Katz Says MTA Lacks Strategy on Transit : Government: Legislator who devised merger that created the agency says money, efficiency problems remain.

Assemblyman Richard Katz--architect of legislation that created the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--blasted the newly formed agency Monday, saying it lacked a “game plan.”

The MTA was formed last spring by merging the Southern California Rapid Transit District and Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. It was intended to streamline bureaucracy, improve accountability and spend transportation money more efficiently.

“They are not going far enough, fast enough. . . . There is no cohesive vision for what transportation strategy ought to be,” said Katz, (D-Sylmar), chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Transportation. “It’s obvious we have to stay on their case, both in terms of the merger and the way tax dollars are being spent.”

The 8-month-old agency earned a C+ for its performance in executing the merger, Katz said after presiding over a 3 1/2-hour hearing at City Hall to evaluate the merger.

MTA Chairman Richard Alatorre--who attends many MTA ribbon-cuttings and publicity events--was not present at the hearing because he said he had other commitments.

The agency’s chief executive, Franklin White, said the merger had allowed the MTA to save $30 million a year by eliminating duplication among the former agencies and by trimming staff and administrative office expenses.

“The financial savings we have been able to deliver within eight months are extraordinary,” said White, who added that he anticipated more savings.

Katz said he proposed the legislation mandating the merger six years ago because, in part, he wanted to eliminate the “bureaucratic turf battles” that had plagued the county’s two agencies. But at Monday’s hearing, it was clear that some of the longtime rivalry between former agencies still exists.

“I still see two different agencies,” said Mike Bujosa, president of the local chapter of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Bujosa noted that MTA employees who hailed from the Transportation Commission still have perks unavailable to those who worked at the RTD. For example, former Transportation Commission employees were given discount passes for the Metrolink commuter train and a vacation day after Thanksgiving, he said.

Much of the discussion Monday sounded a familiar theme at transportation meetings: Should tax dollars be spent constructing rail lines or improving bus service?

Including money spent building and operating the rail system to date, the average public subsidy is $11.30 per Blue Line trolley rider, said Ryan Snyder, a transportation consultant. On Metrolink, the per-rider subsidy is $38, he said. For buses, the per-passenger subsidy is $1.17, which includes bus purchases and 12 years of operation.

“It’s pretty obvious that the bus system is getting the short end of the stick,” said Earl Clark, general chairman of the United Transportation Union.

*

But rail champions said that buses would not solve the region’s transportation woes. “Just expanding the bus system doesn’t meet the needs of the transit-dependent,” said Philip Hawkey, city manager for Pasadena, where a trolley line is planned.

As at many transportation meetings, critics were vocal and aimed broadly. Katz, a onetime mayoral candidate, and organizer of Monday’s hearing, came under fire for transportation-related campaign contributions. One of Katz’s largest fund-raisers during his campaign was at the Hidden Hills home of Ronald Tutor, owner of Tutor-Saliba, the largest contractor on the city’s new subway. The event raised an estimated $100,000.