MTA Calls for Delays in Subway

Los Angeles commuters would have to wait two years longer than promised to ride a subway to the Eastside and seven years longer to take it to the Mid-City under a plan unveiled by the MTA on Tuesday for dealing with its funding shortfall.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is projecting that the subway will not be completed to the Eastside until 2004 and to the Mid-City until 2009--even if the MTA board follows the staff recommendations to shift $300 million from other transit projects to subway construction.

The revised timetable was prepared in response to a federal demand for a plan for restoring Washington’s confidence in MTA’s management of the subway project. The federal government is paying for about half of the $5.9-billion project.

In a Jan. 6 letter to the MTA, Federal Transit Administrator Gordon Linton said he was troubled by the agency’s ability to manage the region’s biggest public works project in the face of cost overruns, political turmoil and a projected $1-billion hole in the county’s long-range transportation plan.

“I am alarmed by the lack of consensus of purpose among the members of the board and the lack of local political will” to keep the subway on track, Linton said in the letter obtained by The Times.

Meanwhile, the MTA’s newly created Ethics Committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a 16-page code of conduct also demanded by the federal government.

The new rules, which must be approved by the full MTA board, cover a range of behavior, including requiring board members to “treat each other with respect and courtesy” and prohibiting board members from contacting MTA staff directly on proposed contracts.

The code of conduct and the proposed new schedule for subway construction will go to the MTA board Friday, just days before a Jan. 15 deadline set by the Clinton administration for the MTA to act.

In a debate that symbolized the difficulty the board has had in reaching consensus on issues large and small, the three-member ethics panel argued for one hour over the one-sentence introduction of the code’s 29 rules.

Finally, board member Carol Schatz, an appointee of Mayor Richard Riordan, called for the rest of the rules to be adopted in full without debate because she had to rush to another appointment. The motion passed, 2-1, with Gardena City Councilman Jim Cragin voting with her and businessman Robert Abernethy, an alternate for board member Zev Yaroslavsky, opposed.

One rule would bar board members from involvement in the hiring of employees or any other personnel actions at the MTA. Another rule would prohibit board members from talking to anyone but the agency’s chief executive about a contract award, and orders the chief executive to report on such contacts at the following board meeting.

Other rules would bar contractors preparing to bid for MTA work from contacting a board member before or after their proposal is submitted; require board members to disclose all of their financial interests within and outside the county, and give timely notice of any changes to their direct or indirect income; and require board members to be “sensitive to any obligation an MTA employee or contractor might experience when asked to make a contribution to a specific charity,” a restriction intended to prevent members from lending their names to charity events and scholarship funds that solicit donations from contractors.

Sanctions for violating any of the rules would range from public censure by the board to suspension and a fine.

The MTA staff also formalized a recommendation to shift $300 million from other transit projects to subway tunneling.

Civil rights attorneys have expressed concern that the fund transfer could endanger MTA’s ability to comply with a court order to expand bus service. MTA officials said they will meet with bus rider advocates today in an attempt to reassure them that bus expansion remains their “highest priority.”

But Linton’s letter asks the board to “reaffirm its commitment to the Metro Rail Red Line as its higher priority.” MTA officials said Tuesday that they have made it clear to the federal government that the subway is the highest “rail” priority. An aide to Linton said federal officials would not comment until the plan is approved by the MTA board and they can review it.

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MTA staff said that without the fund transfer, subway construction could be delayed even longer. The $300 million would come from funds set aside for building freeway carpool lanes, but transit officials have said that, at worst, about 30 miles out of 280 miles of new carpool lanes could be delayed by a year or two, and none until at least the next decade.

The Eastside subway extension, which would take the subway from Union Station to First and Lorena streets in Boyle Heights, was already a year behind schedule. The new timetable would delay it by an additional year.

The Mid-City project, which would extend the subway from Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue to Pico and San Vicente Boulevard, was already about five years behind schedule because of geological problems. The staff proposal would extend the completion date by 2 1/2 more years.

It was not immediately clear how federal officials would respond to the proposed schedule. But Linton in his letter said that he wants MTA to address how it plans to “mitigate the one-year delay” on the subway extension to the Eastside.

MTA officials point out that the new schedule is required in part because “federal appropriations have lagged behind the expected commitment.” Indeed, the MTA received less than half of the federal funds expected for this year.