LACCD says goodbye to Art Gastelum and FTR International over Shoddy and Fraudulent work at Mission College

Art Gastelum's political friends can help only so much when the smell of corruption becomes too toxic

With a looming criminal investigation on the horizon, the LACCD Board of Trustees unexpectedly took action to terminate the contracts of Irvine based construction company FTR international and the politically connected construction management firm Gateway Science and Engineering, which is owned by Art Gastelum.

For months since the LA Times series of exposes on the massive problems within the $5.6 Billion dollars LACCD Construction Program, the issues surrounding the construction of the Allied Health Building at Mission College, has been the poster child for what happens when you mixed political connections and construction. 

But as LACCD moves to disassociate itself from toxic political smell of Art Gastelum, the connected contractor is not going out quietly as noted by the times.Gastelum strongly criticized Marez's role in the recommendation to terminate his contract, saying she was "running around wild trying to protect her job.".

Marez is the same Christine Marez who worked for Gastelum and was hired by LACCD as its Inspector General, overseeing the construction program.

One can smell major CYA here and we should add this from the Van de Kamp Coalition as posted in the comment section of the times story.

Can Christine Marez be trusted with the records confiscated today?  Can District headquarters personnel be trusted with access to these confiscated records?  Is there a risk the Marez's real job is to sanitize the record before someone shows the connection between wrongful acts by LACCD Board members or LACCD Central Office administrators?  The Van de Kamps Coalition has seen thus far, only Inspector General reports where contrators are revealed as acting unlawfully and LACCD staff are shown as being ethical.  Are all of the IG's reports going to sanitize the personal involvement of Board members and high administrators?

Stay tuned but do not hold your breath.

Your thoughts..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14   .