Fiedler Takes a Parting Shot at a New Target--RTD Chief

Republican Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, who plunged into politics by protesting forced school busing in the 1970s, ended her political career--at least for now--at a press conference Monday where she took aim at a different controversy involving buses: the management of the RTD.

Fiedler called for the resignation of John A. Dyer, the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s general manager, and talked about the future as she sat in her Chatsworth office.

Fiedler, who sacrificed her congressional seat to run for the U.S. Senate and lost, has just five days left in her job. On Monday, her nameplate was missing from the door. Inside the office, filled with packing cartons, the phones were unusually silent.

Business as Usual

But for the three-term congresswoman, who has always been comfortable in front of television cameras, it was business as usual one more time.

Sitting at the head of a conference table covered with press clippings about the RTD’s recent troubles, Fiedler urged the state Legislature to approve a bill that would make RTD board members elected, rather than an appointed.

Blaming Dyer for problems with unqualified bus drivers, declining ridership, controversial administrative costs and the rising price of Metro Rail, she said:

“Today I am calling for his resignation or, if he refuses, I am calling on the elected officials who have appointed the RTD board members to demand that their appointees fire Dyer and replace him and his handpicked cohorts with competent management.”

An early and vociferous opponent of Metro Rail, Fiedler said, “While I may no longer be a member of Congress, I will be an active citizen of Los Angeles. And I invite Dyer and the RTD board to remember what happened the last time I was in that position.”

She referred to her days as a housewife leading a grass-roots group that fought the Los Angeles School District’s mandatory busing program in the San Fernando Valley. But Fiedler acknowledged that she probably would not be devoting the same amount of time to the RTD fight “because I am in a very different situation now than I was.”

Seeking TV Job

She has been negotiating with KABC-TV, Channel 7, to join Bruce Herschensohn, one of her adversaries last spring in the GOP Senate primary, as a conservative political commentator.

She said she is “very optimistic” that she will get the job, which would probably entail debating Bill Press, a liberal commentator on the same station.

Lamenting the dearth of women on corporate boards, Fiedler also said she thinks she will probably land seats on two boards, one in the transportation field and the other in cosmetics.

For now, she disavows any desire to campaign for herself any time soon.

“I’m really enjoying very much the opportunity of gearing down a little bit and being able to spend a little more time with my family,” said Fiedler, 49, who plans to marry her chief of staff, Paul Clarke, this spring.

On Monday, Fiedler’s Chatsworth office will have a new tenant, Rep. Elton Gallegly, her successor.

Observed Clarke: “I think he’s in for a rude awakening. So are all new members.”