Grand Jury Will Probe RTD Safety, Management Ills
The Los Angeles County Grand Jury has agreed to a Board of Supervisors request to launch an investigation into allegations of mismanagement and safety problems in the Rapid Transit District.
The supervisors received a letter Friday from grand jury foreman Edward Roseman informing them of the inquiry. The board had asked for the probe in December on the heels of allegations by the district attorney’s office about an insurance fraud ring that had bilked the RTD of an estimated $500,000 through phony injury claims.
A seven-member grand jury committee will investigate only those issues outlined by the supervisors, including problems with the RTD’s management, organization and expenditures, said Robert Lutz, who will head the panel.
The county’s legal counsel said in an opinion issued in December that the grand jury has the jurisdiction to examine the transit agency’s books and records and to investigate and report on its management style.
Jan Hall, president of the RTD board of directors, said the mass transit agency “will certainly cooperate in any way possible with any investigation.” But, she added, “I don’t feel they are going to find anything.”
“They (grand jury members) certainly have plenty to go on,” said Dan Wolf, spokesman for County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a leading critic of the RTD and author of the motion calling for the investigation.
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