County Transit Battle Begins Amid Conflict Among Rival Agencies

The legislative struggle over the future of public transportation in Los Angeles County has started, and local politicians and rival transit agencies are already fighting for control.

“Everyone is defending their turf and nobody trusts anyone else,” said Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), whose Assembly Transportation Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles on several competing plans to reorganize a troubled system.

“There is no one in charge, and there is no elected official for the voter to vote out of office if they get mad,” Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) said of present transit authorities. He is the author of a major reorganization plan, to be presented before the Senate Transportation Committee in Sacramento Feb. 17.

The legislative interest in Los Angeles transit marks a renewal of a fight that began in the late 1950s, when residents awoke to the fact that their new freeway network was becoming jammed and that a ramshackle collection of failing private bus companies provided no alternative. The money-losing buses were all that was left of a huge rail system, anchored by Pacific Electric’s Red Cars, which had extended from the county’s inland reaches to the beach.

Government took over in 1958 and one reorganization followed another, none satisfactory, ending in the present confusion.

Today, one public system, the Southern California Rapid Transit District, operates the buses and is beginning to build the Metro Rail subway under downtown Los Angeles. Another agency, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, is building a light-rail trolley line from Long Beach to downtown, with its own section of downtown subway. Twelve smaller cities operate bus systems of their own. San Gabriel Valley cities, dissatisfied with RTD service, want to start their own system.

In addition, the RTD is suffering from a host of problems in running its bus system, ranging from high driver absenteeism and accusations of driver drug use to skyrocketing administrative costs, all blamed on flawed management. And there are safety concerns about a system carrying more than 1.6 million daily riders along streets that include the most congested in Los Angeles.

Unhappy about the RTD and the county Transportation Commission building separate train lines in the same area, the Los Angeles County chief administrative office warned there are “no clear lines of authority” in transit planning and operations.

“The absence of a specific hierarchy or reporting relationship between SCRTD and the LACTC, the similar composition of each agency’s governing board and the responsibility of SCRTD for Metro Rail project planning and construction and LACTC for light-rail project planning and construction create the impression they are parallel, independent entities,” the office said in a report. “These give the appearance of a lack of accountability to the public and to other officials.”

The public’s stake is high. A total of $322 million a year from the county’s half-cent sales tax is being spent on public transit this year, plus more than $335 million in federal and state tax dollars. And separate construction of new rail lines by the two agencies has raised concerns by some public officials of worsening downtown Los Angeles traffic and possible complications in operating the trains.

Critics also point to the way that long-range planning is divided between the two competing transit agencies and another government organization, the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Caltrans, the state transportation agency, is also engaged in local transit planning, building a light-rail line along the Century Freeway, now under construction, and is planning in August to sponsor Amtrak San Fernando Valley commuter rail service from the Simi Valley to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Putting all this together is up to the Legislature, which created the present transit agencies and is the only governmental body with the power to create a new one. But lawmakers face major political problems.

The Transportation Commission, which originally was created to be a watchdog over county transit, quickly got into the construction business and now wants to move into train operations. It is asking the Legislature to take away the RTD’s power to operate the new train lines, and allow the commission to find another operator.

Even though the Long Beach and the Metro Rail lines are being built by the two agencies, the county commission and RTD respectively, the RTD won authority from the Legislature a decade ago to run both systems when construction is finished. State law would have to be changed to take away the RTD’s operating authority.

The RTD opposes losing train operations, as do the unions which have contracts with the district, the United Transportation Union, representing drivers, and the mechanics’ Amalgamated Transit Union. The unions fear the commissioners would put the work out to bid if given authority over train operations, and possibly sign contracts with private companies which would use non-union personnel.

That dispute extends to powerful politicians in Los Angeles and in Sacramento.

Unions have power in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and they feel confident their Sacramento allies will resist any attempt to harm them.

The conservative majority on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wants to weaken union power, and they have influence with Republican Gov. George Deukmejian.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, a union favorite, is insisting on leaving operations to the district. Bradley, who lost to Deukmejian for governor in 1986, needs union support two years from now when he runs for a fifth mayoral term, and he has friends in the large Los Angeles County legislative delegation.

