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Editor's Note: several SCVTARU members who were at this meeting contributed to this report. Information on when workshops noted below will take place will be posted as soon as we receive it.
On the committee (Selected at a closed-door VTA meeting on December 12 per a memo dated on that day):
Committee staff:
In the audience were various staff from the county, City of San Jose etc. and also State Assembly member (23rd District) Manny Diaz. Scott Buhrer (VTA Chief Financial Officer) was in the audience; so was the VTA Board Secretary, Sandra Weymouth, San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Richards, about 8 people from labor representing ATU, CEMA, SEIU Local 715, Working Partnerships. and Kim Strickland of TALC and Margaret Okuzumi representing BayRail Alliance. There was one person from MTC in attendance, it was Marc Roddin.
What was most astonishing was that not a single representative from the business community was there. No one from the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group (SVMG), and no one from the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce attended. This was confirmed when VTA Board member Pat Dando, mid-meeting, asked for a show of hands of who from the business community was there, and no one in the room raised their hands.
As was posted on our mailing list the night before this meeting, even though SVMG shares some of the responsibility for the predicament that VTA now faces, they are not willing to own up to that responsibility, beyond the report they have already produced. SVMG got their 2000 and 2002 Measures A passed and now that road funding is covered, they're not going to take any ballot box leadership to solve the transit funding crisis, even though they continue to strongly lobby for the BART project. I hope that the VTA board takes note of this in the future.
Meeting Summary:
The committee has decided to meet weekly, Wednesday mornings at 9 AM, location to be determined. It should be noted that one of the criteria for selecting the location is availability of free parking. They would like to get input from the public and especially from labor, whom they consider to have special insights into the workings of VTA. They're also concerned about making recommendations in a timely fashion.
The timetable is thus: hold public workshops and take public input for the next month or two, then hash out recommendations during March, then make a final recommendation to the full VTA board by early April. It was suggested that a formal stakeholders' group be put together but beyond a concerted outreach to SVMG and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and of course to the unions, it seems that they will preserve a looser format to allow any member of the public to contribute ideas, at least during the first month of the process. Any comments or recommendations from the public should be emailed to Don Gage at don.gage@bos.co.santa-clara.ca.us and they will be disseminated to other committee members. They would like to hire an independent performance advisor, perhaps a retired transit agency general manager, to make recommendations as well. Overall, this first meeting was promising in establishing an open format that allows for public input. There was even talk of establishing an anonymous email for VTA employees to make suggestions without fear of reprisals.
Don Gage repeatedly stressed the need to consider the impact of both long term and short-term plans. Potentially, the discussion of the committee could erupt into a much bigger policy discussion for the whole board to consider, where priorities get reconsidered. It seems the Downtown East Valley light rail project is especially vulnerable. As far as this committee is concerned, anything and everything should be considered at this point, as VTA's financial situation is fundamentally unstable both long and short term. On the positive side, this committee seems serious about obtaining public input. On the negative, it's unclear whether this committee will produce any more realistic recommendations than the kind of wishful scenarios VTA has indulged in thus far. With luck, the independent advisor will assist in providing a reality check to the committee.
More Details
Don Gage was elected chair of the committee. David Cortese was elected vice-chair. There was some confusion and political maneuvering around these appointments. It seems Dena Mossar wants to play a larger role in the committee to influence what happens to transit in the North County, but the way the meeting schedule was set causes some schedule conflicts for her.
Bob Brownstein of Working Partnerships asked for a subcommittee of this committee to be formed to include representatives from labor. Proposed composition was 2 members of ATU, 2 from CEMA, 2 from SEIU Local 715, 2 from Building Trades.
Here are other notes on what folks said, not necessarily in the order that they said them. Mostly, these are not exact quotes. Most notes are paraphrased. However, consider the notes below to be accurate in conveying the content of the meeting.
In response to Bob Brownstein's proposal:
Gage: SVMG could be involved in such a subcommittee, not just labor. We need to focus and not have too many subgroups going in different directions.
