Transportation ‘Cease-Fire’ Measure Gains
Legislation intended to provide a “cease-fire” in the seemingly endless bureaucratic brawls over Southern California transportation issues was unanimously approved Thursday by the state Senate.
The bill, by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), is a first step toward the merger of the Los Angeles region’s two embattled transit agencies--the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.
Political turf fights between the two agencies are legendary, but efforts to reorganize them have met with failure.
Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) said the Katz proposal “provides a cease-fire in the wars. . . . There is finally light at the end of the tunnel.” The bill was returned to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.
The bill, basically a legislative ratification of a compromise reached by local officials, would allow Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, his appointee and the five Los Angeles County supervisors to serve on boards of both the Rapid Transit District and the Transportation Commission.
The mayor and the supervisors would be required to attend four joint meetings of the two agencies each year instead of sending pinch-hitters. It also directs the two agencies to approve a consolidation plan by 1992.
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