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Editor's Note: half-full house this evening. VTA Board Chair Ron Gonzales and Manuel Valerio are notably absent from this meeting. As a result, Campbell Mayor Jane Kennedy, the Vice Chair of the VTA Board, will run tonight's meeting.
Not much happening tonight. The employees of the month are honored first. Our congratulations to the winners!
An American Public Works Association (APWA) Award is presented for the Gilroy Caltrain Transit Center project.
Several VTA agenda items for this meeting are not addressed at this meeting. Purchase of several properties in Mountain View for the 85/101 interchange are approved. Also discussed is the sale of parking land near the Capitol Light Rail station, to be used to construct housing.
The highlight of the board meeting came at the end, during the public comment period. First, a Mr. Levitt(sp?) spoke about the need for VTA to have its ticket vending machines (TVMs)at light rail stations give out proper change. He stated that when inserting $1.50 to pay for the $1.40 one-ware fare, no change is given at all! The machines fail to mention that no change is given out.
Finally, our founder, Eugene Bradley, expressed our group's strong opposition to two transit measures the VTA is placing on the November ballot. The measures, said our founder, do nothing about VTA's $34 million deficit and have no accountability to prevent further waste.
After comments end, discussion between Cindy Chavez and VTA General Manager Peter Cipolla occurs. Cindy asks why this problem occurs. Cipolla responds that the hoppers on the current TVMs "are not big enough to hold dimes and nickels." Chavez says that she will try this out for herself when she takes light rail over the following weekend. Meeting adjourns at 7:02pm.
Editor's Note: we will be actively pursuing VTA to resolve the light rail TVM shortchanging issue. Needless to say, some audience members wanted to shout "BALONEY!" at Cipolla's statement over change hoppers on the light rail TVMs.
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