Head of School Bond Panel Clarifies Role

The chairman of the volunteer watchdog committee for the $2.4-billion Los Angeles school bond said Tuesday he has changed his mind about joining a new executive committee that will direct the contracting process.

Steven Soboroff, a Westside businessman and confidant of Mayor Richard Riordan, said he concluded after conferring with others on the Proposition BB oversight committee that his role would become confused if he sat on the new committee, too.

The 11-member oversight committee was written into Proposition BB, which voters approved last April. Supt. Ruben Zacarias formed the new committee, consisting of high-level district staff, as part of a restructuring of the Proposition BB process that Soboroff had recommended.

The change took primary responsibility out of the hands of the district’s Facilities Services Division, leaving day-to-day operations with a construction management team hired by the district. The team will report directly to the new committee.