Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line

On the heels of Rick Thorpe finally being kicked out of his job at MTA after a tongue lashing by County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the Fix Expo Campaign sent an email to the Expo Construction Authority Board of Directors (which is a subsidiary of MTA), with CCs to the MTA Board of Directors and elected officials who oversee the project, requesting the Expo Board fire Thorpe, CEO of the Expo Construction Authority for gross incompetence, failure to meet project goals, the rampant use of manipulating tactics, and a history of disregarding rail safety in minority communities.

The full text of the email is below.

Expo Authority Board Members:

I write on behalf of the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line and with the unanimous support of the United Community Associations board to specifically request the immediate termination of Expo Authority CEO Rick Thorpe.

It was a relief to read that Mr. Thorpe resigned yesterday as MTA’s Chief Construction Officer on the heals of intense media scrutiny and specific disgust expressed by MTA Board Member and County Supervisor Gloria Molina regarding outstanding rail safety issues on the Eastside Extension light rail project.

It would be inaccurate to assume that any person who has watched the Expo Line closely over the past few years could not express even greater and more detailed criticism of Mr. Thorpe’s performance and total disregard for rail safety. I regrettably nodded my head in agreement as Supervisor Molina said at last week’s MTA board meeting that:

- She “didn’t trust [MTA] staff”
- Certain members of MTA staff, “only work for some board members”
- She’s had difficulty dealing with Mr. Thorpe to attempt to resolve the outstanding safety issues

Indeed, I nearly shouted out: “If that’s what you’re going through and you’re a board member, imagine what we must go through as a community in South L.A. on Expo.”

In response to criticism regarding the lack of safety on the Eastside Extension, Mr. Thorpe has hidden behind the California Public Utilities Commission process, neglecting to mention that he has become a master in manipulating the CPUC.

The Pasadena Gold Line was built by Mr. Thorpe, and the Del Mar crossing was approved in a split decision, in which the dissenting Commissioners stated that Thorpe’s Construction Authority “has not provided full information about several issues to the Commission and other parties throughout this case,” (pg. 42) that there were “last minute changes” (pg. 43) and that “the CPUC should not reward [the] Construction Authority’s lack of disclosure on Del Mar by looking the other way at real safety issues.” (NOTE: The Pasadena Gold Line was originally titled the Los Angeles to Pasadena Blue Line, hence the reference in the decision to the Blue Line Authority).

The dissenting Commissioners proved to be correct in their assessment that grade separation was needed at the crossing to make it safe, as a horrific accident with an elderly driver occurred at the Del Mar crossing, ironically, on the opening day of CPUC Farmdale evidentiary hearing:

Additionally, other at-grade crossings that were contested before the CPUC and approved, resulted in even greater carnage:

Avenue 50:

and [others] in Highland Park:

It’s worth noting that while MTA continues to operate the deadliest light rail line in the country, the Blue Line, as of 2002 the second deadliest was the system built by Mr. Thorpe (San Diego).

Specifically, regarding the Expo Line, Thorpe hired a former Enron lobbyist, Sandra McCubbin, to attempt to unwind the decision by an Administrative Law Judge and Commissioner Timothy Simon, which was crafted after a two-year legal proceeding, and denied the Expo Authority’s street-level 55 mph crossing at Dorsey HS (video) that the former National Transportation Safety Board chairman of all-rail accident investigations in the country said was a catastrophic accident waiting to happen (pg. 7).

Of many conversations I have had with CPUC engineers, the one comment I will never forget came from a staffer who said, “You won’t believe how many times we get shot down from above.” While we may not know who within the CPUC does the shooting, we clearly know who supplies the bullets.

Indeed, astonishingly Mr. Thorpe continues to state that the original CPUC application for the Expo Line to run 55 mph past Dorsey HS is “safe,” even after the CPUC denied it, even after former MTA light rail operators have come out expressing strong opposition to it.

The question before the Expo Authority board, which is primarily made up of South LA’s elected representatives, is whether you will continue to turn a blind eye to this disturbing past, and ignore the warnings of a County Supervisor and previous CPUC Commissioners regarding Thorpe’s tactics. It’s a question of whether you will continue to force the public to ride in a car with a reckless driver or make him pull over and hand over the keys.

The Phase 1 project is nearly a year behind schedule, hundreds of millions of dollars overbudget, has failed to meet it’s local hire requirements, and now the criticism and tactics of the Expo CEO has grown to include a colleague, regarding rail safety of a crosstown light rail project built by Thorpe. Add Supervisor Molina to the former NTSB chief investigator, the public and former light rail operators.

Expo Board Directors Wesson, Yaroslavsky, Ridley-Thomas, Parks, Perry, O’Connor and Maslin: by allowing Mr. Thorpe to continue to serve as the CEO, your concern for student safety and competence as an oversight body and as elected officials is firmly in question.

