MTA Budget Vote Called Off Unexpectedly

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on Wednesday abruptly delayed a vote on the agency’s budget until today after declaring that continued pursuit of a fixed rail system beyond the subway under construction is “insanity.”

“I wish we had never started the whole thing,” the mayor said on “Which Way, L.A.?” a public affairs radio program, shortly before the budget meeting. “Fixed rail is not the answer to the transportation needs of our city,” Riordan said of the rail system on which the MTA has already amassed billions of dollars in debt.

But Riordan said in the radio interview that the MTA must complete the almost $5-billion subway line to North Hollywood. He renewed his call for Congress to honor federal commitments to help pay for that project.

Beyond North Hollywood, he declared, the subway era is over. “I don’t believe there will ever be any more subways,” he said.

Exercising his prerogative as chairman, Riordan later postponed a final decision on the budget because, he said, three of the MTA’s 13 board members were absent.

The move came as a surprise to county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an MTA board member. “I don’t know what happened today,” he said. “It was a very bizarre meeting.”

Yaroslavsky said he was prepared to vote against the budget because he wants an explanation of the MTA’s debt.

“I just think that a multibillion-dollar budget that involves half a billion dollars in new debt deserves a more thorough discussion than we had today,” Yaroslavsky said. “I don’t think they had the votes to pass it today.”

An aide to another board member agreed: “It all happened so quickly that I wasn’t sure what happened. . . . The mayor knew that he didn’t have the votes.”

The sudden postponement caught even MTA Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke off guard. He told reporters after the meeting that he did not know why no vote was taken.

While the board members who showed up discussed parochial budget items and carefully avoided the critical issues facing the agency, including its $7 billion of debt, the real debate took place on the radio program.

Riordan, who has served on the MTA board since becoming mayor five years ago and has voted for rail projects, said the MTA and the agencies before it have pursued “a very flawed strategy that started 13 years ago.”

The mayor noted that people in Los Angeles go in 40 directions rather than commuting to one destination. Instead of building a rail network, Riordan said the MTA needs to concentrate on the bus system, which is used by 91% of MTA riders. “We cannot afford any more of fixed rail,” he said. “Let’s stop all this insanity that has been going on for years.”

As an influential attorney before his entry into politics, Riordan and his downtown law firm played a leading role in negotiating for the purchase of railroad rights of way now used by the Metrolink commuter trains.

On the radio program, former MTA Chairman Larry Zarian joined Riordan in retreat from years of support for rail, saying the agency must find a more “cost-efficient” form of mass transit than a $300-million-per-mile subway.

But advocates for the MTA’s bus riders were not reassured by the board members’ sudden conversion to their cause.

Attorney Constance L. Rice, formerly of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, warned on the radio program that the Bus Riders Union intends to go back to federal court and demand that U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. order the MTA to increase spending on the bus system.

The civil rights lawyer was instrumental in forcing the MTA to enter into a federal consent decree in October 1996 in which the MTA promised to improve bus service and reduce chronic overcrowding.

Rice said the court must intervene because the MTA board “simply is incapable” of doing what is needed--buying more buses--to keep the bus system from collapse. “They’ve got to be told, ‘You don’t have a choice,’ ” she said. Rice also said Hatter will be asked to declare a moratorium on rail construction, including the North Hollywood line.

“There is plenty of money to save this bus system if MTA can come to its senses and say we’re not going to waste any more money down the rat hole of rail,” Rice said.

Riordan, however, said the MTA must finish what it has started. “We have to complete the North Hollywood segment if we’re going to have the confidence of the people in Washington and Sacramento, plus we’re going to have to complete it if we’re going to have more money for buses in the future.”

During the budget discussion, MTA board member Jose Legaspi asked the agency’s deputy chief executive officer, Allan Lipsky, how many new buses would be purchased in the next fiscal year. Lipsky replied that 111 buses are expected, though the agency has additional money for buses if they can be found.

MTA chief Burke said the agency is stepping up efforts to locate buses and he reported that the agency is considering buying 20 new ones from a private bus company in Las Vegas and taking over an option from the Houston Transit Authority to buy 36 new buses.

But the agency’s ability to deal with the decrepit bus system’s problems is severely constrained by the necessity of borrowing still more money to pay for the incomplete rail system.

“Clearly, the debt is something that is considered all along. . . . It’s something we’re all very aware of,” said Riordan after the board meeting.

The mayor explained that “borrowing is a legitimate tool, but it is also one that takes very sophisticated management,” which he said the MTA clearly has not had until now. “You always know you have a pocket you can go into,” Riordan said. “It can make poor management even sloppier.”

Riordan said the consensus of the MTA board is that “we have been wasting money . . . on fixed rail, on subways. Now, we have to finish North Hollywood and we have to then hoard funds to try to give a truly good transportation system to the people of Los Angeles County. And in my opinion, that means smart shuttles, buses, something that is flexible. . . . We’re a huge city, area-wise, and fixed rail does not solve our problems.”

The three board members who were not present--county Supervisors Gloria Molina and Don Knabe and Duarte City Councilman John Fasana were scheduled to be absent today as well.

A spokesman for Molina said she was attending to other county business Wednesday and planned to attend a staff retreat today.

Supervisor Knabe was in Europe on a family vacation and not expected to return until Saturday.

MTA board member Fasana could not be reached.

Riordan press aide Noelia Rodriguez said that the mayor wanted to have as many board members as possible to vote on the issue, and she expected a vote today--no matter how many board members are present.

“The mayor believes that it is important for as many board members to be there as possible,” she said. “It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Wednesday’s meeting ended under bizarre circumstances--even by MTA standards. The board spent two hours debating small spending items, never addressed the agency’s huge debt and then adjourned without any public explanation for postponing a vote on the new budget. The meeting left MTA staffers in a state of confusion.

As Riordan and other board members were rushing to leave the meeting, Yaroslavsky said over the noise, “Can I ask one question? At some point--either today or tomorrow--can we ask the CEO to address this debt issue?”

The board ultimately is expected to adopt a $2.5-billion budget that increases the debt by $442 million.

As the board met, bus rider advocates stepped up their efforts in the courts and on the streets to force the agency to improve its bus system.

The ACLU sought to persuade a federal judge to force the agency to fix its chronically defective wheelchair lifts on buses, while the Bus Riders Union staged a demonstration to protest what they claim is the MTA’s failure to comply with a consent degree to ease bus overcrowding.

About 120 protesting bus riders also stopped and briefly delayed a handful of MTA buses at the busy intersection of Broadway and 8th Street.

Times staff writer Patrick Kerkstra contributed to this story.