MTA Chief Drew Quits; Cites Politics, ‘Hypercriticism’

Los Angeles County transit chief Joseph E. Drew abruptly announced his resignation Wednesday after less then a year on the job, saying political infighting and “public hypercriticism” of him and his staff have made running the Metropolitan Transportation Authority an impossible task for anyone.

Drew also cited the continuing controversy over his recommendation that a lucrative subway contract to supervise tunneling on the Eastside be awarded to a business team ranked last by a panel of outside experts. The selection process is being investigated by the MTA’s independent inspector general, according to sources.

“Despite my unequivocal denial of any impropriety, the amount and tone of the ongoing criticism directed toward me makes my continuation as CEO increasingly difficult,” Drew said in his letter of resignation.

An emergency closed-door meeting of the MTA board was set for today to discuss how the agency should proceed to find a successor.

Drew resigned effective Friday but said he would stay on if the board wishes until a replacement is found. Several board members said they would urge a nationwide search for a new transit chief.

Among those already mentioned as possible candidates were former state Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Katz, who sponsored legislation creating the MTA, and William McCarley, who recently announced his resignation as head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and had previously served as Mayor Richard Riordan’s chief of staff.

Riordan, who sits on the MTA board, praised Drew for pushing for improvements in the nation’s most crowded bus system and termed his resignation a “very troubling indication of continued micromanagement by the MTA board.”

“I think he did what he thought was in the best interests of the agency,” Riordan said. “He stepped into a political minefield.”

But county supervisor and MTA board member Gloria Molina complained that Drew “let us down a whole bunch.”

Transit officials acknowledge that the job is difficult because the CEO works for 13 board members, each with his or her own political agenda and pet projects. The MTA is the country’s second-largest public transit agency, running 2,000 buses, operating an expanding system of rail lines and building the subway, the West’s biggest public works project.

Drew, 53, a decorated Army helicopter pilot and former Kern County administrator, was named acting transit chief one year ago, after the firing of Franklin E. White, who served for 32 months. Drew was permanently appointed to the $167,640-a-year job in March with a mandate to put the troubled agency on a new course.

The resignation comes at a crucial time for the MTA, which is facing a number of financial, legal and political problems--including a $1-billion shortfall in its long-range transportation plan and a tough fight over federal funding for the much-maligned subway project. In addition, investigations of the MTA are being conducted by the agency’s inspector general, a U.S. Senate committee and a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.

In the months ahead, the MTA will begin tunneling on the Eastside under more homes and businesses than anywhere else along the subway route and through the trickiest soil conditions. And the MTA will soon begin negotiations for new labor contracts, hoping to avoid another costly transit strike like the nine-day walkout in 1994.

Drew, still at work Wednesday in his 25th-floor office atop the MTA’s new Union Station headquarters, declined to be interviewed.

But in his one-page resignation letter, he said: “The current negative climate, with the underlying factional political disputes and public hypercriticism of me and my staff makes the task impossible for anyone.”

MTA officials who spoke with Drew said he felt that the publicity was taking a toll on his family, coming only one year after the death of his son from a blood clot.

“I don’t think he or his family was accustomed to this kind of public criticism,” said MTA board member and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Drew said: “I made this very personal decision in the best interests of my family. In recent weeks, I have become a focal point for controversy, and I do not want the focus on me to detract from the positive work being performed by MTA.”

MTA board member and county Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has attacked Drew for his Eastside contract recommendation, said he considered the executive’s resignation letter less than honest. “Joe cannot blame anyone but himself. He got himself into this mess.”

Drew has been the center of controversy for two months over his recommendation that Metro East Consultants--some of whose executives have worked or raised money for MTA board member Richard Alatorre--supervise tunneling on the Eastside.

Metro East has been ranked last among three bidders by six experts paid a total of $375,000 to recommend who should get the $65-million contract.

Drew defended his choice, contending that the top-ranked consortium, JMA, was too busy supervising subway construction in North Hollywood. The transit chief last week withdrew his recommendation of Metro East, saying the business team had failed to disclose legal troubles and a political contribution to an MTA board member.

Alatorre issued a statement Wednesday expressing hope that Drew would stay.

“The agency needs his type of leadership, especially now,” Alatorre said. “It is unfortunate that the actions of a few board members may have led Mr. Drew to his decision.”

County Supervisor and MTA board member Mike Antonovich said he believes a majority of the board wants Drew to stay on. But Riordan, who appoints three MTA board members, said he has not made up his mind. And it was not immediately clear whether Drew would stay even if the board gives him a vote of confidence.

“Just because two members are dissatisfied with him does not mean that the entire board is in support of accepting his resignation,” Antonovich said, referring to Drew’s harshest critics--Yaroslavsky and Molina.

According to associates, Drew had become withdrawn over the past week as he contemplated concerns that he had lost the confidence of his supporters as well as his detractors on the MTA board and found his reputation ebbing.

“We had lengthy discussions . . . and he said he felt he was a liability,” said MTA Board Chairman Larry Zarian.

Drew was charged with turning around the agency’s image after a series of embarrassing subway construction mishaps, including a large sinkhole on Hollywood Boulevard. During Drew’s brief tenure, he shook up the top ranks of the agency, established rapid-response teams to assist owners of property damaged by subway tunneling and rode buses to check on the service.

“Joe Drew came in at a very difficult time,” Riordan said. “He’s done an excellent job of bringing action and leadership to an agency that was at a standstill.”

Federal transit administrator Gordon Linton praised Drew from Washington, saying, “I always found Joe Drew to be a dedicated, hard-working public servant interested in doing the best job possible for the people he served, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors.”

But state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), an MTA critic, said simply: “Another engineer has been ejected from the money train.” Hayden said he will call for a Senate hearing in January to consider fundamental reforms of the agency.