ITALIAN FIRM AWARDED MTA DEAL CONSULTANTS ADDED TO MANAGE PROJECT.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

After raising questions over awarding a $158 million contract for new rail cars to a company that delivered subway cars late a decade ago, the MTA board went into closed session Thursday then emerged to vote unanimously for the deal.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board also awarded $9 million for consultants to help its staff manage the contract.

Board members said they weighed the options before agreeing to award the contract with Italy-based Ansaldobreda, the lowest of two companies bidding to build 50 cars for the new Gold Line and Eastside light-rail systems.

``None of us are happy about the position we've been put in,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said later about the rail car contract. ``One would hope both they and the MTA have learned from those experiences and they will not be repeated,'' he said.

``I hope MTA (staff) and our $9 million consultants would keep this on time, on budget. Anything short of that would be great disappointment to the MTA.''

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke raised concern during the board meeting about possible delivery delays, but said later she was assured by MTA staff the problems were in the past.

``I felt very confident after listening to the people who were going to be administering this,'' she said.

The board voted unanimously for the rail car contract, which includes two options of 50 cars each, with Chairman Hal Bernson, Mayor James Hahn and member Beatrice Proo conflicted and Supervisor Gloria Molina absent. The board also voted unanimously for the consultant contract, with Hahn and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich conflicted, and Bernson, Molina and Proo absent.

The vote came without comment after board members went into closed session to discuss the contract and their options with legal counsel.

``I don't know why we're getting folks who didn't work out the last time,'' Molina said. ``I just don't understand how staff came to this.''

Said Antonovich, ``We don't want to repeat history.''

A representative from Breda Transportation, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Ansaldobreda, told the board that despite lateness with the initial delivery, the Metro subway cars have proven to be the most reliable in the MTA system.

``It's true we had a lot of problems in the beginning - the initial 32 cars. The people who were on board then are no longer at the MTA,'' said Lucia Di Meglio, who said later subsequent deliveries were consistently early.

``Our goal is to not simply be on time. Our goal is to provide you with the vehicle for the service you need.''

In 1990, then-Supervisor and transportation commission chairman Ed Edelman embarked on a taxpayer-paid trip to Italy to press Breda after the company had fallen behind schedule for delivering the first 30 rail cars for the subway.

Yaroslavsky on Thursday also questioned why the MTA was spending $9 million to hire LTK Engineering for consulting services - on top of the $7 million for MTA staff assigned to the work. ``To me, it sounds like a lot of money. To me it sounds like a feeding frenzy,'' he said.

In other action:

--The board voted, with Antonovich opposed, to keep various Valley construction projects - the 101-405 interchange improvements, car-pool lanes on the San Diego and Golden State freeways, and the planned new north-south transit route - as top priorities in the face of the state budget crisis.

However, car-pool lanes on the Antelope Valley Freeway will be delayed to help pay for higher priority projects, despite an effort by Antonovich and Lancaster Mayor Frank C. Roberts to preserve the funds.