L.A. Schools to Draw Line on Conflicts of Interest

The Los Angeles Unified School District is expected today to issue a written policy restricting conflicts of interest, a move prompted by the disclosure of business ties between the school system’s top safety officer and asbestos contractors whose work was monitored by his staff.

The policy, which is to apply to all 54,000 district employees, is contained in a six-page bulletin scheduled to be posted in 650 schools and in other district buildings. It states that a district employee may not use his or her position with the district “to make or influence” a decision that “the employee knows or has reason to know will have a beneficial financial effect” on “outside employment, business or personal financial interests.”

The policy also bars private work on district time and the use of school “facilities, equipment or supplies for (anything) other than district business.”

School officials acknowledged that the policy breaks little new ground, and draws on state laws and district rules that are already on the books. But they said the bulletin also leaves little room for doubt about what activities are prohibited.

“It certainly is a warning to anybody in the school district who wants to use that position in order to gain material wealth from another job,” board member Roberta Weintraub said.

“At least, we’re on the record now and we do have some way of disciplining” employees who violate the rules, she said.

Some school officials say that lack of well-publicized strictures on outside business activity was a factor in the decision several months ago to issue a “notice of unsatisfactory service” rather than take stronger action against Jack C. Waldron, veteran chief of the district’s employee safety section.

The Times reported in January that Waldron, who has monitored asbestos removal from schools by private contractors, at the same time supplied safety training and other services to five contractors who had performed most of the work.

Associated Safety Consultants, the consulting firm operated by Waldron and former district safety officer Dan Flaherty, used a school district laboratory to perform scores of asbestos tests for its paying clients.

The Times also reported that three safety inspectors working under Waldron and who monitored the safety of asbestos removal in the schools had worked on the side for Associated Safety.

Withdraws From Firm

Waldron said Tuesday that he has withdrawn from the consulting firm.

After an inquiry into the consulting business last fall, district officials placed unsatisfactory service notices in the personnel files of Waldron and Flaherty, who resigned. District officials said such a notice usually limits promotion.

District officials expressed confidence that the consulting arrangement did not compromise the effectiveness of the district’s asbestos program nor the safety of pupils and staff. The district has spent more than $4.7 million to inspect and remove damaged asbestos from hundreds of schools and other district buildings.