MTA Elects Edelman in Leadership Compromise : Transit: After failing to muster enough votes to take post now, Supervisor Mike Antonovich will get job when board chairman retires in December.

By HENRY CHU

June 30, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a compromise over who should hold one of the region’s most powerful political posts, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday elected Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman as its next chairman, picking fellow Supervisor Mike Antonovich to succeed him after his retirement in December.

Antonovich had angled to take over the job immediately, lobbying board members to bypass the usual rotation and install him as the next chairman over Edelman. But observers said a lack of votes forced Antonovich to accept a compromise that would allow him to serve out the remainder of Edelman’s one-year term as chairman, which begins Friday.

The chairman has the power to direct the $2.9-billion agency’s agenda for the coming year. That agenda includes proposed bus fare increases, labor negotiations and mammoth public works projects, such as a rail line spanning the San Fernando Valley.

Antonovich said the vote to appoint him as Edelman’s successor is important. “We need to have a full team working together,” he said. “You have everybody here right now.”

But Supervisor Gloria Molina, who voted against Antonovich, disagreed, saying the Board of Supervisors should decide Edelman’s successor later.

The dual election of Edelman, who is vacationing in Europe, and Antonovich effectively shuts out the possibility of Supervisor-elect Zev Yaroslavsky assuming the post as one of the duties he will take over from Edelman. Yaroslavsky, now an alternate on the MTA board as a Los Angeles city councilman, said he did not want the job, but criticized Antonovich for trying to depose Edelman.

“I wasn’t seeking the chairmanship,” he said. “I have plenty on my plate without running this organization.”

Antonovich’s intervention in the normal course of succession demonstrates that he lacks regard for proper procedure, Yaroslavsky said. “It didn’t speak well of Mike Antonovich . . . that (he) would try to pull such a banana republic type of stunt,” he said.

Originally, Antonovich had pushed to have himself elected chairman immediately, without the five-month wait until Edelman’s retirement. His office had put on the MTA board’s agenda an item calling for an amendment to current succession rules.

But the item was effectively withdrawn when it became apparent that Antonovich could not muster enough votes to muscle Edelman aside.

“We beat that,” said one MTA official who asked not to be identified. Several of the board members already had declared their support for Edelman, and “they weren’t going to renege on their commitments,” the official said.

As the new chairman, replacing Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, Edelman will have to deal with a proposed 25-cent increase in bus fares recommended to help erase the MTA’s $126-million operating shortfall.

The board had been scheduled to vote on the highly controversial plan Wednesday, but deferred action until next month--partly to turn its full attention to the issue of succession but also to give members more time to weigh the matter, officials said.