Truce Reached in L.A.’s Transit War

Officials announced a cease-fire Tuesday in the feud between the region’s two transit agencies, which have been at odds for years over control of mass transit rail projects in Los Angeles County.

Under an agreement signed Tuesday by Mayor Tom Bradley and four county supervisors, the city and county each will appoint representatives to serve concurrently on the Southern California Rapid Transit District board and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

At present, the mayor and the supervisors appoint different representatives to each panel, a situation that has led to turf wars between the agencies.

The officials vowed that the agencies will stop wasting time fighting each other and concentrate on decreasing traffic congestion and air pollution.

If the plan is approved by the state Legislature, at least seven of the 11 members of each board would be identical, Bradley said at a press conference in City Hall Tuesday.

“This is a compromise that says we can all work together,” he said. “There should not be any reason for the kind of disagreements which occurred in the past.”

The agreement also calls for Bradley and the county supervisors to attend four meetings of the panels each year instead of sending their alternates. The agreement was signed by Bradley and Supervisors Kenneth Hahn, Mike Antonovich, Ed Edelman and Deane Dana. The fifth supervisor, Pete Schabarum, has announced he will not run for reelection and was not part of the agreement.

Edelman, who attended the press conference, called the pact “a major step forward” and an attempt to “reduce the friction, if not eliminate it, between the RTD and the county Transportation Commission.”

“Lord knows, there’s enough to do to solve our transportation problems and reduce congestion, to come up with adequate plans to move cars, buses and now light rail and heavy rail,” Edelman said.

“Too often because they’re different agencies with different people on them, they play at rivalry rather than cooperation,” he said.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who suggested the plan last fall, called it a “two-year cease-fire” between the agencies.

“We want to end the daily press releases criticizing one agency or the other, the finger-pointing and backbiting,” Katz said.

“We want to get to the business of serving the people and attempt to try to end the war.”

Katz said he will sponsor a measure in the Assembly that would change state law that prohibits people from serving on both boards.

Katz said the Legislature will expect a report from the agencies within two years on how to reorganize them more efficiently.

The provision requiring the mayor and supervisors to attend quarterly meetings will allow the public to know “exactly who to hold accountable,” Katz said.

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) said Tuesday he will have the proposal heard quickly in the Senate.

“For years we’ve suffered because Los Angeles has had two transit organizations running the transit scene in our city,” Robbins said. “It has not been a pretty picture.”

The two agencies have been at odds over which should be building and operating mass transit rail projects in the county. The dispute has caused delays in the construction of the Metro Rail subway project.

The first 4.4-mile leg of the project is under construction downtown and is scheduled to open in late 1993. Federal officials recently agreed to release $667 million for construction of a 6.8-mile second leg. An additional congressional appropriation will be required for a third segment, which would run to North Hollywood and Universal City.