Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)

UPDATE:

The LAUSD may be committing fraud with Black and Hispanic construction contracts

The LAUSD published its Small Business Program Year-End Report, ending March, 2004. In this report the LAUSD stated that African Americans were awarded $8,230,750.40 in prime construction contracts, and that they were awarded $6,644,998.00 in construction subcontracts.

In this same report, the LAUSD stated that it awarded Hispanics $78,171,253.88 in prime construction contracts, and $16,966,085.00 in construction subcontracts with the LAUSD.

On November 4, 2004, the LAUSD was presented with a Freedom of Information Act request, requesting the names and addresses of these minority firms who won these construction contracts. As of today, December 11, 2004, we have yet to receive this information. We have also visited the LAUSD headquarters, the Facilities Services Divison, with no success. We have even gone to the Superintendent of Schools, with no success.

We have received two letters, and three phone calls from the legal counsel of the Los Angeles Unified School District, (Attorney McConville), stating that their office is still trying to find the contract information on these recent minority construction contracts. Note: According to the report that the LAUSD facilities management department issued, these contracts are suppose to be current...active construction projects. We are talking about approximately $110,000,000 in current construction contracts!

We have been given about five different reasons why we do not have this information.

1. Attorney McConville was out sick for a few days.

2. The IT (Information Technology) department was trying to gather the contract information from the computer.

3. Veronica Soto, who works for the Facilities Management Department is trying to find the contract information.

4. They are short of staff

5. "Patricia, I will call you in two days"....but Mr. McConville has not called again. It has now been a week.

We don't believe that these contracts exist.

I like reading these reports about our public services.

In the age of globalization, we need affirmative action for worker-run cooperative businesses, and locally owned minority small business that are not just headed by one minority.

These race-based goals work to some extent, but, increasingly, you will find that the Hispanic or Asian "minority" is someone with money from another country, or someone married into wealth. We're not in an economic bubble anymore, where minority communities have cohesive community businesses.

I say this as a supporter of affirmative action.