BUSES MAY ROLL SOON MTA, UNION NEGOTIATORS 'AWFULLY CLOSE'.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

POMONA - MTA and union negotiators met all day Friday behind closed doors, and officials speculated that the transit strike could be resolved today, putting buses back on the street early next week.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky told a news conference the agency was ``awfully close'' to reaching an agreement Friday with its 4,500-member bus drivers union.

``Then we'll have to turn our attention to the mechanics (union),'' Yaroslavsky said. ``We'll know very quickly if we have a willing negotiating partner or someone who has no movement. Then everyone has to decide how long they want this strike to go on.''

As the strike that has stranded 500,000 bus and train riders went into its fourth day Friday, the MTA negotiated directly with members of the United Transportation Union, representing the bus drivers, at the Sheraton Suites Fairplex hotel in Pomona.

A state mediator shuttled throughout the day between the agency and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents transit mechanics. Officials said a face-to-face session between the two sides could be held late Friday.

MTA chief Roger Snoble said he hoped Los Angeles' mass-transit system would be operational by the start of the workweek.

``I'm shooting to get the buses back on the streets by Monday morning. If we can do it, that's great. If we can't, then maybe Tuesday morning.''

UTU spokesman Goldy Norton said he thought it was possible an agreement could be reached today, ``but whether it's going to happen remains to be seen.''

Neil Silver, president of the mechanics union, criticized the MTA for relying on a state mediator.

``I have a (hotel) room and we've been sitting in here for two days and they haven't shown their face once,'' he said. ``I think it's insulting, but I gave my word and we said we'd be here and we'd be here to the end and we're here.''

Yaroslavsky said the MTA board asked him to appoint a special ad hoc committee of three MTA board members to oversee the negotiations. He said he volunteered along with county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts.

``It's just a way to manage the negotiations,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``The board simply wanted a small group of people to stay on top of things. They asked me to chair it and I said I would.''

Mayor James Hahn, who is also an MTA board member, also went to Pomona to urge both sides to reach an agreement. He cannot participate directly in the contract talks because he took political money from the unions.

Since the 1960s, employees of the MTA and its predecessor have engaged in 10 strikes, including a 32-day walkout in 2000. The MTA is facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades, and expects to lose $1.4 billion in state funding by 2009.

``This agency loses every time there is a strike,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``If we solve the strike this weekend, ridership will be lower than a week ago. It will take us years to get that ridership back.''

On Friday morning, MTA board members and Los Angeles City Councilmen Martin Ludlow and Antonio Villaraigosa filed suit against the transit agency, seeking a court order allowing them to vote on the labor contract even through they previously accepted campaign contributions from the mechanics union.

``We believe we need to be part of this so we are filing a lawsuit to vindicate our constitutional right to participate as board members and as citizens to represent the city as fully and completely as possible in these matters related to the transit strike,'' Villaraigosa said.

Under an opinion that MTA General Counsel Steve Carnevale issued last year, Villaraigosa and Ludlow - along with Hahn and Supervisor Gloria Molina - cannot vote on any new contract negotiated or participate in discussions with the ATU because they took campaign contributions from the union.

The opinion is based on an interpretation of a bill authored by former state Sen. Tom Hayden in 1997 that was written in response to problems with the MTA's contract award process. The law sought to eliminate the possibility that companies seeking contracts with the MTA might buy favor with decision-makers.

The law says no MTA board members can use their official position to influence a contract decision if they have accepted more than $10 in contributions in the past four years from ``participants or agents'' involved in a contract decision.

Villaraigosa and Ludlow hope a judge will hear the case Monday and issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction allowing them to vote on the contract and participate in discussions.

``It's important to understand that the bill was introduced at a time when there were incredible levels of corruption around corporations and companies that were engaging in the business of attempting to buy off votes in the MTA,'' Ludlow said.

``The lawsuit says the bill (should) not prohibit board members from engaging in the very serious process of setting the working conditions, health plans and pay for the MTA employees who keep this system running.''

Ludlow and Villaraigosa said they would be fair in voting on a contract and participating in negotiations.

``We are not lemmings who are going to follow one individual across the cliff,'' Villaraigosa said.

Hahn and the two councilmen participated in a news conference earlier in the week with union leaders and were seen as helping reopen talks although Snoble said they needed to ``step back'' and let the negotiators take over.

Both Villaraigosa and Ludlow said they would not go out to Pomona until the judge had ruled.

Talks between the MTA and the 2,000-member mechanics union broke off Sunday primarily over health care and union management of the financially troubled health benefits fund.