Dando: "I'm feeling I don't have the background from the workers." need workshops to gather input. "I don't like this business/labor split", need more cohesive input process. [In general, savvy Dando make a lot of comments that made her sound like a pro-labor Democrat (she's a Republican), perhaps laying groundwork for her second SJ mayoral run. She even made a comment about laying out all the projects and working to find whatever funding necessary to build them, rather than talk about considering cutbacks to be fiscally conservative]. Don't want too many layers and too formal a structure, could result in reduced communication and too cumbersome.
Mossar: "Need to consider impact on riders"
Cortese: need hybrid roundtable format. include players like Manny Diaz. We don't have legislative authority for certain solutions. need open
dialogue.
Diaz: (not on the committee, but given chance to speak). I'm chair of
the Assembly Budget Transportation Subcommittee. Deadline for submitting bills is Jan. 24. The budget is an ongoing process. Hard to say how it will turn out, need Republican support to pass budget. [reading between the lines of the rest of what he said, the state has no money and he can't make any promises.]
Cipolla: VTA is trying to get 2 or 3 placeholder bills.
Diaz: I'm willing to help with that.
Dando: San Jose already has some spot bills (placeholder bills) for public safety through Rebecca Cohn, that might be a possible avenue as well.
Springer: In terms of solutions, how about a statewide fuel buying
consortium to help us keep our fuel costs down, especially considering a
war might drive fuel prices up. How are other transit agencies doing,
aren't they in crisis also?
Diaz: Everything is on the table at this point, we need to consider
everything to reduce the deficit.
Cipolla: VTA is hardest hit by the downturn by far, but MUNI is facing a $40 million deficit this coming year that will be a problem for them. Also, BART has a deficit (Cipolla refrained from stating deficit amount for BART). We do need to consider the fiscal impacts of both long- and short-term plans. We've been saying all along that the VTA 1/2 cent sales tax, which funded the original 200-bus system, would eventually need to be augmented. And now we have 3 rail expansions we're considering, and the board has expressed that the BART project and Downtown East Valley are top priorities.
Gage: Blanca [Alvarado] told me that the light rail extension requires
removal of two lanes from Capitol Expressway, and even when it's finished
we'll have level of service F [Editor's note: grading term for constant gridlock] on the expressway. now, does it make sense to proceed with that project?
Dando: I can't believe that people knew that the light rail project would result in taking away two lanes when they voted on it...see what I mean that this could require a larger policy discussion?
Springer: would like workshops, but we also need to move quickly before VTA goes bankrupt. Need to solicit worker ideas on efficiency, cost reduction. Let's set timetable for process and recommendations to 1/3 solicit, 1/3 digest, last third to make recommendations.
Gage: need to be done by end of March to make recommendations by April. Need to consider both long and short term plans. need outside performance auditor/advisor who knows something about transportation. [Gage asks Cipolla to recommend potential advisors]
Cipolla: I know some folks (and a few retired transit agency managers) who might be appropriate and have done work for the FTA.
The meeting was almost two hours long. The rest of the meeting was public comments and also committee members deciding on committee schedule.
A representative from SEIU Local 715 submitted a two-page listed of recommendations and questions for the committee/independent advisor to investigate. The list was compiled from comments solicited from their almost 400 members. The first set of questions have to do with worker/drone ratio sometimes discussed on our mailing list.
Jerry, member of the public from Oakland, asked that the meeting location be at a place accessible for people with disabilities, and in a larger room. [Editor's Note: Room 106 in San Jose City Hall, where the meeting was held, is about a 40-foot by 20-foot conference room behind the information desk.]
Kim Strickland asked for clarification on how the public can provide input. response: email to Gage's office.
Final notes: for the last 2 weeks, we have advertised, at the front of our web site, the ability for anyone to provide input to us if they see waste, fraud, or mismanagement at the VTA. The email address for doing this is vta-waste@vtaridersunion.org. Note that you do not have to give your name, unless you specifically state otherwise. It should trouble you that the priorities of the meeting place for the committee place availability of free parking over access and room for the disabled.
When we get the final location of the committee meetings, we will have them for you at vtaridersunion.org. Stay tuned and keep speaking out!
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