Assembly Votes to Abolish RTD : Senate Also Expected to Favor New L.A. County Transit Super-Agency

SACRAMENTO —  The Assembly unanimously approved legislation Monday to abolish the troubled Southern California Rapid Transit District and replace it with a super-agency having wide authority over bus and rail lines and highways in Los Angeles County.

The 65-0 vote sent the measure to the Senate, where similar legislation is moving toward passage. The action in the Legislature means that the demise of the RTD, hard hit by revelations of management failure, seems all but assured.

In the short run, the reorganization will not mean much change for the county’s commuters, legislators said. A reorganized system with an improved management team may save tax dollars by eliminating waste. Bus operations may be more efficient, for example, with improvement in overcoming driver absenteeism and excessive overtime. The familiar RTD logo on buses would probably be replaced, and the new agency would take over responsibility for building and running the Metro Rail high-speed subway.

Key to County Development

In the long run, legislative backers said, the super-agency could use strong centralized planning to coordinate new rail lines and highways and make life easier for commuters. With its power to decide key transportation routes, the super-agency would also hold the key to much future development in the county.

Strong bipartisan support was shown by the lack of debate and by conservative Republican Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette of Northridge joining with the author, Democratic Assemblyman Richard Katz of Sepulveda, in urging approval.

A Senate bill by Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) is expected to be approved by the Senate Transportation Committee today.

Chairman Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) said he expects the two authors to iron out small differences in their bills. “I can’t tell the differences, they are so close,” he said.

After legislative approval, the measure would go to Gov. George Deukmejian for his signature. An aide to the governor said he “has not seen the bill and has not taken a position.”

Deukmejian does not, however, seem to be an obstacle to backers of the bill. “You can look forward to a favorable reception,” said an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, a leading backer of transit reorganization and a close Deukmejian ally.

Dyer May Lose Job

The apparent agreement on reorganization in both houses also means the replacement of the RTD’s controversial general manager, John Dyer, with a new transit chief, probably early next year, legislators said.

The Katz bill abolishes the RTD as of Feb. 1.

The district’s power would go to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, an existing body that would become the county’s transportation super-agency.

It would be in charge of all rail line planning, construction and operations and most countywide bus operations and would recommend new highway routes to the California Transportation Commission, which has the final say in state highway planning.

The reconstituted agency would be run by a board consisting of the five Los Angeles County supervisors; the mayor of Los Angeles; two members of the Los Angeles City Council, including one from the San Fernando Valley; a Long Beach City Council representative; two representatives of small cities in the county; a non-voting member appointed by the governor and non-voting members from Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The commission, in existence since 1976, already has some powers. But the new agency would have considerably more influence.

That is because under the Katz and Robbins proposals, the elected officials would have to attend meetings rather than send alternates, as they usually do.

Thus the commission would change from a low-visibility to a high-visibility agency, with the county’s most powerful elected officials gathered in one room to decide on routes of every major highway, commuter rail line and bus line and to allocate the money for construction.

Such decisions would have great impact on the growth of the county, determining the sites of residential and industrial developments.

The officials would also be handing out huge construction contracts.

Still to be worked out is a dispute over how many board meetings the elected officials--the mayor, the supervisors and council members--will have to attend.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley is holding out for attendance for just major issues, while Katz wants the elected officials to be on hand more often to make them more accountable for transit decisions.

Katz told the lower house that “accident troubles” at the RTD and other “serious problems” in the agency prompted him to introduce the measure.

‘Will Fall Apart’

Without the bill, he said, “the system will fall apart.”

Katz said a major advantage of the bill would be to end duplicating efforts by the RTD and the county Transportation Commission in transportation planning and construction.

At present the RTD operates most bus lines in the county and was planning to build and operate the Metro Rail subway. The Transportation Commission is building a light rail line, which was to have been operated by the RTD, and decides highway and light rail line routes.

The rapid progress of reorganization was surprising even to staunch backers, who earlier in the year predicted that the bills might get caught in a legislative quagmire and not be passed this year.

Revelations of apparent RTD management failures, however, spurred action by both both local officials and state legislators, who cited problems of driver safety, costly driver absenteeism and inventory control.

Los Angeles-area legislators quickly agreed on the general outlines of a bill, presenting a united front to lawmakers from other areas, who appear to be ready to let their Los Angeles colleagues shape the legislation.

Another spur to action was the huge rail construction job just beginning in Los Angeles.

Fears About Confusion

With light-rail construction between Long Beach and Los Angeles being done by the Transportation Commission and Metro Rail by the RTD, fears were expressed of confusion and delay caused by separate building operations, especially in Los Angeles’ congested downtown.

Two key decisions in Sacramento have made speedy action possible.

Deddeh said lawmakers decided early in the game to avoid action that would affect the RTD’s contract with the unions. Those contracts, with strong worker protection provisions and the right to strike, have been heavily criticized by Los Angeles County officials, particularly Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who favors turning over much of the work of the public agencies to private enterprise.

Instead of dealing with the union issue in the legislation, however, drafters decided to leave it up to the new agency when it negotiates its contracts.

A second key move was to guarantee that small cities with their own bus lines would continue to receive the same subsidy from the county’s half-cent transit sales tax.

That decision removed potential opposition from cities such as Torrance, Santa Monica and Gardena, which want to preserve their bus systems.