LAPD LOSES MTA DEAL 200 OFFICERS FREED UP TO FIGHT GANGS, PATROL STREETS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

The MTA board delivered a political blow to Mayor James Hahn on Thursday by granting a lucrative $50 million transit police contract to the Sheriff's Department rather than splitting it with the LAPD.

Hahn angrily criticized the 6-5 vote, saying it leaves a $28 million hole in the city budget, which already faces a serious shortfall.

However, others pointed out that the lost contract to police Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses, trains and subways will put 200 sworn LAPD officers back on the streets - in gang intervention and homeland security.

``Certainly, I'm disappointed the MTA voted to dissolve a five-year relationship with the LAPD,'' Hahn said during a brief news conference after the vote.

``What's really going on here, they're balancing the (county) budget on the city's back. The county has solved its budget problem today. Now we're going to have to solve ours.''

Hahn said he didn't know what would be cut from the budget, adding: ``It's going to be painful. ... I'm certain we'll be able to find a use for these officers.''

The sharply divided MTA board rejected the LAPD's contract proposal as well as Hahn's last-ditch offer to have the city stomach the $2 million difference between the cheaper Sheriff's Department proposal and the LAPD's latest cost estimate.

Despite Police Chief William J. Bratton's expertise as the former head of New York City's transit police, the board turned down Hahn's offer.

``If there is a silver lining, we get our 200 officers back and get to redeploy,'' said Assistant Chief Sharon Papa.

With the LAPD down as many as 900 officers in its long-running battle to bolster its understaffed police force, the department was considering putting more officers on gang intervention and enforcement teams as well as for homeland security, Papa said.

The LAPD has repeatedly stressed the importance of its transit police role, noting the city's ability to bring various departments to a bus or train in the event coordinated security services are needed, noting it will still have to back up sheriff's deputies - without getting paid.

``From our purpose, no, we didn't think it was worth it,'' Papa said. ``If we thought it was worth it, we wouldn't have been competing for the contract in the first place. In today's environment, we really would have preferred not to have shifted.''

The meeting brought out Bratton, Sheriff Lee Baca and dozens of law enforcement officers.

The MTA board last month shelved a decision on the new, five-year contract after the sheriff submitted a proposal to take over policing duties for the entire MTA system, at a cost of $47.2 million for the first year - $7 million cheaper than if the two agencies continued sharing duties.

During that divisive meeting, Hahn and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky squared off over the issue, but Yaroslavsky sided with Hahn on Tuesday.

He pointed out that the mayor might not have the authority to promise city funds without a vote of his City Council - suggesting the mayor amend his motion to say he would bring it back to the council for approval.

``Oh, absolutely,'' Hahn said.

``What I'm not open to is for the MTA to cover any of the differences,'' Yaroslavsky said, noting that the city dismissed the suggestion that the city absorb the cost when it was suggested at last month's meeting. ``If the city is saying it will give 100 percent of the difference, I will say you have met my concern.''

Yaroslavsky, Hahn and the mayor's three appointees - Councilman Hal Bernson, Paul Hudson and Alison Yoh - voted for the mayor's offer.

However, other board members complained about being asked to vote on a last-minute proposal given to staffers at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by the mayor's amended offer at the board meeting.

``We have proposals that are being thrown at us without any independent ability to analyze,'' said board member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke. ``I don't have a clue what the impact is.''

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who abstained in January on the vote and again Tuesday, explained her opposition to both contract proposals, which she said were catering to political interests rather than the needs of the transit agency.

She said the agency's decision to merge its own police with the LAPD and Sheriff's Department five years ago was a politically driven move to balance the city's budget, and that this was similar politics.

``Unfortunately, these proposals from the very beginning have not responded to the best interest of the MTA and its constituents,'' said Molina.

``I am not going to vote on a proposal that is short-sighted. My concern today is this is still not meeting the security needs of the MTA. That is why I continue to abstain and will abstain today.''

The LAPD had been asked to try to narrow the $7 million gap, and returned Tuesday with $5 million in cuts by reducing administrative overhead, collapsing the command structure to just one captain and trimming the number of officers in the field.

The LAPD also dropped its proposal to police the new Pasadena-to-Los Angeles Gold Line light-rail train that opens in June, turning that over to the sheriff.

The sheriff would have 352 deputies in the field, while combining the two forces would have put 350 officers in the field.

Still, despite the $2 million difference between the two - which the mayor was willing to have the city cover - the MTA would have been left to pay $2.4 million more for the noncivilian fare checkers that the LAPD excluded from its contract, but the sheriff included.

Many speakers came out in support of the LAPD, including Councilman Nate Holden and representatives from the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

``As the lady said earlier, if it's not broke, don't fix it,'' Holden said, alluding to a previous speaker. ``All those bus pads, roads ... all those millions of dollars we provide, we haven't asked reimbursement for one cent.''

``In the San Fernando Valley, local police presence is the LAPD. We want it to be kept LAPD,'' said Kenn Phillips of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

Board member John Fasana had asked whether the Pasadena police, which had been involved in earlier talks, had been invited to submit another offer. Staff members said it had not.

``If you're going to open negotiations, it should be open with all parties,'' he said.

Hahn later said the MTA ``lost the two best minds in transit policing'' by dissolving the relationship with Bratton and Papa - Papa had headed up the MTA's Transit Police before that force was merged with the MTA in 1996. ``It's a mistake.''

MTA CEO Roger Snoble missed Tuesday's packed board meeting. He was in Northern California speaking before the California Transportation Commission, pressing for funds for the MTA's $1.4 billion in capital projects - including the new San Fernando Valley Transitway.

The MTA faces $500 million in cuts over the next 18 months, and the MTA sought to transfer funds to keep the transitway and other projects afloat. The Transportation Commission is slated to vote in April.

The MTA board also has approved the nine nominees to the San Fernando Valley's new advisory council, a new governing board designed to bring local control. The move formally dissolves the Valley's interim joint powers authority, which had sought to have the Valley break away from the MTA and form its own transit agency to get better service.

The board postponed eliminating Line 561 from Sylmar to Los Angeles International Airport this summer after dozens of bus riders protested. It will review the issue in 30 days.