Los Angeles County Transportation Commission

Leslie V. Porter, an obscure public employee, played the leading role in issuing more than $2 billion in long-term debt as treasurer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and deputy executive director of the former Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. He worked with investment bankers, bond underwriters, financial advisors and lawyers structuring the complex deals that is financing construction of the county's subway and rail system.

County transportation planners have scheduled a hearing Wednesday to solicit opinions on a proposal to establish a federally required transit network to serve severely physically or mentally disabled people who cannot use regular bus or rail service. The 1:30 p.m. hearing, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, will be in Los Angeles in the third-floor hearing room at the Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St.

The California Legislature will try to bring some order and consistency to the administration of mass transit programs in Los Angeles County. Eight bills under consideration in Sacramento attest to that. There's just one problem: This will mark the fourth time in 33 years that state lawmakers have tried to author a Los Angeles solution, and oh, what paltry success they have had.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission has approved $61 million for construction of a 26-mile car-pool lane on the San Diego Freeway from the Marina Freeway to the Orange County border. The funds are part of a $1.7-billion program to improve freeways and relieve congestion. Construction is scheduled between July 1, 1990, and July 1, 1994.

A segment of Wilmington Avenue in Compton will be closed through July 19 because of light-rail line construction, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission said. Wilmington Avenue will be closed from Imperial Highway to the Southern Pacific railroad tracks while new grade crossings are installed for both the Southern Pacific trains and light-rail transit cars. Businesses can be reached by foot.

Construction trade unions have agreed not to strike during the building of the $595-million Los Angeles-to-Long Beach light rail project. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which will begin building the 21-mile line in October, signed the no-strike pact with the Los Angeles County Building and Construction Trades Council. The Transportation Commission agreed to ensure that the prevailing wage is paid to the nearly 1,600 construction workers on the five-year project.

Perhaps it is no surprise that Joseph E. Drew, beleaguered chief of the troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is leaving his post. Drew, who announced his resignation Wednesday, said that MTA board politics and "public hypercriticism" of him and his agency had made his job impossible. That may be so, but Drew, in his post for less than a year, stirred up a good deal of the controversy that has now engulfed him.

Once again, it has come down to this: Should we subsidize the poor who cannot afford to drive, or the rich who drive too much? The recent ruckus over the Metropolitan Transportation Au thority's budget, and, indirectly, the mechanics' strike revolve around this question of rich (rail) vs. poor (bus). Indeed, this is often the issue in transportation. But it's magnified by the politics of the MTA, which are structured to yield a petty debate about bus vs. rail.

As soon as I saw him approach, I recognized him as Robert Inouye, the whistle-blower I had arranged to meet. He was a fit-looking man in his 50s, wearing a sharp, gray Windbreaker. What confirmed his identity to me was the packet of documents and other papers he carried, the whistle-blowers' burden. Whistle-blowers don't seem to go anywhere without their documents. As we shook hands, I looked him over with a good deal of interest.

A former county transit official has been awarded $518,000 by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury after a trial on his lawsuit alleging that he was fired for trying to ferret out contracting irregularities. Robert S. Inouye, whose job at the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission was to make sure that contractors complied with affirmative action and labor laws, lost his position in June, 1990.

Neil Peterson, who headed the now-defunct Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, has asked for more than $300,000 in salary and benefits to buy out the one year remaining on his contract, according to several high-level transit officials. Peterson, who earned $148,300 a year as executive director, had one year remaining on his five-year contract when the commission merged into the newly formed Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Peterson, 49, was passed over in his bid to head the MTA.

The Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would block construction of an elevated rail line along the Ventura Freeway between Studio City and Woodland Hills. If the measure passes both houses of the Legislature and is signed into law by Gov. Pete Wilson, it would, in effect, overturn a decision made last year by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to build an elevated or monorail line above the freeway. State Sen.

County Supervisor Pete Schabarum will take over the politically coveted chairmanship of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission next month from Mayor Tom Bradley. Schabarum was chosen by the commission Wednesday after Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who had been scheduled to take the job, declined because his activities have been limited by a stroke.

The new chairman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission--the entity charged with implementing a Southern California transportation network over the next 30 years--is Long Beach City Councilman Ray Grabinski. In succeeding Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman as LACTC chairman for this year, Grabinski promised to include potential users of the proposed 300-mile METRO system in decision-making.

The once-crowded outdoor tables of the restaurant Upstage have been empty for months, and owner Mike Begakis had to fire half his staff. Walk-in customers have become retail dinosaurs in Brian Lee's 23-Minute Photo Shop: Lee says they are virtually extinct. George Harb, who runs a men's clothing store, offers to travel to customers' offices to show his wares because they will not come to him anymore. He is thinking about hiring a driver to fetch clients.

Members of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to urge a review of the agency's controversial offshore lease arrangement for 54 commuter rail cars. The commission recommended that any conclusions from the review be made public before another proposed lease transaction is authorized.