2nd Legislative Appointee for Proposed Transit Unit Dropped

With a growing number of cities complaining about state interference in local transportation affairs, a Senate committee Thursday eliminated one legislative appointment to the governing board of a proposed transit superagency for Los Angeles County.

On a 7-1 vote, the Senate Transportation Committee then sent the bill to the full Senate where it will probably be voted on next week.

Proponents said the lopsided committee vote improved chances that the reorganization bill will be sent to Gov. George Deukmejian before the Sept. 11 adjournment of the Legislature.

The bill would combine the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. The new agency would assume responsibility for commuter rail and highway projects, as well as operation of most of the county’s transit buses.

New Agency

An 11-member board would oversee the new agency, but there has been a dispute about who its members should be. Thursday’s special committee hearing was ordered because of a groundswell of opposition from local elected officials, who opposed legislative appointments to the board.

The bill’s co-author, Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), had pushed through an amendment earlier this year to create a legislative appointment that he admits he wants to fill. Then last week, legislative leaders agreed to add a second member appointed by the Legislature.

The specter of the second state appointment and reduced local representation brought a wave of letter writing and lobbying by representatives of small cities.

“It galvanized the opposition of the cities,” said Christine Reed, a Santa Monica City Council member.

Joined Opposition

By Thursday’s hearing, 46 of 84 Los Angeles County’s cities opposed the bill. They were joined by the RTD, the Transportation Commission and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. With Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Wadie Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) complaining that the measure was becoming one of the most troublesome bills in the closing weeks of the legislative session, Robbins and the bill’s other author, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), agreed to drop one legislative appointment in return for assurances that about a dozen small cities would withdraw their opposition.

Still, Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) told the committee she would seek to knock out the other legislative appointment on the Senate floor. Representatives of the cities, including Los Angeles, said they would lobby for approval of that amendment.

Large Share

In another transit matter, a proposal to take a large share of the bus service in the San Gabriel Valley away from the RTD and turn it over to private bus companies has stalled before the Transportation Commission. The proposal, pushed by 26 cities and the county, failed to muster the required two-thirds vote and was withdrawn by its chief sponsor, Supervisor Pete Schabarum.