County Feud Over Transit Merger Erupts in Capitol

It resembles a Wall Street takeover battle involving one of California’s largest bus companies and a major transportation planning firm. Only this time the targets are the Orange County Transit District and the Orange County Transportation Commission, which together control more than $150 million in combined budgets a year.

County officials and representatives from Orange County’s 28 cities are fighting each other for a controlling interest in a proposed new agency that would replace both the commission and the transit district.

But when the fight over control of the proposed new agency is over, will the public gain anything from a merger?

The arguments pro and con were aired at a state Senate Transportation Committee hearing here Tuesday, and although a transportation merger bill passed its first legislative hurdle by a vote of 8 to 2, the opposition votes came from two of three Orange County lawmakers who sit on the Senate panel.

County’s ‘Family Feud’

And the debate revealed what one senator from Los Angeles called “Orange County’s family feud.”

On Tuesday, State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, testified in behalf of her own bill that would replace the Transportation Commission and the transit district with a new Orange County Transportation Authority. The bill would create a new board of directors for such an agency with three county supervisors, seven city council members or mayors selected by a city committee, one at-large member, and a non-voting member appointed by the governor.

“This would enable us to speak with one voice with respect to our transportation needs,” Bergeson argued. “And currently there are overlapping planning functions” performed by the transit district and the Transportation Commission.

Brea Councilwoman Clarice A. Blamer, who is also a member of the Transportation Commission, testified that Bergeson’s bill would help people decide “who to blame when things go wrong, and who to give the credit to when things go well.”

Supporters of a merger also said consolidating authority in one agency would help win public support for a proposed half-cent sales tax for transportation projects that county officials hope to place before voters.

But Tustin Councilman Richard B. Edgar, who also serves on the boards of both transportation bodies, was having none of it. “The bus company (the transit district) is very successful, so why should someone take it over?” Edgar asked during the hearing. “We have a study from a consultant that says a consolidation would save $350,000. . . . But I believe it would cost $5 million to merge.”

Edgar cited a recent vote by the Orange County League of Cities, which voted 21 to 6 to try to delay Bergeson’s bill a year for further study.

But Bergeson on Tuesday distributed copies of a letter written to her by League of Cities President Phil Schwartze of San Juan Capistrano. The letter, citing a commitment by Bergeson to work for creation of a countywide council of governments to rule any merged transportation agency, said the league was no longer opposed to moving the bill through the Legislature as quickly as possible.

Edgar was visibly upset. Sens. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk), both of whom sit on the Senate Transportation Committee and represent portions of Orange County, said they could not believe that Schwartze could be speaking for the 21 cities that recently opposed Bergeson’s bill.

Seymour said his vote belonged to the cities. In a harsh exchange, Seymour said he would vote for the bill if Bergeson would agree not to pursue its passage by the full Senate until a majority of the county’s 28 cities indicate they support it.

Bergeson, who is expected to compete with Seymour for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor, refused. “If you strengthen one side’s position so much, there’s no incentive to refused. “If you strengthen one side’s position so much, there’s no incentive to negotiate,” she argued. As an alternative, Bergeson promised not to push her bill until a “consensus” could be reached among city and county officials. Seymour and Green were not satisfied and voted against the bill.

It was not supposed to be like this, legislative staff members said.

There was no fight several months ago when the Transportation Commission’s staff, led by Executive Director Stanley T. Oftelie, first drafted a proposal to merge the commission and the transit district.

But then several officials accused Oftelie of trying to extend his authority.

‘Build an Empire’

In fact, Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young said in a recent interview that Oftelie is “trying to build an empire” and a new agency with veto power over cities’ growth management policies because those policies affect traffic. “He wants to create another Coastal Commission, with himself on top,” Young charged.

Oftelie has denied such allegations, but Young fired off an angry letter to Oftelie this week accusing him of deliberately failing to submit on time an amendment to Bergeson’s legislation that would have required majority support from the cities and the Board of Supervisors before any merger of the two bodies could occur.

Once opposed to merger legislation, Young and other officials from the county’s cities are actively seeking creation of an Orange County Congress of Governments to oversee a new transportation authority, partly because the city representatives see this as a chance to do away with OCTC--and Oftelie’s job.

In effect, Young said Tuesday, Oftelie has lost control of his own merger issue. Bergeson has amended her bill to include the congress of governments concept.

Oftelie was unavailable for comment but has said recently he welcomes the creation of the so-called congress, primarily as a vehicle for regional planning, a task now performed by the Los Angeles-based Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Bergeson’s bill will be taken up by the full Senate in about a month.