The Los Angeles Community College District on Wednesday abruptly canceled the bidding process for a student housing project after a developer poised to lose out on the contract alleged the district engaged in “unprecedented procedural irregularities” after competitive proposals were submitted.
In a letter to Chancellor Alberto J. Román and the Board of Trustees on Monday, an attorney for Michaels Student Living alleged the irregularities included last-minute changes in how the district would evaluate bids — months after developers submitted proposals to build hundreds of beds at Pierce College and Los Angeles City College.
After the changes, Román ranked CTI Housing as the top bidder over four others, including Michaels, according to a letter the district sent to the developers and a board agenda item description. Román recommended that the Board of Trustees approve opening negotiations to build the housing with CTI, whose executives are Democratic political donors and made past donations to at least two community college district board members.
In the Monday letter, Benjamin Hanelin, a Paul Hastings attorney representing Michaels, wrote:
“Stated simply, we have deep concerns about the District’s process, and we are evaluating all our options.” Hanelin added that all the developers, taxpayers and students “are entitled to answers as to what went wrong and why.”
The board was scheduled to vote on the issue Wednesday but canceled the meeting Tuesday afternoon, citing issues unrelated to the bidding allegations.
The meeting cancellation came after The Times inquired with the district about the bidding process.
On Tuesday evening, Michaels sent a second letter to the district, this time lodging a formal protest, alleging that changing the bidding process was inconsistent with a legal requirement that such public bids are “fair and equitable.” The letter asked for the current process to be canceled and for the district to start a new competition.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, the district notified developers in a letter that it was canceling its “RFQ/P” — shorthand for Request For Qualifications and Proposals — and rejecting all bids.
Juliet Hidalgo, the chancellor’s interim chief of staff, said that district officials believe they acted appropriately but that after inquiries from developers, including objections by Michaels, the district canceled the process “out of an abundance of caution” and will start a new competition to build housing.
“Student housing is a new undertaking for LACCD, and the District is learning from each step of this work,” Hidalgo said in an email.
In a statement, Raoul Amescua, an executive with the parent company of Michaels Student Living, applauded the cancellation and said the company looks “forward to participating in a fair process.”
Combined, CTI partners Dan Weinstein and Stuart Liner have given at least $11,000 to the political campaigns of at least two board members, Sara Hernandez and Andra Hoffman, since 2024. The executives have also given to Democratic politicians statewide, including current gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, as well as the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, state campaign finance records show.
According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, state law bars elected officials from “taking part in an entitlement for use proceeding if the official has received a contribution exceeding $500 from a party or participant in the proceeding within the preceding 12 months.”
The donations Weinstein and Liner made to Hoffman and Hernandez fall outside the law’s time frame, campaign records show.
In 2024, Weinstein contributed $2,500 to Hoffman’s 2024 campaign committee, according to campaign finance records. A year later, in March 2025, he donated $1,000 to Hoffman’s campaign for statewide superintendent of public instruction, a race she dropped out of prior to June’s primary, records show.
Also in 2024, managing partner Stuart Liner donated $2,500 to Sara Hernandez’s Board of Trustees 2022 election committee, in which she won her current term, according to campaign finance records.
In June 2025, Liner donated $5,000 to Hernandez’s current campaign for a state Senate seat, records show. Hernandez now serves as president of the L.A. Community College District board.
In an email, Hernandez said the donations from Liner were made more than one year ago, before the district launched the bidding process for the student housing competition, and were in “full compliance” with ethics and campaign finance laws.
“I would never vote on an item that presented a conflict of interest,” she said. “Campaign contributions do not influence how I carry out my responsibilities as a Trustee and I have not made — and would not make — decisions regarding District business based on political support or campaign contributions.”
Hoffman said that like most candidates, she raises money when running for office but those contributions don’t influence her votes.
“My decisions as a Board member are based solely on what I believe is in the best interest of the students, the institution, and the public we serve,” she said in an email.
A Times review of campaign finance records since 2022 found no donations from Michaels’ executives to current board members.
In an email, Weinstein said he has supported Hoffman “because of her tireless efforts on behalf of students throughout her career in public education.”
Liner did not respond to requests for comment.
The bidding process
The housing project canceled Wednesday is part of an effort by the district to address housing insecurity among its students, which it has described as “one of the most significant barriers standing between LACCD students and a completed education.”
In March, the district asked developers to apply for the chance to build housing at the two campuses.
The district said it anticipated it would spend up to $150 million in Measure LA bond money to help build between 800 and 1,600 beds across the two sites. It asked developers to formulate a plan for how to raise the remainder of the money needed, either through private equity, tax exempt bonds or other mechanisms.
The winning developer would make its money on development and management fees, which are typically paid by the project’s overall budget and rent collected.
In the original March public request for proposals, the district said an evaluation panel would rank the applicants on a point system, based on metrics including company history, the developer’s financial footing and the overall project proposal. The district would then “have the option to immediately accept the proposal submitted by the highest ranked” developer or to enter negotiations with the developer to attain the best deal.
The original request for proposals also said the district retained the right to change evaluation criteria at any time and that developers “are advised that the Evaluation Panel’s scores are intended to inform but not control, the District’s final selection.”
On Aug. 20 — months after developers submitted proposals and weeks after the district interviewed finalists and those finalists gave what they were told was an informational presentation to the board — developers, including CTI and Michaels, received notice the process was changing.
Chancellor Román would now rank developers himself and recommend to the Board of Trustees that the district enter into negotiations with the highest-ranking developer. Román would make the decision “based on” a point system that differed from what was laid out in the original request for proposals, according to an addendum sent to the bidders.
Román would now factor into his decision the finalists’ presentations to the board, even though the district previously told developers those presentations were “information only” and not part of the scoring process, according to a Times review of the history of changes to the request for proposal contained in a database the district uses to manage its procurement process.
“The Chancellor may, in his sole and absolute discretion, be informed in whole or in part, by the scores developed by the Evaluation Panel, but the final scoring and recommendation to the Board shall be done by the Chancellor,” the amended request for proposals read.
Six days later, the district informed developers that Román had picked CTI Housing as the highest-ranking proposal and would recommend the board vote to start negotiations with the firm on a pre-development agreement to lay the groundwork for construction.
In its letter to developers, the district did not say how the chancellor came to his decision, but said he determined CTI’s proposal was “the most advantageous to the District.”
“The District wishes to thank all the proposers and their teams for their time and effort participating in this procurement,” David Travers, director of contracts for the district’s capital improvement program, wrote in the letter.
Hidalgo said the changes to the evaluation process “were intended to support a comprehensive review and identify the proposal that would best serve the District and its students.”
“At the same time, we recognize that the evaluation approach and the reasons for these additional measures could have been communicated more clearly,” she said.
The company Román had selected
Weinstein, a longtime Democratic Party activist and political fundraiser, “spent the better part of two decades working in various capacities as a senior advisor to former California Governor Gray Davis” and has also served on the California Coastal Commission and on the Board of Trustees for the California State University system, according to his bio on CTI’s website.
Liner has donated to Xavier Becerra’s current campaign for governor, as well as Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s reelection campaign, records show.
Hidalgo said the district hasn’t set a date yet to restart the bidding process to build student housing, but “we will move forward deliberately while recognizing the urgency of providing high-quality, affordable housing for LACCD students.”
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