Legislator's bill to punish L.A. Unified raises ethics questions
Assemblyman Tony Mendoza wants the district to pay the taxes of employees affected by payroll meltdown. Problem, some say, is that his wife is a teacher.
SACRAMENTO — A legislator whose wife was one of thousands of teachers issued erroneous paychecks by the Los Angeles Unified School District last year seeks to punish its leaders and force the district to pay the taxes on its overpayments.
Ethics watchdogs say that is a conflict of interest for the lawmaker, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia).
Mendoza said that when the system went haywire last year, it overpaid his wife by an amount still under dispute, then didn't pay her at all for two months. Last fall, the district sent her a letter saying that she owed it $9,000, he said, then later estimated that she owed $2,700.
The payroll troubles, Mendoza said, cost him several hundred dollars in erroneous taxes.
He has introduced legislation that would reimburse him and others affected by the payroll problems for those taxes, but he is not doing it for the sake of his household finances, he said.
"My bill mostly wants to give teachers peace of mind that somebody's looking out for them," Mendoza said.
His bill, AB 2481, would cover secretaries, teachers aides, cafeteria workers and other district employees, in addition to teachers. Originally, it would have affected only teachers, but Mendoza amended it Tuesday.
Government ethics experts say Mendoza's authorship of the legislation, which also would suspend the pay of district superintendents, assistants and the school board as long as the district's payroll error rate exceeds 1%, is legal but doesn't look good.
"I certainly would have advised him not to be carrying the bill, because this is too personal for him," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit group in Los Angeles. "He's using his position to affect his income."
Mendoza said he drafted the legislation out of frustration with his wife's experience. Because thousands of other school employees share her plight, he said, there is no conflict of interest.
"It would be a conflict if it benefited me and not anyone else," said Mendoza.
State regulations allow elected officials to vote on matters that affect their pocketbooks if many other people would be affected in a similar manner. And state law permits public officials to make decisions about pay for employees of government agencies -- such as the school district -- even if it affects a family member.
