MTA Board: Clownish or Just Clever?

Over the years, the rudeness, arrogance and secretiveness of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board have become legendary.

This wouldn’t matter if the board were powerless. But unfortunately, the odd assortment of board members, ranging from unknown small-town politicians to the mayor of Los Angeles, have more political and economic clout than the Los Angeles City Council or the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, allocating funds for rail lines, buses and scores of projects ranging from railroad grade crossings to bike paths.

Board members mill around the podium, talk to each other and interrupt the presiding officer. After unfavorable publicity, the members in January adopted an ethics code requiring them to treat each other with courtesy, a standard that so far has been beyond their reach.

The rowdy behavior is a contrast to the elegance of the MTA headquarters, just northeast of downtown Los Angeles. As I rode the escalator four levels up in the building’s vast lobby I was impressed by the architecture but puzzled how such a financially troubled agency could afford such magnificence.

The splendor contrasted sharply with another recent experience I had with the MTA--riding the No. 4 from West Los Angeles to downtown, sharing space with a standing-room-only crowd of poor working people and the elderly who were dependent on this bus to take them to work, to the doctor, to the store or to visit friends.

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Purchasing 200 more buses to reduce this kind of overcrowding was the main item on Wednesday’s agenda. The board had been forced to sign a consent decree in federal court requiring it to put more buses on the road.

Authors of the motion were Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Mayor Richard Riordan. If anything in life is a sure thing, this motion seemed to be it, backed as it was by the mayor, who has cultivated a reputation as a fighter for the bus rider.

Out in the audience, clad in yellow T-shirts, were members of the Bus Riders Union, a grass-roots organization that boasts a membership of almost 1,500 riders, most of them low-income working class men and women. The union was a plaintiff in the federal court bus case, and four union members serve with MTA officials on a Joint Working Group overseeing bus improvements.

The T-shirts were no match for the suits--the suits of the powerful rail construction lobbyists also in the audience and those of the board members whose excellent attire has seldom, if ever, been exposed to the dirt and grunge found inside an MTA bus.

Up on the rostrum, board Chairman Larry Zarian waged his usual losing fight to maintain order. “Mr. Wilson, I would appreciate it very much if you would let me run this meeting,” he told board member Mel Wilson during a discussion of Valley rail transit.

When it was time to vote on buying the buses, Zarian turned the gavel over to Riordan. But instead of ramming the purchase through, as was expected from a mayor who brags about being a can-do guy, Riordan inexplicably wilted.

Opponents of the bus purchases-- advocates of new rail lines and various suburban transportation projects-- interrupted each other with new objections. Riordan acted confused, protesting that he felt like a juggler with too many balls in the air.

Then, quick as a shot, the vote was taken. Riordan voted with Yaroslavsky for the purchase, but, significantly, the three people the mayor had appointed to the board did not join him as the board majority decided to delay the matter 30 days.

The defeated union members sang “We Shall Overcome” and then walked out. The protest was mild, but the board was upset enough for Riordan to recess the meeting for 15 minutes.

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With the issue likely to heat up in the next few weeks, I may reexamine my perceptions of the MTA board members.

Perhaps they aren’t the clowns they appear to be. While many in the audience laughed and groaned at last week’s meeting, maybe the board members knew exactly what they were doing, using buffoonery to hide their actions.

And maybe the mayor, instead of being an advocate for the bus riders, was actually stabbing them in the back to help the rail and suburban factions that control the MTA board.

What a cynical thought.