OCTD Cuts Budget 15% But Maintains Service

In what may be the first overall budget decrease for an Orange County agency, the Orange County Transit District board approved a 1989-90 spending plan that is $21.7 million below the county bus service’s current budget.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said county Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who also serves as chairman of the OCTD board and as a member of the separate county Transportation Commission. “It sure would be nice if this was a harbinger of things to come, wouldn’t it?”

The 1989-90 fiscal-year budget, approved by OCTD board members Monday in Garden Grove, anticipates no major changes in service but decreases 15.6%, from $139.5 million for the current fiscal year ending June 30 to $117.8 million for the new 12-month period that begins July 1.

OCTD board members also approved an 8% pay increase for OCTD General Manager James P. Reichert, from $79,113 this year to $85,442 for 1989-90.

The drop in the OCTD budget reflects a lull in capital projects, including design work on the elevated transitway for buses and car pools on the Santa Ana Freeway.

Operational expenses will climb, however, from $87.1 million this year to $93.6 million in 1989-90, primarily because of increased labor costs.

Some of the increased costs will be offset by a 5.7% increase in the amount of OCTD expenses covered by fare-box revenues, due to record-setting ridership levels already reached in recent months and to recently enacted fare hikes.

The OCTD bus system is expected have about 42.2 million passenger boardings in 1989-90, 19% above the 35.3 million boardings projected for the fiscal year ending June 30.

Increased costs, including labor expenses, are “part of the general flow” and appear to be “not out of the ordinary,” Stanton said.

There was little debate at Monday’s OCTD board meeting.

A citizens’ advisory group asked for larger, so-called articulated or flexible buses to run on key routes during peak periods because some people are now left stranded temporarily when buses are full. The group also recommended cuts in service for Dial-A-Ride, the district’s heavily subsidized, door-to-door transit vans that are available by appointment for trips within small zones. And it also asked for installation of new equipment on buses that will accept dollar bills.

OCTD officials said they are studying all three issues. Referring to Reichert’s salary increase, board member John Erskine said Reichert’s talents “compare favorably” with the executive directors of other transportation-related agencies in the county, and he performs without generating as much controversy as others. “I think he’s a bargain,” said Erskine, a Huntington Beach councilman who joined the OCTD board in January.

In other action Monday, board members tentatively rejected a $450,000 proposed contract with the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher for labor relations work because the firm had insisted that its discount rates, built into the contract, should not be disclosed publicly.

OCTD board member William E. Farris strongly criticized such secrecy in view of a recent grand jury report critical of county officials for not monitoring more closely the costs of non-staff legal services.

OCTD officials said they will try to renegotiate the proposed contract without the secrecy clause.