June 10, 2009

MTA Chair Antonio Villaraigosa

Mayor of the city of Los Angeles

200 North Spring Street, Room 300

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa:

We are writing to ask you to delay the proposed MTA Board vote to adopt the 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan scheduled for Thursday, June 11. We ask that you move to adopt a new process (outlined in detail below) that allows the public our right to fully participate and give input. We also must register a strong concern about the substance of the Long Range Transportation Plan. If the assumptions of the 2008 draft remain in place-ongoing fare increases, reduction in bus service, billions spent on highway and rail serving more affluent communities-the disparate economic, social, environmental, and mobility impacts on low income communities of color will create another transportation civil rights crisis in Los Angeles County.

Developing a vision and action plan for the future of transportation in LA County is no easy task. Thus adoption of the LRTP, as the MTA's plan for transportation for the next 35 years, should not be taken lightly. Key stakeholders including transportation and environmental advocates must be at the table in the development of this plan. The future of our planet and the health of our communities require a firm commitment to sustainable and environmentally just public policy. If L.A. is committed to leading the way in this arena the LRTP must be a concrete plan of action in that direction.

Brown Act Violation - Need for Public Process

With that in mind, we want to register two strong concerns with the Boards plan to vote on the LRTP at the scheduled June 11^th meeting. First, MTA's 2009 LRTP, which contains major plans for the future of transportation in our region, has not been made available to the public for review since a draft was released over a year ago. Second, the public has not been sufficiently notified that the MTA Board plans to vote on the 2009 LRTP tomorrow. The BRU first received notice of the Special Board Meeting (LRTP Workshop) on Tuesday, June 9^th at 6:34pm. Titling this special board meeting a "workshop" is misleading if in fact the MTA is publicly stating that it is scheduled to vote on the 2009 LRTP. Just 24 hours before the "LRTP workshop," the agenda posted on www.metro.net still did not include a link to the substantive 2009 LRTP that the public will be expected to give input on. Denying the public the right to view such an important document massively limits the public's ability to digest the details of this action plan.

Moving forward with the adoption of the LRTP is undemocratic, unacceptable and a potential violation of the Brown Act.

We ask that you create a new process that discloses all public documents with sufficient time for review and holds a series of meetings meant to give key stakeholders a voice in the development of the 2009 LRTP. The BRU asks for the following action steps:

• Slow down the process of the 2009 LRTP by suspending the move to adopt the plan scheduled for June 11th
• Establish a new 60-day public process for the LRTP that includes

1.      Holding a legitimate LRTP workshop where the public is presented with the 2009 LRTP draft, assumptions and conditions and is given ample to time to digest this document

2.      Create a more participatory process including but not limited to a series of community meetings to gather input and feedback for the 2009 LRTP draft

3.      Hold a public meeting/public hearing to review the re-draft of the 2009 LRTP with input from those community meetings

• MTA conduct a "Social Equity Analysis" of the LRTP as required by federal law.

LRTP and Civil Rights

Since we have not been able to review an updated draft of the LRTP, we cannot speak to specifics. But again, if the assumptions of the 2008 LRTP draft remain in place, we must register strong concerns based on the potential civil rights violation through the disparate impact on transit-dependent low-income communities of color. We are attaching a letter we sent to MTA in 2008 outlining those concerns: 1) billions spent on highway expansion despite the ecological necessity of moving away from an auto-centered transportation system; 2) many fare increases over the next 30 years aimed at reaching an arbitrary yet draconian 33% fare box recovery ratio; and 3) a reduction of the bus service and billions more spent on rail expansion. In particular, if MTA plans to move ahead with costly and overambitious rail and highway expansion plans despite economic forecasts that predict less money earned from Measure R, we can only assume they will raid the bus system budget to make up the difference. In the process, they will re-create the very conditions that led to the BRU's Title VI civil rights lawsuit 15 years ago. 

As an alternative, the BRU has put forth the Clean Air and Economic Justice Plan using Measure R funds. We continue to call on the Board to adopt its core elements: 1) expanding the peak fleet by 500 buses and across-the-board service expansion; 2) reversal of the 2007 fare increase; 3) $150 million for a bus only lanes program with Measure R funds.

Thank you. We will be contacting your office shortly.

Sincerely,

Manuel Criollo                                    Esperanza V. Martinez

Lead Organizer                                   Organizer

Bus Riders Union                               Bus Riders Union

CC: MTA Board of Directors/FTA/DOT/Speaker of the Assembly Honorable Karen Bass