The Los Angeles Times reports that the charter chain founded by LAUSD board member Ref Rodriguez has now accused him of financial misdeeds. He was accused last month of money laundering during his campaign for the board seat. Rodriguez was put into office by the charter billionaires associated with the California Charter School Association. After the defeat of Steve Zimmer by Nick Melvoin last spring, The board had a charter majority for the first time and was on the cusp of privatizing many more schools. After his indictment, Rodriguez stepped aside as board president but refused to give up his seat.
Will Rodriguez cling to his seat? Will Eli Broad and Reed Hastings and Alice Walton have to buy a new board seat?
“The charter school network that L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez co-founded and ran for years has filed a complaint with state regulators alleging that Rodriguez had a conflict of interest when he authorized about $285,000 in payments drawn on its accounts.
“Officials at Partnerships to Uplift Communities, or PUC Schools, filed the complaint Friday with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
“According to the complaint and documents reviewed by The Times, the vast majority of the money transfers that Rodriguez authorized and PUC has flagged went from school accounts to Partners for Developing Futures, a nonprofit under his control.
“An attorney who reviewed the records for the school network said he has found little or no evidence so far of services provided for these payments.
“The payments were made in 2014, but do not appear to have been properly authorized,” said attorney Gregory Moser, whose firm was hired by PUC to conduct the investigation. “Nor are the purposes of the expenditures and benefit to the schools adequately documented, our investigation revealed.”
“PUC’s senior managers said they uncovered the transfers — made in a series of checks — while responding to questions and requests from The Times in compliance with the state’s Public Records Act.
“The conflict-of-interest allegations could add to Rodriguez’s legal problems.
“Last month, prosecutors charged him with three felonies and 25 misdemeanors for alleged money laundering in his school board campaign. Rodriguez is accused of soliciting people to give him donations and then illegally paying them back.”
Charter Schools Education Los Angeles Board of Education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“On Friday, the school network accepted the resignation of his cousin, senior manager Elizabeth Tinajero Melendrez. In PUC records reviewed by The Times, Melendrez is listed as the person who requested eight of the checks Rodriguez authorized, adding up to nearly $188,000.
In its filing with the political practices commission, PUC contends that the payments to Partners for Developing Futures are a potential conflict of interest because Rodriguez appears to be on on both sides of the transaction. PUC’s records indicate that he authorized and signed the checks. Tax filings from 2009 through 2012 — the last year for which one is available — and records that PUC provided from as recently as 2015, show that Rodriguez was the chief executive of Partners for Developing Futures.”
Remember UNO charters in Chicago? This is almost the same story. They were moving charter funds to the nonprofit with the funds passed through relatives. The only thing missing was the laundering of campaign funds, but that’s unusual- most campaign finance regulations aren’t enforced. Maybe they had some inkling of the charter/nonprofit dealings so investigated the campaign finance piece more vigorously suspecting it would lead to more.
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The thing that irritates me is that PUC KNEW about this from 2010 on. LAUSD activists and watchdogs have screamed about this for years. One even filed an ethics complaint, which was promptly swept under the rug at the request of the then mayor, Villaraigosa.
Now that Rodriguez’s court date is approaching they try to distance themselves from him. The hypocrisy of LA charters and CCSA keep mounting, yet the majority of the population remains selfish and/or clueless.
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““PUC’s senior managers said they uncovered the transfers — made in a series of checks — while responding to questions and requests from The Times in compliance with the state’s Public Records Act.”
I suspect they did know about it but covered it up. The fact that they now claim they only knew about because they were complying with a media request for their records — basically saying “we had no idea what was going on we just took our cut and partied with it” — is about as lame as can be.
I guess a charter can ignore when little media reports on wrong-doing because they know their authorizers don’t care. But if a major newspaper gets it, then suddenly self-dealing is of interest to them.
Maybe if the auditors who are not doing any kind of due diligence get sued by taxpayers, they will decide their fiduciary duty is to accounting standards and not to the rich people who hire them to oversee charters.
So what accounting firm certified this charter’s financial statements that didn’t catch a glaring wrong-doing?
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Living in Los Angeles County and following LAUSD for years this is not surprising but so very disturbing.
Why voters do not take the time to know the candidate they are voting for is beyond me.
When then Mayor Villaraigosa demanded control over some of LAUSD schools, the corruption went up a notch and hasn’t stopped.
Parents do not understand the implications of their votes on the education of their children. I’ve always believed that the only hope for LAUSD is for the district to break up into other smaller districts.
Los Angeles is huge and spread out. We don’t have boroughs like NYC and there is little cohesiveness in some areas. If smaller communities or neighborhoods were voting for their own school board it might get better but as of today I doubt it.
Most people who can afford it send their children to private schools in L.A.
That’s the sad nature of L.A. schools.
And since the CA Dept. of Education isn’t much better the only hope for LAUSD is for the Los Angeles Times to stay on this case and create headlines.
Those of us in the suburbs and in their own school districts are staying intimately involved so as not to duplicate LAUSD. Ever.
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Last year, the CA State Senate held a meeting on charter oversight. Problems with the annual independent financial audits were discussed. Clearly, these yearly audits are less than adequate. Who was watching the store when all this was going on? Did anyone other than Rodriguez look at the books on a regular basis?
And don’t forget, the CEO of El Camino Real Charter HS was living high on the school’s credit card for years and only got caught when the L.A. Daily News reported it.
Just try to imagine how frequent these kinds of things are occurring. But, how many other charters are getting away with the same thing?
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I am surrounded by criminals.
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Are we surprised, this type of behavior has been going on a while since charters and their supporters started dominating this school board. This is only the tip of the charter school corruption that so many educators have been shouting about. When lausd has been depleted, money-wise, then we will see the collapse of this movement and possibly of this district as we know it. It would be sad a disservice to all people in this district who strive for equal, quality education for students who would lose again.
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Isn’t that misappropriation of funds? Couldn’t someone do jail time for embezzlement?
What crime does it take for someone to step down from public service?
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