Chick, Katz Tell MTA It’s Time to Put Valley on the Gravy Train

For years, San Fernando Valley secessionists have accused City Hall of cheating the Valley out of its fair share of police officers, animal control workers, libraries and road repairs.

Now former Assemblyman Richard Katz and City Councilwoman Laura Chick say they have proof that the Valley is getting shortchanged on transit funding.

They charge that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to abide by 1984 legislation that requires the MTA to spend 15% of state transit funding in the Valley or set it aside in a trust fund.

In particular, Katz and Chick accuse the MTA of only putting aside 15% of county sales tax dollars used for subway construction. They say the MTA should also be setting aside 15% of state transit dollars used for rail projects.

Due to this calculation error, Valley may be losing up to $500 million, Katz and Chick say.

To boost their argument, the pair released an opinion by the state’s legislative counsel that said the MTA must indeed count state transit money as well as local sales tax dollars in the 15% calculation.

“It’s time that the MTA show us the money,” said Katz, who is running for state Senate next year. “So far it seems that the MTA is doing everything in its power to keep from having the full story told to the taxpayer public.”

But MTA representatives say the opinion of the legislative counsel doesn’t prove that anything is amiss. They say the MTA has been calculating the 15% just as the counsel and the law require.

“As far as we are concerned, we agree wholeheartedly with what the legislative counsel has said,” said Frank Flores, the MTA’s deputy executive officer for capital projects.

Flores said that all of the money set aside for the Valley has been spent on construction of the subway station in North Hollywood.

He called the estimate that the Valley is owed up to $500 million “outrageous.” Instead, he said the 15% called for by the law amounts to about $70 million over the past six years, and all of it, he said, has been spent.

“The point is moot,” Flores said. “Someone is picking a fight that they shouldn’t even start.”

City Councilman Hal Bernson, an MTA member, called Wednesday for an investigation into the charges raised by Katz and Chick. In response, interim MTA chief Julian Burke said he will study the matter and report back next month.

Playing the Ponies

Councilman Hal Bernson just couldn’t resist.

Last week, while he was playing the ponies at an off-track betting site, he noticed a horse running in a race at Hollywood Park named Hal’s Pal.

The northwest Valley lawmaker must have thought it was kismet. Or just one heck of a coincidence.

Anyway, he put some money on the horse and waited for it to break the finish line ahead of the pack.

Unfortunately, Bernson’s namesake wasn’t running too well that day. In fact, the horse came in fourth--in a field of four.

Luckily for Hal, he only bets $2 to $10 a race and therefore did not lose too much on his pal.

Tax Man

No preferential treatment: That was Joel Wachs’ mantra as he became the only Valley-based City Council member to vote this week against a tax break for the city’s five major health-maintenance organizations, four of them based in Woodland Hills. It was the same reason that Wachs, when asked by a reporter, said he also voted no on an earlier tax break for entertainment-oriented businesses.

But a look at Wachs’ voting record shows his statement to be only half-true.

In 1995, when Mayor Richard Riordan pushed through a reduction of the tax burden on multimedia firms in Hollywood and North Hollywood, Wachs did indeed cast the lone dissenting vote. “I don’t want to be one to play favorites,” he said at the time, earning a bad rap from the trade daily the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s bad policy.”

But last February, the issue resurfaced when Riordan asked the council to extend the multimedia tax concession citywide, slashing the companies’ tab by 80%. The council, with Wachs present, unanimously approved the move.

So what happened to the principle of no preferential treatment?

By his own account, Wachs had apparently painted himself into a corner. During the 1995 debate, Wachs said, he had partly based his opposition to extending special treatment to companies only in Hollywood and North Hollywood. He could support the measure instead if it were citywide. “I had made that commitment at that time,” he said, and therefore felt bound to vote yes on the expanded tax break in February.

Say What?

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but just a few words at City Hall on Wednesday were worth at least one picture.

James Okazaki, head of the city’s transit programs, found himself fishing for the right terms to describe a possible governance structure for a proposed Valley transit zone after Councilman Richard Alarcon asked if Valley representatives would serve on the governing board.

As Okazaki started to explain that the zone could be “broken up” into different board districts, Alarcon interrupted.

“Be careful when you say ‘broken up,’ ” Alarcon said, in a mock warning over Valley attempts to break away from the city.

“OK, ‘separated into,’ ” Okazaki answered, flustered, but then decided that that might not be the right phrase either.

Finally, Alarcon offered the taboo word. How about “seceded”? he asked.

The audience broke up.