Blog note: this article references a Contra Costa County
Grand Jury report that inspired the revisions.
RICHMOND -- The West Contra Costa district
school board Wednesday agreed to revise the process for appointing members to
the committee that oversees its $1.6 billion bond construction program,
stripping itself of the ability to individually select members.
The Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee is
charged with watching over the effectiveness of the district spending of
voter-approved bonds to build and renovate schools and other bond-funded
spending. But complaints have steadily grown in recent years that the committee
has lacked the ability to properly monitor the spending, which some have
accused of being exorbitant and wasteful.
Previously, each of the five West Contra Costa
school board members was responsible for appointing one member to a 19-member
board, with the city councils of the five cities in the district, plus the
county, representing unincorporated areas, appointing seven more. Various
community representatives filled the remaining positions.
With the reorganization, the CBOC will now
have a maximum of 17 members, including nine at-large members chosen from
residents of the five cities and the unincorporated areas in the district who
apply for the positions.
The committee will also have representatives
from senior citizens, taxpayers and business organizations, a parent or
guardian, and a parent or guardian who is a PTA member, all of which are
required by law. The members will be appointed by the board as a whole.
The committee also added representatives from
an employee union and from the Contra Costa building trades as well as a
student representative.
The changes will go into effect as the
two-year terms of the current members expire.
The alterations were inspired in part by a
Contra Costa Civil Grand Jury report that criticized the size, makeup and
effectiveness of the CBOC, according to trustee Val Cuevas, one of two board
members on the district's governance subcommittee who recommended the changes.
They also follow a preliminary report issued
Monday by the firm hired to perform a forensic audit of the bond program that
identified a "high risk" for "waste, abuse and financial
irregularities" in the past because of conflict of interest.
"(The new CBOC) will not be under the
influence of elected representatives," Cuevas said. "The school board
and city councils cannot appoint board members anymore and, instead, the
members will self-nominate by applying for the positions."
Later in the meeting, trustees approved a report
from an architecture firm hired to create a priority list laying out the order
in which older schools will be rebuilt or replaced using about $200 million
that is left in bond program funding.
The creation of a Facilities Master Plan
became a priority when Measure H, a $270 million bond measure, failed at the
polls in June 2014.
Fresno-based Darden Architects reported that
it has met with stakeholders at the 21 schools under consideration for a
rebuild or renovation and evaluated the condition of the schools.
The top criteria for prioritizing projects
that emerged from the meetings were the physical condition of the school,
safety and security, and the number of years since the school last received
improvements.
The data gathered from those and other
community meetings will be evaluated by a prioritization committee consisting
of parents of elementary school students from the service areas of the
district's six comprehensive high schools, representatives from each city in
the district and the county, and three district staff members.
The committee's report that will include a
priority list will be released in April.
The board also held its annual reorganization
meeting, selecting trustee Randy Enos as school board president and Liz Block
as board clerk for 2016.
December
11, 2015
Contra
Costa Times
By Rick Radin
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