Suggestion Box Runneth Over at MTA

Take your pick.

The wretched Metropolitan Transportation Authority could be improved if: (a) the politicians on its board were replaced by non-elected appointees; (b) all the directors were retired corporate CEOs paid $250,000 a year; or (c) any of its directors ever rode the bus.

Just about everybody--Latino elected officials, San Fernando Valley civic leaders, bus riders and subway critics--offered antidotes to the MTA’s ailments during a legislative hearing at the transit authority’s headquarters Friday.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a former MTA board member, sent an aide to promote his proposal to lessen political infighting by replacing the elected directors with non-elected appointees. He has yet to specify who would make the appointments. Perhaps the speaker?

David W. Fleming, a Valley attorney who serves on the California Transportation Commission, suggested bringing in the “best and the brightest” by enlisting retired corporate CEOs to run the agency and paying them $250,000 a year. Critics asked whether the retired CEOs could truly understand the needs of the MTA’s mostly low-income bus riders.

Several elected officials questioned whether the MTA should continue extending the subway to North Hollywood at the expense of mass-transit projects to other communities. Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) urged the agency to consider converting the pair of unfinished tunnels to busways.

MTA officials have said they need to keep the subway project on track in order to regain their credibility in Washington and keep federal transportation funds flowing to Los Angeles.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) noted that transit officials have worried about public ridicule if they leave the North Hollywood extension unfinished. But, he added, “if [the subway project] eats the money for everything else, I know what people are going to think.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) added, “I tried to explain to the mayor, ‘We’re already a laughingstock in Washington. It wouldn’t make a difference.’ ”

Becerra warned that a ballot initiative by county supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky to cut off county sales-tax funding for subway construction beyond North Hollywood could backfire.

“If that initiative should pass, then that should be a clear signal to . . . the federal government that the people of the county want all subway construction stopped now,” he said.

The hearing was important because state officials control much of the MTA’s funding and are considering legislation that would radically change the way in which the transit authority is run. One bill, in fact, would put the agency into state receivership. The Legislature gave birth to the MTA--”Rosemary’s baby” was how the bill’s sponsor, former Assemblyman Richard Katz, once described his creation.

Although the MTA last week adopted a “recovery plan” designed to reassure federal officials that it is bringing its spending under control, the agency has come under increasing scrutiny from Sacramento. State officials have threatened to take $400 million away from the agency and redirect it to other Los Angeles County projects if MTA officials fail to devise a plan by December for improving mass transit throughout the county, especially in neighborhoods where long-promised rail projects were suspended.

Friday’s hearing lived up to its billing. When someone earlier this week asked what the hearing would be about, an MTA board member responded: “Probably to bash the MTA.”

County Supervisor Gloria Molina was the only MTA board member to show up, and she complained about the way her colleagues conduct business. “Basically, how everything . . . is done around here is by a deal in the back room,” she said.

MTA chief Julian Burke told legislators that he is committed to improving bus service. “We need to get ahold of this bus operation and certainly deal with the disappointments that have arisen over the suspension of the three projects.”

Although past efforts to restructure the MTA board have been stymied, Villaraigosa’s proposal is significant because of his leadership position. Mayor Richard Riordan, the MTA board chairman, also has supported an appointed board.

Currently, the 13-member board is made up of the Los Angeles mayor and three of his appointees--two of whom are City Council members, the five county supervisors, and four City Council members from the county’s other cities.