Nearly two years ago, David Salazar arrived at the Los Angeles Community College District, ready to oversee a massive $3.3-billion construction bond program that voters had approved for the largest two-year college system in the nation.
The new chief facilities executive was equipped with two master’s degrees and three decades of experience managing building projects for the California State University, Claremont Graduate University and the San Bernardino Community College District. But nothing prepared him for what he said he found in the L.A. college district — sloppy management, fierce backroom politics and entrenched relationships between board trustees and construction interests.
After Salazar raised red flags about cost overruns earlier this year, drawing sharp criticism from some trustees, the L.A. district’s chancellor, Francisco Rodriguez, gave him a notice of termination in March.
In his complaint, Salazar also alleged that other actions riled some trustees and top administrators, leading to his termination. They included:
His decision to commission a study on how campuses were using their space. The October 2018 study found that many classrooms, laboratories and offices on all of the campuses were unused much of the time — to a greater degree than the statewide community college average. The study also found that the district was spending $4.36 million annually to maintain the unused space. “The analysis concluded that the district did not need to build more facilities at the rate it had projected to justify voter approval of the Measure CC $3.3-billion dollar bond,” the complaint said, “meaning the taxpayers were misled.”
Then, in January, Salazar told trustees that the manager of the bond program, Jacobs Project Management Co., had overspent its first-year budget by $1.8 million. Jacobs was not required to adjust its spending until the fourth year of its five-year contract with the district, but Salazar said he wanted to head off any potential problems and asked Jacobs for a corrective action plan. In a letter to Rodriguez, Jacobs agreed that the calculation was accurate but said it had spent less than the district had approved.
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