RTD Stripped of Power on Future Metro Rail Work

In a bold effort to consolidate mass transit development, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission moved Wednesday to unilaterally take future phases of the huge Metro Rail subway project away from the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

The commission voted 9 to 2 to approve setting up a new, commission-controlled rail construction subsidiary to take over the next phase of the RTD’s $3.4-billion downtown-to-North Hollywood subway and combine it with a connecting trolley system that the commission is now building. The RTD would complete the first 4.4-mile leg of the subway currently under construction from Union Station to MacArthur Park.

The action came over the strong objections of the RTD and its supporters, who said the consolidation has not been adequately studied, could be illegal and unnecessarily runs the risk of creating legal and political confusion that could delay the subway project and greatly escalate costs. The commission, which oversees the RTD and other transit agencies in the county, said they see no major obstacles to the takeover plan.

Culmination of Debate

Wednesday’s action calls for the new rail construction agency to be created by Jan. 1, 1989. It is a culmination of a debate that began with last year’s state legislative effort to merge the RTD and the commission into a single transportation superagency. The bill, prompted in part by revelations of alleged safety and management problems involving the RTD bus system, was ultimately vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Since then, both the RTD and the commission have agreed to try to improve planning and coordination by consolidating the mass transit projects. But months-long negotiations between the two large agencies, which have been engaged in running bureaucratic warfare on a variety of issues, has resulted in no agreement on how the restructuring should occur.

The commission wants a specialized, separate entity that would focus solely on rail development, leaving the RTD to operate the bus and rail system.

RTD officials argue that they have already demonstrated they have the necessary construction expertise and it makes sense to have the agency that will have to run the system also design and build it.

Commissioner Jacki Bacharach, who has led the effort to take Metro Rail away from the RTD, said Wednesday that federal funding decisions on the second phase of the subway are nearing and it is time to act.

“They (RTD) are trying to stop any change. I think the commission realizes that, and we want to move on. Construction in one city should be in one place,” she said.

Bacharach said the commission had sought to form a separate rail agency that would be jointly controlled by both the RTD and the commission, but the RTD opposed the idea.

Bacharach said part of the goal of the reorganization effort was to get the RTD to focus more on its bus system.

Warning Issued

RTD officials and supporters warned that the commission was charting a dangerous course. RTD board member Marv Holen said no decision should be made until a detailed financial analysis of the costs of the reorganization is completed.

After the vote, Holen said the RTD will resist any effort to be removed as overseer of the project, adding that it is questionable whether the commission can succeed in taking control of future phases of the project without the RTD’s cooperation.

In addition to confusing “all of our funding partners,” Holen said the commission action may have given the Reagan Administration, which has fought to kill the project over the years, “an opportunity . . . to bring the Metro Rail project to an end.”

Los Angeles Councilman Nate Holden, speaking on behalf of the RTD, said, “The risk is just really not worth taking.”

Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration officials could not be reached for comment, but commission Executive Director Paul Taylor said that based on his discussions in recent days with members of Congress and the Administration, he did not envision resistance to the restructuring.

Under the commission’s ordinance, the new rail agency, a nonprofit public corporation, will be governed by five commission members.

New Procedures

In another action, the commission ordered its staff to draft new procedures to ensure commissioners and their campaign contributors who do business with the agency avoid conflicts of interest under state law.

The order came on a motion by Los Angeles Councilman Michael Woo. The Times reported Tuesday that prominent commissioners, including Woo, collected nearly $600,000 in campaign contributions in recent years from commission contractors or their employees. It was reported that the provisions of anti-favoritism laws were not always diligently followed.