmembers are robbed by LAUSD dropouts during school hours!]

Some who follow the district's building program closely, however, think it is safer to wait. [BUT, DON'T WAIT! MUST SPEND, NOW!!! Imagine if we had to WAIT to start wasting money!!!]

"This review shows that we don't know enough about the future to go start planning more projects," said Scott Folsom, a long-time LAUSD parent advocate and member of the district's Bond Oversight Committee. [WHY LET THAT STOP THE LAUSD BOARD, NOW? They know what have been doing, all along. What makes you think they care now. The goal was NEVER to fix schools. But get hands on BILLIONS in construction and repair money and hand it out to Villariaogsa and Cortines' cronies. Kids are just props to be used for propping up numbers to get more money. YOU PEOPLE ARE SUCKERS FOR THINKING ANYTHING DIFFERENT! That was not a satirical comment.]

The report also suggests that the district's facilities department would have a better sense of how much reserves it actually has if it had stricter oversight of its budget. [The most USELESS word..."IF." Did you see the item? THEY WERE READY TO VOTE WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT THE AUDIT. At the last minute, one of the boardmembers mentioned it. ONLY THEN, after Cortines was BUSTED, did they hold the vote off for a week to read the report they spent money ordering. There is NO OVERSIGHT BY DESIGN!!! HOW ELSE COULD THEY GET AWAY WITH ALL THIS SH*T AND ALL YOUR KIDS MONEY?]

The report says some of the lax financial controls could be leading to more change orders from contractors, letting them increase their final billing. [THAT IS THE POINT!!! THE CONTRACTORS ARE VILLAR-BACKED BOARD'S CRONIES...THE GOAL IS TO RUN UP THE COST AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!! DIDN'T YOU HEAR ABOUT THE HALF A BILLION DOLLAR SCHOOL! That's why Villaraigosa had to get control of the school board with Galatzan, Garcia and the other money-pilfering pirates. THE HIGHER THE FINAL BILL...THE BETTER FOR THE CRONIES!!!]

Project teams often demonstrate a lack of discipline in controlling costs, always knowing they can "go back to the well" if they have cost overruns, the report said. [IT IS DESIGNED THAT WAY! You can spend up to $300,000 without having to put in a special order. IF THEY DON'T RUN UP THE COSTS...THEY ARE GOING TO GET A VISIT FROM A THUG, ASKING THEM WHY THEY HAVEN'T BEEN DRIVING THE COSTS UP. THE ENTIRE LAUSD GAME IS TO GET THE CONSTRUCTION MONEY. ANTONIO'S CREW! Just like there is another team for the pension money -- and a bunch of teams for the non-profit money. (Assemblyman Kevin DeLeon calls them, "pots of money on the table.")]

It also found that most change orders were being added to construction bills at the end of projects - usually when change orders are most expensive. [AGAIN...I'M GLAD THIS IS FINALLY BEING EXPOSED. THIS ISN'T "INEFFICIENCY" -- IT'S SKILL! MASTERFUL TACTICS OF MUNICIPAL PILFERAGE FROM THE MONEY FOR THE KIDS THEY SHAMELESSLY HIDE BEHIND.]

The audit also found that contractor requests for change orders are rarely turned down. [OMG! THEY BETTER NOT BE TURNED DOWN? HAVE YOU SEEN SOME OF THESE GUYS? Anyway, they CAN'T turn it down. The order has been sent from above to drive up cost as high as possible -- and don't ask and don't turn down! WE'RE TALKING BIG MONEY, HERE. AND YOU GOTTA GRAB IT WHILE YOU CAN!]

"We were first told that a fairly elaborate and rigorous process was required to request extra money for a project from program reserves, then told in the next sentence that such requests were virtually never denied," the report says. [They BETTER not be denied...you don't want to be wearing cement shoes. NOT very fashionable.]

Flores said she did not plan to approve any more projects until she got better information on the long- term financial picture for the district's construction program. [AND OF COURSE SHE ISN'T RUNNING FOR ANOTHER TERM. If she was...she wouldn't be allowed to vote, "no," or even hint of it. ANYWAY, now she'll say, "Well, even though it was late, I got the report and read it, and I'm not happy, but with a heavy heart I'll vote, "yes," this one last time, and hope things improve around here.]

She also raised concerns about the district's release of this report, which was dated Aug. 30 but not distributed to board members until this week after Flores asked for the information. [OF COURSE IT HADN'T BEEN DISTRIBUTED!!! DIDN'T YOU JUST SEE WHAT IT SAID?]

"I don't appreciate not having information that could help me make a decision," Flores said.  [INSERT SURPRISE AND OUTRAGE, HERE. Gimme a break, Yoli. As if you didn't know! You look so adorable when you get all worked up, pretending you have NO IDEA as to what's going on.]

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