MTA Plans Moves That Could Delay Bus Purchases

Unwilling to accept a federal court order to buy hundreds of additional buses and reluctant to appeal the ruling, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board decided Thursday to undertake new legal maneuvers to delay compliance with a consent decree it signed in 1996 to settle a civil rights lawsuit.

During one of its longest closed-door sessions in memory, the board voted to seek “clarification and possible modifications” to the unprecedented order from Special Master Donald T. Bliss.

Mayor Richard Riordan, chairman of the MTA, told reporters the order to buy 532 clean-fueled buses was “artificial and too costly.” He said compliance with it could delay other transit projects in the county, including construction of a light rail line to Pasadena and completion of the Metro Rail subway to North Hollywood.

Riordan said the MTA board understands that bus service is the most important part of Los Angeles County’s mass transit system, but wants to work with the special master and the Bus Riders Union, one of the plaintiffs in the original suit, to draft a “more practical” plan.

Yellow-shirted members of the Bus Riders Union who packed the MTA boardroom demanding that the transit agency abide by the order marched out in protest when the board’s decision was announced. Their earlier pleas for compliance, voiced by a broad coalition of bus riders, labor leaders, community activists, environmentalists and clergy, went unheeded.

The MTA’s board is “on the way to an appeal,” said civil rights attorney Constance Rice. “They are going to take every single step they can to modify and clarify. This is a way of delaying implementation. There is nothing to modify. There is nothing unclear about buying 532 new buses.”

The two sides will inform Bliss of the MTA board’s action in a telephone conference call today and set a schedule for the filing of legal briefs on the issues in dispute.

The board’s action after more than 3 1/2 hours in closed session underscored the gulf that remains between the transit agency and advocates for poor and minority bus riders, who make up most of the MTA’s passengers.

Norma Henry of the Bus Riders Union told the MTA board early in the meeting that it had an opportunity to honor the spirit of the consent decree.

The Rev. William Campbell of the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles called on the board to follow the “moral rightness” of the court order. “Your actions will demonstrate to the community your sense of ethics and commitment to the poor and those who are most vulnerable,” he said.

Pastor Jim Lawson of the United Methodist Church of Los Angeles recalled marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama during the 1960s. The struggle over transit in Los Angeles is also an effort to obtain “a little bit of justice,” he said.

Members of the Bus Riders Union attending Thursday’s meeting carried banners reading “Make Our Civil Rights Real! Don’t Appeal.” But their tone grew more defiant after the board’s decision was announced. “Justice delayed! Justice denied!” they chanted.

After years of gathering data, the Bus Riders Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund have been pressing the special master for remedies to the overcrowding and poor state of the MTA’s bus fleet.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an MTA board member, said he urged his colleagues to seek a dialogue with the bus riders’ advocates. “I want to take one more shot trying to resolve this with the plaintiffs,” he said.

So far, Yaroslavsky said, the agency’s attorneys have been unable to prevail in proceedings before the special master or in federal court. “We are losing every battle. We are the Clippers. The BRU are the Lakers. We can’t beat ‘em,” he said.

He said the new effort is not a challenge or an appeal of the special master’s order, but an effort to see if reductions in overcrowding and improvements in bus service can be accomplished less expensively.

The agency contends that it is trying to upgrade its bus system after years of neglect by pledging to spend $817 million over the next five years to replace most of its fleet with 2,095 new buses. In its motion, the board pointed to a litany of actions to convert troubled ethanol buses to diesel, repair new compressed natural gas vehicles, improve the availability of drivers, supervisors, maintenance and training. They noted plans to use new technology to better monitor bus performance. And they pledged to get into service an additional 160 buses during peak periods to relieve crowding.

In his ruling, Bliss found that the MTA had failed to comply with consent decree requirements that no more than 15 people be forced to stand on its buses during peak periods. The standards get progressively tougher in coming years. He directed the agency to hire more drivers and mechanics.

In the weeks since Bliss issued his lengthy ruling, which has the potential to dramatically restrict the board’s authority, a new argument has been heard. MTA officials are arguing that compliance with the order will tie the agency’s hands and make it impossible to meet the needs of commuters, particularly those who drive.

MTA chief executive Julian Burke said the agency needs to plan for subway, light rail and commuter trains as well as roads and highways.

Burke said the agency will go back to the special master. “We need to clarify some confusing elements of his order. We also need modifications of his order,” he said. “The board has indicated in addition a desire to consult with the plaintiffs to try to reach some common ground on all of these matters.”