Bankers, lawyers, architects and companies hoping to profit from school construction are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars this week to court public education officials at a three-day gathering in Sacramento.

The money is helping to pay for workshops like “School Construction 101,” where officials will learn how to build new classrooms, parking lots and ball fields by taking on more taxpayer-funded debt.

The schedule includes meals and cocktail receptions where banking and building executives will mingle with school employees in hopes of winning new business.

The conference opens on Monday with a tournament at Teal Bend Golf Club where companies are paying $500 for each foursome to play. Everything from the beverages to the gift bag featuring a “high-quality golf shirt” is provided by the sponsoring companies.

It’s all part of the annual conference of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, otherwise known as C.A.S.H. The group’s members include scores of companies as well as the employees of about 500 school districts.

The corporate money and gifts raise questions about whether school officials will remain objective when they get back to their districts, discuss construction plans and decide which companies to hire.

“There’s an appearance of a conflict of interest,” said Tracy Westen, chief executive officer at the Center of Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. “When it comes time to giving out contracts, there’s a danger that the company that has handed out money will be looked at more favorably.”

But C.A.S.H. leaders say the public has no need to worry about undue influence. Tom Duffy, a former Moorpark Unified superintendent who is now the group’s lobbyist, said there are stringent laws that public officials must obey when hiring companies. “I don’t know what would be going on that would be unethical,” he said.

Since its founding in 1978, C.A.S.H. has become the most powerful force in the state when it comes to lobbying for new school construction.

A top order of business at the conference, according to the group’s website, is its effort to defeat a state bill aimed at limiting an expensive type of school debt known as capital appreciation bonds. The bonds allow officials to build new facilities even when districts are at the legal debt limit. Bankers can design the bonds so that schools avoid making payments for as long as 40 years, pushing the burden on future generations.

The debt is costly because interest is charged on a growing pile of unpaid interest. For example, a $239,721 loan taken out by Savanna Elementary School District in Anaheim in 2009 will cost future taxpayers 15 times that amount – nearly $3.6 million – to payback. San Bernardino County’s Rim of the World district borrowed $283,612 that will cost 23 times that sum to repay.

Click here to read more about how banks market capital appreciation bonds to school districts.

At the meeting’s first session on Monday, Robert Anslow, a lawyer from Bowie Arneson Wiles & Giannone, a Newport Beach-based firm, is scheduled to talk about the bill to restrict the capital appreciation bonds. Anslow’s firm has been paid to serve as bond counsel for many districts that issued capital appreciation bonds, including Savanna.

Anslow didn’t return repeated messages seeking his comment.

Conference registration fees are $1000 for a business executive and $800 for a public employee. Hotel and travel expenses are extra.

When they arrive in Sacramento, school officials can expect to be bombarded by messages from firms wanting their business. For example, RBC Capital Markets, a bank that issues bonds, paid C.A.S.H. $11,000 to sponsor the room keys at the Hyatt Regency, where many school employees are staying for $189 a night. School officials will see the bank’s advertisement each time they unlock the door.

In the exhibit hall, scores of companies from California and out of state will be selling everything from bond services to swimming pools and air conditioners.

At past conferences, the companies have also paid for dinners for school officials, according to the group’s newsletter, the C.A.S.H. Register.

The influence of the corporate members in the group helps explain why many California schools have continued to build facilities like football stadiums and performing arts centers even as they furlough teachers and cut class time.

At meetings, the group’s investment bank members have continued to promote capital appreciation bonds even as state officials have warned of their high cost. In January, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer called on schools to stop issuing the bonds until the legislature has time to consider the bill the group opposes. The legislation would limit the bonds total cost to four times the amount borrowed and cap the interest rate at 8 percent.

In October, John Baracy, an executive with Stone & Youngberg, an investment bank, told the group’s school members that they should lobby against any attempt to limit the debt. According to slides from the presentation, Baracy said that limiting repayments to four times principal was “not practical” and would hurt schools with lower credit ratings. He said that restricting interest rates to 8 percent would reduce the districts’ ability to sell bonds at a premium – a controversial practice that allows schools to borrow more money than voters authorized.

Baracy explained that capital appreciation bonds are now part of 85 percent of California school bond programs, up from 50 percent in 2008.

On Tuesday, Baracy is scheduled to talk more about the bonds at a workshop called “Finance 101: Facilities Funding Odyssey.”

The leaders of C.A.S.H include both corporate executives and school officials, including some from Orange County.

Joe Dixon, assistant superintendent for facilities at Santa Ana Unified, is C.A.S.H.’s vice-chair. He helped organize this year’s conference. At the district, Dixon’s job includes collecting bids from construction firms and other companies.

In an interview, Dixon said he doesn’t play golf or accept dinners or gifts from the executives he meets at C.A.S.H. “My role there has nothing to do with these firms,” he said. All companies hired by Santa Ana Unified, he said, are chosen through competitive bidding.

On its website, C.A.S.H. promises corporate executives who pay to join that they will get “more sales and leads” for their “marketing dollar.”

The website also boasts to executives that the annual conference is “the perfect venue from which you can promote your products and services, develop brand awareness, distribute information, and conduct business.”

The group employs the Sacramento lobbying firm, Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes, to push its agenda in the state capitol and run its operations. The Murdoch firm organizes separate seminars for business executives each year in Hawaii where they learn which California schools offer them the greatest potential for profit. According to a brochure advertising last year’s meeting, the executives were told which districts had the most remaining bond capacity and room for new construction.

Duffy, who is employed by the lobbying firm, said the seminars were his idea. He said his priority is what is best for schools. “The private sector,” he said, “is how we get things built.”

Contact the writer: mpetersen@ocregister.com

Contact the writer: To read an Orange County Register investigation of capital appreciation bonds go to ocregister.com/investigations.