Live blogging the Metro meeting

The powers that be decided to give me a laptop and a wireless card to take to today's Metro meeting, so I will be posting updates on all the action today.

And all that action will essentially boil down to a regional fight over the half cent sales tax measure. Mayor Villaraigosa, and three supporters on the MTA board: Richard Katz, David Fleming, and Bernard Parks called a press conference this morning to express their support for the measure.

Michael Antonovich, John Fasana, and Gloria Molina have all expressed some serious concerns with project list that the sales tax measure would fund. Specifically, in the case of Antonovich and Fasana, their concerns that the Gold Line is not getting enough money.

So will the measure pass today? It will be close. In addition to the three mentioned above, board members Bonnie Lowenthal and Don Knabe have raised concerns: both voted against advancing the measure at June's meeting, suggesting they would need a project list outlined before they act.

Additionally, Ara Najarian, a Glendale council member has expressed support for the Gold Line and may be sympathetic to Antonovich/Fasana's point of view.

The measure would take 7 votes to pass. It breaks down like this:

YES VOTES (4): Fleming, Villaraigosa, Parks, Katz
LIkely NO VOTES (4): Antonovich, Fasana,, Lowenthal, Knabe
Possible No votes(2): Najarian, Molina
? (3): Yaroslavsky, O'Connor, Burke

A "No" vote, I believe, would be a vote to rewrite the measure's language and try to sechedule an emergecny meeting before August 8, the deadline to get the ballot measure to the county registrar.