A couple of weeks ago, Inglewood school board member Trina Williams was arrested and charged with embezzling $7,500 from the Inglewood Unified School District for allegedly overcharging the district for travel and training expenses over a two-year period beginning in 2007. Back in June, just days before the 2009 IUSD school board elections, the Los Angeles County Office of Education issued its audit report of the travel and training expenses paid to the entire IUSD board and noted that four of the five members had been paid for illegal, and therefore, disallowed expenses totaling several thousand dollars.

Since the county audit came into my hands between Wave publication dates, I had to blog the information so the public could know about this, as three of the board members involved were seeking re-election almost momentarily. The Inglewood electorate was unfazed by this information and proceeded to re-seat school board members — including Williams — already flagged as possible embezzlers. Alice Grigsby, the longtime IUSD board member who retired last year, was the only member not cited in the audit as having overcharged the district for travel and training expenses. But members Arnold Butler, Johnny Young and Carol Raines-Brown were noted to have overcharged the district in amounts either equal to or exceeding the sum for which Williams is charged. According to the audit, In many instances, Butler, Young, Raines-Brown and Williams traveled to the same places, incurred the same county criticism for having done so, and received the same county rebuke — disallowance! But yet, only Williams will return to court next month to face one felony count of misappropriation of public funds. What about the other three: Butler, Young and Raines-Brown?

AND WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? — Speaking of school districts recouping money, the Los Angeles Unified School District is cracking down on employees who were overpaid when the district’s computerized payroll system was out-of-whack and was paying some workers too much and others nothing at all. Close to 35,000 LAUSD employers received nearly $60 million in extra money in their paychecks in 2007 because of glitches in the payroll system, which also failed to pay or shorted many other employees. We, the public, heard a great deal about those who received little or no pay for their work during that period, but not a peep out of those who knew they were getting more than they knew they had earned. After having been asked nicely, thousands of the overpaid employees have returned the money, but today, about 2,400 former and current LAUSD employees still owe the school district approximately $9.4 million and all of them have received letters directing them to repay the money, which ranges from several thousand dollars to more than $40,000 each.

The LAUSD is suing some of them for its badly needed money and is referring others to collection agencies as a prelude to suing them. A Superior Court judge is poised to grant the district judgements against two former employees — one who was overpaid $95,000 and another who received a $52,000 windfall. A third has settled for the full amount of a $40,000 overpayment. What would make these people think they could keep that kind of money?  

TRIBUTES TO TOMMY — Maulana Karenga will conduct a Mosiko ceremony for Tommy “Halifu” Jacquette Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon in Phoenix Hall at WLCAC, 10950 S. Central Ave. That ceremony will be followed by a celebration of Tommy’s life, hosted by Rep. Maxine Waters, at Ted Watkins Park, 1335 E. 103rd St. from 1 to 4 p.m. The community is invited to attend both events. According to his family, it was Tommy’s wish to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the park. Consequently, there will be no viewing. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the agency that was his life’s work — the Watts Summer Festival Inc.

L.A., THE PEACEFUL PLACE — Two racially charged murder trials have been moved from the jurisdictions in which they occurred to this — the calm, cool and collected City of the Angels, where public rioting over court verdicts hardly ever occurs! The trial of a White former San Francisco Bay Area Transit officer who was videotaped shooting an unarmed Black man in the back is being moved to Los Angeles County because of intense media coverage of the incident, which sparked rioting in the Bay Area. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson ordered the murder trial of Johannes Mehserle out of that area into Los Angeles County. Mehserle is charged with fatally shooting Oscar Grant, 22, at a BART station in Oakland on New Year’s Day. The killing was videotaped by bystanders, shown all over the Internet and used as evidence in Mehserle’s preliminary hearing last spring.

So much bad blood and violence was unleashed at last month’s court appearance of 10 Hispanics charged with the killing of one lone Black youth that the court proceedings were moved to Los Angeles from Pomona, where teenaged Marquis Leblanc was stabbed and beaten to death by a mob of 10 Hispanic males, it is alleged.

LEGISLATIVE DOINGS — Assembly Speaker Karen Bass appointed our newest legislator, Assemblyman Steven Bradford, to chair the Assembly Select Committee on Procurement. Bass also appointed Assemblyman Warren Furutani to the new 10-member Joint Master Plan for High Education Committee, which is tasked with evaluating the state’s framework for higher education — a framework which was established 50 years ago to ensure the quality, access and affordability of the public colleges and universities in California and a framework that is being torn asunder these days.

The Black Business Association honored Assemblyman Mike Davis with the Legislative Trailblazer Award at its recent sixth annual Procurement Exchange Summit. Davis was honored for having authored AB 873, which requires each water corporation with gross annual revenues of more than $25 million to submit annual plans for increasing procurement from women , minority and disabled veteran business enterprises. It also encourages each electrical, gas, water and telephone corporation that is not required to submit such a plan under current law to voluntarily adopt plans to increase such procurement contracts.

BERNARD PARKS WATCH — Has Councilman Bernard Parks struck again? There are those who think he has. Check this: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had named attorney Angela Reddock, current city transportation commissioner and former community college trustee, to the city Fire and Police Pension Board, and although Parks had been supportive of Reddock’s appointment when it was initially announced, he threw a monkey wrench into the process at the last possible moment, causing Reddock to withdraw her nomination just as the City Council was scheduled to vote on it Friday.

It seems Parks read correspondence between Reddock and the city Ethics Commission in which she declined to identify clients who had paid her more than $10,000 to represent them, citing attorney-client privilege. By state law, Reddock is allowed to withhold that information and she could have easily received a state exemption from any pressure the city may have exerted upon her to do so. But Parks made a big deal out of it at the very last minute and declared his intent to reject her nomination. People in the community are saying Parks is using that as a flimsy excuse to reject another person who has worked closely with and been supported by his archenemy Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. It was a hot topic Sunday night at the 8th District Anti-Bernard Parks Headquarters — Jerry Edwards’ Flying Fox — along with some other juicy tidbits worth following up and passing along.

Oh, and congratulations, supervisor, on consummating that deal with UC to reopen MLK Hospital. You did good.