MTA Votes Down an Alternative to Subway Ban

Members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board Thursday voted down a proposed alternative to county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s subway-killing ballot initiative, but an obscure procedural move may afford the plan another chance to appear on the November ballot.

The measure proposed by three frequent Yaroslavsky opponents would have placed a six-year ban on subway construction, but not on subway planning or design. After one of its authors, county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, tried briefly to delay a decision until Monday, the board voted 7 to 4 against putting the plan on the ballot.

Under MTA rules, a majority of the board or the board chairman, Mayor Richard Riordan, can call a special meeting to reconsider the plan. Burke said she had not decided whether to pursue another vote. For such a move to succeed, Burke said, she and other supporters of the alternative to Yaroslavsky’s initiative would have to convene a special meeting early next week because Los Angeles County supervisors have to act on Tuesday to finalize the November ballot.

When county voters approved a sales tax to fund mass transit projects, she said, “they wanted whatever it takes for them to have mass transportation.”

What’s more, she said, Yaroslavsky’s measure would unfairly allow completion of the line to North Hollywood, in his district, while cutting off any hope of subway lines to other parts of the county.

Yaroslavsky called the alternative proposal a “fraud” designed to clutter the ballot, confuse voters and ultimately derail his own initiative, which would permanently ban subway construction or planning after the completion of the extension to North Hollywood.

After the vote, he said he expected Burke and other backers of the alternative plan to continue fighting his measure.

“You have an effort being made to keep the subway alive,” he said. “It’s business as usual. It’s what got the MTA into $7 billion of debt, and it’s got to be stopped.”

The alternative would also allow subway work to continue in areas where a surface-running light rail system would harm neighborhoods.

Yaroslavsky’s measure, which was provided a spot on the ballot after it collected 170,000 signatures in a $300,000 petition drive, contains no such exception. It would also set up a watchdog committee of MTA appointees to oversee the agency.

Riordan, long a critic of the subway project, publicly aired his views on the initiatives for the first time Thursday, saying he considered both “distractions” that may keep the board from focusing on expanding bus service.

Even if Burke and her alternative’s coauthors, Supervisor Gloria Molina and Duarte City Councilman John Fasana, fail to get their measure on the ballot, Yaroslavsky must steer his through the complex politics of urban mass transit.