Garcia resigns LAUSD oversight panel; Former chairman spent five years on building committee

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. . . .