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Background
The Aborted Rally and Impromptu
Pre-Forum Debate
The
Speakers and What Was Really Mentioned
The Panel Itself and the "Debate"
Conclusion
Background On the Public Forum
On April 21 at 12:30pm in San Jose, a panel of experts was to debate the pros and cons of the proposed BART extension to San Jose. They were to explain the current objections and obstacles to the project and discuss the various options that are still on the table - including the full BART plan versus a modified or staged project, or no BART at all.
The forum was held at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Younger Street Auditorium, 55 West Younger Ave. and North First Street, San Jose. (The Auditorium is two (2) blocks north of Civic Center light rail station and the bus stop for the 36, 62, 66, and 180 bus lines.)
The forum featured:
Afternoon Panelists featured:
The schedule for the forum was as follows:
The forum was co-sponsored by the California State Automobile Association, the Mineta Transportation Institute and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. A newspaper account of the entire public forum can be found here.
There was a controversy behind this public forum. Mountain View City Councilmember Greg Perry - the most vocal elected official against the San Jose BART extension - was omitted from the panel at the last second by Rod Diridon, Sr. No reason was given by Mr. Diridon, Sr. on Perry's ouster. More on this controversy can be found elsewhere on our web site.
The Aborted Rally and Impromptu Pre-Forum Debate
The rally to protest Perry's unexplained ouster from the panel went ok for a bit until Carl Guardino showed up with a bunch of labor council folks, chanting "we want BART".
An interview with one of Guardino's protestors revealed that he didn't even know why they were there other than they support BART because "it'll take cars off the road and provide jobs." The protestor was told by Guardino that those who protested against the BART extension were "anti-labor, anti-working class." This lack of knowledge of the issues behind BART to San Jose was found to be true among many of the 40 protesters Carl brought with him to the debate.
History reveals that Carl Guardino is using the same 1996 play book of packing the scene with chanters and sign holders having little knowledge of the issues. One SCVTARU member recalls back in 1996 after attending a Water District Meeting allocating funds for non-source pollution, taking the 64 bus to the Hedding St. County Board of Supervisors Chambers. Signs announcing "A+B= Traffic Relief," and a singer singing the "101 Blues" highlighted the hype. The Board President at the time restricted public comment to one minute for A and one minute for B. (Another example of suppressing democracy inverse to the magnitude of the 1996 Sales Tax and projects at hand). The SCVTARU member at the time asked a sign-holding supporter how could she support this measure since it created non-source pollution. The blank stare indicted no one was home.
Then, there was about a 25-minute impromptu debate between Carl Guardino and Mountain View City Councilmember Greg Perry over the San Jose BART extension. Both sides of the issue - bring BART all the way into San Jose vs. alternatives like commuter rail that can be completed faster and cheaper - were well represented. This impromptu debate, however, would prove far more exciting than the public forum that was to follow...
The Speakers and What Was Really Mentioned
The public forum was to be broadcast on KLIV 1590AM radio. The moderator for the forum was the station's news director, George Sampson. The forum started with the two (2) speakers at 1:00pm. County Supervisor Liz Kniss (representative of the North County) was there.
The first speaker - the Keynote speaker - was Caltrans Director Will Kempton. He talked about the 16.3 miles in length that the San Jose BART extension comprised of. However, he mentioned that as long as there is a dispute and controversy on the extension and lack of consensus, the state will not extend funding for the project at this time. In fact, Mr. Kempton also mentioned that because of the ongoing state and federal investigation into reconstruction of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and the overall high cost of concrete, all construction-related to transportation in California is on hold for now.
The rest of Will's speech became a little boring, as it was not much focused on BART coming to San Jose and the pros and cons of it and what any given person should do to get it to come to San Jose and what CalTrans roll was in funding or constructing it.
VTA Chief Development Officer Carolyn Gonot's presentation was predictable. She did the same speech about BART that she and Anne Jamison have done in front of the VTA Board of Directors, using highly questionable facts about the relief that the corridor will bring, how it is a positive investment for the low income neighborhoods of our county, etc.
Next was the panelists' turn to speak - and for the "debate" to begin...
The Panel Itself and the "Debate"
As far as the panel itself, which consisted of Cindy Chavez, San Jose; Ron Swegles, Sunnyvale; Dennis Kennedy, Morgan Hill; and Carl Guardino, SVLG (formerly SVMG), was short, boring, and as could be expected, predictable. Panelists had an hour to first explain their view on BART coming to San Jose in general, and then answer as many questions as time allows that the public had. It is estimated that there were about 4-5 questions that were answered. Cindy Chavez's view is obvious - bring BART now and all the way, if we wait longer prices go up, etc. Ron Swegles was somewhere between neutral and pro. Carl sided with Cindy and attempted to use facts to support it. Dennis was mostly okay with BART coming to San Jose, but was a fan of phasing the project.
In Carl Guardino's presentation, he did a slide show on the surveys taken related to County tax payers agreeing for or against BART coming to San Jose versus other service improvements and says that in every case, BART was equal or more superior. However, there were various slides in his presentation that he passed and said he would bring it back up if the public's questions necessitated it. It was also revealed that Guardino's pollster, Jim Moore, is head of Moore Methods and lives in Sacramento. His only tie to Silicon Valley besides being Guardino's pollster: his subscription to the San Jose Mercury News.
Guardino and Chavez mention how much more expensive it will be if everything about BART to San Jose ceased today. It must be questioned how this is the case when the project is already at $6.2 BILLION per the FTA as of February 9? This cost is 48% higher than the $4.2 BILLION cost in 2003 dollars often cited by the VTA and repeated by the press. Worse, Guardino admitted during his forum presentation that BART to San Jose will not relieve traffic congestion - a contradiction to his "Traffic Relief Now" mantra he used during the 2000 Measure A campaign in which the BART project was the measure's cornerstone.
Dennis Kennedy expressed concerned over about what happens if VTA's latest sales tax scheme fails at the ballot box in November 2006, or never materializes. What are the alternatives should this occur? He is concerned about the lack of "Plan B" for fallback.
Overall, the public forum was not good, boring, and uninformative. This can be traced to the lack of different viewpoints amongst the forum's panelists. A variety of views is necessary for any panel to be succesful. All panelists' views that are parallel to each other make a public forum boring, uninformative, and undebatable, which was what caused many in the audience to become bored during the panelists session. It was agreed amongst the local press on hand that the impromptu debate between Greg Perry and Carl Guardino before the forum began was more exciting than the forum itself. Clearly, Greg Perry's ouster from the panel was a grave mistake Commonwealth Club CEO Gloria Duffy should not have permitted to occur.
Additionally, the panel itself did not last long at all. Much of what happened there was the presentation from VTA Chief Development Officer Gonot and a speech from Caltrans Director, Will Kempton.
Sadly, the real losers of this public "forum" are the organizers of the event who bored their audience with the four pro-BART folks in what should have been a debate on the pros and cons of the project. Instead, it ended up being a BART promotional forum. Fortunately for the audience it was a free event; otherwise people would probably have demanded their money back Now they're probably only wishing they had their time back.
Several SCVTARU members and supporters contributed to this report
--SCVTARU - April 25, 2005
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