Sincerely,
/s/
Damien Goodmon
United Community Associations, Chair
Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line, Coordinator

CC:
Congresswoman Diane Watson
State Senator Curren Price
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass
Assembly Member Mike Davis
LA City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl
MTA Board Members
LAUSD Board Members
Rick Thorpe, Expo CEO

BCC:
Press & Community

Popularity: 100% [?]

The initial proposed decision denied MTA’s application at Dorsey and at Foshay, and required MTA to build a pedestrian bridge at Foshay that would have cost $5-8 million to construct. That proposed decision was written by Administrative Law Judge Kenneth Koss and the assigned CPUC Commisioner Timothy Simon, who both have been monitoring this case for the past 2 ½ years. It was they who attended the public hearings at Dorsey in November 2007 and at Foshay in July of 2008. It was they who presided over the week long evidentiary hearing that involved the testimony and cross-examination of over a dozen expert witnesses.

Proving once more that there is truly no low that MTA will not go to push their unsafe design, after the Koss/Simon proposed decision was made public, MTA/Expo spent taxpayer dollars hiring a former Enron lobbyist, Sandra McCubbin, to work to overturn it.

McCubbin and the Expo’s high-paid attorney initiated nearly two-dozen backroom/off-the-record meetings with the CPUC Commissioners and staff, and convinced Commissioner Rachel Chong, to author an Alternative Decision to Simon’s, that would remove the pedestrian bridge at Foshay that Simon originally found necessary at the end of the trial.

Then Westside politician Zev Yaroslavsky, who doesn’t represent any community within miles of Dorsey or Foshay pressured the Commission (pdf) to overturn Simon’s previously required pedestrian bridge at Foshay and adopt the Chong Alternative.

Zev Yaroslavsky has advocated for a $5-8 BILLION dollar subway under his community of Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills and Century City, yet he opposes a $5 million bridge at Foshay to protect the South LA students.

Unfortunately, the Zev Yaroslavsky/MTA/Enron-lobbyist pressure worked as the Chong Alternative was approved in a 4-1 decision, with Simon, the only African-American on the Commission, and the Commissioner most intimately familiar with the case being the dissenting vote.

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While the South LA community was fighting to literally protect children’s lives, our own elected representative, Council Member Bernard Parks, along with Santa Monica politician State Senator Sheila Kuehl, were applying pressure on judicial officers of a State oversight agency to impede our efforts in court.

The South LA community, teachers, parents, and child advocates have long expressed reservations about the unsafe street-level design of the Expo Light Rail Line, particularly around our schools like Dorsey HS (10 feet of the railroad crossing) and Foshay Learning Center (50 feet of the crossing). The state oversight agency for the safety of all rail crossings is the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”). All transportation agencies attempting to build and operate a rail line across any street in California must submit applications and receive approval from the CPUC. The CPUC can either approve or reject a crossing application on the grounds of safety, and has rejected countless railroad crossing applications in the past.

One of the lead groups of the Fix Expo Campaign, Expo Communities United (“ECU”), exercised its legal rights by protesting all of the unsafe street-level Expo Line applications, and requesting a hearing to discuss the safety hazards and needed safety upgrades. In the process ECU delayed what would have been a 60-day rubberstamp process.

The ECU research team amassed an extensive record proving that the street-level crossings were not safe. Among the evidence submitted were:
a) internal memos expressing reservations about the safety of the crossings by the staff of numerous public agencies, namely the PUC’s own engineers & former LADOT General Manager Gloria Jeff; and
b) a convincing showing that the bulk of the Expo Line design was an exact replica of the deadliest & most accident-prone light rail line in America, the MTA’s Blue Line, & would operate in more complex environments, meaning even more accidents & deaths could be expected. Surely an opportunity to argue the case would be provided, further lengthening the application process.

Unexpectedly, on August 14, 2007 Commissioner Timothy Simon, one of five governor-appointed representatives to the CPUC, and the assigned Commissioner to the Expo Line case issued an “Open Letter to Lawmakers Regarding the Expo Line Proceeding,” stating that he was receiving pressure from local legislators to expedite the case. In the letter Simon stated that he considered approving the applications and expediting the case “of the highest priority.” Commissioner Simon specifically said, “approving these applications” as though a determination had already been made, even though ECU and LAUSD had yet to present their cases to the CPUC.

In an email on November 19, 2007 (pdf), Commissioner Simon’s Chief of Staff identified the legislators who were contacting him with concerns about the “time consuming process of approving these applications” that led to the Open Letter:

• STATE SENATOR SHEILA KUEHL (Santa Monica)
• COUNCIL MEMBER BERNARD PARKS, who represents the area where the Expo Line passes within a stone’s throw of sensitive sites like Foshay Learning Center, and operates without even basic crossing gates in a design that is exactly like one of the most accident-prone sections of the Blue Line.

