Section 130051.12.

(a) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority shall, at a minimum, reserve to itself exclusively, all of the following powers and responsibilities:

(1) Establishment of overall goals and objectives to achieve optimal transport service for the movement of goods and people on a countywide basis.

(2) Adoption of the aggregate budget for all organizational units of the authority.

(3) Designation of additional included municipal operators pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 99285.

(4) Approval of final rail corridor selections.

(5) Final approval of labor contracts covering employees of the authority and organizational units of the authority.

(6) Establishment of the authority's organizational structure.

(7) Conducting hearings and the setting of fares for the operating organizational unit established pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 130051.11.

(8) (A) Approval of transportation zones.

(B) In determining the cost-effectiveness of any proposed transportation zone, the authority may not approve or disapprove a transportation zone based upon consideration of rates of wages and other forms of compensation or hours and working conditions of employees of the proposed transportation zone.

(C) Any determination of efficiencies that may be derived from the approval of a transportation zone shall include consideration of maintaining the prevailing rate of wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment contained in current collective bargaining agreements applicable to the authority as required under subdivision (d) of Section 130051.11.

(D) A proposed transportation zone is not required to demonstrate lower operating costs than those of the existing operator or operators of the service to be transferred to the zone, but shall demonstrate that the net cost will not be greater than the current service.

(9) Approval of the issuance of any debt instrument with a maturity date that exceeds the end of the fiscal year in which it is issued.

(10) Approval of benefit assessment districts and assessment rates.

(11) Approval of contracts for transit equipment acquisition that exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000), and making the findings required by subdivision (c) of Section 130238.

(b) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority shall in conjunction with the other municipal operators in the County of Los Angeles perform a security assessment once every five years to determine the safety and security measures required to protect the operation of their systems and their passengers.

(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 938, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2003.)