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 Contacts (in alphabetical order):	

Eugene Bradley	24 hr. cell/pager (408)888-2208 email: eegenebradley@yahoo.com

PROPOSAL FOR VOTER-ELECTED VTA BOARD TO BE PRESENTED TODAY AT 4PM 
IN SAN JOSE

SUNNYVALE, CA (November 6, 2003) – The Santa Clara VTA Riders Union 
(SCVTARU – http://www.vtaridersunion.org/), a transit advocacy and 
watchdog group for the South Bay, will present its own Board 
Restructuring proposal to the Valley Transportation Authority 
(VTA)'s Board Restructuring Committee today at 4:00pm in San Jose 
City Hall (801 N. First Street), Room 106.

SCVTARU wants to see an 11-member VTA Board that is directly elected 
by voters, similar to AC Transit and BART's respective governing 
bodies.  The current structure of the VTA's governing Board of 
Directors (12 members) is appointed by city council members, with 
two permanent seats going to the Santa Clara County Board of 
Supervisors.  In addition, San Jose gets five (5) permanent seats.
Thus no voter in Santa Clara County has a say on who represents 
them on the VTA Board.  

As a result, the VTA's Board of Directors is accountable to no one.  
Recent controversial decisions made by the current VTA Board, such 
as approving $550 million in bonds against anticipated 2000 Measure 
A funding, have been made with no representation from cities such as 
Cupertino, Milpitas, and Mountain View.  A proposal submitted to the 
VTA Board by the City of Milpitas aims to increase the VTA Board's 
size to 21 members from the current 12.  While this would ensure that 
every city in the county is represented on the Board, voters in the 
county still cannot elect who represents their city on the Board.  
SCVTARU says the Milpitas proposal is summed up in the old adage 
"Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

Our proposal can be viewed on our web site, www.vtaridersunion.org.


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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