Tunneling Into MTA’s Political Underground

The latest Metro Rail subway mess doesn’t involve a tunnel collapse. It’s a governmental collapse, the result of incestuous political relationships and old-fashioned patronage of the kind we’re not supposed to have in Los Angeles.

Investigators from the federal government and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must determine whether the award of a contract to manage the construction of the new Eastside subway tunnel was honest--or the product of back room influence. The probe will probably take months, delaying a $1-billion subway extension that is vitally important to the transit-dependent, working-class residents of East L.A.

It will be a tough job for the investigators, for they will have to weave their way through the political culture of the MTA and figure out how it is influenced by its two most powerful board members, Mayor Richard Riordan and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre.

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Last week, a crucial construction management contract for the tunnel was delayed after the MTA’s inspector general announced that he was investigating whether there was criminal conduct involved in the proceedings.

Two MTA board members, county Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina, had complained. They were angered by the decision of Metropolitan Transportation Authority boss Joseph Drew to give the contract to a combine that included a firm run by Alatorre’s friends and political allies.

Drew made the decision even though the combine had been ranked third by a panel of construction experts hired by the MTA. Drew said he overturned the panel because his choice was best qualified to do the complex tunneling under Boyle Heights.

But no matter what Drew says, he faces a certain skepticism from people who feel he made his decision to placate the men who gave him his job.

That’s because skeptics know the history of Riordan, Alatorre and the MTA itself.

As mayor, Riordan serves on the 13-member MTA governing board. He also appoints three board members. Of his three, Alatorre is the most important.

Despite his street-tough style of speaking, the councilman is a highly intelligent, sophisticated man who, as an assemblyman, learned his politics from Willie Brown.

He has burrowed deep into the MTA bureaucracy, placing friends, former aides and associates into jobs big and small. Most were Latino, many from Alatorre’s Eastside base. In addition, contractors and subcontractors on MTA projects hired Alatorre’s friends and former aides.

Riordan has none of Alatorre’s political skill. Nor does he have the interest in detail that enabled Alatorre to penetrate the farthest reaches of the MTA. But, like Alatorre, Riordan understands power--who has it and how to get it.

Riordan quickly learned that Alatorre has it. As chairman of the Finance Committee, Alatorre controls the fate of the mayoral budget. With most council members opposing the mayor, Alatorre has often saved the Riordan bacon.

And they see eye to eye on MTA matters. In their most famous collaboration, Alatorre and Riordan teamed up to engineer the firing last year of the MTA’s chief executive officer, Franklin White, and the appointment of Drew as his successor.

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The team Drew selected to manage the East L.A. subway extension includes internationally known construction and tunnel building engineers--and a company that is hardly known outside East L.A.

It is TELACU Industries Inc., which started 28 years ago as a War on Poverty development agency and has grown into a company with revenues of $100 million a year.

Alatorre’s friends and political allies run TELACU. The outfit, in fact, is a key portion of its political operation.

It engages in land development, and operates a financial institution and low-cost housing, among other enterprises. One of its most popular is an East L.A. restaurant, Tamayo.

The mayor owns a restaurant, The Original Pantry. Alatorre appreciates good food.

Maybe Alatorre and Riordan are on to something, the relationship between cuisine and construction. I don’t know whether the TELACU folks can build a subway, but they sure know how to run a restaurant.