Past sins should not taint board

I have been growing steadily more upset about your recent editorial

lecturing the current School Board (“Too many unforced errors,” Aug.

6) and the subsequent, politically motivated letters piling on, like

the letter from Michael Bergfeld (“Trustee emphasizes finger

pointing,” Mailbag, Sept. 21). I can no longer hold off on writing

this letter.

I am not a friend or campaign supporter of any board member in

office today. But blaming them for the long laundry list of

construction problems being uncovered over the past year just isn’t

fair. I am furious that whoever wrote the editorial and presumably

played a role in publishing the letters knows so little about this

community and very recent history that they don’t know the truth. I

understand Bergfeld, as he’s grinding that old airport conspiracy

saw. (I’m surprised we haven’t seen letters yet somehow tying

Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath to supposed secret airport

expansion plans.)

To get the whole truth and the important details, the editorial

writer and other board bashers who have written could have simply

read any of countless Burbank Leader stories from between 2002 and

2003.

The lack of a vapor barrier between a tennis court and the parking

garage, the missing netting at baseball fields and the brand new

roofs leaking throughout the district are really just further

vindication for a small handful of citizens who tried for years to

let the previous school board and the staff those officials prized

most highly know that they were going wrong. Every single decision

and shortcoming cited in recent articles, in the editorial and in at

least one of the letters were the responsibility of the board tossed

out of office in the 2003 and 2005 elections. (In 2005, the

incumbents, for once, recognized the obvious and did not to run

again.)

Get the names straight! Elena Hubbell, Trish Burnett, Connie

Lackey, Richard Raad and Mike McDonald -- those were the people in

office when residents tried to show them proof of growing problems.

How did that bunch react when they were warned again and again? They

accused the critics of playing politics. When people stood to tell

them how the superintendent of facilities, Ali Kiafar, had misled

them or gave incomplete information on several issues, what did they

do? They asked Kiafar if he agreed, and didn’t even notice when his

answers made no sense. They never lifted a finger to do a little

research themselves, or to look for other opinions. One of those

board members was even infamous for falling asleep at meetings.

Members of the district’s so-called “oversight committee” answered

warnings by writing letters to your paper praising district officials

and all the great work that was being done, and to accuse everyone

who said otherwise of not knowing what they were talking about. “On

time and on budget!” Remember how they kept repeating that? How about

digging up those letters now and reprinting them? Good citizens who

tried to warn that there were big problems with the entire

construction process were ridiculed and slandered as liars. Now we

know they were right, and a lot of supposed “community leaders” owe

them apologies.

Two heroes I remember in particular were former Leader columnist

Will Rodgers and former mayor Michael Hastings, and most people know

that when those two agree on something, everybody should sit up and

listen.

ortunately the voters did, even if the board and their cronies

ignored them and called them names.

Voters did what the last board wouldn’t. They listened and checked

it out.

Maybe the board in office today has made mistakes. Maybe they’ve

made decisions that can be. If and when those are revealed, they

should get the blame. But when it comes to the construction scandals

surrounding shoddy workmanship, incomplete plans and old cost-saving

decisions that are costing the district a fortune today, put the

blame where it belongs; with the board that approved them, and

members of the community who rallied around them for personal and

political reasons without bothering to check the facts.

I’m sure they’ll be uncovering shoddy work and the results of

lame-brained decisions for a long time to come. When it happens,

let’s try to remember who is responsible.

Once again, the names are Elena Hubbell, Trish Burnett, Connie

Lackey, Richard Raad, Mike McDonald and Ali Kiafar.

* STEVEN R. PETERSON is a Burbank resident.