Posted: July 27th, 2005

Daily News July 27, 2005

By Beth Barrett, Staff Writer

Robert Garcia, who recently stepped down as head of Los Angeles Unified’s bond oversight committee, resigned Tuesday after five years on the panel, which oversees about $15 billion in construction and modernization projects.

Garcia, also executive director of the nonprofit Center for Law in the Public Interest, said he had been planning to resign from the committee since announcing in mid-May he would no longer serve as its chairman.

“Five years is long enough,” Garcia said. “It was a tremendous opportunity to build schools.”

Tom Rubin, a hired consultant to the committee, said the panel is losing one of its most experienced members as it grapples with oversight of 248 construction projects and more than 10,000 modernization projects at virtually every campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“It’s definitely a loss,” Rubin said. “He’s been serving, and very effectively, for five years. He has a lot of experience. He just feels he’s put his time in.”

Garcia said a replacement has yet to be named, which means four of the 15 seats on the committee currently are vacant. The new committee chairwoman is civil rights attorney Connie Rice.

Garcia’s Center for Law in the Public Interest is part of a new alliance of nonprofit groups formed to raise funds for parks and open space at the “Cornfield,” a parcel north of Chinatown that is now cultivated with corn as part of a $2 million art project financed by the Annenberg Foundation.

The alliance anticipates getting $1 million from downtown developer Richard Meruelo, contingent on generating matching funds from other sources, said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, another alliance member.

Gonzalez said he’s confident the matching funds will be raised.

“He was the first guy to step up,” Gonzalez said of Meruelo. “It’s matching-contingent … we’re challenging the stakeholders, public and private to step up.”

He said more than $20 million is needed to complete the park, including educational, artistic and cultural programs for an area he said is rich in archaeology and history.

Meruelo emerged during the campaign of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the largest individual donor.

His March purchase of 23 acres of Taylor Yards property along San Fernando Road near the Los Angeles River, which the LAUSD had identified as a prized site for a 2,300-student high school, also was raised during the campaign.

Meruelo, who owns real estate throughout downtown Los Angeles, last week declined to confirm the donation to the alliance, saying it was “premature,”
and describing the negotiations as “very sensitive.”

Garcia said Meruelo’s anticipated financial backing of the alliance played no role in his decision to step down from the bond oversight committee.

“Neither the center nor I were involved in any discussions with Mr.
Meruelo,” Garcia said. “We haven’t received any funding from Mr. Meruelo.”

Garcia added the bond oversight committee never took a position on the Taylor Yards school site. District officials also said the bond oversight committee would have considered a broader package of school projects and general locations, rather than specific sites.

LAUSD recently went to court to get access to the site to do environmental tests after an access agreement Meruelo offered the district was deemed “not acceptable,” said Ron Bagel, LAUSD’s director of real estate.

Gonzalez said his institute continues to support more schools, including in Taylor Yards.

Beth Barrett, (818) 713-3731 beth.barrett@dailynews.com