Letters to the Editor

April 25, 2003

The Daily News has unfairly taken Metro to task over the reorganization of its procurement department ("Metro fires watchdog," April 21, 2003). Metro believes a system in which oversight of contracts occurs from their inception, as opposed to the end of a procurement, is a much wiser use of taxpayer dollars and will ensure that contracts are administered quickly and efficiently. Moreover, reorganization is a management decision and an action that need not be presented formally to the Metro Board as the article implied.

The taxpayers of Los Angeles County should know that Metro is among the most regulated and audited agencies in the state. Our procurement process is reviewed by many levels of government including the Federal Transit Administration, state controller, the independent Metro inspector general and Metro management audit staff.

Finally, to imply that a former director of contract administration, whose job was not agency oversight, was terminated as the result of a "critical report" is incorrect given that such a report was, in fact, never presented.

Roger Snoble
Chief Executive Officer