When the letter was issued, Simon had not yet been confirmed to the Commission by the California State Senate, in which Sen. Kuehl is a very influential member. Simon’s eventual confirmation hearing, which occurred months later, was filled with controversy about his ethics (PUC Member’s Donation Request Raises Questions – LA Times). At the time Kuehl was also pushing legislation to remove the jurisdiction of rail crossing safety from the CPUC.

And we have confirmed that Bernard Parks has been accepting donations for his campaign for County Supervisor from MTA and Expo Line contractors in violation of California law.

Download the flyer of the above text click here

Popularity: 1% [?]

On Thursday, May 22, we went to the MTA to demand an immediate investigation into ethics law violations of our Council Member and MTA Board Member Bernard Parks.

In total disregard for MTA’s ethics rules and California state law, Bernard Parks is taking in money hand over fist from contractors doing business and in current negotiations with MTA. These are hundred million dollar projects with MTA, and thousands upon thousand of contributions to Bernard Parks. It’s incumbent on all oversight agencies and authorities to conduct an extensive investigation to determine how egregious Parks has been.

California Senate Bill 89 (backup link) (“Limits on MTA Contributions”), by then State Senator Tom Hayden, was signed into law during the 1997-1998 session and established the following ethics laws which are still in effect today:

“Neither the owner, an employee, or any member of their immediate families, of any construction company, engineering firm, consultant, legal firm, or any company, vendor, or business entity seeking a contract with the authority shall make a contribution of over ten dollars ($10) in value or amount to a member, alternate member, or employee of the authority, or to any member of their immediate families.

“No member, alternate member, or employee of the authority, or member of their immediate families, shall accept, solicit, or direct a contribution of over ten dollars ($10) in value or amount from any construction company, engineering firm, consultant, legal firm, or any company, vendor, or business entity seeking a contract with the authority.”

And yet Parks has taken at least $21,800 in such illegal contributions:

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Controversial MTA contractor Tutor-Saliba, which today is still involved in litigation with MTA for shoddy work done on the Red Line subway, and is currently constructing the new City Council-approved LAPD headquarters has contributed $18,000 alone through their executives and their relatives:

• Ronald Tutor: $1,000 on 12/28/07.
• Gerarld Brown, Vice President: $1,000 on 12/28/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Patricia Brown gave $1,000).
• Mark Fischbach Vice President: $1,000 on 12/28/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Rosemary Fischbach gave $1,000).
• James Foster, Equipment Manager: $1,000 on 12/28/07.
• James Frost, Construction Executive: $1,000 on 12/31/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Nicole Frost gave $1,000).
• Joseph Guglielmo, Construction Manager: $1,000 on 12/28/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Ardis Guglielmo gave $1,000).
• Michael Kerchner, Vice President: $1,000 on 12/28/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Carolyn Kerchner gave $1,000).
• Robert Lewis, Executive: $1,000 on 12/31/07.
• David Randall, Sr. Vice President: $1,000 on 12/28/07.
• Roger Sexton, Business Executive: $1,000 on 12/28/07 (the same day “Homemaker” Diane Sexton gave $1,000).
• Williams Sparks, CFO: $1,000 on 1/24/08 (the same day “Homemaker” Vicki Sparks gave $1,000).

Koar Development Group, LLC and Archeon International Group are jointly building a $160 million dollar mixed-use project with the MTA at the Wilshire/Western Station.

• Archeon International Group contributed $1,000 on 2/25/08.
• Koar Development Group CEO Edward Dong, contributed $500 on 2/29/08.

Hope Bullock III of Bullock & Associates, Inc., the Utilities Consultant on the Draft EIR for the Canoga Transportation Corridor project contributed $300 to Parks the same day the EIR was released on 3/5/08.

MTA contractor URS Corp Vice President Gerard Orozco gave Parks $1,000 on 12/31/07.

Carter & Burgess, Inc. Professional Engineer Bruce Russell gave Parks $1,000 on 12/17/07.

Bernard Parks put MTA in the mirror and saw ATM. The dirty money has clearly compromised his ability to be independent and serve his constituents.

Despite amassing our large and growing coalition of South LA community groups to encourage MTA to address the safety hazards and other adverse impacts of the current Expo Line design through the South LA community, the concerns of our group have fallen on deaf ears with Parks. In a moment captured on camera last fall and available on YouTube, Parks dismissively told the group leader Damien Goodmon, “Just because you don’t like the line, you should stop wasting other people’s time, because you have a concern about it.”

Parks’ actions were confusing, but it’s all beginning to make sense now. Our advocacy on behalf of the safety of the children in his district, and the parents who have trusted him to protect them, is clearly interfering with whatever backroom deals he’s made for his personal political gain.

The former police chief is acting like a true criminal.

As covered on Front Page Online

UPDATE:

• List of Bernard Parks for Supervisor Donors from 1/1/07 – 12/31/07
• List of Bernard Parks for Supervisor Donors from 1/1/08 – 3/17/08
  

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