That pro-union stand puts Bradley in an awkward position: He is also chairman this year of the county Transportation Commission.

Thus at Wednesday’s legislative hearing, he will back one commission proposal--for a single agency in charge of rail construction--but will remain opposed to the commission attempt to take over rail operations, according to aide Craig Lawson.

Another complicating factor in the Legislature is the stand of small cities--such as Glendale and Monrovia--which get a substantial share of local sales tax money for their own transit projects.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman wants reorganization, saying the cities are not using the money well. “The cities are hoarding the money,” he said.

But officials of the League of California Cities said that the suburban cities will fight any legislative attempt to cut their funds.

That clash between Edelman, who represents an urban stretch of Los Angeles reaching from the Eastside to the Westside, and the outlying cities gives an urban-suburban tone to the upcoming fight in Sacramento.

Robbins’ plan appears to have the most momentum at present. He said that he is working closely with Assemblyman Katz on it and has been asked by Katz to sit with the Assembly committee at the Wednesday hearing.

“There will be no plan until Richard Katz and I work out something acceptable to our respective houses,” Robbins said.

Both men are considered allies by the bus drivers’ union, said the union’s president, Earl Clark. That may help in Sacramento negotiations.

And the Robbins plan is almost identical to the one proposed by the Los Angeles County administrative office and backed by Supervisor Deane Dana, a former head of the county Transportation Commission and a leading supervisorial proponent of reorganization. Robbins has been meeting with Dana; and Friday he talked to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, an RTD critic who has been taking a harsher line against the transit agencies than has Dana. Robbins said he has also conferred at length with Bradley, trying to line up his support.

Robbins and the county officials have proposed eliminating the Rapid Transit District and the county Transportation Commission and replacing them with a new authority. County officials have proposed calling it the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority, but Robbins said he favors the name Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“It’s always easier to sell it to the Legislature if it doesn’t have the name Los Angeles in it,” Robbins said.

The commission would consist of one legislator appointed by the Joint Legislative Rules Committee, one by the governor and two representatives of Los Angeles’ small cities, one east of the Harbor Freeway and one west. The mayor of Los Angeles and two supervisors would also be members of the seven-member body. The commission may be expanded, Robbins said, by a third county supervisor and a second legislator.

Robbins originally favored an elected group, but now says he wants the authority formed first, and decide later whether it would remain appointive or be chosen by the voters.

Katz said he is “leaning toward a combination elective and appointive board with the majority elected.”

The plan would require the mayor and the supervisors to attend meetings, a change from the present system where these officials usually send representatives to meetings of the RTD board or the county Transportation Commission. Such attendance, said Robbins, would force elected officials to become accountable for their transit actions.

The authority would have three divisions: These would be operations, in charge of bus and rail lines; construction, managing all rail and other construction, and planning and programming, which would allocate federal, state and local funds, set standards and monitor the efficiency of operations. The planning division would also watch the performance of the municipal bus lines now operated by 12 smaller Los Angeles County cities.

The county plan, in a provision certain to draw union opposition, proposes that the authority sign contracts with private operators “as needed.”

Asked about that, Robbins said, “I feel we could work it out in a way that is fair to the unions.” Katz said that drivers’ union President Clark’s main concern is with the contracting provisions but “Earl knows changes have to be made.”

Another plan has been proposed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who represents the suburban San Gabriel Valley. Schabarum is trying to help the valley cities break away from the RTD and form their own transit authority. And he favors a wholesale change in countywide transit operations, with the county Transportation Commission given all policy and finance responsibility, and the mandate to turn operations over to private contractors “to the extent possible without displacing present SCRTD drivers or mechanics.” Rail construction would be done by a separate unit under the county Transportation Commission.

The RTD has not proposed a plan that specific, although board President Jan Hall said it favors “consolidation of some kind.”

Another board member, who asked not to be named, said he expects the demise of the present RTD structure, to be replaced by an elected board. And the board member said the changes will probably result in the departure of RTD General Manager John Dyer, who has come under fire for management shortcomings.

Dyer himself has called for change, although he has not given any indication he wants to leave his job.