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The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Los Angeles Community College District board has voted in closed session to fire Larry Eisenberg, who oversees the $5.7 billion construction program that was the subject of the newspaper's recent investigative series.

The Board of Trustees was meeting today at Harbor College in Wilmington for the first time since the Times six-part series, the product of 18 months of reporting, was published.

A short item on the Times' news blog says the board voted unanimously to terminate Eisenberg's contract, effective Saturday.

Eisenberg, the district's executive director of facilities planning and development, was responsible for a troubled solar program at Harbor that the Breeze covered last year. Called a visionary by some, Eisenberg also brokered than abandoned a deal with a local green building nonprofit that was set to run a showcase out of district offices.

The vote comes a day after two incumbents were re-elected to the board. Steven Veres, another candidate who ran on a slate with the incumbents -- Miguel Santiago and Mona Field -- also was elected. A fourth member of that slate, Scott Svonkin, is headed to a runoff with San Pedro teacher Lydia Gutierrez.

On Monday, LACCD Chancellor Daniel LaVista, who was appointed last year, sent out a letter to district staff saying that "reparation work" was needed. The letter had a different tone than defensive press releases he and the district issued in response to the Times articles.

He said he still felt the paper had taken an "unbalanced approach" to the district's construction program.

That being said, I am in no way denying that there have been major issues within the Program. So this time, I want to emphasize how seriously I take the problems and mistakes of our Program that this series has pointed out in detail. The Times has brought to light much that needed to be exposed, and we'd be more than remiss if we didn't take advantage of the outside perspective the Times has presented.

LaVista's letter -- with promises of a review ethics codes and evaluation processes -- is attached for your perusal.

Moving Foward 3-7-11.docx

The seven-member board of the Los Angeles Community College District will hold a public meeting Wednesday, convening at Harbor College in Wilmington. It will be the first meeting of the Board of Trustees since the Los Angeles Times published a six-part series revealing waste, incompetence and poor oversight in the district's massive construction program.

Did you read the jaw-dropping series, "Billions to Spend"? There's still time before tomorrow's election, when incumbents Mona Field and Miguel Santiago are up for re-election in two of the four contests before voters.

Wednesday's meeting will include an update on the district's renewable energy program, which on Sunday was the focus of the last installment of the Times series. The Breeze reported on problems with Harbor College's solar program back in May 2010.

When I was doing reporting for that story, I head the Times had had multiple reporters -- for months -- investigating the broad construction program. I had no idea it would take a total of 18 months. Worth the wait.

Anyway, it should be an interesting meeting Wednesday. The first public session is at 11 a.m., followed by a closed session and then another open meeting at 3:30 p.m. Both are in the second floor of Harbor College's Seahawk Center. The agenda is online.

The nine-campus district's defiant responses to the Times stories are posted on the BuilldLACCD website. Here's an excerpt from one response from Chancellor Daniel LaVista, already noted in part by Times columnist Steve Lopez:

After ignoring the good news of the Program for years, the Times spent 20 months on this investigation and now picks at a few issues in what appears to be a sensationalist series published right before trustee elections. The timing is suspect, and the reporting is one-sided. So far, we are sorely disappointed. While the Times notes that half the $6 billion is still to be spent and there is time to "correct" things, I say to the Times that with only two articles published, there is an even better opportunity to correct their sensationalist tone and one-sided and biased reporting.

LaVista says that the program is "one of the most heavily audited and examined in the history of public construction" and is bringing much-needed buildings to college campuses, a fact he says is overshadowed in the Times stories by the paper's emphasis on problems.

California Watch's Erica Perez reports that a new Los Angeles Community College District student identification card has been the subject of complaints.

The nine-college district, which includes Harbor College in Wilmington, in February signed on with a Connecticut-based company that has linked bank accounts to every student's financial aid package, Perez reports in a blog item posted Friday.

The colleges gave out more than $117 million in student financial aid last year, Perez reported.

The cards let students more easily access excess financial aid funds that can be used for books and other expenses. Rather than waiting for a paper rebate check, students can use the ID cards as a sort of debit card.

But they're finding that each time they try to use the debit function, they're charged 50 cents. (Selecting "credit" at the checkout counter prevents this.)

It's all in the fine print of the card agreement, which is provided by Higher One Inc. The company, which works with hundreds of private and public colleges, has been the target of complaints, Perez says, adding that there are other Higher One charges of which students should be aware.

There are a few more fees L.A. community college students should look out for. An "abandoned account fee" charges students $19 per month if they go nine consecutive months without any activity. And using a non-Higher One ATM will cost $2.50 a pop. There is, however, at least one Higher One ATM at each campus.

Don Smith, apparently a representative of the company, commented on Perez's post. He wrote in part, "[W]e believe that our customers pay less than half the amount in fees that the average bank checking account customer pays per year."

This morning I was going over the agenda for the Los Angeles Community College District's board meeting on Wednesday, and one thing popped out at me.

Two interim administration appointees -- selected to fill spots made empty by a retirement and a career change -- are getting some pretty nice benefits. They each get a car allowance of $1,530 per month.

*UPDATED on Aug. 31, see below

In these post-Bell days, every benefit and salary deserves scrutiny. And $1,530 is certainly more than any of our local officials get for a car allowance.

Of course, the nine-college district is huge, and driving around it could certainly rack up some mileage and might require multiple tanks of gas each week. Still, even if the new appointees were driving all over LACCD and were leasing a nice new car, I'd guess they'd have trouble racking up that kind of auto expense every month.

It looks like the board of trustees in 2006 approved raising the car allowance for college presidents from $700 to $900 -- and these two appointees are categorized as presidents for pay purposes. I put in a call to the district to find out what the car allowance policy is now.

The new appointees are: Yasmin Delahoussaye, set to fill the position of interim "Vice Chancellor for Educational Programs and Institutional Effectiveness" beginning Aug. 30; and Rose Marie Joyce, to act at interim president of West L.A. College.

From what I can tell from district salary scales posted online, Delahoussaye will make about $11,005 per month. Joyce will get about $11,610 monthly, as well as $1,600 per month in an "alternative retirement account."

While I'm at it, I should note this story, which shows that the executive director of the California School Boards Association earned more than $400,000 last year.

Now who says there no money in education right now?

*Michael Shanahan, associate vice chancellor for employer/employee relations, emailed me the agenda from the day this new car allowance was approved. On Sept. 17, 2008, the Board of Trustees approved increasing the car allowance for college presidents from $900 to $1,530 monthly. Then-Chancellor Mark Drummond recommended the bump, which also affected his compensation and that of seven other administrators.

Salary increases for many of those administrators were approved at the same time, as were contract extensions.

Shanahan said college presidents are expected to travel widely across the sprawling district. By my math, the perks mean the district pays about $26,000 per month for auto allowances.