RTD OKs Tougher Drug Rule; Random Testing Is Excluded

A toughened anti-drug use program, but one that stops short of random, unannounced testing of employees, was approved Thursday by the Southern California Rapid Transit District board.

Intended to help rebuild public confidence in drivers after a series of well-publicized bus crashes, the board’s 6-4 vote in favor of the policy will increase the instances under which employees can be ordered to undergo testing for drugs.

At least three recent crashes have involved drivers who reportedly were found to have drugs in their systems. In the past year, 43 RTD employees have been fired because of drugs, and about half of those have been drivers.

Details of how stepped-up detection of and testing for drugs will be conducted in the field are to be worked out within the next 30 days, after which the policy will be implemented.

Generally, it gives RTD supervisors greater authority to order testing for employees who are repeatedly tardy or absent, are involved in fights, display erratic behavior or are involved in accidents with injuries or $1,000 or more in damage.

Supporters of the policy, which was recommended by RTD General Manager John Dyer after months of negotiations with union leaders, called it the strictest against drug use in the transit industry. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of having the toughest (policy) in the United States,” board member Carmen Estrada said.

But there were more than two hours of debate over whether the policy went far enough, with some board members calling for random, mandatory testing of bus drivers and mechanics.

Board member Nate Holden, an appointee of county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, pressed for mandatory testing, saying it was needed as a deterrent. Hahn has led a push by the Board of Supervisors to pressure the RTD board into adopting mandatory testing of drivers.

“If the next time a bus turns over on the freeway, its 27 passengers are not injured, but killed, what are we going to say?” Holden asked his colleagues, during one emotional appeal. Holden cited an opinion prepared for RTD by the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers that said mandatory testing, under certain circumstances, might be successfully defended against constitutional challenges of invasion of privacy.

But Estrada, an appointee of Mayor Tom Bradley, cited a separate legal opinion by RTD General Counsel Richard T. Powers that noted that no other transit agency uses random testing and it probably could not be defended. “You’re dealing with something that’s never been resolved in law. . . . You will be the test case,” Powers said.

The immediate reaction of union leaders was relief that the mandatory testing proposal was killed. But some complained about the new policy, saying it appeared to provide too much opportunity for misuse by mangement. Charles Coleman, a spokesman for the union that represents about 700 clerical workers, said his group may sue to block the policy.

However, Earl Clark, general chairman of the 5,000-driver United Transportation Union, said the union will wait to see how the program works in the field. He vowed to mount a challenge to any cases where the RTD tries to “intimidate” drivers.

OKd on 6-4 Vote

The vote to approve the policy was 6 to 4 and came the day after bus drivers rallied at the Sports Arena. At that meeting attended by about 1,000 drivers, Clark and Dyer called for an all-out internal effort in the huge transit agency to end drug use and abuse. Some drivers, however, complained that key causes of accidents and driver stress--such as overwork and an overcrowded system--were not being adequately addressed by the union and management.

And in another development, a group of bus patrons calling itself United Riders of Los Angeles threatened to sue over a new RTD pamphlet. The pamphlets, which praise RTD employees’ work in the face of a “constant barrage of negativism and criticism” by the news media and others, were distributed on buses this week.

Though it is not clear how many bus riders the group represents, a spokesman claimed the pamphlets, which cost about $1,500 to produce, are a “misuse of public funds.”

An RTD spokesman said there is nothing wrong with the agency’s communicating with bus passengers about matters of concern.