Mismanagement

Anyone who has spent time in or around government, from the deeply embedded bureaucrat to the young policy wonk, knows that there are two important issues in funding a public program. One, is it getting enough money? Two, is the money being spent wisely? On both counts, California's method of financing its schools gets a big fat F. On a per-pupil basis, our schools are among the most poorly funded in the country, and no one can be sure that the money they do get serves its purpose.

The NHL is investigating whether human error or a glitch in the clock system at Staples Center was responsible for prolonging the Kings' game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday long enough for Kings defenseman Drew Doughty to score the decisive goal in a 3-2 victory. Colin Campbell, the league's senior vice president of hockey operations, said Thursday he believes the Blue Jackets were wronged because the clock was paused with 1.8 seconds left in the third period and Doughty's goal with 0.4 of a second left should not have been allowed.

Bolstered by the booming 1980s real estate market, Sierra Capital Cos. became one of the biggest real estate investment trust funds in the nation during the decade--with 43,000 investors holding shares in properties worth as much as $600 million. But today, at a time when many other REITs are holding their own despite a nationwide real estate slump, the Sierra funds are compiling one of the worst performance records since the giant Dallas real estate concern Southmark Corp.

As Caltrans officials call for criminal charges against a former technician accused of falsifying bridge testing data, a top state senator is pressing for a broader investigation of the transportation agency itself. "Failure to conduct reliable inspection tests on the foundations of bridges, freeway ramps, retaining walls, and other structures may erode the public's confidence in Caltrans' management of the state highway and bridge program," State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord)

An audit report released Monday cited serious financial and operational problems involving a nonprofit organization's handling of federal grant money flowing through its social service centers in Inglewood and Long Beach. A Washington-based agency conducted the audit of the United States Veterans Initiative and questioned about $500,000 of the $5.36 million in costs claimed by the group from Sept. 1, 2003, through Aug. 31, 2006.

A United Nations task force has uncovered a pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving more than $600 million in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other supplies used by U.N. peacekeeping operations. In recent weeks, 10 procurement officials have been charged in connection with bribes and bid-rigging in Congo and Haiti. Three officials at U.N. headquarters have been convicted in bribery schemes, the task force said.

Northeast Utilities, the largest largest power company in New England, mismanaged its nuclear operations for the last 10 years and took a "hostile and arrogant approach" to the regulatory process, according to an audit report released by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control. As an example of mismanagement, the audit cited reports from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Agency that a reactor at the Millstone power plant near Waterford, Conn.

The 63rd Army Reserve Command based here is being investigated by top commanders for alleged mismanagement, including favoritism and abuse of overtime pay for civilian employees, the Army Times reports in its current edition. Ted Bartimus, a spokesman for the command, confirmed Thursday that military investigators had been looking into the unit's operations, but said he did not know when the results of their investigation would be released.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is riddled with mismanagement, an internal Justice Department audit contends, citing missing documents, massive backlogs of cases and failure to conduct background checks on applicants for citizenship. The audit--ordered by Atty. Gen.

A county division that controls $12 million in housing and redevelopment funds must begin a wholesale review of its fiscal procedures to avoid repeated abuses, according to a report released Monday. The report, from the County Environmental Management Agency, validates all of the reforms proposed last month by an auditor's report that found the Housing and Community Development Division to be riddled with mismanagement.

Bryan Stow is in a rehabilitation facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, seven months removed from the Dodger Stadium parking lot beating that nearly cost him his life. However, amid the legal and financial fine points of the Dodgers bankruptcy, Stow could emerge as a pivotal figure in the case at a crucial hearing next week. Stow won't be there, but with his representatives sitting on the official committee of creditors, attorneys for the Dodgers and Major League Baseball are expected to refer to Stow in their arguments in a Delaware courtroom.

This was not how media titan Rupert Murdoch envisioned the final chapters of his storied career. With his family-controlled company engulfed in a phone hacking scandal in Britain, Murdoch's legacy has been sullied and his plan of handing over the reins of News Corp. to his children is in jeopardy. Murdoch's son James, who just six months ago was seen as the heir apparent to succeed his father as chief executive, could be pressured to resign from senior management. Statements he made to the British Parliament in July about his knowledge of the extent of the eavesdropping have been called into question.

Dear Liz: My bank unexpectedly charged me a $25 annual fee for overdraft protection, which ironically caused two checks to bounce because I no longer had sufficient funds to cover them. I was then charged overdraft fees of $27.50 for each check, as I was already maxed out on my overdraft protection. I don't remember the bank charging this fee before and it didn't mail anything to me warning that this charge was coming. It was so disheartening as I knew I had enough money in the account to cover the checks I had out. Had I known I would have found a way to deposit more money to cover the transactions.

Jamie McCourt asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to order the immediate sale of the Dodgers, in a filing submitted on Wednesday and made public on Thursday. The request, if granted, could spare Commissioner Bud Selig from deciding whether to seize the club from owner Frank McCourt and risk a legal challenge to the powers of the commissioner's office. In the filing, Jamie McCourt alleged that her ex-husband, Frank McCourt, had endangered the value of the Dodgers through his "mismanagement," and she requested that the judge overseeing the couple's divorce put the club up for sale so both parties could reap the maximum value from the primary asset of their marriage.

California's much-vaunted high-speed rail project is, to put it bluntly, a train wreck. Intended to demonstrate the state's commitment to sustainable, cutting-edge transportation systems, and to show that the U.S. can build rail networks as sophisticated as those in Europe and Asia, it is instead a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. For anti-government conservatives, it is also a powerful argument for scrapping President Obama's national rail plans, rescinding federal funding and canceling the project before any more money is wasted on it. We couldn't disagree more.

The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday to grant a new 10-year contract to a taxi management firm that was found in a 2007 city audit to have mismanaged funds and committed other irregularities while coordinating cab service at Los Angeles International Airport. As part of the deal, passengers catching cabs at the airport will see the per-trip surcharge jump from $2.50 to $4. That is on top of the fare. Under the contract, the city says, LAX will experience an almost four-fold increase in revenues, from $700,000 per year to an annual average of $2.7 million.

The state auditor's office issued its report Monday on alleged improprieties at Cerritos College and said it found no evidence of mismanagement. "On all the substantive issues we came up clean," Cerritos College President Fred Gaskin said Monday. "I am pleased and extremely proud of the staff and am sorry they wasted their time."

The Bell Gardens City Council fired the city manager Friday, saying he has mismanaged the city's operations, including its relationship with a casino that brings in 60% of the city's tax revenue. Four of the city's five council members voted in a special meeting to terminate Charles Gomez's contract effective immediately. Gomez, hired in March, 1993, said that his dismissal is the result of a personal feud with Mayor Maria Chacon. "She's been on my behind since I started," he said.

I've served 10 years on the citizens committee that oversees the Los Angeles Unified School District's building program. As I leave that post, I've drawn one clear conclusion: Educators should not manage large school construction programs. Without an independent, professionally run school construction authority, taxpayers will never be protected from the kind of mismanagement chronicled in The Times' "Billions to Spend" series on the bungled building program of the Los Angeles Community College District, and in news articles more than a decade earlier about the Los Angeles Unified School District's Belmont fiasco.

Millions in Montebello city funds have been mismanaged or drained from off-the-books accounts, leaving officials scrambling for explanations and prompting fears about the city's solvency. Fiscal troubles abound in the city of about 65,000 in southeastern Los Angeles County: Federal officials say Montebello misused $1.3 million in federal housing money and want it back; a city official discovered $5 million in debt a few weeks ago; and the city has been sued by a businessman who alleges it illegally borrowed up to $19 million from its redevelopment agency last fall.