Green Line brouhaha turns up the political heat; legislators want to tip government contracts to locals.

Political fallout from the Metro Green Line controversy widened last week, as two local officials urged "favor-L.A." legislation on government contracts and a plan to erect a massive Southland transit equipment plant was floated.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky proposed a law Jan. 14 that would give preference to Los Angeles County and California-based firms on city contracts. Yaroslavsky's proposal, which likely would require changes to the city charter, would also mandate that City Hall equipment purchases contain a "minimum amount" of American-made components and prohibit departments from slanting bid specifications towards foreign outfits.

Only recently, Yaroslavsky noted, Los Angeles has bought millions of dollars worth of equipment from overseas companies, including 48 Daihutsu and Mitsubishi trucksters and a French-made helicopter.

Last year, the city purchased between $300 million and $400 million in goods and services, excluding semi-independent entities like the Department of Airports. More than half of U.S. states have some form of local bid preference.

Also last week, the council approved a motion by Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores directing city departments to reveal whether potential contractors are located within the area and how many Los Angeles residents they employ.

Both motions, and possibly a similar one in the city's Board of Public Works, are the outgrowth of the Green Line furor.

Just one month after the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted to use high-tech driverless cars on that 23-mile light rail, that decision -- both the driverless feature and the fact that the deal went to a Japanese-owned firm, Sumitomo Corp. of America -- has subjected the commission to intense political heat.

Efforts are under way at the state and local level to force the LACTC to scrap the automated trains and the $121 million contract it awarded to Sumitomo to build them. Morrison Knudsen of Idaho lost out to Tokyo-based Sumitomo in vying for the pact even though it promised more local jobs and had a lower bid.

The driverless trains will increase the Green Line's original cost of $814 million by $67 million.

But it was the county's recessionary woes and perception of Japanese economic prowess that led some local officials, previously silent about recirculating transit tax dollars in the economy, to speak out against the Green Line pact.

"That's politics," said Flores. "It takes something that really stirs up the public interest" to get local officials interested in the impact of government projects on local jobs. "Many of us have been talking about it for a long time."

Sources indicated there is a behind-the-scenes effort to convince three LACTC commissioners -- County Supervisors Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Kenneth Hahn -- to vote against Green Line automation, which would give manual-car proponents the majority when the issue is revisited at the commission's Jan. 22 meeting.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, angered that the economy hasn't benefited more from transit projects, said in an interview last week he would author state legislation giving the edge to county-based firms or those vowing to use the largest number of Southland workers on all LACTC contracts.

The transportation commission's own favor-L.A. proposal, the Local Business Enterprise preference, sides with contractors willing to use the Southland labor pool. But it only would apply to $50,000-or-less contracts awarded on factors in addition to the lowest price.

Polanco hinted he would write a similar law to aid California companies, if billions of dollar in public works bonds are issued under Gov. Pete Wilson's budget plan.

Local transit officials themselves went on the offensive last week, proposing that a host of government agencies pony up $20 million in seed money to buy, build or rehabilitate a plant to build transportation equipment.

LACTC Commissioner Nick Patsaouras said the money would come from a host of sources including the LACTC, the Southern California Rapid Transit District, city and county redevelopment coffers, federal block grants and various environmental protection agencies.

The idea is to set up a joint venture to entice an experienced U.S. manufacturer that would employ Los Angeles workers to build rail cars and low-polluting buses for the LACTC's 30-year, $150 billion transit blueprint.

"We're trying to produce a permanent local economy that could go on for the next 30 to 40 years and provide not only good, permanent goods but revenues for cities," Patsaouras said.

General Motors Corp.'s Van Nuys plant, slated for closure in August, is among the possible sites for the facility, although Patsaouras said representatives from 10 other cities, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, have expressed interest.

At its height, transit work will generate 1.4 million jobs, most of them in construction, officials believe.