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BY BRIAN HEWS
Tuesday July 17, 2018, 1:35 p.m.
Hews Media Group-Community News has learned that the ABC Unified School District Board, led by President Soo Yoo, and a district that boasts large unions such as the ABCFT, AFCSME, and CSEA, does not plan to use a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for its bond-funded infrastructure improvements.
The exclusion is contained in the Bond Resolution that will be considered at tonight’s School Board meeting which states, “subject to fiscal requirements of the District, as directed by the Board, the Board hereby finds and directs as follows…. that the Board does not plan to build and maintain its bond-funded capital facilities under a Project Labor Agreement (PLA).”
According to sources close to the situation, there could be a backlash at the meeting from certain Board members; labor representatives are also “coming out in force.”
A PLA is when the government awards contracts for public construction projects exclusively to unionized firms.
The PLA requires all contractors, whether they are unionized or not, to subject themselves and their employees to unionization in order to work on a government-funded construction project.
It is essentially a comprehensive pre-hire collective bargaining agreement. The basic terms and conditions for labor are established in advance for all organizations involved in the project.
A typical PLA includes no-strike, no lock-out agreements, and also includes procedures for quickly settling any problems or disputes that might arise during the project.
Critics always point to their anti-competitive nature, but PLA’s never restrict bidding solely to union contractors, projects are available to any contractor who will accept the terms of the PLA.
According to one source, the local teacher’s union, the ABCFT, had expressed ambivalence about the PLA issue.
HMG-CN contacted Ray Gaer, President of the ABC Federation of Teachers Local #2317 who said, “thanks for your email clarification. ABCFT is not against any PLA so I appreciate your checking with me.
Word of the exclusion quickly spread around the district, finally making its way to Sacramento.
Just yesterday the district received a letter from Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon addressed to ABC President Soo Yoo urging the Board to consider the inclusion of a PLA.
Calderon wrote, “I respectfully request that the Board of Education consider the inclusion of Project Labor Agreements (PLA) in this important resolution. PLAs often ensure a preference for local hiring, veterans, and prevailing wages that bolster the local economy and keep economic benefits close to home.”
Just recently Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn insisted that a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) be included in plans to develop the south-side of the Rancho Los Amigos Campus in Downey. Hahn has long advocated for PLAs as a means of investing in good jobs and guaranteeing fair treatment of workers.
“Not only do Project Labor Agreements help keep projects on schedule and on budget, they are a tool that helps us to protect workers and create a pipeline of good paying jobs,” said Supervisor Hahn.
“The Building Trades has had a long and fruitful partnership with the County and we are very proud to partner with Supervisor Hahn on the Rancho Los Amigos South Campus Project to put local people to work including veterans and the disadvantaged workforce that live in the County,” said LA/OC Building Trades Executive Secretary Ron Miller.
“Let’s not just think about building projects,” said Alex LaFarga of LiUNA, “let’s think about building careers. That is what these PLAs do — they provide us with opportunities to build careers.”
When questioned, ABC Board President Soo Yoo confirmed the exclusion telling HMG-CN, “It is already stated that the Board does not plan to build and maintain its bond-funded capital facilities under a Project Labor Agreement (PLA).”
Yoo then back-tracked when she stated, “the language in the Bond Resolution does not prohibit the District from awarding contracts to PLA contractors though. The Board will take action on this at the July 17 Board Meeting.”
Project Labor Agreement (PLA), also known as a Community Workforce Agreement, is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with one or more labor organizations that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project.
Mello-Roos District is an area where special tax is imposed on those real property owners within a community facilities district. It is an area that has chosen to seek public financing through the sale of bonds for the purpose of financing certain public improvements and services. It runs for specific duration, start and ending.
A school bond election is a bond issue used by a public school district, typically to finance a building project or other capital project. These measures are placed on the ballot by district school boards to be approved or defeated by the voting public. It runs for specific duration, start and ending.
https://www.loscerritosnews.net/2018/07/17/abcusd-rejects-unions-excludes-project-labor-agreement-in-bond-resolution/
——SCHOOL MELLO ROOS BOND——
…………….. Just received this from the school district. In years past, we have not received this type of information. They are trying to butter us up ( kissing ass) on how great a job the district is doing, so when the bond-Mello Roos measure comes up again for a select group to vote on. Please please, don’t want the bond measure to pass again, district will just increase importing students in to our district.. District is always going to lack talent and money, as most of the parents in this district, are parachute immigrants, wanting us to spend Mello Roos money to educate their rug rats, for most part, were not born here. Most of the parachute kids are born out of auto mall employees and Town Center employees, they have free sex and expect us to pass and pay more Mello Roos Bonds, just because we purchased in 90703-90701 and they did not.
