One of the seldom seen aspects of Metro’s work is how closely the agency works with all of the cities in Los Angeles County. The coordination covers a broad range of activities such as local permits for work on major transit and highway projects, project planning, providing funding to cities for local street and other transportation improvements, operating Metro buses on city streets and helping secure funding for city-run bus agencies in the county.

Thirty-two cities from every area of the County were represented at the lunch and were given an overview of Metro’s many activities. Leahy responded to numerous questions and comments from the group. One question was about the inconvenience of the monthly fee for transponders for infrequent users of the new Express Lanes; Leahy explained that the Metro Board had recently voted to suspend the monthly fee on a trial basis. Other attendees asked questions or made comments about Metro’s major projects, bicycle planning, master planning efforts for Union Station, highway maintenance and other issues. As a part of open give and take, the participants expressed an interest in repeating the event on a quarterly basis.