L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti names 3 to L.A. County Metro board

In one of the biggest transportation decisions of City Hall’s new administration, Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed three Los Angeles representatives to the board of the county’s transportation agency on Thursday.

The freshman directors on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board are L.A. City Councilmen Mike Bonin and Paul Krekorian, and affordable housing advocate Jackie Dupont-Walker.

The city of Los Angeles has the biggest voting bloc of any municipality on the board, which often provides an advantage during votes on policies that would help — or hurt — the city.

“Between the four of us, we have great geographical coverage,” Garcetti said of the appointees. Garcetti added that all three will be expected to help raise the national profile of Los Angeles transportation issues.

Major issues facing the Metro board during Garcetti’s time in office include prioritizing transit projects and funding some with revenue from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax that county voters approved in 2008. The board will also supervise several major rail projects, including the downtown regional connector, the Crenshaw Line and the Subway to the Sea.

Dupont-Walker chairs the USC Master Plan Advisory Council. She represents West Adams residents in the planning process of USC’s multibillion-dollar redevelopment of areas near campus.

Dupont-Walker is the founding president of Ward Economic Development Corp. The affordable housing nonprofit’s presence in South L.A. includes a building along Crenshaw Boulevard, near where activists have pushed Metro officials to build a tunnel for a portion of the Crenshaw light-rail line. She publicly supported including a stop in Leimert Park Village.

Bonin represents a Westside district that stretches from Los Angeles International Airport to Pacific Palisades. He recently replaced his former boss, former Councilman Bill Rosendahl, as the head of the council’s transportation committee. Bonin is also vice chairman of the board of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority.

“I represent the most annoyingly, frustratingly gridlocked part of the city,” said Bonin, who lives in Mar Vista. The key to building a good transportation system, he said, is connecting transit lines — “you have a very difficult time drawing a tic-tac-toe board” — and providing transit options.

Bonin wants to see both the Green and Crenshaw lines stop at LAX. Other key Metro projects in his area include the Westside subway and a proposed transit connector through the Sepulveda Pass.

Krekorian heads the City Council’s budget and finance committee and is a member of the transportation committee. As an Assemblyman, he voted to include Measure R on the 2008 ballot.

“Through innovation and efficiency, we need to get more for our transportation dollars and accelerate MTA’s work toward enhanced mobility throughout the entire region,” Krekorian said in a statement.

During his campaign, Garcetti wrote in a letter to transit activists that he would appoint a South Los Angeles resident and a transit rider to the Metro board. Bonin says he rides the 733 Rapid bus or the Expo Line to City Hall. Although Dupont-Walker is active in South L.A., her voter registration shows she lives in Mid-City.

laura.nelson@latimes.com