The Los Angeles Community College District recently announced it would be resuming a $6 billion campus building plan. According to the Los Angeles Times, the education institution declared a moratorium last October in order to investigate spending and budgets to ensure the district had enough money in the budget to fund the project.
It seemed as though things were running smoothly until August of last year, when State Controller John Chiang investigated the district's spending. The news source indicates that Chiang found evidence officials did not have adequate oversight of construction spending. As a result all construction came to a halt while spending policies and construction cost measurements were evaluated and updated.
Upon investigating the construction plans, officials found a number of issues that contributed to wasteful spending. The Times reports work delays and poor construction workmanship contributed to the issue, along with cost overruns and mismanagement. The LA City College system received funds to modernize and upgrade facilities in each of the nine different schools within the district. However, the aforementioned issues managed to drain about half of the construction funds before investigations were conducted.
School officials set aside $160 million in a reserve fund to cover unexpected costs that may arise during construction moving forward. They also implemented stricter spending control and a general repair and maintenance fund to maintain campus buildings each year. The first step school officials took to recover from the moratorium was to terminate contracts with construction companies that were failing to meet deadlines and costing the school system more than they should have, according to Southern California Public Radio.
A few weeks ago, students returning to campus may have seen some of the effects of the college's renewed efforts. The LA City College website indicates construction crews were using cement mixers and other construction equipment to repair walkways on campus in mid-August. They improved the quality of walkways in front of the Administration building on Heliotrope Drive. This was just one of many different projects being planned and executed across the district's nine campuses.
