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New Metro board chair says he'll focus on transit expansion, local jobs and freeways
Will Metro's new board chairperson, Fernando Dutra of Whittier, use the system as his predecessor did? "YES," he told LAist in an email, but sometimes his commitments will mean that he uses a car.
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Brian Feinzimer
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Topline:
Los Angeles Metro has a new board chair. On Wednesday, the outgoing chairperson, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, passed the gavel to Fernando Dutra, a member of the Whittier City Council who was appointed to the board in 2021.
Dutra’s priorities: They include hiring local talent in architecture, engineering and construction for Metro projects; continuing momentum on system expansion projects such as the D Line extension and the Southeast Gateway Line; and ensuring that freeways, including the 5 and 605, “move freely.” Dutra will also oversee the next stage of developing Metro’s own in-house police force, which will include hiring hundreds of sworn officers, support staff and crisis intervention specialists.
What he said: “We want a transit that is reliable, efficient [and] is worthy of the people that we serve,” Dutra said at Metro’s State of the Agency event hosted at Union Station in downtown L.A. on Wednesday. “As chair, my priorities are grounded in that shared vision.”
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Will he take Metro? One of Hahn’s promises when she became the board chairperson was to regularly ride Metro. Hahn said at Wednesday’s event that by using the system, she learned what “riders experience every day.” Hahn said she will continue riding Metro beyond the end of her time as chair. During his remarks Wednesday, Dutra said, or perhaps joked, that everyone “took the freeway here, except Janice.” In response to a question from LAist about whether he’d make a similar commitment to regularly ride the system, Dutra said in an email, “YES but on occasion when I am in L.A. I have other business commitments that will require me to also take a car.” Dutra is a builder and president of Allwest Development Company, which he said takes him to several locations in the same day.
Hahn celebrates accomplishments: Hahn highlighted improving safety on the system through initiatives like the weapons detection pilot program and protective barriers for bus operators as one of her major accomplishments.
Dutra’s tenure: Metro board chairs serve one-year terms. Next year, the gavel will go to the mayor of Los Angeles before returning to a county supervisor and then again to one of the board’s city representatives.
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