MTA ENDORSES SETTLEMENT IN CIVIL RIGHTS SUIT : DEAL WOULD AID TRANSIT DEPENDENT.

Byline: David Bloom  Daily News Staff Writer

A consent decree which would freeze or lower fares, increase the bus fleet, and target transit-dependent riders for more help was approved Wednesday by the MTA board in the first step toward settling a landmark civil rights suit against the agency.

``This is a happy day for all of us,'' said Larry Zarian, the board chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a Glendale city councilman. ``This means more buses, safer transit and stable fares.''

``This is an historic case. There's no case like it,'' said Constance Rice, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the suit in August 1994, on behalf of advocates for poor bus riders.

The suit blocked MTA plans to raise fares, cut service and eliminate monthly bus passes.

The suit charged that the MTA was slighting its 1 million daily bus passengers in favor of expensive rail projects that served suburban, mostly white residents.

The deal still must be approved by the four organizations and four individuals that were named as plaintiffs in the suit when it was filed. And because the case later was certified as a class-action suit, U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr. still must hold a final public hearing to allow anyone to raise objections, Rice said.

``The final arbiter is Judge Hatter,'' Rice said. ``This is just the first step on a long journey.''

If approved, a panel would be named to supervise the MTA and its compliance with the decree for 10 years.

Provisions of the settlement include:

Addition of 51 new buses by the end of 1996, and another 51 new buses to the MTA's 2,000-bus fleet by June 1997.

Addition of 50 new buses in next two years specifically to help transit-dependent riders get to sites such as hospitals, employment centers and vocational schools.

A commitment to halve overloading on buses, probably through adding even more buses, by 2002.

A commitment to put more security officers on buses. Currently, about 80 percent of the MTA police force is assigned to the Blue, Red and Green rail lines, mostly to enforce the fare honor system.

A rollback in the basic monthly bus pass price, from $49 to $42, for three years, or until the agency creates a ``needs-based'' pass for low-income riders only. Fares for students, handicapped and elderly passengers would be frozen as well.

Creation of $21 two-week bus passes and $11 weekly bus passes.

Discounted 75-cent fares for nonrush hour use of buses on lines that are heavily used by the transit dependent.

A two-year freeze on the current $1.35 cash fare, 90-cent token fare and 25-cent transfer charge.

This year's costs for the improvements already are covered in the budget, said Chief Executive Officer Joseph Drew, but the agency will have to determine next winter while updating its 20-year plan where it will get the money to finance the estimated $25 million cost of fully enacting the deal's provisions. Drew said he did not believe the deal would affect rail construction programs.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who controls four of the MTA board's 13 votes, applauded the deal, saying it would right the agency's long-misplaced priorities.

``What is happening today is a big step in the right direction of improving bus service,'' Riordan said.

Board member Mel Wilson said the deal ``is a down payment for improved customer service. It does three things: reduce overcrowding, increase the size of the fleet overall and bring more equity in the fare structure overall.''

Though people on both sides of the battle applauded the deal, Rice and others said some ``sticking points'' remain, though they were optimistic a deal could be worked out.

Most important among those sticking points, said Labor/Community Strategy Center director Eric Mann, is the provision allowing the agency to create an eligibility test to ensure only poor people would buy the proposed low-income monthly pass. The center is one of the plaintiffs in the case.

``I'm thinking when I go back before our members, it's going to be real difficult to say you have to show documentation for our right to get a bus pass,'' Mann said. ``I don't think they will give me permission to sign off on a document that exacerbates discrimination instead of ending it. You can't open the door, then slam it.''

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, an MTA board member whose inner-city district is heavily reliant upon the bus system, said she does not believe there is a need to create such a means test for pass buyers and hoped that it would not prevent the deal from going through.