Mayor to Make Transportation Appointments

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who promised to unsnarl traffic, plans today to make four appointments to his transportation team, including three to the board of the public agency that oversees transportation throughout the county, sources close to the mayor said Tuesday.

The mayor is scheduled to name former Assemblyman Richard Katz, former state Transportation Commissioner David Fleming and City Councilman Bernard C. Parks to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the sources said.

In addition, sources confirmed that Villaraigosa has hired former Mayor Richard Riordan’s transportation deputy to be his point person on transportation issues, the second major hire he has made from the former staff of his Republican predecessor.

Villaraigosa representatives declined to confirm the names, but said the mayor will announce his appointments today at Union Station after a short ride downtown from the Southwest Museum on the Gold Line light rail, which has struggled to find riders in its two years of existence.

The new mayor has promised to get the city more involved in the regional agency that builds and runs many of the transit systems throughout the city and county of Los Angeles. Villaraigosa is the current chairman of the MTA board, a position that former Mayor James K. Hahn passed up.

“It’s a strong team,” said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an MTA board member who has worked with all of the expected appointees.

The mayor’s appointments to the 13-member MTA board will replace council members Ed Reyes and Tom LaBonge, who endorsed Hahn, and Martin Ludlow, who left the City Council to head the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Katz, who was a Democratic assemblyman from Sylmar, pushed legislation that created the MTA in 1993 by merging the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. The move was largely intended to ensure that money was better spent on transportation projects.

Fleming served on the California Transportation Commission from 1996 until 1999, when then-Gov. Gray Davis did not reappoint him. He is the chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, which is involved in transit issues.

The mayor’s picks reflect the politics of transportation.

Katz and Fleming were active in the San Fernando Valley secession movement and have served as co-chairmen of the San Fernando Valley Transportation Strike Force. Their selection could placate a part of the city that has struggled to find alternatives to the congested 101 and 405 freeways.

The appointment of Parks would reflect Villaraigosa’s commitment to have the MTA quickly build the Exposition Line light rail through Parks’ council district, which includes South Los Angeles. The MTA board voted in April to approve a $640-million budget to build the first half of the Exposition Line -- from the 7th Street Metro station downtown to Culver City.

Parks said recently that the project is important not only for an area that lacks light rail, but also as a key element of selling the National Football League on putting a team in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which would be near a train stop.

Yaroslavsky said he recommended that Villaraigosa hire former Riordan aide Jaime de la Vega as his deputy mayor for transportation. De la Vega was Riordan’s transportation advisor and has been a budget aide to City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

“He’s smart. He knows the MTA, and he knows the pitfalls of the MTA when it was broke because of a policy of binge spending on projects it couldn’t afford,” Yaroslavsky said.

Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA, said that having high-level public officials involved in transit planning can mean more big-ticket items are on the way.

“We haven’t figured out how to cut a ribbon in front of more frequent bus service,” Taylor said, alluding to a key improvement that is sometimes overlooked. “It’s not something you can carry back to your constituents. There’s something about the political process that tends to favor the big projects.”