After Metro Los Angeles deleted two controversial comments on its own Facebook fan page last week, the transit agency plans to add new comments explaining why it deleted the previous ones, a Metro spokesperson said in a phone interview Monday.

On August 2, Traci Cummings posted on Metro’s Facebook page, “What percentage of Metro employees go Metro to work?”

In a lengthy reply, the Metro Los Angeles Facebook account posted that “a little more than one percent" take Metro to work.  They said the number was so low  because “the vast majority of Metro’s employees work at one of the 11 bus divisions or 4 rail yards,” in the morning or “late evening," when buses are no longer in service. 

"These employees do not have the option to commute by transit,” Metro wrote in the comment thread.

But Metro's comment dissappeared from the Facebook thread after The Bus Bench made fun of it. So, The Bus Bench  then wrote about the comment's disappearance in a new post, “You Can’t Erase 'The Interweb' Metro LA.”  

Cummings’ subsequent comment in the thread, (“A little more than 1%? Did I read that correctly???”)  was deleted, as well. 

Cummings' original question, however, is still there.

In a phone interview today, Helen Ortiz-Gilstrap, a Metro media relations person, said that Metro chose to delete its own comment because the comment was not specific enough.

“It did not give the entire picture of the people who work for Metro that do use public transit,” Ortiz-Gilstrap said.

When asked why Metro didn’t just take a minute to write a brief comment in the thread, explaining the problems with the previous comments and why they needed to be deleted, Ortiz-Gilstrap said she did not know. She said she plans to ask the employees who manage the Facebook page and come back later with an answer.    

She said Metro also plans on writing a new, more specific response on the Facebook page that further details the commutes of Metro employees.

“What I’m also going to ask them to do,” Ortiz said, “is put in the thread the reason [why] the [initial] response was  taken off.”

Check back later for updates.

Reach reporter Amy Silverstein here.