back
to vtaridersunion.org main page
| Santa Clara VTA | Riders Union |
VTA Board meeting for February 7, 2002 starts at 6:00pm. The usual crowd: 85% VTA staff and management, 15% members of the public. Items of interest: 28A (Ron Gonzales' proposal to increase ridership and farebox recovery, and a committee to investigate ways to generate permanent sources of revenue and save money internally. Another item of interest to the public: the period for public comments has been moved to the last item in the agenda. Typically, the public comments period is the first item in the agenda. It is of note that San Jose Mercury News traffic columnist Gary Richards is in attendance.
The usual honors for employees of the month are given. Our congratulations to those honored!
VTA Board member David Cortese (who sits on the San Jose City council) is appointed by VTA Board Chair Ron Gonzales to serve as Vice Chair of the Transit Operations and Planning Committee. Board member John McLemore reports on a recent legislative trip to Sacramento to discuss budget cuts for California transit projects. Editor's note: Mr. McLemore serves as one of the two county representatives on the Bay Area's regional transportation planners, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Before introducing items 28A (plans for increasing ridership, increasing fare box recovery, as well as finding permanent revenue streams for funding transit projects) VTA Board Chair Ron Gonzales announces a special workshop on September 6, to review VTA staff recommendations for increasing ridership and boosting fare box recovery. Only brief discussion amongst VTA Board members is performed before public comment from our founder, Eugene Bradley, is made. Basically, Eugene stated that the plan for increased ridership and increased fare box recovery must have been good "since I have not heard from VTA Board nor staff about it". Mr. Bradley stated that the public needs to be involved in all phases of the plan. Item 28A passes unanimously. Discussion of the item takes all of five minutes.
This VTA Board meeting is moving rather quickly. It's now 6:30pm as I write this.
Item 28B (appoint VTA Board members to the Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Corridor Public Advisory Board) passes unanimously. Members of this PAB are: Jim Lawson and Cindy Chavez (VTA representatives)
Item 28C (appoint Los Altos Mayor Francis La Poll as an alternate member of the Altamont Commuter Express Joint Powers Board) passes unanimously.
An interesting statistic pops up during the General Manager's report (Item 29): Ridership is down 0.9% on VTA's bus and light rail system recently (exact date missed). Revenue is off by $2 million as a result. A shortage of construction funding exists for this fiscal year and the next fiscal year.
At 6:45pm, the public comment period starts. Three people state their objection to the movement of public comment to the last item on the agenda, and express their wishes to the VTA Board to set time for public comment back to the beginning of the agenda. A VTA Shop Steward states to the Board about the "victimization" of a worker who maintained the break rooms for the bus drivers at the garages, when no one else wanted to. Two people from Homer J. Olsten Construction - including the company's president - express their concern regarding a lawsuit they filed against the VTA. A resident of Hamilton Avenue spoke to the VTA Board re: how they are not being properly informed by staff on how to handle the crossing of the Vasona LRT extension at Hamilton Avenue in San Jose.
At 7pm, VTA Board Chair Ron Gonzales sends the Board into closed session. Half an hour later, the meeting officially ends.
back
to vtaridersunion.org main page