Sacramento to Los Angeles interaction

John Fasana, the San Gabriel Valley representative on the MTA board, just asked Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whether he thought state legislators would be open to changed ballot language. Feuer has been the leader with the state legislation that will be necessaru to get the bill on the ballot.

The changes Fasana is thinking about, would be to bring a set percentage of funds to each sub-region, thus ensuring that the San Gabriel Valley gets more money than is currently written in the bill.

Feuer responded by saying that state legislators, who also need to approve the plan, have reached a difficult consensus, and that he couldn't say whether legislators would agree to new language. He then directly addresed Fasana and said that he had personally made an "extraordinary effort to address the concerns you brought to me," and that the current language "should leave to the San Gabriel Valley happy with the legislation that has been reached."

Michael Antonovich then chimed in, and started speaking about how voters in the SGV, along with other areas outside the city of Los Angeles won't support the measure in its current form. He went on for a while until Mayor Villaraigosa cut him off, asking if he actually intended to ask Feuer a question.

Villaraigosa, by the way, took over the chairmanship of the board today, and seems to be relishing his new role..

Molina capped off the interaction with Feuer by asking him to read the new language that the San Gabriel Valley representatives are pushing. "Are you planning to stay here and read this, and hear all about it, or are you going to leave?" Feuer promised to stay.

Molina is a very, very blunt person.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)