Democrats to Resuscitate Bill on Transit Zone : Assembly: Hertzberg proposes legislation protecting bus workers be amended to delete MTA’s requirement that Valley operation be cheaper.

Countering a successful ploy by Republicans to block the bill last week, Assembly Democrats say they will revive legislation today that would protect bus workers if a new transit zone to serve the San Fernando Valley is spun off from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Led by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), Democrats are planning to resuscitate the bill--which is strongly opposed by Valley business leaders--in time to reach the Assembly floor before the end of the legislative session next week.

It has already been approved by the Senate.

The measure was derailed last Thursday when Republicans, rallied by Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), refused to approve a routine procedural vote to send the bill to the Appropriations Committee. That will now force Democrats to keep the legislation alive by amending its content into another bill already scheduled before the committee.

Though the bill’s main purpose remains the same, a major change championed by Hertzberg could significantly alter the tenor of the debate.

Opponents have portrayed the bill, which would force any new transit zone to abide by existing contracts between labor unions and the MTA, as a move to kill efforts to create an autonomous Valley transit zone. They argue that taking on the labor contracts would make it all but impossible to meet an MTA requirement that such zones can be formed only if they can be shown to operate 15% more cheaply than the MTA.

Supporters say that was never their intent. They argue they are not trying to stop a breakup of the MTA, but simply want to ensure that it does not occur at the expense of bus workers.

Hoping to untangle the issues, Hertzberg and the Democrats are now proposing that the same legislation also eliminate the operational-cost ceiling for transit zones.

“What Bob is really trying to do is separate the issue of local control from the issue of cost savings,� said Hertzberg spokesman Paul Hefner. “Who says you have to cut the budget to get local control? It doesn’t make any sense anyway.�

Judging from both sides’ reaction Tuesday, however, Hertzberg’s move is unlikely to end the debate.

Supporters applauded the change, saying it would reveal the true nature of the opposition campaign.

“I think it will unmask them,� said Barry Broad, lobbyist for the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, the main force behind the bill. “It makes it impossible to say this is a plot to stop a transit zone for the Valley. The opposition now comes down to thinly veiled union-busting.�

Opponents countered that the change would make it harder to enact improvements for bus riders through a Valley transit zone than it would under the original legislation.

“The bill still keeps the same people in the driver’s seat,� said former Assemblyman Richard Katz, now co-chair of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.’s transportation committee, which is spearheading opposition. “What this bill would now do is create MTA ‘lite’ in the Valley.

“The interesting thing about the amendment is that it takes out the only guarantee that ensures less costly transit service for the Valley,� Katz said. “There is no incentive to be cheaper, no ability to run any sort of different system. And the current system is a huge bureaucracy that fails bus riders.�

A spokesman for the MTA, which opposed the original bill, said Tuesday that the agency was not aware of efforts to alter its rules on creating new transit zones.

A group in the San Fernando Valley is working to create a transit zone, while a group in the San Gabriel Valley is looking to expand the existing Foothill Transit zone.

Also on Tuesday, the MTA released its analysis on how assets would be divided with both zones. For instance, the MTA reported that 394 buses would be transferred to the Valley.

* TRANSIT CHIEF’S PAY

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