Bradley Loses Support Over Transit Issue

Two Los Angeles City Council committees broke with Mayor Tom Bradley on transit reorganization Tuesday, with one of the chairmen accusing the mayor of “tilting at windmills and not recognizing the momentum” of demands for merger of the county’s two major transit agencies.

The comment was made by Councilman Michael Woo, chairman of the Transportation and Traffic Committee, after that group and the Intergovernmental Relations Committee endorsed restructuring the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The actions, and Woo’s comment, were evidence that the council was trying to distance itself from Bradley in a political controversy touched off by criticism of the two agencies.

Clearly, the council members sensed growing support for major change, which the mayor opposes. “People assumed he (Bradley) is speaking for the city’s position but the City Charter says the council determines the city’s position and we have been ineffectual because we have had no city position,” Woo said. “The council has to support major change.”

Both committees Tuesday opposed Bradley’s plan to create a new agency to take over construction of the county’s two new rail lines, the Metro Rail subway downtown and the Long Beach-to-Los Angeles light rail line.

And in another rebuff to the mayor, the committees recommended an end to the practice of permitting elected officials who serve on the RTD and transportation boards to send alternates to meetings. Instead, the committees said that mayors, council members and county supervisors appointed to the board of a new agency should have to attend meetings. Bradley has said elected officials often do not have time to do that.

“When I was the first chairman of the Transportation Commission, I attended all the meetings,” Councilman John Ferraro said. “I did not have a substitute.” Bradley presided at the most recent commission meeting as the newly elected chairman, but he has sent alternates in the past.

Finally, when the committees go to the full council today with the recommendations, they will add another one--specifically recommending merger of the RTD and the Transportation Commission.

The RTD, which operates most of the county’s buses and is building and will run Metro Rail, has been the subject of news stories about management weaknesses. The Transportation Commission sets overall county transportation policy, distributes funds from the county transit sales tax and is building the Long Beach-to-Los Angeles light rail line. It has been criticized for getting into construction when it was conceived as a planning and funding agency.