The Metro Board of Directors meets on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at Metro headquarters for their regular monthly meeting. The agenda is posted above and below is some of the more interesting items on the docket:
•Item 17, a motion by Board Member Paul Krekorian asking Metro staff to report on whether increased revenues may come from digital billboards on Metro properties and more ads on buses and at other facilities.
•Item 41, a motion by Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky asking Metro to continue studies for an express bus line between Westwood and the San Fernando Valley that would use the 405 HOV lanes.
•Item 69, a motion by Board Member Don Knabe asking Metro staff to reconsider Measure R funding forecasts as well as study future revenues from station gating and the ExpressLanes.
•Item 7, which asks the Metro Board to adopt the First/Last Mile Strategic Plan and stations to serve as pilot program areas. A companion motion by Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky asks Metro to include two stations along the Red Line (Universal City and NoHo) to the other pilot stations — Bundy and 17th on the Expo Line Phase 2 and Arcadia and Duarte on the Gold Line Foothill Extension. The Strategic Plan is attached to the Metro staff report; it’s a technical document intended to help Metro and city planners best consider different options for getting people to and from transit stations.
•Item 34, which asks the Metro Board to consider extending operations of the ExpressLanes on the 10 and 110 freeways beyond January 15. The staff report includes a preliminary federal analysis of the ExpressLanes during their one-year pilot programs. A companion motion, by Board Member Gloria Molina, asks Metro to consider a $1 per month account fee for those with ExpressLane accounts instead of a $3 account maintenance fee (which was waived last spring).
•Item 42, which asks the Metro Board to extend the contract for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to police the Metro system for an additional three months — which is through the end of September — for $22.2 million. The staff report says that Metro needs additional time to analyze three other letters of interest about the contract.
•Item 62, which proposes that Metro adopt a living wage program for contract landscape and irrigation maintenance workers under contract to the Board. The policy proposes to increase the hourly rate to $15.67 per hour.
•Item 72, which proposes that the Metro Board approves a $927.2-million design/build contract with Regional Connector Constructors (a Joint Venture between Skanska USA Civil West California District, Inc., and Traylor Bros. Inc.) to build the Regional Connector project. This would help launch the actual construction of the 1.9-mile underground rail line that will connect the Gold, Expo and Blue lines in downtown Los Angeles.
Categories: Policy & Funding
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There was a problem when the LAPD also had part of the contract. They would only respond when the bus was within the City of Los Angeles and the call would then be handed off to the LASD. In an instance like the 4 line or the 20 line a call would for instance originate in Los Angeles. Be handed off to the Sheriffs when the bus entered Beverly Hills, then back to the LAPD while it traveled thru West Los Angeles and then back to the Sheriffs when it entered Santa Monica. One wonders why it could take so long to contact a bus but that is the situation that existed.
I was wondering if the re-establishment of the Transit Police was a option. And MTA Transit Security is not sworn Peace Officers and their powers would be limited under current law.
Mike Dunn, maybe LAPD? They were partners with the Sheriff Dept. when Metro originally eliminated its Police Dept. for security. It was during renewal that Sheriff was able to take the whole contract and LAPD was shut out.
Who else besides the Sheriffs are showing interest in policing the MTA bus and rail lines?
The ExpressLanes maintenance fee motion is misleading and should be clarified. Supervisor Molino’s motion wants to get rid of the $3 account maintenance fee which can be waived if you do more than four trips per month (this portion was put on hiatus since last spring) and replace that with a $1 fee that affects all FasTrak account holders whether they use it or not.
It sounds like it’s giving in by reducing the fee from $3 to $1, but it’s just altering it to charge $1 per month to everyone, whether you never use it, carpool, ride a motorcycle, or whether you do four trips a month.