Bradley, Orange County at Odds on Regional Bill

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley intervened last week to help kill an amendment that would have made it easier for Orange County to secede from the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose) blocked the amendment in the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation after Bradley phoned him Wednesday, said James McConnell, Orange County’s lobbyist in Washington, and aides to Mineta and Bradley.

Bradley told Mineta, chairman of the surface transportation subcommittee, that “a regional council of governments should not be splintered with various cities given the authority to withdraw from this organization,” Bradley spokeswoman Vallee Bunting said.

“The mayor has been kept apprised of the situation by Congressman Mineta, who is continuing his work to reach an agreement that is fair and reasonable to all concerned,” Bunting said.

Eric K. Federing, Mineta’s press secretary, said Mineta was opposed to the amendment Orange County wanted even before Bradley called.

“He was trying to work out a compromise, which is what in fact happened, and Bradley was just another one of the people he had spoken to on the issue,” Federing said.

The compromise being proposed on the House floor would allow creation of a new planning organization if members representing 75% of SCAG’s physical area approve. The existing rules, SCAG officials contend, would require ratification by members representing at least 75% of the population represented by SCAG--with Los Angeles County being the most populous but not the largest of the counties in the organization.

Orange County officials have talked about seceding from SCAG, a six-county, regional planning organization, for more than a decade largely because Orange County officials believe that SCAG caters to Los Angeles’ interests.

SCAG, like many metropolitan planning organizations, was created during the 1960s and sanctioned by the state and federal governments as the distributing agency for state and federal planning grants. In addition, SCAG monitors whether its members are conforming with regional transportation, housing and environmental policies.

Orange County has repeatedly clashed with SCAG over the agency’s issuance of city-by-city, county-by-county quotas for affordable housing units. SCAG has asserted that Orange County has dumped its fair-share burden for low-cost housing on Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Orange County has long refused to pay SCAG membership dues, relenting only recently when the Board of Supervisors began worrying that SCAG would make transportation decisions adverse to Orange County.

From Orange County’s point of view, it might stand a better chance of getting a larger share of federal transportation dollars if it was part of a more compact, local planning group. Officials there believe transportation funds are being “sucked up” by the Century Freeway and L.A.’s Metro Rail system, said Stan Oftelie, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

SCAG has 200 members, all from city councils and boards of supervisors. It covers a population of 15 million people and has jurisdiction over 38,000 square miles beginning in Ventura and extending to the Mexican, Arizona and Nevada borders.