MTA, UNIONS MUM ON STRIKE NEWS BLACKOUT ENVELOPS TALKS.

Byline: Erik Nelson Staff Writer

PASADENA - Bus driver union and Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders met again Sunday to try to reach a settlement in the countywide transit strike, but they left without comment, citing a news blackout.

Negotiators at the Pasadena Hilton hotel called it a day shortly after 7 p.m., and no announcement was made. Talks are expected to resume this morning as the bus and subway strike enters its 10th day.

Board Chairwoman and County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was at the hotel Sunday, as were MTA leader Julian Burke and representatives of the United Transportation Union. Negotiators are trying to resolve the walkout involving thousands of bus and subway workers and affecting an estimated half-million riders throughout Los Angeles County.

On Saturday, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, had said he was ``optimistic the buses will be rolling soon.''

But officials said Sunday that Wesson, who was acting as a fact finder in the negotiations, imposed the blackout and was continuing to insist on it. Both union and MTA officials cited the news blackout Sunday when asked about any progress. They would not even say who was meeting with whom Sunday.

``I can't tell you anything,'' said MTA spokesman Bill Herd, after checking with Burke.

Herd started to explain that the information blackout was ordered by Wesson, who was appointed by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, D-Sherman Oaks, to help with the negotiations. But Burke didn't want Herd even talking about that. ``I said nothing,'' Burke told Herd.

A message on the (800) COMMUTE strike information line set up to help stranded bus riders said, ``Please refer to local news coverage for strike updates.''