Metrolink Benefit Is Derailed When It’s Not a Free Ride : Transit: Chatsworth group drops fund-raiser for building museum at commuter station. County wanted $5,000 for use of a train.

Organizers have canceled a fund-raiser for a Western museum in Chatsworth after Los Angeles County transportation officials, stung by charges of wasteful spending on the Metro Rail project, denied a request to provide a free Metrolink train.

The Nov. 7 event, planned by the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, was designed to raise money to build a museum at the Chatsworth commuter train station. The highlight of the evening was to be a Metrolink train ride to downtown Los Angeles, where guests would dance to live music and eat catered food.

Chamber members said they canceled the event after a Los Angeles County Transportation Commission spokesman told them Wednesday that use of the train would cost about $5,000.

“We were definitely operating under the impression that we were going to get a train for free,” said John B. Warner, who heads the chamber’s transportation committee. He said the event was canceled because the fund-raiser would not raise enough to cover the $5,000 fee and still make money for the museum.

LACTC spokeswoman Stephanie Brady said county transportation officials held preliminary talks with event organizers but never made a commitment to provide a train. “I don’t think anything was ever set,” she said.

Warner said he suspects that county officials proposed the $5,000 fee in response to charges of wasteful spending on the Metro Rail project.

Last week, the federal General Accounting Office announced that it would look into allegations of fraud, wasteful spending and corruption on the multibillion-dollar project.

Among the allegations is a whistle-blower’s charge that the LACTC staff spent about $800,000 on the Metro Blue Line’s opening ceremony in 1990, more than twice the $300,000 budgeted and approved by the commission’s Board of Directors.

But Brady said the $5,000 fee requested for the train was not related to the GAO investigation.

“There has always been a concern about what is appropriate use of taxpayer dollars,” she said.

She said the Chatsworth event is an example of how county officials have begun to tighten the purse strings on promotional events.

In another example of cost cutting, several transportation commissioners, including Mayor Tom Bradley, last month criticized a staff proposal to spend up to $100,000 for promotional events celebrating the Oct. 26 opening of the county’s Metrolink commuter rail system, which will connect Moorpark in Ventura County, Santa Clarita and Pomona to downtown Los Angeles.

On Thursday, the LACTC announced an agreement with the Southern Pacific railroad to purchase 67 miles of right of way that would be used to expand Metrolink train service to Palmdale and Lancaster. The right of way, which would extend train service from Santa Clarita to the Antelope Valley, was part of a $68-million purchase for 78 miles of right of way in the northern part of the county.

The agreement was made late Wednesday during a closed-door session of the commission, which plans to begin operating the commuter train Oct. 26.

“The acquisition of these rights of way are necessary in order to provide future transportation service to the communities of Palmdale and Lancaster,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who chairs the commission and represents the Antelope Valley on the board of supervisors.

In preparing for Metrolink celebrations, the LACTC set a maximum of $30,000 on opening day events. Brady said the county transportation staff has since raised about $60,000 in private donations for the ceremonies at various stops along the three rail lines, and plans to use no public money.

County transportation commission staff will also recommend to the commission next month that the fee proposed in the Chatsworth case be imposed in all other cases where an outside organization wants the use of a train for promotional purposes, she said.

The $60,000 that the staff has raised in private donations will be spent on an opening ceremony at Union Station and on promotional information and marketing kits that will be distributed to cities along the line.

Local city officials said that regardless of the cutbacks from the LACTC, they still plan to hold opening-day ceremonies at some of the major stations.

In Burbank, city officials said they plan to spend up to $2,000 for refreshments at a reception during which a brass plaque will be dedicated.

The city of Santa Clarita plans to spend about the same, but city officials there plan a more elaborate event. Two days before the service starts, the city will dedicate the station, climaxing the event with a mock train robbery by an assistant city manager dressed as “The Clarita Kid.”

Santa Clarita officials hope to have a Metrolink train parked at the station as well as a 35-piece band and other entertainment. Most of the performers will be city officials donating their time, said city spokeswoman Gail Foy.

Los Angeles city officials have not given up on an opening ceremony for the Chatsworth station. Ali Sar, an aide to Councilman Hal Bernson, said the councilman’s staff has been working with Chatsworth residents to organize an event. But he said nothing definite has been planned.