Who can help Mayor Karen Bass fix Metro?
L.A. leader plans to fill vacancy on transit board for a system facing challenges.
If there’s one agency that will need strong oversight from Mayor Karen Bass in the coming years, it’s Metro.
Drug overdoses have become an urgent issue on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s transit network. Customers have voiced alarm about rising crime on the system’s buses and trains. Rail ridership is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
So it’s not surprising that Bass has been focused in recent days on filling the Metro board seat previously occupied by former Councilmember Mike Bonin, who pushed for free fares and a cadre of unarmed ambassadors to improve transit safety.
Bass, a Metro board member herself, told The Times she intends to choose a council member to replace Bonin and has interviewed three candidates for the post. Her choice could prove crucial to the future of the countywide agency, which is building new rail lines to the Westside, Los Angeles International Airport and elsewhere while confronting new financial pressures.
One politician actively seeking the seat is Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who took office in December and has a district with subway and light-rail stations. Another is Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who is based in the San Fernando Valley, where a light-rail line is planned along Van Nuys Boulevard.
Politically, those two come from very different places. Rodriguez took office in 2017 with major support from construction trade unions and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers. Hernandez was backed by the Democratic Socialists of AmericaLos Angeles and Ground Game L.A., which have called for the defunding or abolition of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Both women have demonstrated an independent streak, at times voting no when all or most of their colleagues voted yes. Rodriguez cast dissenting votes on redistricting, a South L.A. hotel project and changes to the city’s censure process. Hernandez recently opposed an LAPD gun buyback program, a plan to send police staff to a symposium on female officers and a $54-million extension of Metro’s policing contract, which she called an improper use of public funds.
The mayor’s power at Metro stems from the fact that she appoints three of Metro’s 13 board seats. That makes it essential that she and the other three stick together when seeking to advance the mayor’s transit agenda, said Richard Katz, who served on Metro’s board under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“It takes seven votes to get anything done there. The L.A. delegation from the city is four, and that puts you a lot closer to reaching your goal if you can count on all four votes,” he said.
One area where Hernandez has an edge: backing by a coalition of pro-transit and anti-poverty groups, which sent a letter to Bass endorsing her for the Metro post. Laura Raymond, director of the Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles, told The Times that Hernandez will “fight for equity and representation” on behalf of transit riders of color and low-income riders.
Meanwhile, there is yet another contender for the Metro seat — Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, a onetime aide to County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who spent eight years on Metro’s board. Metro is extending the Purple Line subway into Yaroslavsky’s Westside district, while also planning a north-south Sepulveda Pass rail line that would connect her district with the Valley.
Yaroslavsky voiced interest in those two projects, as well as efforts to build affordable housing on Metro properties. “However, the decision is the mayor’s alone to make, and any one of the highly qualified candidates for the position would be incredible additions to the Metro board,” she said in a statement.
Bass expects to make her decision within a week. Her spokesperson, Zach Seidl, said the mayor’s priority for the agency is to “boldly address homelessness and to make Metro safer for everyone.”