SACRAMENTO — Saying Southern California has been shortchanged on money for transportation projects, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez called Thursday for the resignation of Roger Snoble as head of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Nunez, a Democrat from Los Angeles, reacted angrily to a California Transportation Commission decision Thursday to provide five Southern California counties with $1.65 billion from a pot of more than $3 billion for projects aimed at improving the flow of goods through ports and along highways and rail lines.
The decision provides 56.5% of the funds to Southern California. Three dozen state legislators had asked that at least 70% of the money go to their region because it is home to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which combined handle 85% of the shipping cargo containers that move through California.
"Over this issue, Snoble should go," Nunez said. "He screwed this thing up. He did so much damage to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This guy should step down."
Nunez charged that Snoble agreed to a bad deal that shortchanged Los Angeles County early in the competition for funds and that the MTA's chief executive officer failed to provide enough transportation projects ready to compete for the money.
Of the 53 projects submitted by the Southern California coalition, only one, a truck lane for Interstate 5, was nominated by the MTA. That project was not approved Thursday.
Snoble was on vacation Thursday, but MTA spokesman Marc Littman said the agreement on how the money should be distributed involved transportation executives from the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.
"Roger is only one player," Littman said. "There are five counties involved."
Littman said Snoble fought for $2.2 billion for the region and will not give up as the Legislature considers upcoming budgets.
The MTA had supported several projects proposed by agencies involved with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and plans to make good use of any money it does get, the agency said in a statement.
"On the other hand, Metro is disappointed that the CTC did not award this region the full $2.2 billion we and our partners in five counties representing 18 million residents had requested as our fair share of goods-movement funding," the statement said.
