Top Transit Officials Seek Merger Study : Consolidations: Reviewer would consider rolling toll road agencies into the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Eager to save money and avoid duplication, three top transportation officials, including the head of Orange County’s toll road boards, called for an independent study Thursday to explore merging the tollway agencies with the public authority that does all other transportation planning.

Previous merger efforts, in 1988 and 1990, failed in large measure because the Transportation Corridor Agencies, planning the construction of three toll roads in southern and eastern Orange County, resisted a move to be absorbed into the public entities that run the county’s bus system and guide its transportation planning.

The Orange County Transportation Authority, combining the functions of both entities, was formed in 1990 by state legislation.

At Thursday’s monthly meeting of the toll road boards, William Woollett Jr., the chief executive officer of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, said his staff would update its 1990 report opposing the merger and asked for an independent examination.

“We can always improve what we do and it’s important for this agency and others to participate in these studies to look at restructuring, consolidation, duplication, downsizing and privatization,” he said. “My suspicion is there will be an independent study that will be done . . . and I would welcome it.”

County Supervisor Marian Bergeson, who sits on the boards of the transportation authority and the tollways, said Thursday that she too has been talking to staffs of both agencies about an outside study. In 1990, when she was a state senator, Bergeson introduced the legislation forming the Orange County Transportation Authority.

“Ultimately, the goal has to be consolidation and it’s just a question of the appropriate procedures to get us to that point,” Bergeson said. She is overseeing another county study that would seek to expand a part-time board of supervisors to nine members and shift many of the county’s current duties to cities or the state.

At the Orange County Transportation Authority, board member Thomas W. Wilson asked this week that his agency undertake a similar study.

Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said he has had preliminary discussions with government consultant Dan Miller about conducting an independent study for about $5,000. In light of Woollett’s comments, Oftelie said he will ask the tollway agencies if Miller is an acceptable choice.

Laguna Niguel Mayor Patricia C. Bates, chairwoman of one of the toll road boards, said she would welcome an independent examination of a possible merger.

“It has to be independent because obviously there is a bias if one of the agencies involved is looking at it,” she said. “It’s kind of like Rockwell looking at a federal contract and deciding they’re the best ones to handle it.”

Although some have suggested a massive review of every governmental entity in the county--from special districts to cities to school boards--to see if operations can be combined, Bates said she’d like to see a shorter-term study that looks only at transportation issues.

“I’m saying we should not take 20 years to answer a question that is on everybody’s lips,” Bates said.

Bates was initially opposed to studying consolidation but has since changed her mind.

Her colleague on the Laguna Niguel City Council, Mark Goodman, raised the issue of consolidation last week at a council meeting.

Goodman said he was outraged by a recent investigation by The Times that described high salaries, perks and other benefits for tollway officials, including $66,228 in cash bonuses, $28,576 in merit raises and the payment last year of $115,893 in unused sick pay and vacation time to employees.

The investigation also revealed an Orange County tollway operation with a budget of $95,219 per administrative employee, versus about half that amount at toll road agencies of comparable size and scope in Denver, Houston and Orlando.

Despite the administrative budget, the tollway agencies were falling years behind their own construction schedules and saw their costs double to $4 billion. Tollway officials say the earlier projections were only estimates and, since bonds were sold more recently, construction costs and schedules have not been altered.

Toll road officials and board members say the high compensation is necessary to compete with private industry.

Woollett said that, in light of the county’s bankruptcy, the study should include the merits of merging a number of governmental agencies, not just those in the transportation field.

“The bankruptcy has been a big issue and a lot of people are wondering if anything is going to change,” he said. “I hope to hell there is an independent study and that’s what I recommend.”

In 1990, Woollett questioned the merger of the toll road agencies and wondered whether a new mega-agency would be tempted to continue to collect tolls to fund new transportation projects or whether a new board would be committed to building the toll roads on time.