Hall Made It Through All Mine Fields but the Last

During her nine-year tenure on the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, Jan Hall skillfully picked her way through mine fields of political squabbling, attempts to break up the district and allegations of mismanagement at the big transit agency. Yet in the end, she stumbled, exiting with an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the same board she had led through some of its most turbulent times.

Even while singing her praises, the board cut Hall off at the knees with a quick succession of votes just two weeks after she resigned her RTD seat to take a job with a small, politically connected consulting firm that primarily helps developer clients wend their way through the thickets of the government permitting process.

Meeting earlier this month, the board first killed a contract with CBC Consulting Inc. of Torrance--Hall’s new company--which had called for Hall to oversee media relations for the transit district and lobby on its behalf in Sacramento. The directors then voted against contracting directly with Hall for the same services and passed a new rule ensuring that no board member could in the future jump from an RTD seat to a contract with the RTD, as Hall had attempted to.

“There was no question it was a public relations fiasco,” a friend of Hall observed. “She’s got good political instincts and this was right out of Politics 1A.”

It only took a few hours for some board members to howl foul to the media after Hall, a three-term Long Beach City Council member, announced that as a vice president of CBC, she would be doing contract work with the transit agency.

Hall’s former colleagues complained that the contract had never come before the full board, that the district didn’t need more lobbyists, and that while the whole arrangement was technically legal, it smacked of a revolving-door situation in which the general manager--who signed the contract--was taking care of one of his bosses.

“You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see that CBC is an intermediary,” board Director Kenneth R. Thomas declared during the meeting at which the board cancelled the $99,500 contract.

Indeed, the contract specifically stated that Hall would do the RTD work and General Manager Alan Pegg has said he contracted with CBC because the company was hiring Hall, whom he considered highly qualified for the lobbying work.

District regulations forbid board members from taking a job with the agency for a year after leaving the board, but the regulations had not precluded former directors from entering into contracts with the district. The board’s attorney said it would have been legal for RTD to directly contract with Hall for her services, rather than going through CBC.

No more. After rescinding the CBC pact, the board passed a new rule barring board members from contracting with the district for a year after their departure.

Hall is unrepentant. “What I believe happened is that the board changed its mind,” said Hall, adding that she understood all the board members were individually consulted about the contract by Pegg before he signed it.

“People who are hiding things don’t hold press conferences and announce it. Everything I did was above board, was legal,” continued Hall, whose job with CBC remains unaffected by the RTD flap. “Revolving door to me is when you leave a legislative body . . . and you come back and you lobby your former colleagues on behalf of others.”

She says she is not bitter at the board’s action. “I understand politics. That’s the way it goes.”

Board members took their pot shots at Pegg rather than Hall, repeatedly praising the public relations and lobbying skills of Hall, who helped steer the board through various crises ranging from drug use by RTD bus drivers to allegations of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.

Nonetheless, some Hall supporters say she shot herself in the foot politically with the contract controversy.

“It is the antithesis of the graceful exit,” noted one political backer. “Politically, it obviously was a very bad thing to do.”

Hall, supporters say, didn’t anticipate flak over the contract both because she apparently thought the board had signed off on the matter and because she didn’t view her hop from RTD director to RTD lobbyist as a revolving-door issue.

“Nobody who looked at the whole thing really interpreted it the way it got interpreted,” said the supporter.

Another Hall ally said he couldn’t believe Pegg would have signed the contract without thinking he had the tacit consent of the majority of directors.

“I’m kind of cynical about some of the holier-than-thou board reaction,” he said, adding that fallout over the contract could--at least in the short term--hurt Hall’s chances of running for higher elective office.

“The perception is, it wasn’t the right thing to do . . . and in politics, perception is reality.”

Republican Hall, who is not seeking reelection to a fourth term this spring, was considered last year for a high-ranking federal transportation post in the Bush Administration and says she remains interested in political office, either elected or appointed.

BACKGROUND

City Councilwoman Jan Hall entered the public arena 20 years ago as a young housewife, when she successfully led a community campaign to stop a freeway that would have sliced through central Long Beach. She was first elected to represent the 3rd District on the Long Beach City Council in 1978, was appointed to the board of the Southern California Rapid Transit District in 1981 and served as board president for two years. She is chair of the California State Commission on the Status of Women.