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VTA Board Meeting
January 10, 2002
San Jose, CA

The following VTA Board members are no longer on the board as voting members in 2002:

• Dennis Kennedy (Mayor of Morgan Hill)
• Sally Lieber (now the Mayor of Mountain View)
• Sandy Eakins (no longer the Mayor of Palo Alto)

• Tom Springer (mayor of Gilroy - he was a VTA Board alternate in 2001)
• Dena Mossar, city council member of Palo Alto
• Jim Lawson, city council member of Milpitas

Ron Gonzales addressed the board and the audience as the Chairman of the VTA's Board of Directors. He will address how $48 million/year in BART operating costs will be funded, as well as how to increase revenue to the VTA despite the current recession, county deficit, VTA deficit, and state deficit "in the coming months." He also announces two other things:

• the formation of a committee to oversee internal costs, in order to combat VTA's current deficit of over $114 million
• the appointment of Manuel Valerio as the chairman of VTA's Transit Operations and Planning Committee.

Several VTA office workers addressed the board over how their position is now being overseen by more bureaucrats. They (as well as a boy in his early teens) spoke about the need for pay raises as part of the renegotiation of their contract.

Our founder, Eugene Bradley, addressed the VTA Board regarding our wish list, with our belief that "..the best way to increase farebox recovery is to increase ridership. The best way to increase ridership is to improve service." One copy of our wish list (in the last article posted to our mailing list) was distributed to each board member. The VTA staff member I normally contact also received a hard copy. Let us see how things go.

All items on the agenda (i.e. hiring consultants for various projects) passed. The VTA Board meeting was adjourned at 7:30pm - started at 6:02pm.

Our VTA Board Contacts page will be updated with this information before this weekend.

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