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This will be another loaded and controversial Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board meeting this evening. The VTA Board (members list here) will vote on several major items including:
About a few minutes before the meeting begins officially at 5:30pm, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales is talking to a news crew about the last-second proposed track changes. He feels the VTA Board will pass them unanimously.
VTA Board Chair (and Los Gatos City Councilmember) Joe Pirzynsky starts the VTA Board meeting on time at 5:30pm, going into closed session to discuss legal issues. At around 6:00pm, the Board reemerges with the usual "nothing to report" from the closed session.
Notably absent from this meeting is lame-duck VTA General Manager Peter Cipolla. Recall the January 2005 VTA Board meeting where the VTA Board approved his $334,000 severance package. VTA Chief Operating Officer Matthew O. Tucker and William Capps will be speaking for Cipolla on issues that call for his input at tonight's meeting.
After the employees of the month are honored, public presentations on items not on tonight's meeting agenda are open for public input. Danny Garza of the Mexican-American Political Association (San Jose Chapter) and a member of La Raza Roundtable speak out on how VTA's construction contractors discriminate against minority-based subcontractors. In a related issue, one subcontractor working on the reconstruction of the Palo Alto Transit Center noted to the VTA Board the shoddy work plans he had to work off of. This will be an interesting situation to monitor as the rebuilt Palo Alto Transit Center is due to open in late April/early May 2005.
The most discussed and most controversial issue of the evening was agenda item 12. This was a four-part proposal to amend the bylaws of the VTA's Policy Advisory Committee (PAC). Chief amongst the proposed changes was a voting change from a majority of a quorum vote to a majority of the total PAC membership. New VTA Board member (and County Supervisor) Liz Kniss expressed concern over the proposed bylaw changes.
The following are comments from other public officials on agenda item 12:
Comments from VTA Board members follow:
After about 45 minutes of debate, Ron Gonzales steps in and mentions to the audience that discussious like this are a rarity, and asks the discussions to wrap up in the interest of time.
Don Gage comments on how small cities need a voice in the process too, and will not support the proposal.
The final vote was 7-5 in favor of the proposal. A summary of who voted for or against the proposal is below:
Next comes discussion for the last-minute addition of agenda item 19X - a proposal to move the race course for the San Jose Grand Prix from the area around the HP Pavilion to the downtown core around the Convention Center. The course change - which outgoing VTA General Manager Peter Cipolla was against - would cut off light rail at the downtown area, forcing bus bridges and other VTA bus rerouting around the proposed race course around the Convention Center. SCVTARU was also concerned on the impact of this last-minute change in the race course.
Comments on the proposal from VTA Board members are as follows:
Ron Gonzales comments on expected transit ridership to the San Jose Grand Prix - out of the 100,000 visitors expected to the event, he expects only 5,000 to use light rail to the race weekend.
Bob Livengood queries about the transit service disruptions the new race course would cause to Light Rail. Matthew Tucker's response was that the focus would remain on transit service and that "no one would be negatively impacted."
Don Gage's concern is that the race weekend of the Grand Prix (July 28-30) is the same as the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
David Casas says that the race course change proposal was "not well thought out."
Liz Kniss expresses concern about the cost of the bus bridge in place of light rail. She noted how the city of Palo Alto was still smarting over losing $250,000 on unanticipated transit service needed to handle crowds for World Cup Soccer games at Stanford in 1994.
Public comment from SCVTARU members Zakhary Cribari and Eugene Bradley expressed the need to move the course to Coyote Valley, which would cause the least disruptions to transit service and traffic in downtown San Jose. A downtown San Jose merchant also expresses concern over the impacts of the new downtown race course on local businesses and transit riders who would be affected by the race course change.
After public comment ends, Ron Gonzales wonders what the race cars for the Grand Prix (from the Champ Car circuit) run on. "Do they use diesel, or ammonia, or whatever..." As Mayor of the Capitol of Silicon Valley, Gonzales should have been able to use a search engine for this answer and get all his Champ Car questions answered here.
Cindy Chavez notes how the Grand Prix in San Jose will be a "bold and unique" challenge and how it will better serve San Jose and Silicon Valley.
The vote is taken and the race course change plan passes with all VTA Board members supporting the proposal.
Next comes agenda item 19B which is a proposal by VTA Alternate Board member Ken Yeager (who is on San Jose's City Council representing the College Park neighborhood as well as Willow Glen) to not support the closing of the College Park Caltrain station near Bellermime Prep School.
John McLemore - who is Vice Chair of the Caltrain Joint Powers Board, notes that over 1,600 emails have come in to Caltrain regarding their proposal to raise fares and reduce service - 800 of which from Bellermime Prep students and faculty.
Dean Chu notes how there is a 90-minute gap in Caltrain service to Sunnyvale from 6:00pm - 7:30pm on weekdays.
After testimony from several parents of Bellermine Prep students and faculty, the VTA Board passes Yeager's proposal unamimously.
Fast-forward to agenda item 23A where SCVTARU member Zakhary Cribari presented an idea to the VTA Board about operating additional Baby Bullet trains on weekends.
Finally, for agenda items 25B and 25C, Bob Livengood and Dean Chu were appointed to the I-680 Sunol Grade SMART Carpool Lane Project Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) and the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Board (CCJPB) respectively.
After reminding the public of the VTA Workshop on April 22 in San Jose at 8:30am, VTA Board Chair Joe Pirzynsky adjourned the Board meeting at 7:40pm.
Several SCVTARU members and supporters in attendence contributed to this report.
--SCVTARU - April 13, 2005
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