Lobbyist for RTD Angers Patsaouras : Transit: A district director resigned to take a job lobbying for the agency. The move has at least one of her colleagues up in arms.

At least one director of the Southern California Rapid Transit District is calling for the scalp of the district’s general manager after learning that a fellow director has quit her post to become a paid RTD lobbyist.

Technically, Jan Hall resigned her seat on the RTD board last week to work for a private South Bay consulting firm that had just signed a $99,500 contract with the huge transit district.

The contract, signed by RTD General Manager Alan F. Pegg, calls for Hall to lobby for the district, an RTD spokesman said.

The deal, transacted by Pegg without the knowledge of the district’s governing board, stirred an immediate, angry reaction from RTD Director Nick Patsaouras.

“Mr. Pegg . . . can either rescind the contract, resign, or be fired,” Patsaouras said.

He questioned both the need “for another lobbyist” and the propriety of hiring an RTD director for the job.

“I don’t like the fact that this did not come to the board,” Patsaouras said.

It is doubtful that Patsaouras has the six votes on the 11-member board to force Pegg to make such a decision. But his reaction is shared by at least one other director, Jeff Jenkins.

“I share Nick’s frustration with the general manager,” Jenkins said in a telephone interview. “I think Alan Pegg should give greater thought to how he communicates to the board.”

Hall resigned Friday and was hired immediately by CBC Consultants of Torrance. CBC’s contract calls for the firm to handle RTD governmental affairs and press relations, district spokesman Greg Davy said.

RTD lawyers reviewed the contract and determined that the district’s revolving-door policy, prohibiting directors from working directly for the district for a year, was not violated, Davy said.

Hall, a Long Beach city councilwoman, had been on the RTD board since her 1981 appointment by county Supervisor Deane Dana. She is considered a rapid transit expert.

“Mr. Pegg feels her (Hall’s) knowledge of public transportation will help RTD in its relations with Sacramento and Washington, D.C., decision-makers,” Davy said, adding that Hall is an “excellent and forceful communicator. . . . This was a way to hire her, in effect.”

Davy pointed out that, because the CBC contract was for less than $100,000, Pegg was not required to get board approval.

Patsaouras angrily disagreed.

“This should have been discussed with the board. . . . (Pegg) can’t ignore us,” he said.

At a time when the RTD is faced with major federal spending cuts, the issue of spending money for another lobbyist is something the board should decide, Patsaouras contended.

While acknowledging that the move was legal, board President Gordana Swanson said she also has “some concern” about Hall resigning to take the consulting job.

“I have some concern, because it’s a new situation . . . precedent-setting,” Swanson said.