Vote Postponed on Acting CEO for Pasadena Light-Rail Project

Sharp divisions in a new transit agency, created to finish a light-rail line from Los Angeles to Pasadena, erupted Wednesday night over efforts to force selection of an acting chief executive officer from a field of only one candidate.

After a board meeting behind closed doors, the Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority’s chairman, Paul Little, emerged to say that a decision on hiring an engineering company executive heavily involved in Los Angeles transportation projects had been postponed until next week.

Pasadena officials had pressed for the immediate selection of Larry E. Miller, a vice president with the engineering firm of Gannett Fleming Inc., to be the chief executive until a permanent CEO can be found.

But Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez objected to the lone candidate, who was to have been offered as much as $45,000 for 90 days’ work. William Dahl, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s choice as the MTA’s representative on the board, agreed.

Hernandez said the five board members should not fill such an important post without considering other candidates.

Miller has analyzed the 13.6-mile rail line as a consultant for the city of Pasadena, which is pushing hard to get the stalled project moving again. Gannett Fleming had long been involved in oversight of the Pasadena project for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority until the firm’s contract was canceled.

Backers of Miller had pressed for his selection without considering other candidates because the new agency faces tough deadlines for adopting a financial plan to build the rail line.

Little, a Pasadena city councilman, said the agency needs “someone who understands the project,” and that Miller is that man.

But Hernandez said there must be other candidates worthy of consideration.

Board members also tangled over efforts to name a Los Angeles law firm--which already serves as Pasadena’s city attorney--to act as the transit agency’s legal advisor.

Hernandez said other law firms should be considered, but another board member, Claremont City Councilman Al Leiga, said the agency needed to get on with its work.

Faced with major financial problems, the MTA’s board last January halted work on three rail projects, including subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City and the light rail line to Pasadena.

Frustrated with the MTA’s performance on rail projects, state lawmakers last year created the Pasadena agency to oversee design and construction of the rail line from Union Station through Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena.

At the agency’s first board meeting last week, Miller provided a detailed overview of steps needed to get the project back on track. To the apparent surprise of board members, he said the MTA’s $818-million budget for the Pasadena project is not adjusted for inflation.

That disclosure further complicated the new agency’s already difficult task of producing a detailed financial plan by the end of March showing the project can be built with the funds available.

To do so, $200 million must be slashed from the project or new sources of revenue found. The bulk of the project’s cost is being borne by state and Los Angeles County taxpayers.

So far, the MTA has spent more than $235 million on the project for overhead, engineering work and construction or retrofit of bridges along the winding route.

Gannett Fleming has been deeply involved in the Pasadena project in a variety of ways in recent years. Miller was tapped to head a peer review team that evaluated MTA’s original $1-billion budget for the rail project and recommended ways to reduce it by 20%.

The engineering firm also had a three-year, $2-million contract with the MTA to provide project management oversight. In that capacity, Gannett Fleming produced regular reports on progress on both the Pasadena project and production of new light-rail cars that would be used on the rail line. The oversight contract was terminated by the MTA board.

After the MTA halted work on the project a year ago, Gannett Fleming completed an analysis for Pasadena officials that showed the rail project could be finished for $106 million less than the MTA’s revised budget if a design-build approach was used to contract out final design and construction.