Mayor Urges MTA to Give Permanent Job to Burke

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is lobbying behind the scenes to name the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s interim Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke to the job permanently.

Riordan, chairman of the MTA board, sees the selection as “strategically important” in resolving Wall Street and Washington’s concerns about “management instability” at the troubled transit authority.

At his request, the MTA board will consider the appointment at a closed-door session Thursday, but a decision could be postponed for a month because some board members indicated Monday that they want more time to think about it.

The 70-year-old Burke, a crisis management specialist and longtime mayoral associate, was named to the politically tough job in August after a frustrating search failed to produce a permanent CEO as head of the agency.

Burke, who has said he is enjoying the task of running the MTA, expressed a willingness to accept the permanent position and to serve for as long as he finds the work fulfilling and the MTA board wants him in the post.

“This is very important work and it’s very challenging,” Burke said after an MTA construction committee meeting Monday. Although he described the job as “somewhat stressful,” Burke said he was certainly willing to stay on.

After the MTA board’s first and second choices for the top transit job turned it down last summer, Riordan turned to Burke to head the agency for $15,000 a month.

Since taking over, Burke has struggled to confront the financial and construction problems that have plagued the agency. He recently won approval for a plan to temporarily halt construction of Metro Rail subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City and a light rail line from Union Station to Pasadena.

Riordan spokesman Noelia Rodriguez said the mayor wants to spark a conversation with his fellow board members about Burke remaining in the job longer than originally thought.

“There is a strong need for a permanent CEO,” she said. “Getting somebody in place permanently would send a strong message to the public . . . and also to the agency’s funding partners. Julian has demonstrated strong leadership . . . and the mayor believes he is the right person to lead the agency.”

Riordan also believes that Burke’s temporary status has made it difficult for him to implement change among recalcitrant staff members, who believe that they can wait him out.

“Management instability” at the MTA was one of the factors cited last month when two Wall Street bond rating agencies issued a negative outlook for the MTA’s long-term credit-worthiness.

Moody’s Investors Service and another rating agency, Fitch IBCA Inc., noted that the agency has had four chief executives in the past five years. “It’s fair to say having a permanent CEO is a good step toward addressing the issue of management instability,” said Adam Whiteman, senior vice president of Moody’s in New York.

Moody’s also cited conflicting political agendas, contentious relationships with federal transit officials, a lack of consensus on the MTA board and a structural deficit in the agency’s budget.

During Burke’s brief tenure, 54 full-time and 32 part-time employees have been laid off as the agency struggles to close a persistent gap between income and operating expenses. The MTA is working on plans to borrow between $200 million and $250 million in coming months, most of it to cover cash needs in the current fiscal year that ends June 30. The agency’s federal appropriation for construction of the subway to North Hollywood and work on the rail extension to the Eastside has been held up pending completion of a third rail “recovery plan.” The first two were rejected by federal officials.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, a Riordan appointee to the MTA board, said Monday that he expects Burke to easily win the job on a permanent basis. “He’s exactly what this organization needs to instill some common sense and stability,” Bernson said.

Some MTA board members have expressed concern that Burke, an old friend and law colleague of Riordan, would give the mayor even more power over the MTA.

Some board members also have complained that Burke has not consulted them enough.

Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian, an MTA board member, said he hasn’t had an opportunity to evaluate Burke’s performance. “What I know of him so far, I like,” Zarian said. “But I want him to come forward and say . . . .this is what I’ve accomplished other than stopping rail. We are still short of money. We are still in disarray.”

The MTA has been without a permanent chief executive since January 1997, when Joseph E. Drew resigned, citing political infighting and “public hypercriticism” of him and his staff. The first MTA chief, Franklin E. White, served 32 months before he was fired in 1995.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky said he was open to discussion of making Burke the permanent CEO, but wants to know what his intentions are, including how long he would stay in the position.

A new state law establishes a four-year term for the chief executive, who is subject to removal only by a two-thirds board vote.

MTA board member James Cragin said he was upset with Burke’s decision to hire Riordan’s former law firm to study breaking up the MTA bus system into regional zones. But, he said, he would probably vote for Burke’s appointment.

“I think he’s getting to the bottom line,” Cragin said. “However, I don’t know if there will be a bottom line left by the time he gets there.”