L.A. Community College Chose a Watch Dog, Christine Marez, With Ties to Construction Supervisor She Was Supposed to Watch

By Dennis Romero Wed., Jul. 18 2012 at 2:19 PM

L.A. Mission College / Facebook

A hot mess for the L.A. college district?

The hot mess that is the Los Angeles Community College District just got a little messier.

An audit by L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel released today found a dumb if not outright shady selection process for an inspector general who happened to have ties to a construction firm accused of shoddy on-campus workmanship and even fraud.

In other words, the watchdog had ties to those whom it was supposed to be watching. Cozy for them, but maybe not so good for the taxpayer:

The district is undergoing a nearly $6 billion "rebuilding program" that has seen $450 million of that go toward development at the Mission College in Sylmar, where poor oversight and even falsified documentation has been alleged.

The company hired to supervise all the building? Gateway Science and Engineering, owned by the politically connected Art Gastelum. Who's keeping an eye on that company for the district you own? Inspector general Christine Marez and her company, Policy Masters, Inc.

Turns out Marez worked for Gateway from 1998 to 2003. Like we said, cozy. According to the audit:

.. the president of Policy Masters, Inc. had previously worked for Gateway Science and Engineering, Inc., a company that had been contracting with the District for several years to oversee bond-funded construction work, was not disclosed or addressed in the process as a potential conflict of interest for an Office of Inspector General that would be auditing and investigating that firm's work.

How was she chosen? Ah. Here's where Greuel comes in:

LACCD Final Report

In 2010, after some of the allegations of shoddy work and mismanagement surfaced, the district decided to choose an inspector general. It set forth guidelines (a "request for proposal") that were apparently ignored when trustees finally made their choice. According to a statement from Greuel's office:

Policy Masters, Inc was selected for the contract, despite not having experience in directing audits and investigations or a work history as a firm, as required by the Request for Proposal.
... The District failed to actively vet potential conflicts of interest.

Yep. According the audit, Policy Masters wasn't even certified to do inspector general work:

... Policy Masters Inc., provided team experience in financial and compliance auditing but did not provide qualifications or experience in investigations or performance or operational auditing.

Other frms that apparently met qualifications and scored high in the vetting process for the inspector general were ignored, Greuel concluded.

The audit parallels a similar inquiry by state Controller John Chiang. The district attorney is also looking into the situation.

Greuel, of course, wants the district to straighten up and revise its policies and procedures so associates of its contractors aren't paid big money to watch them on behalf of taxpayers.

Greuel:

Some of the District's actions are very troubling. Everyone needs to play by the rules and clearly deviations from the procedures hampered the competitive bidding process.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Art Gastelum, audit, Christine Marez, construction, Los Angeles Community College, Wendy Greuel

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smart ass

Aah, Art Gastelum pushing the envelope again a little more further. LACCD settled with him recently for being accused to be a bad boy. Where was that story Dennis?

Greg

Wendy Greuel is not fit to be Mayor after whitewashing the Recommendations to the LACCD. I guess that is what you do when the actual investigative work is done by an outside firm hired by Greuel and paid for by LACCD. Did anyone notice that the outside firm provided draft copies of the report to Controller Greuel and LACCD management before the report was finalized? Usually, an audited entity is allowed to write a response to the audit findings and such response letter, and the response of the "independent" auditor are included at the end of the report. In this case, Greuel has demonstrated no backbone or leadership. She co-wrote and put her name on a report bought and paid for by LACCD. How can she list the chamber of horrors of breaches of conflict of interest, failure to follow basic procurement principles and then say: Oh, let's make sure that this doe not happen again in the future. Excuse me? Why isn't the "independent" investigation using Greuel's name calling for some consequences like, oh perhaps termination of the Inspector General Contract and procurement of a new Inspector General? THAT would be leadership that people could vote for to be Mayor of Los Angeles. This report is living proof that Wendy Greuel is owned by financial interests and she is part of the political machine that is killing this City.

Hollywooddems

Obviously the whole Inspector General fiasco needs to be re-bid and done properly - where is the recommendation for that? The IG has no credibility and continuing with this farce makes it obvious that the LACCD wanted a lap dog - and Marez has been in some choice laps. She worked under James Sohn who was forced out of LAUSD. There are some close ties that weren't even mentioned in the report. All this and we haven't even discussed those pole dancing photos of Marez - AKA "the Hotness" at Playboy mansion. For details and hot photos go to: hollywoodhighlands.org