EDITORIAL : PREOCCUPATION ZONE; MTA CHIEF SAYS HE WAS TOO BUSY TO STUDY REQUEST TO PAY FOR REBUILDING SUBWAY-DAMAGED LANKERSHIM BOULEVARD.

Julian Burke has a demanding job as head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

First, there was the task of cleaning up the inefficient, graft-ridden and directionless agency that had been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by its foolhardy subway fantasy.

Stopping much of the subway work, cutting the support lines to corrupt officials and keeping honest books have helped a lot.

But the second part of the job, actually developing policies to get freeway traffic moving and building a mass transit system, is proving far more difficult and, apparently, time-consuming.

He and his staff worked right up to the deadline on an argument opposing a court order requiring the MTA to buy 532 new buses to transport people around the county efficiently and without overcrowding.

In essence, the decision was to ask the court to tear up the consent decree the MTA signed three years ago to upgrade the bus system.

And the reasoning went something like this: A workable bus system is ``hugely wasteful and impractical'' and would interfere with the MTA's commitment to fund the Pasadena-to-downtown Los Angeles light-rail line - a hugely wasteful and impractical project if ever there was one.

Concern has been mounting for many months that the MTA is still doing what it has always done best: making excuses for its poor decisions, covering up the backroom talks that lead to those decisions and sticking those who rely on public transit with the bill.

So it came as no surprise that Burke revealed Wednesday he had given little thought to Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro's request that the MTA pay the $1.3 million needed to rebuild a two-mile section of Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. Ferraro claims the road was irreparably damaged by subway construction.

Burke told the MTA's construction committee that he has been too preoccupied with other issues to make a recommendation. Not having the time is a poor excuse for failing to deal with longstanding issues that affected the lives and destroyed the businesses of so many for so long.

Burke doesn't get it.

Officials from Ferraro's office have had a hard time getting Burke on the phone to talk about the issue, and several officials from Los Angeles city departments were not permitted to present their case at the panel meeting.

Burke holds a powerful, taxpayer-supported position. His agency is awaiting $34 million from the city for subway funding, and Ferraro, as president of the council, has a great deal of influence over the city's spending.

We know that people on the top floors of the MTA's Taj Mahal headquarters view those who ride buses and suffer from the chaos caused on Lankershim road work as little people.

Burke has promised to end that culture. But if he's too busy to do something about the mess on Lankershim, then he hasn't changed anything.

The situation must improve.