New Contra Costa County Bond Oversight Group Forming

The California League of Bond Oversight Committees (CaLBOC) is announcing the formation of the Contra Costa County Chapter of CaLBOC. Everyone is invited to the first meeting on Saturday June 23, 2012, from 10 am to noon at La Tapatia Restaurant, 536 Main Street in Martinez. This will be an organizational meeting that will include the recent Grand Jury report on school bond oversight as a main topic of discussion. Nine school districts in Contra Costa County are to respond to their 16 findings and 12 recommendations.

(PRWEB) June 16, 2012

The California League of Bond Oversight Committees (CaLBOC) is announcing the formation of the Contra Costa County Chapter of CaLBOC. Everyone is invited to the first meeting on Saturday June 23, 2012, from 10 am to noon at La Tapatia Restaurant, 536 Main Street in Martinez. This will be an organizational meeting that will include the recent Grand Jury report on school bond oversight as a main topic of discussion.

The 2011-2012 Contra Costa County Grand Jury released Report #1208 on May 11, 2012 titled ”School Bond Oversight – Raising the Bar”. This is a 13 page report with 16 findings and 12 recommendations that requires responses by the governing boards of nine school districts. These districts are: Acalanes Union School, Antioch Unified School District, Byron Union School District, Contra Costa Community College District, John Swett Unified School District, Martinez Unified School District, Mt. Diablo Unified School District, Pittsburg Unified School District, and West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Prop. 39 required districts to have CBOCs (Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committees) to oversee school bond expenditures. CBOCs are required to actively review the expenditure of bond funds and to verify that the funds are being spent only for authorized purposes. The county Grand Jury findings address issues covering bond language, conflict of interest issues in the selection of bond oversight committee members, inadequate training and resource materials for oversight committees, and performance audits that are so limited that they don’t provide effective oversight.

Voters have approved over $3 billion dollars of school facility bonds in Contra Costa County alone. This makes lack of effective bond oversight a great concern with potential financial impacts on much of the community – also potentially impacting education. Recently, when a school parcel tax failed, some believe this was in part because of the already large property tax burden from school facility bonds.

CaLBOC provides support and training for CBOC members. It is an all-volunteer, non-partisan association of CBOC members, current and past, who are interested in helping other CBOC members. Since CBOC volunteers may be overseeing multi-million dollar school bond projects with inadequate support and training, a local chapter of CaLBOC could become a great asset for Contra Costa County.

To register and for more info please visit: http://www.ccccalboc.eventbrite.com

Topics include: 1.) Organization, 2.) Discussion of the CCC Grand Jury Report #1208