Right Noises at the MTA

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority anticipates sufficient resources from Gov. Gray Davis’ transportation funding plan to move ahead on projects on the Eastside and Westside and in the San Fernando Valley. Here’s a little history the MTA should consider before gearing up.

A bit more than a year ago Los Angeles city officials knew they had to do a great deal of outreach and other work if they were to persuade voters to support an April 1999 bond issue for public projects. The public had not forgotten the never-ending City Hall retrofit, a lethargic 911 emergency system upgrade and two police stations funded by a 1989 bond but never built.

So city leaders created a blue-ribbon public infrastructure committee composed of business, banking and construction industry leaders. A set of common-sense ground rules was unanimously endorsed by the City Council, the council’s chief legislative analyst and the city’s chief administrative officer. Projects were earmarked according to need. There would be separate managers for every project, with oversight by the mayor and others. Standardized construction designs would leave no room for add-ons.

That 1999 bond issue failed at the polls, but a good precedent was established for handling expenditures. The MTA should follow that precedent in reviving the long-stalled or abandoned Eastside, Westside and Valley projects.

MTA Chief Operating Officer Allan Lipsky says that the agency has made vital changes. These include better construction safety manuals, with the MTA safety department reporting directly to CEO Julian Burke, and the abandonment of a flawed insurance program under which the MTA assumed most of the extra premium costs, leaving private contractors with little or no incentive to minimize accidents and injuries. The agency now has a chief financial officer who MTA officials say has brought in “great improvements” in accounting and reporting, and there’s an improved contract structure that should diminish expensive change orders and delays.

Next month, a federal appeals court will hear arguments on how many new buses the MTA will need to meet a consent decree requiring the agency to greatly reduce overcrowding among riders. Money will be tight, and the governor’s transportation plan still requires approval by the Legislature and by voters. The public will want to hear far more from the MTA, but the agency has at least begun to make the right noises.