MTA Panel Urges Burke Be Given 2-Year Pact

Determined to bring some stability to the troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency’s Executive Management Committee agreed Thursday to recommend that acting CEO Julian Burke be offered a two-year contract to serve as the MTA’s permanent chief executive officer.

The committee’s action, decided behind closed doors, was a vote of confidence in the 70-year-old corporate turnaround expert who took over the county’s transit agency last summer after two candidates for the top post turned it down.

But before Burke can trade in the acting title for the permanent job, the committee’s decision must be ratified by the MTA’s full board of directors, an action expected late this month.

While it is clear that Burke has the support of a solid majority of board members, county Supervisor Gloria Molina has raised strenuous objections to his management of the agency and Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke has her own concerns.

Julian Burke is understood to have told committee members that he is willing to serve for two years, but not for the full four-year term set by a new state law. The statute was intended to insulate the MTA’s chief executive from political pressure by requiring a super-majority of board members for removal.

Mayor Richard Riordan called the decision to recommend Burke for the permanent position “not only good, but also absolutely necessary to have the confidence of Washington and Sacramento.”

Riordan, who surprised both Burke and the board last month by pushing to make him permanent, said it is important to let MTA’s employees know that Burke is not a short-timer.

The mayor also believes that naming Burke the permanent CEO will send a reassuring signal to Wall Street bond rating agencies, some of which have expressed concern about “management instability” at the MTA.

The move to give the veteran attorney the permanent position comes at a crucial time for the transit agency, which is being buffeted by financial and political problems as it struggles to complete the Metro Rail subway to Hollywood and North Hollywood, and meet commitments to reduce overcrowding and improve service on buses.

MTA board member James Cragin said the committee “wanted to show the California Transportation Commission and Congress and federal officials in Washington that Mr. Burke has the confidence of the directors.”

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he was pleased that Burke is prepared to remain at the MTA for a couple of years.

“He’s the jockey now,” Yaroslavsky said, “keep him in the saddle. He’s done a good job. He has brought some degree of stability, but the problems are bigger than any one individual.”

Yaroslavsky, who is pushing a ballot initiative to prevent use of local transit sales tax money for subway extensions, said the MTA has wasted tens of millions of dollars and needs “a swift financial kick in the pants.”

“The only way to save this agency and mass transit is to end the subway at North Hollywood and redirect the funds to light rail and clean-fuel buses,” he said.

But it is Burke’s plan to halt work on subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City and a light-rail line from Union Station to Pasadena that concerns Molina and Supervisor Burke.

In a scathing letter sent to MTA board members last week, Molina accused the MTA chief of dictating to the board of directors and engaging in manipulative management of the transit agency.

Molina said she was outraged at the latest “recovery plan” for the MTA, drafted by Burke, which says the agency does not have the money to build subway lines to the Eastside and Mid-City during the next six years.

“To continue to pretend that we are in charge of this sinking organization with a manipulative management operation is totally disrespecting the important responsibility we have to taxpayers,” Molina wrote.

U.S. officials demanded a realistic recovery plan before releasing funds for the North Hollywood subway. MTA’s two earlier attempts at a plan were rejected as inadequate.