Wilson Signs Curbs on Donors to MTA Board

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday signed into law a bill severely restricting campaign contributions from Metro Rail contractors to Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members.

The legislation by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) also makes it harder for MTA contractors to collect millions of dollars in safety bonuses for projects that have been plagued by accidents or high worker injury rates.

The legislation is the latest effort to turn around the $6.1-billion Los Angeles subway construction, which has been marked by controversy over the awarding of contracts to political donors of MTA board members. The project suffered the first fatalities in its 10-year history when two workers were killed on the job this year.

The MTA had urged the governor to veto the legislation, complaining that it imposed greater restrictions on the Los Angeles transit agency than any other governmental agency in the state.

Hayden said he was gratified by Wilson’s action. “Now everyone in Sacramento is in agreement: The money train at the MTA must stop.”

But Larry Zarian, an MTA board member, said he was saddened that the legislation was necessary. “This is just another panic attack on the MTA.”

Hayden introduced the legislation after The Times disclosed that the MTA was paying millions of dollars in safety bonuses to subway contractors despite a history of high-profile accidents on the project. It was further revealed that a contractor could earn a $500,000 bonus, even though a worker was killed on the job.

The legislation requires the MTA, in calculating safety bonuses, to include all recordable injuries requiring medical attention, not just lost work time.

MTA records show that the lost-time injury rate--a complex mathematical formula that involves the number of lost-work-time injuries in relation to the number of work hours involved in the contract--was 2.6 for the Hollywood leg of the project and 1.8 for the Hollywood-to-San Fernando Valley segment through August--below the national average of 4.2. But the rate for recordable injuries--the total number of injuries that required medical attention beyond first aid--was 15.9 for the Hollywood leg and 18.8 for the Hollywood-to-Valley segment--above the national average of 10.6.

Hayden contended that the recordable injury rate was a better gauge of job safety because it includes all injuries requiring treatment beyond first aid. The lost-time rate only documents injuries that keep workers off the job site.

MTA officials said they have moved to tighten the requirements for the safety bonuses. They also contend that their recordable injury rate is higher than the national average because they are more likely to send workers to a clinic, as a precaution, than many other agencies.

The legislation, which becomes effective Jan. 1, also imposes a $10 limit on campaign contributions to MTA board members from companies seeking transit contracts. Until now, board members could accept up to a $250 donation before having to disqualify themselves from a decision affecting the contributor.

The bill is the second MTA reform measure signed by the governor this year. The other one will eliminate alternates on the 13-member board. The appointees have sat in for absent board members and, in effect, gave the MTA’s chief executive officer 26 bosses.

In a separate development, Mayor Richard Riordan appointed San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson to the MTA board. He replaces Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Assn., who resigned last week.

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