Weary of listening to Molina, Yaroslavsky walks out of MTA meeting

The 100 or so people in attendance at this morning's meeting of the Metro (a.k.a. the MTA) Board got a treat: an argument between County Supervisors Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky that spanned two items on the agenda and finally ended when Yaroslavsky fulfilled his own threat to walk out of the meeting.

That happened just after Yaroslavsky characterized Molina's speechifying as "selfish nonsense" -- a description, by the way, that did not provoke any protests among his colleagues on the Board.

At the root of the dispute were two items: rail safety and Measure R, the proposal to raise the sales tax by  half a cent in Los Angeles County to pay for more mass transit and freeway projects. Yaroslavsky is for Measure R and Molina against, saying the spending plan is inequitable and was poorly conceived.

The fight began as the Board began discussing whether they should go ahead and help fund about $5 million in safety improvements for Metrolink, the commuter rail agency involved in last month's deadly crash with a freight train.

The money would help pay for efforts to: install automatic train stop devices in about 50 locations on the tracks; hire more conductors and engineers so that more eyes are watching train signals; install video cameras to watch engineers operate the trains, and; replace incandescent light bulbs in track-side signals with LED bulbs that are easier to see and more reliable.

Molina then introduced an amendment to have the MTA start the process of installing four-quadrant crossing gates at every place the Eastside Gold Line will cross a street (in other words, gates that would cross the entire street on both sides of the tracks). The Eastside Gold Line, which is under construction and scheduled to open next year, often runs up the middle of the street and will be controlled by traffic signals -- so there are no gates.

Yaroslavsky, citing the potential expense of the gates, asked that before deciding to install them, the item be moved to committee. Molina didn't like that, saying the Eastside Gold Line should have been a full subway and accused Yaroslavsky of killing that project. "I get tired of being shortchanged on the Eastside on some basic stuff," Molina said. "If this board can't move forward on ... safety, I'm shocked."

Yaroslavsky, of course, wrote the ballot measure that was approved by voters in 1998 to prevent the MTA from using sales tax revenues for subway tunneling. As a result, the Gold Line on the Eastside is now a light-rail line, although it does include a 1.7-mile long tunnel under Boyle Heights for the trains.

"Supervisor Molina, you and every other member of the Board voted for this line. You voted for it," Yaroslavsky said. "Don't make this a holier than thou safety issue."

He also added: "I have a right to be as nasty as everyone else. ... I have no problem with this ... But don't paint everyone with the brush of evil."

Ultimately, the Board decided to move ahead and find out how much it will cost in time and money to install the gates, which would also need approval from the state Public Utilities Commission. Later, a Molina aide told me that her boss was not trying to stop the line from opening next year -- a point that was very unclear from her previous statements.

Fast-forward to a later item, this one involving whether the MTA can use its funds for an informational campaign about Measure R, the proposed sales tax increase. The Board had approved an ordinance at its July meeting -- Molina abstained -- to put Measure R on the ballot. That ordinance also gave MTA permission to send information about Measure R to voters and to spend more than $8 million in election-related expenses.

The ordinance included a passage saying the agency intended to mail literature about Measure R to every registered voter in Los Angeles County. Once the mailings started, Molina complained, saying she was unaware that the Board had approved spending the money for Measure R, which she doesn't support. Here's the link to the ordinance; I posted the paragraph about the campaign after the jump. It's on page three of the ordinance if you're ultra-curious.

To make a long story short, after Molina complained, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is also the chair of the MTA Board, directed the agency to stop mailing literature. But Molina today wanted the Board to take a vote on the matter.

What followed was a prolonged argument between Molina and Yaroslavsky -- with each talking over the other -- about Roberts Rules of Order and whether MTA staff was authorized to mail the Measure R literature. That's when Yaroslavsky said "this is selfish nonsense" -- meaning it was a waste of time -- and threatened to walk out, which he did a short time later.

The Board then voted against Molina's motion that the agency shouldn't send out the campaign literature. The vote was a moot point, of course, since the MTA is no longer sending the literature anyway.

The next item on the agenda was a short discussion about the fact that the MTA and other transit agencies around the U.S. may be on the hook for millions of dollars because of deals they made involving American International Group. Without intervention by the federal government, the deals could involve big service cuts. Here's a link to a story The Times ran last weekend.

-- Steve Hymon

Public Information Materials

An information pamphlet (Attachment 3) is being developed to inform Los Angeles County voters ofthe proposed measure similar to the booklet the Orange County Transportation Commission distributed to the public during their recent successful effort to extend the term of their local sales tax measure. The information materials will be sent to all registered voters in the county. The pamphlet is referred to as the Five-Point Plan and provides a summary of how much revenue will be raised through the sales tax measure and what transportation improvements will be implemented if the measure is approved. The materials emphasize the Expenditure Plan priorities which are consistent with the public opinion indicated in the recent poll.

Comments

[Kymberleigh Richards]

To remove the Supervisors from the Metro Board would require action by the state Legislature, since Metro is a special district agency that was created by the Legislature in 1993.

The difficulty in removing the Supes is that they have enough political clout in Sacramento to have any bill that would remove them squashed. (And they have done so at least twice since 1993.)

They'd have to do something politically indefensible before a bill removing them got anywhere.

[Tommy]

The supervisorial positions should be abolished and all five of our County Supervisors imprisoned for life. Barring that, can we at least get these childish prigs off the MTA Board?

[Damien Goodmon]

"For Gloria Molina to claim that the Eastside Extension should have been a subway when it is now only months from opening...

"All you can do is throw your hands in the air and sigh."

Anyone paying attention over the past 10 years, or even can read and research knows that's not true.

We applaud Molina for at least trying to do something about rail safety and beginning a discussion.

[E L TENNYSON, PE]

Both Molina and Yaroslavsky should be legally removed from the LA C MTA Board of Directors for malfeasance.
Board of Directors do not legally represent some distrfict. They are charged to vote in the best interest of LA C MTA. These politicians do not vote in the best interest of their organization. They vote for their local political intetest. That is grounds for dismissal or surcharge.
.

[David Raether]

Hmmm... I wonder why everything takes forever to get built in Los Angeles.

For Gloria Molina to claim that the Eastside Extension should have been a subway when it is now only months from opening...

All you can do is throw your hands in the air and sigh.

[Julio]

So - Metro can't send out Measure R information, but its just fine for LAUSD to include Measure Q information in their newsletter to parents, see http://www.lausd.net/lausd/parent_press/pdf2/PPSep2008.pdf and for the Measure Q campaign(s) to send me three additional information mailers. Is the Superivor willing to apply her zero tolerance for ballot information consistently? I don't see this same rhetoric from the Supervisor being applied to the school district and I'd like to know exactly why.