Much Money, Good Prices

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

September 25 -- After more than a year of planning, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is asking voters to approve a school facilities improvement bond, and supporters and opponents of the measure squared off in front of CityTV cameras last week hoping to win voters to their sides.

Calling the proposition “good for children, good for our schools and good for our community,” Shari Davis, co-chair of the Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) joined John Petz to urge voters to pass Measure BB, a $268 million bond to renovate and repair the district’s aging schools, eight of which are more than 60 years old.

Davis compared the schools to private homes that, as years go by, need to be maintained. In the case of the schools, leaky roofs and plumbing, outdated boilers and septic tanks, and mold and asbestos need to be dealt with at the same time new classrooms, labs and libraries need to be built or expanded, Petz and Davis said.

But bond opponents Wade Major and Mathew Millen weren’t sold. Proposition X, passed in 1998 was “supposed to have taken care of these exact same problems,” Major said. “Schools that are aging now were aging then; schools that have asbestos now, had asbestos then.”

Major accused the district of mismanaging the $42 million bond, and said voters are once again being asked to give the district a “blank check.”

Arguing that the district has a triple-A bond rating, Davis said that Prop X projects “came in on time and under budget.” And Petz added that the district hadn’t foreseen state-mandated class size reduction -- and the corresponding need to provide new classrooms -- when it made its original plans for spending the 1998 bond money.

This time around, voters need to know exactly where their money’s going, Major countered.

“I need to know what they’re going to spend,” he said. “I don’t put that kind of trust in anybody.”

In response, Petz held up a thick white binder -- one of three volumes of a draft facilities master plan drawn from community meetings, engineering plans and staff interviews.

“Here’s their vision,” Petz said, adding that the volumes containing detailed specifications and cost analyses show what’s needed, where it’s needed and how much it’s going to cost.

And Davis pointed out that the district’s spending will be closely scrutinized by a citizens oversight committee.

Petz went on to exhort Major to visit the school sites if he didn’t believe they needed renovation. When he described Edison’s schoolyard “taken over by aging and decrepit portable facilities,” Millen jumped in.

If the district weren’t giving away permits to students whose families don’t live in Santa Monica or Malibu, the schools would have all the classrooms they needed, Millen argued.

While Petz and Millen couldn’t agree on the number of permit students in the district -- 20 percent according to Millen; far fewer, and going down, according to Petz -- Petz pointed out that these students bring “average daily attendance” money from the state into the district.

“The money that’s coming from the state is not enough to maintain the facilities for the children who don’t live here,” countered Millen. “That’s why we need this bond.”

Things got personal when Millen went on to insist that the City, as a housing developer, ought to pay some of the bill.

Petz got as far as “much of what (Millen) is about has to do with the City of Santa Monica and his disagreement…” when moderator Sandy Jacobson raised her voice, reminding the participants of the rules of engagement, which forbid personal accusations.

Once again, things got heated when bond supporters mentioned Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax reform education advocates blame for the poor standing of California’s public schools.

Major had a different take. “This is the old blame Prop 13 argument. Proposition 13 didn’t steal any money from the public coffer,” he said, adding that the law had made it possible for his parents to hang on to their home in Malibu.

When Petz later pointed out that Prop. 13 had saved homeowners tax money, Major took it personally, calling Petz’s remark “presumptuous.”

“My parents didn’t save thousands in taxes, they saved their home,” he said.

“Bond measures are being piled upon bond measures to a degree where it’s outstripping the ability of a lot of people to pay,” Major argued. “People aren’t making more money. We’re treating homeowners like they’re the gift that keeps on giving.”

Petz and Davis were unimpressed. The amount homeowners will be charged -- $30 per $100,000 assessed property value -- is “not some over the top set of expenditures,” Petz said.

The “affluent” communities should “step up to the plate and do the right thing,” he said.

Good schools increase property values, added Davis, who appealed to the community’s commitment to education and to its children.

The debate was co-sponsored by CityTV, the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica Education Fund and the Center for Governmental Studies.

CityTV will be making its election programming available with prime time airings on cable channel 16, 24/7 airings on cable channel 75, video-on-demand on Time Warner Cable, and on its election website www.smvote.org.