SANTA CLARA VTA RIDERS UNION P. O. Box 390069 Mountain View, CA 94039-0069 http://www.vtaridersunion.org/ NEWS RELEASE TO: Editor, News Assignment Desk, Transportation Reporter * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * Press Contact : Eugene Bradley 24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 SOUTH BAY TRANSIT GROUP RELEASES FINDINGS ON VTA 2004/2005 FISCAL YEAR BUDGET Group Finds Nearly $30 Million in Waste – Money Needed To Avert Proposed Fare Hikes and Service Cuts SUNNYVALE, CA (May 27, 2003) – The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union (SCVTARU – www.vtaridersunion.org), a transit advocacy and watchdog group for the South Bay, today releases its findings and opinion on the 2004/2005 Fiscal Year Recommended Budget recently released by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). Our founder, Eugene Bradley, will present those findings at VTA's Administration and Finance Committee meeting this Wednesday at 9:00am in Room 206 at San Jose City Hall, 801 N. First Street in San Jose. One example of the waste we found in the VTA's 2004/2005 Fiscal Year Recommended Budget is on pages 115-117 of their 128-page Recommended Budget. There, we found $307,000 were being allocated for office furniture and office reconfiguration for the Office of the General Manager, Peter Cipolla. SCVTARU questions why this expenditure is being made while VTA continues to raise fares and reduce transit service in the South Bay. Another example of waste we found in the VTA's 2004/2005 Fiscal Year Recommended Budget is in how VTA's Outreach paratransit service serves the southern portion of the county. We recently interviewed a former Outreach paratransit driver regarding paratransit service in South County. In that interview, the former driver revealed that, in order to serve South County paratransit riders, Outreach vehicles (white vehicles driven by employees of ATC/Vancom, a Texas-based contractor) must drive 25 miles from their garage in San Jose to reach the passenger, drive the passenger to their destination, and return to San Jose. In other words, to take a paratransit rider from Morgan Hill to a destination in San Martin, the Outreach vehicle will have traveled a total of at least 50 miles to take a paratransit passenger for roughly three miles. Worse, Outreach paratransit vehicles serving South County cannot obtain gasoline at commercial gas stations - they must fill up at their garage in San Jose. The former driver revealed that, by using Yellow Cabs with wheelchair capabilities based in South County and not Outreach cars based in San Jose, VTA can save up to $9 million per year. This is funding that can easily offset the proposed fare increases and paratransit service reductions VTA claims will save $5 million this fiscal year. SCVTARU finds it very disturbing that VTA did not disclose Budgeted Positions by Division and Classification to the general public yet. SCVTARU founder Eugene Bradley had to call VTA's Fiscal Administration at (408)321-5652 just to obtain another missing section in the Recommended Budget – Classifications By Division and Pay Ranges. Both missing sections appeared in the VTA's 2003 Fiscal Year Recommended Budget. By not having this information available to the general public at its recent Budget meetings, VTA has made those budget meetings a complete sham. Our findings on the VTA's 2004/2005 Fiscal Year Recommended Budget can be found online at http://www.vtaridersunion.org/regional/vta_fy0405_budget.html. ### About the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union -------------------------------------- Founded in October 2000 by Eugene Bradley, the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union is a grassroots-based organization dedicated to ensuring that elected officials improve and implement cost-effective, frequent, and reliable mass transit in Santa Clara County. Our web site is at www.vtaridersunion.org. We are based in Sunnyvale, CA. Our organization has absolutely no affiliation with, nor is endorsed by, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in any way whatsoever. Note to Editors and News Desks: More information on SCVTARU can be found at the following URLs: http://www.vtaridersunion.org/whoarewe/who.html http://www.vtaridersunion.org/PR ### About the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union -------------------------------------- Founded in October 2000 by Eugene Bradley, the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union is a grassroots-based organization dedicated to ensuring that elected officials improve and implement cost-effective, frequent, and reliable mass transit in Santa Clara County. You can find more information on the Santa Clara VTA Riders Union at http://www.vtaridersunion.org/. We are based in Sunnyvale, CA. Our organization has absolutely no affiliation with, nor is endorsed by, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in any way whatsoever. Note to Editors: Specific information about our group can be found at the following URLs: http://www.vtaridersunion.org/PR http://www.vtaridersunion.org/whoarewe/who.html