Transit Board Split on Replacing Consultant : Investigation: Some MTA members say expert should be dismissed because he has worked for subway tunnels’ designer. Others contend that he is impartial and a leader in his field.

Transit commissioners were divided Tuesday over whether the chairman of an independent panel investigating the durability and safety of Los Angeles subway tunnels should be replaced because of his out-of-state consulting work for the firm that designed the tunnels.

Five commissioners or alternates on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voiced reservations about the continued service of the consultant, soils engineering specialist Edward J. Cording. But the two top officials who hired Cording said they still support him and do not believe that his previous work for the tunnel designer presents a conflict of interest.

“I have absolutely no reservation about his integrity and his ability to do the job,” MTA Chairman and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre said of Cording.

Alatorre and MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin E. White appointed Cording and two other tunneling specialists in September in response to a Times article reporting that the concrete in some tunnel segments was thinner than the design-specified 12 inches.

The Times reported Monday that from 1991 to October, 1993, Cording was a consultant to a joint venture in Texas co-led by Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., the same firm that designed the tunnels of the Los Angeles subway. Parsons Brinckerhoff engineers have told officials that the subway tunnels are safe and sound.

The tunnel panel is investigating the thin concrete and water damage to the tunnels--damage that the construction contractor has blamed on faulty design. The design engineers have attributed leaks to inadequate construction.

Cording, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a professor at the University of Illinois, has said that his previous work for the Parsons Brinckerhoff joint venture will have no bearing on his conclusions regarding the Los Angeles subway.

White, in a statement faxed Tuesday to members of the MTA, said there are a “limited number of acknowledged experts” in the tunneling field. “We still strongly believe that Dr. Cording is highly qualified to serve on the panel investigating the structural integrity of the tunnel,” he said.

White said that in his view it would have been impossible to find someone with more appropriate credentials, who did not have any prior connection with firms involved with the subway project.

Although Cording’s consulting work for the Parsons Brinckerhoff joint venture was not disclosed in an MTA press release when the tunnel panel was appointed, White noted Tuesday that a 12-page resume accompanying the release said that Cording had been a consultant to “PB/MK Team” on the Texas project. The initials were a reference to Parsons Brinckerhoff and Morrison Knudsen Corp.

Others, while not criticizing either the credentials or the intentions of Cording, questioned his continued service on the independent panel.

“I would like to hear Frank White’s opinion of why he recommended (Cording), in light of this conflict,” said MTA member Mike Antonovich, who is a Los Angeles County supervisor. “Off the top of my head, I would say he ought to be replaced.”

Nick Patsaouras, an alternate MTA member said: “The whole situation has to be rethought, whether he continues or not. . . . Perceptions matter, and particularly for a matter like this. If we can find two people who are not involved (in a possible conflict of interest), we can find a third.”

Another alternate member, Marvin L. Holen, said Monday that the Parsons Brinckerhoff relationship jeopardizes Cording’s suitability for the panel.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, appointed to the MTA board by Mayor Richard Riordan, said: “I would have (Cording) tell us what he knows (regarding the subway) and then, in all fairness, have him step down.”

Another MTA alternate member, Antonio Villaraigosa, said that although he remains a staunch supporter of White, the newly arrived chief executive should have informed the commissioners of Cording’s association with Parsons Brinckerhoff.