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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Grandstanding County Commissioners|Will Cost Taxpayers $10 Million, MTA Says

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Illegally sucking up to voters, three members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors refused to put the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's request for a ½-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 4, ballot, the MTA claims in Superior Court.

The MTA board on July 24 approved the expenditure plan and ballot language for a special election on MTA Ordinance No. 08-01, the "Traffic Relief and Rail Expansion Ordinance," to be submitted to voters on Nov. 4.

At the County Supervisors' Aug. 5 meeting, three supervisors who oppose the tax "used the opportunity to make a 'symbolic' stand against the measure by refusing to approve the MTA's [election] consolidation request," the complaint states.

Supervisors Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe voted against consolidating the elections, and Supervisor Gloria Molina abstained.

The MTA claims county counsel told the three grandstanding commissioners that "'provisions of the Elections Code require that election be consolidated with the county election for the statewide date'," but they refused, despite being informed that a lawsuit - this one - would inevitably follow.

The commissioners' refusal to consolidate the elections, if allowed, will cost taxpayers an additional $10.3 million for a special election, plus the cost of this litigation, the MTA says.

The MTA asks the court to order the County Commissioners to perform their ministerial duty and consolidate the elections.

The MTA is represented by Stephen Kaufman with Kaufman Downing.

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