Posted on 06/27/2005 8:18:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The Los Angeles Unified School District is again considering building a $49 million parking garage for top brass and their staff a year after the plan ignited an outcry over finances.
The 1,734-space garage at the corner of 3rd Street and Beaudry Avenue would serve district headquarters and be paid for out of the general fund using money currently spent on leased parking for employees and visitors.
"It's a rent or buy decision -- leasing costs versus ownership costs -- where we get to a break-even situation in three years. We believe it's good business to invest in purchasing the property," said Bruce Kendall, LAUSD's director of maintenance and operations.
"There are limited opportunities to protect against rising costs. If we don't lock something in, we will be subject to one of those opportunities going away or being forced into remote parking."
The school board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to start negotiating with property owners for the garage site. But the resurrection of the plan has some questioning the district's financial decisions.
"We're doing very well in building new schools so we might as well branch out into the parking lot biz. Soon we'll be building L.A. Unified shopping malls and movie theaters where you can see reruns of Belmont," said board member David Tokofsky, referring to the district's new high school on a controversial site, where questions about contamination have been raised.
The teachers union fiercely criticized the garage plan when it was first proposed last July, saying it would drain millions of dollars from the general fund at a time when there was no money for raises.
United Teachers Los Angeles President John Perez said there's no room for more financial mistakes.
"Our concern is always that the money they use, they use in a wise and responsible way, and they don't always have a history of doing things in a wise and responsible way," Perez said. "I hope it doesn't come back and bite them in the butt like other financial decisions have in the past."
The board spent $184.2 million to buy and renovate the Beaudry Center to serve as its headquarters and expects to have 4,000 people in the center by next spring.
But LAUSD does not have sufficient parking, Kendall said. Currently, some of the building's employees park at lots where the district holds short-term leases -- costing the district about $4 million a year.
That cost is projected to increase to $4.5 million by 2007, Kendall said.
Remote parking would add the cost of shuttle services for employees, which could run $300,000 to $450,000 or higher each year, Kendall said.
The proposed $49 million lot would allow parking to be consolidated, eliminating leases and allowing the district to break even in three years, Kendall said.
"The district is in a position to save itself a considerable amount of money," he said.
It's for the children.
(/sarcasm)
First mistake: building a headquarters in an area that is so congested that you have to build parking structures in order to avoid paying an arm and a leg in parking fees. Smart move, LAUSD.
No, that's not the entire district, that's just what they're planning to have working at district headquarters next year.
It must be nice to work in the public sector. Sweet retirement and never have to worry about getting laid off or keeping the skill set current.
Too bad they can't offshore the entire district office and staff to India. I bet rickshaw garages are pretty cheap in India.
I don't even want to think of the phone and express-mail bills they'd run up if they did that.
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