Belmont Study Pushed Over Romer Objection

Two days before assuming office, new Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer got a rough introduction Thursday to the politics of the Belmont Learning Complex.

With the citizens oversight committee for the district’s $2.4-billion construction bond poised to get into the Belmont fray, Romer pleaded for a two-week delay while he gets up to speed.

“I would like to depoliticize this issue,” he said.

Members of the committee thanked Romer for his conciliatory tone and then voted 8 to 0 to challenge the Board of Education’s January decision to abandon the downtown high school project over concerns about environmental hazards on the former oil field.

The committee recommended that the district complete stalled environmental studies that would lead to reliable estimates of how much would have to be spent to make Belmont safe and when the nearly completed school could open.

Since the board’s vote, a number of plans for replacement schools have either fallen by the wayside or run into severe obstacles, causing Belmont advocates to press for a reconsideration.

In April, county Supervisor Gloria Molina offered $1 million from her office funds to complete the studies. The board rejected the offer.

Meanwhile, the Proposition BB oversight committee jumped into the debate, preparing a resolution urging completion of the studies.

After hearing from a Molina aide Thursday that the supervisor had withdrawn her offer, the committee amended its resolution to commit Proposition BB money to the study.

“We can’t find any reason to say we need to wait another two weeks to get the information,” committee Chairman Steve Soboroff said Thursday in his last meeting before quitting the committee to concentrate on his campaign for mayor. Romer and Soboroff had a testy exchange.

“Steve, I know you’re running for mayor,” the former Colorado governor said. “I understand that you have some very strong feelings about this issue and they are going to be a part of your campaign.”

“What is in that information that everybody seems to be afraid of?” Soboroff snapped. “The board has already voted without appropriate information and then come back and said they don’t care what the information is.”