OPINION: Angelo Farooq & Riverside USD Board Focused On Politics, Not Students

Construction industry experts tried warning Riverside Unified School District School Board Trustee Angelo Farooq at the beginning of this Summer that his special interest deal on school construction would result in millions of dollars of higher costs, but he ignored the warnings. Now we can see that the cost to students, parents, and taxpayers could be as high as $30 million – and that is just on the first project!

He may have ignored those warnings because he was assured by Big Labor bosses that discriminating against over 80% of the construction workers would not result in any increased costs. Maybe he ignored those warnings because he was trying to gain the favor of those very same union bosses so that he could run for higher political office.

The news broke last December that Riverside Unified School District Trustee Angelo Farooq plans to run for the 31st State Senate District seat in 2024 in a district that includes Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Perris, San Jacinto, parts of Corona, Fontana, Menifee, and Riverside. Even more importantly, the article announced that Farooq had raised over $600,000 for his effort to move to higher political office.

And surprisingly enough, the $600,000 war chest included thousands of dollars from Big Labor union bosses.

Farooq’s campaign received thousands of dollars from Laborers Local 300, thousands of dollars from Laborers Local 220, thousands of dollars from Dg Plumbing, thousands of dollars from the Laborer’s International Union of North America, thousands of dollars from LIUNA Laborers’ Local 585, and thousands of dollars from the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union No 398 PAC just to name a few.

I’m sure the hope for a politician like Farooq was that he would have wrapped up his March 2024 Democrat primary against Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes BEFORE the cost overruns and lack of bidders for the project became evident to the public. Usually, that would be a safe bet – just because of the pace of construction projects. Usually, it takes a longer period (sometimes over a year) for students, parents, and taxpayers to realize the cost of these special interest deals. However, the increased cost at the Riverside Unified School District became evident with the first school construction project they put out to bid.

On August 17, 2023, the District received bids for the Casa Blanca Elementary School project. Those bids came in way over engineers’ estimates. If you view the slide presentation, you can see the $53 million estimate in 2021 rise to $83.6 million dollars!

Three bids were received to do the Electrical and Low-voltage construction. The lowest responsive and responsible bidder was RIS Electrical Contractors, Inc., with a bid amount totaling $10,895,000.00 (including a base bid of $10,645,000.00 and a permissible allowance of $250,000.00), which is more than 35% higher than the engineer’s estimate.

Four bids were received for concrete from the twenty vendors who downloaded bid documents. The lowest responsive and responsible bidder was W.D. Gott Construction Company, with a bid amount totaling $7,363,000.00 (including a base bid of $7,263,000.00 and a permissible allowance of $100,000.00), which is more than 40% over the engineer’s estimate.

The bids for the Site Utilities were even worse for taxpayers. Two bids were received from the fifteen vendors who downloaded bid documents. The lowest responsive and responsible bidder was Rivera Equipment dba Valley Industrial Mechanical, with a bid amount totaling $4,500,000.00 (including a base bid of $4,300,000.00 and a permissible allowance of $200,000.00), which is more than 110% over the engineer’s estimate.

Even before these disastrous Casa Blanca Elementary School project bid results came in, The Raincross Gazette broke the news that Riverside Unified School District was already being hit with a lawsuit from community members who felt deceived in the campaign to raise taxes to pay for the school construction. The lawsuit claims that $110 million in 2016 Measure O bond funds were misused. Regardless of how the case turns out, we can all agree that voters did not receive any indication that a wasteful and discriminatory Project Labor Agreement  would be put on construction projects.

Not only was the PLA never mentioned in the bond language or the bond campaign, but the RUSD Board even went so far as to change the name from a “Project Labor Agreement” to a “Community Workforce Agreement (CWA)” because there is so much controversy that comes with the discrimination inherent in these special interest PLA construction deals.

Worse yet, according to John Harmon, Founder, President & CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce, “98% of Black and Hispanic construction companies are non-union shops.” Harry C. Alford, President of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, says, “…almost all minority-owned contracting firms are not affiliated with unions. African American-owned contracting firms are typically small businesses and employ their own core workforce of skilled construction workers who are not unionized…” PLAs restrict the use of minority contractors on public projects. It is shameful.

So to bring public awareness to this unfair and discriminatory special interest deal, the Western Electrical Contractors Association is launching a social media advertising effort aimed at informing the public about the nature of these Project Labor Agreements and the cost overruns after Angelo Farooq‘s PLA at Riverside Unified School District. The effort will highlight how these PLAs discriminate against over 80% of our construction workforce that chooses to work in a non-union environment and how PLAs discriminate against over 98% of black and Latino-owned construction companies.

Despite repeated efforts by industry experts, construction owners, apprentices, and taxpayers, Angelo Farooq chose a controversial construction policy that benefited only Angelo Farooq’s political donors.

For more information on that controversial decision and the repercussions for taxpayers and parents in Riverside USD, please visit StopAngeloFarooq.com. Our students deserve better.