LB City Hall Effort To Gain Permanent MTA Board Seat Hits Choppy Water: LA County Supes + LA City Hall + LA County Metro Oppose Bill To Expand Board; Senate Approps Committee Chair Lara Will Announce Friday (May 27) If Bill Proceeds To Senate Floor

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(May 24, 2016) -- A state Senate bill (SB 1472) that would create two new seats on the powerful, regional governing Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) -- with the City of Long Beach unmentioned in the bill but desiring one of the two seats -- has hit some choppy water.

Opposition has surfaced to SB 1472 from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the City of Los Angeles (both of which hold several permanent Board seats, see below) and from L.A. County Metro itself...whose representative told the state Senate Rules Committee on Monday (May 22) that Metro fears a fight over the agency's governance could hurt Metro's effort to persuade voters in November to approve a tax increase for Metro.

The City of LB is officially neutral on the bill since it doesn't specifically mention Long Beach, but on May 17, Mayor Robert Garcia and Councilman Al Austin (Mayor-chosen chair of the Council's State Legislation Committee) flew to Sacramento to meet with the bill's author, Sen. Tony Mendoza (D, Cerritos) and state Senator Ricardo Lara (D, LB-Huntington Park.)

On Friday May 27, Senator Lara -- who chairs the state Senate Appropriations Committee -- will announce which among multiple bills now held by his Committee in "suspense" status will advance to the full Senate floor for voted action. Friday's upcoming Committee decisions are supposed to be fiscally based but as a practical matter they reflect the views of state Senate legislative leadership (current Dem majority) on whether to let a bill to proceed to possible passage...or quietly kill it.

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SB 1472 would, for the first time, give state legislative leaders power to decide who sits on the MTA governing Board. The bill would let the chair of the state Senate Rules Committee (currently Sen. Kevin deLeon) and the Assembly Speaker (currently Sen. Anthony Rendon, D, Lakewood) choose one Metro Boardmember each.

The bill would require the two new members to reside in L.A. County, but not in the same city as another member at the time of the appointment.

Adding two new members would dilute the voting powers of the Board's current 14 members: all five members of the L.A. County Bd. of Supervisors; the Mayor of Los Angeles; two public members chosen by L.A.'s Mayor; one L.A. Councilmember chosen by L.A.'s Mayor; four members chosen by the L.A. County City Selection Committee; and a non-voting member chosen by the Governor.

The four City Selection Committee-chosen members are mayors or city council members from various parts of L.A. County including "Southeast -- Long Beach." Every city in each of four regions can vote to nominate one or more candidates for the City Selection Committee choice with a city's vote weighted in proportion to its population.

From time to time, the City of Long Beach has had representatives on the MTA Board (including then-Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal); the area's current MTA rep is Lakewood Councilwoman Diane DuBois...but LB has no permanent seat on the board.

A May 17 release from the Mayor's office included these quotes:

Garcia: "Long Beach is the second largest city in the County, and should absolutely have representation on the METRO Board...We look forward to discussing with Senators Mendoza and Lara how Long Beach can have a voice on the Board." Austin: "As a crucial transportation center and a city of almost half a million people, Long Beach needs and deserves a seat on this Board."

Developing.