Senate OKs Bill to Revamp MTA Board

SACRAMENTO — A labor-supported bill to alter the composition of the troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s governing board was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.

But one supporter of the plan, longtime MTA critic Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), warned that the agency already may be beyond rehabilitation and ready for a takeover from outside.

“It is ripe for receivership, if political interests cannot unify and solidify themselves around this bill,” Hayden said of the MTA.

The bill (SB 567), proposed by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), would shrink the board from 13 to 11 members and tilt power away from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and shift it to the Los Angeles City Council and other cities in the county.

The bill was approved on a 32-2 vote, but faces a fight in the Assembly, which killed a similar union-backed bill last session. The Assembly is considering a rival proposal supported by Mayor Richard Riordan.

Polanco’s bill was supported by the United Transportation and Amalgamated Transit unions and Los Angeles County members of the League of California Cities. It was opposed by the MTA.

Polanco told the Senate that the MTA, which operates bus and rail transit in Los Angeles County, has made itself into a “laughingstock.” He illustrated his point by describing problems that have plagued construction of the subway system, one of the nation’s most costly and most investigated public works projects.

The bill would cut the number of county supervisors on the MTA board from five to two. Riordan appointees, which include himself, would be cut from four to two. The City Council, which has no representatives now, would get two members. Other members would continue to represent the governor and the smaller cities.

The bill also would require elected local officials to actually serve on the MTA board instead of appointing alternates to represent them. Additionally, it would write into law a code of conduct aimed at preventing conflicts of interest.

Polanco said he expects a big fight in the Assembly, where the supervisors are believed to wield more influence.