Orange Unified Target of 2nd Impropriety Compliant : Allegations: Employees union requests investigation into potential conflict of interest in hiring. Parents made separate filing last week.

ORANGE —  The county district attorney’s office is reviewing the second complaint filed this month charging Orange Unified School District officials with impropriety.

Barbara Noble, president of the California State Employees Assn., the union representing the district’s 1,200 classified workers, filed a two-page complaint June 4 requesting an investigation into whether the appointment of Howard Mason as the district’s director of maintenance, operations and transportation represents a conflict of interest.

A parents’ group filed a complaint on a separate matter last week.

Mason, named to the district job on March 12, was an executive officer of Howard Mason & Associates, an inspection and testing services company that has been a district vendor for about three years and is completing projects for Orange Unified.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanizaki said his office has received the complaint and will “conduct a preliminary inquiry” to determine if a full investigation is warranted.

An investigation would determine, among other things, whether Mason still has a financial interest in HMA and whether it was proper for him to accept a position as a district consultant before being hired permanently, and while his company did work for Orange Unified.

Mason said he is no longer a director of HMA and holds no stock and receives no payment from the company.

When the company’s projects with the district are complete, within about six weeks, Howard Mason & Associates will no longer be an Orange Unified contractor, Mason added.

“We don’t plan to continue with that contract, considering the razzle-dazzle we’ve been through,” he said.

Jobs to be completed by HMA include inspections of renovations at the former site of Katella Elementary School, the building that will house the district’s new headquarters; communication intercom systems at Cerro Villa Middle School and Villa Park High School, and a paint job at Orange High.

The union first expressed concerns about Mason’s appointment in a March 5 letter to Supt. Norman C. Guith and district trustees, Noble said.

“We do not impinge (Mason’s) integrity,” the letter stated. “However with (Orange Unified’s) past history . . . we feel it is in the best interests of our employees and our public to be squeaky clean and beyond reproach.”

Noble’s complaint to the district attorney was filed after Orange Unified officials refused to supply her with a copy of Mason’s economic interest statement, she said. Mason was to submit the statement--which outlines sources of income, real estate holdings, companies in which he holds stock and other financial information--within 30 days of being hired.

Mason said a financial disclosure statement was submitted as required, he but has requested that the statement be kept confidential for personal reasons, he said.

“I specifically asked the district not to cooperate based on my own security,” Mason said. The union requested the statement during an antagonistic meeting at which labor issues and other matters were discussed, he said.

“When somebody . . . illustrates that type of aggression, the last thing I’m going to do is deliver my home address,” which is included on the statement.

Noble said she just hoped to “clear the air” by making the statement public.

Orange Unified has been racked by scandal for several years, including a bid-rigging and kickback scheme that resulted in the conviction last year of two district contractors and former maintenance administrator Steven L. Presson on embezzlement charges.