Hit-and-run on L.A. highway projects jeopardizes voter confidence

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa kept chanting three numbers like a mantra Tuesday as he lobbied the Capitol for more highway bond money.

Every few seconds, it seemed, the mayor would remind anyone listening that L.A. County houses 28% of the state’s population, endures 33% of its traffic congestion, but is being earmarked a measly 12% of the initial $2.8 billion being distributed from the $19.9-billion transportation bond approved in November by California voters.

Actually, it’s worse than that for L.A. Only $4.5 billion total is available from this particular bond account, designed for “corridor mobility improvement” -- like adding a carpool lane on the northbound 405 between the 10 and 101 freeways.

The 405, with 300,000 daily commuters, is the nation’s most congested freeway, Villaraigosa says. But that carpool project didn’t make the Sacramento bureaucrats’ initial cut.

The mayor’s numbers are significant, but I also have some others that should be persuasive for anyone with an ounce of political sense:

* L.A. County cast 24% of the total statewide yes votes for the transportation bond, Proposition 1B.

* L.A. was particularly supportive, with 65.5% voting for the measure. It passed statewide with 61.4% of the vote.

* Lawmakers representing L.A. County occupy 33% of the Assembly seats and sit at 35% of the Senate desks.

* Two of the three most powerful politicians in state government live in L.A.: Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The third man -- Democratic Senate leader Don Perata of Oakland -- also is upset with the proposed initial bond disbursements because they shortchange the Bay Area.

So all this points to a political reality instinctively understood by everyone except, apparently, some officials at the California Transportation Commission. The reality is that L.A. and big urban areas have clout because it’s the way the system is set up. One person, one vote, and all that.

When something doesn’t go L.A.’s way, it flexes its muscle. That doesn’t win friends and may even stir up old hatreds. But occasionally it’s OK to be a bully, especially when someone’s holding back your rightful share of bond money.

The transportation commission staff Friday recommended against initially funding the 405 carpool lane and other L.A. freeway projects, including widening Interstate 5 from the 605 to the Orange County line.

You couldn’t blame voters if they felt victimized by a bait and switch scam.

They were all but promised 405 congestion relief in TV and radio ads last fall. Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa and Nunez cited the Sepulveda Pass as a prime example of a bottleneck that could be loosened by the bond. In L.A., the 405 was a poster freeway for the bond campaign.

The MTA was pushing hard for the carpool lane, a necessity to get transportation commission project approval.

When it didn’t show on the commission staff’s list of recommended projects, officials offered lame reasoning. Mainly, they expressed “confusion” over when the project would be ready to build. They wanted only projects ready by 2009 and thought the 405 couldn’t start until 2011.

They didn’t do their homework. This project had been fast-tracked by the governor and Legislature. Construction could start in 2009. Indeed, if it isn’t begun by then, the project could lose $130 million in federal funding. L.A.’s bond money request is for $730 million.

“ ‘Confusion.’ That’s what bugs me,” says new Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the budget subcommittee on transportation. “Pick up the phone. ‘Hello, MTA, when is the project scheduled to start?’ How long does that take?”

But the commission comment that got my attention was from Executive Director John Barna, who told reporters last week that “we’ve avoided falling into the trap of fair share based on population.” The goals were “geographic balance,” he said, along with construction readiness, “demonstrable congestion relief and connectivity benefits.”

I don’t profess to know what most of that means. But I do know he fell right into a political pressure cooker juiced by population.

Bay Area politicians also are perturbed. The commission staff recommended less than half the bond money that Caltrans had urged.

Their cause celebre is a recommended $175 million outlay to build a Highway 101 bypass around tiny Willits in Mendocino County. Willits (population 5,100 at last count) is roughly 140 miles north of San Francisco.

Schwarzenegger, Perata and Nunez have sent letters to the commission -- filled with gubernatorial appointees -- asking that its staff be ordered back to the drawing board. It doesn’t have much time. Proposition 1B requires the commission to authorize the initial projects by March 1.

One can sympathize somewhat with the staffers. They’ve received $11.3 billion worth of funding requests for a $4.5-billion pot. But the Willits bypass?

The urban political powers will probably win this fight. They hold the best cards. The bond money ultimately must be appropriated by the Legislature and Nunez is threatening to block it.

The speaker also is talking about proposing a $5-billion supplemental bond. But good luck talking L.A. or Bay Area voters into borrowing more until they see whether 1B was a rip-off.

“The will of the voters has to be respected,” says David Ackerman, a veteran highway construction lobbyist. “If you break faith with the voters, it will be like JetBlue. Here, the voters are the customers.”

In fact, this is a lesson that applies to all those $37 billion in Legislature-generated public works bonds passed by voters in November.

There cannot be a complete disconnect between campaign promises and a politically tone-deaf bureaucracy. Or the next significant number will be zero: the number of statewide bonds approved in the future.

George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton @latimes.com.