Two bills that aim to create a separate agency to extend the Gold Line to Ontario International Airport and transfer power from San Bernardino County were warmly received Wednesday by the construction agency that built the L.A.-to-Azusa light-rail line.

This is in stark contrast to the bills’ reception from the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority board earlier this month, which voted to oppose both bills and called them an illegal takeover.

A majority of Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority board members favored Senate Bill 1390 by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, as more practical than one introduced by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena. Board members said the senator’s bill would tie together the two counties with a light-rail passenger system that also brings rail service to passengers and employees at Ontario airport.

“We’ve always talked about getting to Ontario airport. So many of us love Ontario airport. I like Portantino’s proposal because it will bring our communities together,” said La Verne Councilwoman Robin Carder, vice chair of the Gold Line board.

Duarte Councilman John Fasana, who represents the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the board, compared Portantino’s bill with one that created the Gold Line authority in 1998 authored by then-state Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank.

Fasana said without Schiff creating the construction authority and wresting power out of LACMTA’s hands, whose board was siphoning money away from the San Gabriel Valley to L.A. train lines, there would be no Gold Line.

“The Portantino mechanism would work,” Fasana said. “Light-rail construction, and in terms of frequency of service, is still the best way to do it.”

The loudest support didn’t come from Los Angeles County. Instead, it came from Ontario Mayor Paul Leon, a member of the Gold Line board. Leon spoke of previous boards in both counties that favored a Gold Line connection to ONT. He favored Portantino’s bill, calling it a stronger approach than Holden’s “soft sell” bill.

“I talk to residents in my city and beyond who think this is a no-brainer. They want the Gold Line to their community and to the (Ontario) airport,” Leon said during an hour-long board discussion.

“SB1390 says ‘I’m tired of talking let’s just get it done.’ I say we get it down now,” he concluded.

Leon split with fellow Councilman Alan Wapner, a non-voting member of the Gold Line board who represents the SBCTA. He strongly opposed Portantino’s bill, saying it’s wrong for the state to allow one county to force another county into a project it hasn’t approved.

Building the line from Montclair to ONT would cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. Even if SBCTA could secure some state and federal funding, it would still drain the agency of its funds, taking away from transit projects planned for eastern San Bernardino County, Wapner said.

“From a policy perspective, it will cause the bankruptcy of SBCTA. We just don’t have that kind of money,” Wapner said.

Montclair Mayor John Dutrey, who attended the meeting but does not sit on the board, said in an interview he does not support Portantino’s bill, calling it “the wrong approach.”

The Gold Line board asked for more details on the Portantino bill, specifically about how much it would cost to build and run the line and who would pay for it. The board will re-visit the two bills in April.

Fasana said it was best for the Gold Line board to wait and not send a message that L.A. County is pushing San Bernardino County.

Holden has proposed the two counties and affected cities hammer out a Memorandum of Understanding on what the rail project would look like. SBCTA is looking at options other than the Gold Line, emphasizing a new approach using enhanced Metrolink trains that produce no emissions to run from Rancho Cucamonga to ONT. It has launched a study to look at four alternatives.

Holden has asked the transit agencies and cities of Claremont, Ontario and Montclair to work together. One outcome he proposed was to build the Gold Line from Montclair to ONT by Jan. 1, 2028.

The Gold Line authority is building the line from Azusa to Pomona, with stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and north Pomona. Completion is expected in 2025 or sooner.

Higher steel prices and other issues created cost overruns and a $550 million funding gap needed to continue the project as planned from Pomona to Claremont and Montclair. Dutrey said he would rather focus on getting that funding, leaving the airport issue for Ontario and the SBCTA to figure out.