Since residents who are paying property taxes for 90703, why should we pay for students who live in Paramount, Compton, Downey, Long Beach, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Cudahay, Whittier, SFS, etc.?????????????? ………. what next, importing students in on the train from IE and expect us to pay for mello roos?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eo-elFcJRN4pD8J2O5FTiSGPsvq8jsen/view
ABCUSD has a declining enrollment, we need to stop importing students from outside the district, and start condemning many campuses for fire sale.
Instantly we need to close and sell off Tracy High School and Whitney High School. The district does not need to have tier level high schools, in the real world, adults all have to work together; we need to stop these two designated campuses.
About a third of the elementary school campuses need to be closed and sold off.
The money we have left over from the sale of all these campuses can be used to recondition plus retrofit the existing campuses in the district, poss. some new 2nd story wings. We don’t need large playgrounds and we need Solar Farms.
Then after that it’s all completed, the trustees can see if they have an overage of savings or need to go out to vote for another school Mello Roos Bond.
I have no faith in most of the trustees up there, Bond issues and construction projects are not in their expertise, and they show very poor Administration for either one of those skills.
The district also needs to start importing some adults from the business world, to come teach the students, we have that in other school districts and it was very fruitful, the students were able to learn from Hands-On experience people in the business World, much better than any teacher can bring to the classroom.
Let’s face facts, this district is mostly an immigration District, the parents have little knowledge of the heartland of America education system, and we can throw billions and billions of dollars into the school district, most of the parents don’t even understand about advanced education, and it’s very hard to teach a student about United States educational level, when they are at home, the parents know nothing about United States.
Truthfully, very tired of how ABC Administration keeps playing the cultural Chinese atonement, this is United States and let’s forget about China, and let’s start a new leaf with appropriation to the United States educational system and stop all this Chinese stem crap.
Maybe trustees need to have field trips to Irvine School District and Palos Verdes District, to see how schools are run and run with knowledgeable Heartland of American administration.
Please vote no on this 2018 Mello Roos School Bond.
PLEASE VOTE NO ON THIS BOND…………
Do not like this election for voting for bonds, because not everybody in the school district who owns property is eligible to vote. Property Owners do not have to be citizens nor SS numbers, so they’ll be a lot of residences not qualified to vote, because they are international investors in California. There is just a small number of Voters who own property and are pre-qualified to vote. This should be addressed to the Supreme Court. School district wants to Levy a bond on all residences in the school district, very small amount of residences are eligible to vote . Some cities in the state, allow all Property Owners to vote, no matter if they are registered or not. But in this school district, it is different.
Personally feel we could spend millions of dollars on bonds, it takes a village to educate our children, and remember our village is composed of a lot of immigrant parents, who have never had the United States education or degree or job skills, so they can’t pass that Talent on to their students / children after the school hours. Classrooms are only good from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., district village does not have the capability of educating the children. If our district was composed of educated parents from the United States with an MBA or Ph.D, or were CEO’s, we probably would not even have to go to bond measures, because the parents would be teaching their children not the school districts.
Demographics of the district, many heartland of america families, do not want to locate in this district, as the village concept does not exist with first/ second generation immigration. District is upside down in diversity.
Now, if the absentee owner of properties in Cerritos, are not eligible to vote, but are renting out the property to tenants who are registered to vote, now the tenant are eligible to vote, not the homeowner.
Cerritos has aprox 35% rental properties and about the same number who pay income tax, as they do not make money in Calif or USA, but earnings are from abroad.
Cerritos has aprox 1,000 orig property owners, out of the 15,000 homes.
Please vote no on bond
California school bond elections are local ballot measures that ask voters to decide on whether the school district that is sponsoring the measure should be allowed to issue bonds and to incur the additional indebtedness that bonds bring with them.
All public school districts in California are entitled to bond issues on the local ballot.
California also has a statewide school building program known as the School Facilities Grant Program, which is supported by statewide bond measures such as Proposition 1D in 2006. Statewide bond measures require a simple majority to pass.
Local school districts can also issue school construction bonds and levy property taxes to pay for them, as long as the voters in the district approve.
Prior to 2001, districts needed two-thirds supermajority vote approval to pass local general obligation bond measures. More than 40 percent of local school bond ballot questions failed. In November 2000, California voters passed Proposition 39. Proposition 39 reduced the supermajority needed to pass a bond issue ballot question from 66.67 percent to 55 percent. Proposition 39 also imposed restrictions on the allowable amount of the bond and included accountability requirements. Since the passage of Proposition 39, districts have had the choice of whether to seek a two-thirds supermajority approval or to comply with the additional restrictions to qualify for the 55 percent approval requirement.