L.A. Plans to Put Curbs on Trucks Despite Vote

Mayor Tom Bradley said Monday that the city will go ahead with a plan to restrict truck traffic during peak hours despite a state Senate vote Saturday that could help create a legal roadblock to the fees that are a critical part of the program.

“There is nothing in the law that stops us from imposing that fee,” Bradley told reporters. “The Legislature did not affect our action with regard to adopting our truck management plan. That will go forward.”

Bradley predicted that if truckers challenge the plan in court, they could end up paying fees higher than the maximum $60-per-vehicle charge envisioned by the city.

The Senate, under pressure from trucking interests early Saturday in the waning hours of the legislative session, voted 25 to 10 to pass a bill that appears to limit the city’s authority to impose the fees, which are critical to Bradley’s plan to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in Los Angeles. The fees would pay for a program to manage truck traffic.

The Assembly already had approved the measure and Gov. George Deukmejian is expected to sign it into law.

The measure, an amendment backed by the trucking industry, says that nothing in a controversial transportation bill introduced during the session could be construed as allowing local governments to impose fees “not otherwise authorized by law.”

Because the law is silent on the subject of local truck fees, city officials said over the weekend that they doubted whether their fee plan could withstand a court challenge.

On Monday, however, Bradley and his staff took a more positive tack.

Bradley said the Legislature “did not stop us from imposing the fee. It simply gave the truckers some additional encouragement that they can file a lawsuit. We don’t believe the lawsuit will be able to stand the light of day.”

Even if the truckers win a court challenge, Bradley said, the matter would then be turned over to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which could impose a much higher fee. The district is viewed as having stronger legal standing to impose fees on truckers.

“Instead of $60, which we were going to charge, it could be anything,” Bradley said. “So I think that in the end they (the truckers) will be the losers.”

Bill Bicker, Bradley’s transportation specialist, said Monday, “We will proceed full steam ahead.”

Bicker said he does not believe the language added to the bill in the closing hours of the legislative session significantly improves the trucker’s legal standing, or the likelihood of a lawsuit.

“We knew they’d sue no matter what happened. They’ll sue all the way along,” Bicker said.

Bradley’s transportation plan, introduced nearly a year ago, is pending before the City Council’s Transportation Committee.