Council OKs Bus Zone Study Amid Concerns

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to study the creation of a separate bus system for the San Fernando Valley, but council members voiced so many concerns that some supporters doubted whether a breakup of the massive Metropolitan Transit Authority will ever happen.

The council voted 11 to 3 to join eight other cities, including Burbank and Glendale, in conducting a study to determine whether creating a Valley bus system will provide improved bus service at a lower cost.

“What we have now in terms of mass transit from the MTA is absolutely not satisfactory,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick.

A majority of council members won election with labor backing, and some council members warned Tuesday they would not be likely to support a plan that could slash the pay and benefits of transit workers who would transfer from the MTA to the new zone.

Even Councilman Alex Padilla, who said he supports the concept of a transit zone to improve bus service in the Valley, was concerned that transit workers will bear the brunt of cuts to make the zone financially feasible.

“I don’t believe a Valley Transit Zone would work without maintaining the quality of life that those workers currently have,” said Padilla, a Pacoima resident who won election last year with strong labor backing.

While Valley civic leaders applauded the action, some are concerned that council members will not support the zone in the end.

“I’m disappointed,” said Bill Powers, vice chair of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley. “I would like to see, at some point, city officials get behind the San Fernando Valley with a ‘can-do’ attitude and not one of ‘why should we?’ ”

Councilman Nate Holden, who was joined by Rita Walters and Nick Pacheco, in voting against the study, predicted the zone will never become reality.

In the end, the council will not have the political will to stand up to the unions and approve the kinds of cuts and efficiencies needed to make the zone financially feasible, Councilman Joel Wachs said.

“I don’t realistically think it’s going to happen,” Wachs told his colleagues. “In the end, this is going to be a union issue and a labor issue, and that is going to determine what this council does.”

Wachs said there is evidence that the San Fernando Valley could provide cheaper and better bus service, citing the success of the first autonomous transit agency, the Foothill Transit Zone in the San Gabriel Valley.

“I don’t believe that this council is going to have the political fortitude to do what it takes to make the system run more efficiently, provide more rides at less cost,” Wachs said.

Both Wachs and Councilman Hal Bernson of Granada Hills said they would not support creating a Valley zone if it would do nothing more than maintain the MTA’s budgetary and bureaucratic problems.

Bernson said most customers of a new zone would live in Los Angeles, but a preliminary agreement gives the city only four of the nine seats on the governing board.

“It means we are going to be in the same position we are on the MTA, not having the muscle or the majority to carry out the concerns of the San Fernando Valley,” Bernson said.

Even if all financial issues can be resolved, council members signaled that they have other concerns.

Councilman Mike Hernandez questioned whether the proposal might result in one part of the city getting better, less expensive bus service than the rest of the city.

“We are one city that is now proposing to look at establishing two different bus systems, and that is where I am asking some civil rights questions,” he said. “The Supreme Court has already issued a ruling on separate not being equal.”

Wachs and other supporters of the proposal said a Valley Transit Zone could be followed by the creation of similar zones to improve service in other parts of the city.

But Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said breaking the city into several transit zones might be a return to the problems of 20 years ago, when riders had to transfer from one system to another to travel across town.

The other members of the interim joint powers agreement are Burbank, Glendale, San Fernando, La Canada-Flintridge, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Hidden Hills and Los Angeles County.