The following information is based on notes I took from the VTA Board meeting on April 5, 2001 at the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors' chambers at 70 W. Hedding Street in San Jose. Notetaking had started after the usual monthly awards and commendations were made at the start of the meeting. Norma Kwan, a programmer/analyst at VTA's River Oaks office; Wayne Allen, LRV operator, and Patricia Easley-Hill, a service worker at VTA's North Division bus garage, were honored as Employees of the Month in Administration, Operations, and Maintenance, respectively.
An LRV operator testified during the public presentations portion of the agenda stating that placards describing what is and what is not allowed on LRT (with the European-like red slashes for activites not allowed) are not on every LRV, and are barely visible on LRVs that have the placards. Her son was cited $211 for having feet propped near another seat, and was given the citation by an undercover police officer after he deboarded. The son of the LRV operator did not know the "no feet on seats" rule, nor did he see any placards on the LRV he was on that mentioned the rules. The LRV operator took pictures of LRVs that did not have these placards and presented those pictures to the VTA
Board. [Editor's note: METRO did a story on the untold and
rarely documented rules of VTA's Light Rail System, and how no one finds out until after they deboard the LRV and an undercover police officer who followed them off cites them - and this comes often without any warning whatsoever from the LRV operator or any VTA official. Can someone please find me a live URL for this story?]
Item 8 (the ad-hoc committee to develop the Master Agreement for the proposed BART extension into Santa Clara County) should come as no surprise as to who is on this committee, nominated by VTA chairman Manuel Valerio:
Manuel Valerio Ron Gonzales Pete McHugh Cindy
Chavez Judy Nadler (as an alternate)
[Editor's note:
Valerio nominating himself and Ron Gonzales was obvious to virtually
all of the non-VTA employees in the audience. Pete McHugh was the
biggest cheerleader for Measure A during last November's election
period amongst Santa Clara County's Board of Supervisors, as the
proposed BART extension goes thru Milpitas, where he served as the
city's first publically elected mayor in 1978. Chavez was also
known to be a cheerleader amongst the San Jose City Council. Judy
Nadler is the Mayor of Santa Clara, where the proposed BART
extension would end at the Santa Clara Transit Center.]
I
brought up a question to the Board regarding the fact that Santa
Clara County wasn't mentioned as a voting member of the BART Board.
VTA's General Manager, Peter Cipolla mentioned that VTA doesn't
expect to pay a buy-in fee to join the BART board - especially as a
voting member.
On line 28 (VTA's
proposed expansion of line 140 and the introduction of line 500
(Fremont BART to San Jose Caltrain via I-680 and I-280 and Tenth).
I wanted to speak but something told me not to at the last second.
Manuel Valerio mentioned that the item had already been approved. I
should have requested the item be removed from the consent agenda.
:^( These bus lines would serve as interim until the BART extension
is built. [Editor's note: Line 140 goes from Fremont BART to
Sunnyvale's Caltrain station. Sunnyvale is where Manuel Valerio
serves as a City Council member.]
Item 33X (VTA's
proposal to not support the Transbay Terminal Joint Powers Authority
[JPA] in the rebuilding of the Transbay Terminal) received the most
public comment and thus the most discussion from VTA Board members.
VTA General Manager Peter Cipolla mentioned that there wasn't any
time to discuss this issue, and expressed concern that "we
would be competing with ourselves for federal funding." Board
members Sally Lieber and Dennis McLemore mentioned that voting
against support of the Transbay Terminal JPA would give the public
the impression that VTA is provincial and is only worried about
projects within Santa Clara County. VTA Board member Pat Dando
mentioned that the issue "should have been discussed more"
while Sally Lieber wanted to table the motion
until the next Board meeting in May! Lieber expressed fears
that VTA's credibility as a regional authority was at stake, and
wanted VTA staff to come up with a better resolution for this
matter. Valerio mentioned that there was "no personal ego
involved in this" and mentioned that there was no information
on financing in regards to the rebuilding of the Transbay Terminal.
As a result of people from the VTA Riders Union, Peninsula Rail
2000, and the Bay Area Land Use and Transportation Coalition who
spoke out, VTA tabled the item until the May board meeting.
[Editor's note: Manuel Valerio and San Jose City Council member
Ken Yeager, VTA Board members, are two of three VTA representatives
on Caltrain's Joint Powers Board (JPB). They were the only two JPB
members who voted no on the Caltrain JPB being a part of the
Transbay Terminal Joint Powers Authority (JPA) that will build and
maintain the new Transbay Terminal. According to Peninsula Rail
2000, most of the funding will come from San Francisco, via the sale
of land around the terminal. More information can be found here.
John McLemore, non-voting VTA Board member and another VTA
representative on the Caltrain JPB, voted for the Caltrain JPB being
a part of the Transbay Terminal JPA.)
Jim
Beall mentioned that in November, the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission (MTC)will have open
houses in November on its 2001 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).
Manuel
Valerio announced a new policy advisory board (PAB) for the Highway
1 South corridor.
Valerio
mentioned that delays in the construction of the Capitol LRT
extension are because of PG&E. [Editor's note: PG&E was
supposed to testify at the March 1 Board meeting about this but was
unable to show up. Perhaps it is because they can no longer afford
to send people to board meetings because they have just filed for
bankruptcy?]
Valerio
reminded us about not violating the new red yield-to-bus signals on
the back of each bus, or end up with a $100 citation.
Matt
Tucker is new deputy director of operations. He reports to Frank
Martin, Director of Operations, as of this writing.
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