RTD Board Bows to Pressure, Votes to End Transit Fight

The threat of a 50% cut in bus service appeared to end Thursday when the Southern California Rapid Transit District board bowed to heavy pressure from two of the area’s most powerful politicians and voted to settle its fight with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

A 7-4 vote approved a resolution forged by ideological opposites, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, over the last 10 days. All that is remaining before final agreement is a vote on the settlement by the Transportation Commission today. Commission approval was forecast by Mike Lewis, top aide to Schabarum. The supervisor also serves as president of the Transportation Commission.

“I assure you it will be approved,” Lewis said.

The deal would free millions of dollars in tax funds that the Transportation Commission, the county’s transit fiscal agency, has refused to give the RTD in a dispute over labor costs. The RTD had threatened bus service cuts Jan. 2 unless it got the money. The resolution would also clear the way for setting up independent bus service in the San Gabriel Valley, a project sought by Schabarum.

The Bradley-Schabarum alliance, and the fact that it worked so well, was an unusual event in Los Angeles local government, where action is usually delayed by interminable feuds between various agencies and their political leaders. But the threat of massive service cuts pushed Bradley and Schabarum together.

Old Fashioned Way

Their alliance, and its probable success, could free both men from political criticism at crucial stages of their careers. Bradley is running for a fifth term and Schabarum is trying for a top job in President-Elect George Bush’s administration.

In this case, the proposal was initiated the old fashioned way, behind closed doors, with phone calls between the mayor and Schabarum and face-to-face negotiations between their aides, who worked up to 9 a.m. Thursday. As the final language was prepared, Bradley and Schabarum lined up support on the RTD’s 11-member board.

The Bradley-Schabarum resolution was handed to the RTD board at its afternoon meeting by Lewis and William Bicker, Bradley’s top transportation aide. Board President Gordana Swanson and other opponents of the resolution protested that they did not have enough time to read the document and objected to some of the provisions. But when asked to make changes, Lewis, in the cold, confident manner of a man who has the votes, brushed aside their objections and said “the document stands as written.”

The vote followed quickly, with the two members appointed by Bradley and the one Schabarum appointee supporting the plan, joined by four others clearly tired of the long fight between the county’s two transit agencies over finances, rail construction and transit policy.

The most immediate impact on the RTD’s hundreds of thousands of bus riders was a provision freeing almost $50 million in tax dollars to help finance bus operations.

The Transportation Commission, which is in charge of allocating tax money from various sources to bus districts throughout the county, had been withholding funds from the RTD because it believed that the current RTD labor contract is too liberal. The RTD operates bus lines and is building the Metro Rail subway.

The RTD, saying it could not change the union contracts, had said it would reduce service by half on Jan. 2 unless it received the funds from the Transportation Commission.

In return for the money, the RTD board was forced to agree to Schabarum’s favorite transportation project, the San Gabriel Valley Transportation Zone, which will operate buses in that area, which is part of Schabarum’s district. The supervisor, hostile to unions, has long wanted a separate San Gabriel Valley bus system with the power to cut labor costs and to permit private industry to do some of its work. Bus driver and mechanical unions bitterly oppose that.

The resolution authorized immediate authorization of the San Gabriel zone. But in a unique provision, the resolution said that authorization for the zone would be revoked if the commission today does not go along with the RTD approval.

That language, Lewis said, was necessary to settle a major part of the dispute: The RTD insisted on getting the money from the Transportation Commission before approving the transit zone, while Schabarum and transportation commissioners wanted the zone created before they gave up the money. The language, while awkward and complex, has the effect of turning over the money at the same time the San Gabriel zone is created, and killing the zone if the commission double-crosses the RTD board and refuses to turn over the funds to the RTD.

Public Opposition

Strong public opposition was expressed at the meeting. Representatives of the disabled said creation of the San Gabriel zone would clear the way for the setting up of more such transit districts. They said such districts have tended to decline to provide lifts and other facilities for handicapped riders.

Bill Bolte of ADAPT, an organization of the disabled, said the resolution was “a quick fix which will come back to haunt us.”

Also opposing the solution was the bus drivers’ union, whose spokesman, Goldie Norton, said, “We are deeply concerned and saddened that the district has allowed itself to give in to economic blackmail.” Norton said the union will press ahead with a lawsuit against the San Gabriel zone. The RTD, however, agreed to drop its legal action against the zone proposal.