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INGLEWOOD — Two Inglewood Unified School District board members — Arnold Butler and Johnny J. Young — have publicly called for an internal audit after accusing three former top administrators of financial mismanagement, which they claim has resulted in more than $3 million in unauthorized spending.

However, one of those administrators, former chief operating officer Tim Brown, dismissed the claims as “political rhetoric,” threatening to sue his accusers if “they continue to slander my name.”

“It must be election time,” said Brown, who served from October 2003 to September 2006 and is currently city administrator for the city of Coachella Valley. He spent an extra year at IUSD in a consultancy capacity until his replacement, Robert Guillen, was hired. “These claims are a complete fabrication,” he said. “Everything is public record and validated through the County Office of Education based in Downey.”

The other administrators cited were former superintendent Pamela Short-Powell, who was effectively dismissed in November when her contract was not renewed, and former legal counsel Adrienne Konigar-Macklin.

Joe C. Hopkins, an attorney for Short-Powell, called the claims “lies” and said they were in response to two recent lawsuits filed by himself and Konigar-Macklin’s attorney, Carl Douglas, in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“Every action mentioned in these claims, those same board members approved it and we have documents to prove it,” said Hopkins. “This is just an attempt to slander Ms. Powell because they know they have been doing illegal things for years.”

Konigar-Macklin referred The Wave to her attorney, but Douglas did not return a call by press time.

Among claims cited by the board members: what Butler called “reckless use” of a district account for the purposes of funding a $4,300 trip to Sea World; a fine arts building at Crozier Middle School budgeted at $5.5 million, but now under construction for $6.7 million; the misappropriation of “close to $1 million,” in federal and state funds, according to Butler; and what he termed the “unauthorized $800,000 demolition” of La Tijera Elementary School.

Additionally, Butler claimed to be aware of “close to $600,000 in excess expenditures” related to the district’s first modular building at Hudnall Elementary School, on the corner of Manchester Boulevard and Inglewood Avenue.

In terms of the Crozier building, Brown blamed the increase on the board, who he said took no action when the initial construction bid was made and costs for the project subsequently went higher. “As for La Tijera, Mr. Butler was a direct employee of the district in 2001, and knows that the Office of Public School Construction said the school had dangerously exposed electrical wires and needed to be torn down,” said Brown. “In 2005, we were given only a short time to do that. Again, that is all public record.”

Stating that he possessed “documentable” evidence, Butler also claimed that the district was billed twice in the destruction of La Tijera by two companies — Sunrise Construction and Meadows Construction — that he claimed were operating as a “father-and-son situation.”

“I don’t know what they are talking about,” said John Ruiz, a director of Sunrise. “We’ve worked closely with Meadows on that project, but there is no family connection. We do not double bill for any work.”

Even before charges began to fly back and forth, Butler and Young were accused by community activists who attended the event of staging the public press conference for their own ends.

The board members Tuesday afternoon joined Inglewood Teachers Association President Aisha Blanchard-Young and two association officers in front of the now demolished La Tijera Elementary School. Blanchard-Young opened the briefing by praising the board for not laying off any of the district’s teachers, applauding them for taking a “closer look at the district’s finances.”

Pressed by City Parking and Traffic Commissioner Michael Benbow as to why the other three board members were not at the event, Blanchard-Young replied: “I don’t know why [they] are not here. We extended [them] an invitation.”

The briefing was coordinated by Los Angeles-based public relations executive Rae Jones. According to Jones, she was working on behalf of political consultant Jewett Walker, who she said is handling Mr. Butler’s re-election campaign for next month’s municipal elections.

“All the board members were invited by the ITA president and we chose to come,” said Butler.

Young agreed with that point, noting that he wasn’t up for election. “This has been way overdue,” he said. “The board has been blamed for a lot of things since Nov. 15 when the superintendent was dismissed, and we’ve been lacking in providing the community with the facts.”

Board President Carol Raines-Brown did not return a call by press time. But board member Alice Grigsby, who also works as library director at El Camino College in Torrance, said she knew nothing about the briefing.

“I have not seen the list and therefore cannot comment on these so-called questionable expenditures,” said Grigsby. “I think it’s unfortunate that the whole board was not brought into the loop for concerns of that nature.”

Originally, board Vice President Trina Williams, said she was made aware by Blanchard-Young of the impending briefing last Friday following a meeting to discuss the district budget, but said a specific date and time was not mentioned. However, in a later call, Williams corrected herself: “I was told by Aisha when it was happening, but I told her I couldn’t make it because I had a prior engagement. But I do back the call for an internal probe.”