RTD Board Suspends Pact Used to Hire Ex-Member

Jan Hall, recently retired member of the Southern California Rapid Transit District Board of Directors, may have a very short tenure as a paid lobbyist for the district, according to RTD officials.

The district board on Thursday suspended the $99,500 consultant contract that put Hall to work on the district’s behalf, but then agreed to give RTD General Manager Alan F. Pegg a week to explain why and how Hall ended up as a district lobbyist immediately after leaving her board post.

If his explanation falls short, several members of the board have indicated that they will move to cancel the contract, an RTD spokesman said. Hall resigned her seat on the RTD Board of Directors last week to work for CBC Consultants, a private South Bay firm that contracted her services to the district. The contract, signed by Pegg, calls for Hall to lobby for the RTD, a district 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, who said the general manager should either resign or be fired if he did not immediately rescind the contract.

Although the matter was not on Thursday’s agenda, Board President Gordana Swanson brought the issue up and recommended that the contract be canceled. Earlier Swanson had said she was concerned about the deal, even though RTD attorneys had said there was no violation of the district’s “revolving door” policies. Those policies are intended to prevent district directors from going to work for the RTD for at least a year after leaving their jobs.

With only seven of the board’s 11 members present on Thursday, it was decided to postpone action, giving Pegg a week to report back on why and how he put the consultant contract together.

“Mr. Pegg feels (Hall’s) knowledge of public transportation will help RTD in its relations with Sacramento and Washington, D.C., decision-makers,” said Greg Davy, an RTD spokesman. “She is excellent and forceful communicator,” he added.

Hall, a Long Beach councilwoman, had been on the RTD board since 1981 and is considered a rapid transit expert. “This was a way to hire her, in effect,” Davy said.