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This is a combination of notes from the August and September 2005 VTA Board meetings.
The VTA Board meeting on August 4 has only one thing to report: a 17% ridership increase along the El Camino Real corridor, attributed on the new 522 Rapid bus service along El Camino Real between Palo Alto and Eastridge Mall. All items on the August 4 agenda were approved as the meeting lasted all of 17 minutes.
The September 1 VTA Board meeting was more important as it was the debut of new VTA General Manager Michael Burns. Highlights are as follows:
Agenda item 18 is deferred for this meeting. It involves preapproving a list of developers and then having the new General Manager proceed with proposals for development near several Light Rail stations. It is also announced that the General Manager's Report - typically given towards the end of VTA Board meetings - will instead be at the beginning of each Board meeting, before the Agenda items are heard.
At the beginning of the meeting, after a brief closed session period to discuss legal matters, Board chair Joe Pirzynski requests the Board and the audience to take a moment of silence to honor victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The VTA Employees of the Month are honored. One of them is honored for helping to coordinate Light Rail schedules with Caltrain departures and arrivals.
Afterward, new VTA General Manager Michael Burns gives his first public report. He has already used some of the buses and trains, and met with VTA employees. He has already met with some of the Board members individually and will continue to do so.
Mr. Burns expressed four (4) areas he wants to focus on in the short term as the new VTA General Manager:
Mr. Burns noted that the Vasona Light Rail extension's opening is due to a dispute over train horn signaling between right-of-way owners Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This is because the extension uses right-of-way owned by UPRR and has several grade crossings along the line. Mr. Burns mentioned beginning pre-revenue service from Diridon station southward starting September 5. Light rail vehicles will have the proper adjustments for the Vasona extension made and ready in mid-to-late September. Formal opening of the entire Vasona light rail extension will come after approval from the FRA is obtained.
Mr. Burns also talked about two (2) decisions under consideration by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that will impact VTA bus operations in the future:
After Mr. Burns' report, it was announced by Board Chair Pirzynski that Kay Eveleth, Chief Administrative Officer at VTA, was retiring.
Another announcement from Board Chair Pirzynski was for a Hispanic celebration on September 16 at noon at VTA's River Oaks offices.
Afterward, as part of Public Presentations (Agenda Item 8) SCVTARU Founder Eugene Bradley and fellow member Ross Signorino welcomed Mr. Burns to VTA.
For Agenda Item 9 (VTA Policy Advisory Committee [PAC] Chair's report) Ms. Kishimoto stated that solutions need to be found to provide bicycle path funding. She also noted the VTA's 3rd Quarter Performance report and mentioned that ridership was down from last year. She also requested that future Performance reports compare actual data to data that was forecast for that period.
Board Chair Joe Pirzynski wants to get more cities to the PAC meetings. Concerned that these cities are not getting a voice on critical transit issues.
Eugene Bradley spoke on Agenda Item 15 - the last item in the Consent Agenda where items are voted in bulk. This has to do with spending over $560,000 of your tax dollars to purchase automatic passenger counters (APC) for 20 light rail vehicles to measure ridership. Mr. Bradley expressed concern that, while APCs are a good idea for measuring ridership, would count a passenger twice if he or she got off the car and then reboarded upon realizing it was the wrong stop. Michael Burns partially acknowledged that this is somewhat new techonolgy. Mr. Bradley also expressed that this would result in margins of error when calculating ridership. Board Chair Joe Pirzynski: "You can believe whatever you want." More on this item at the end of the meeting. That item was approved by a unanimous vote.
On to Agenda Item 16 which deals wth amending bylaws of other VTA Board Committees like the Technical Advisory Committee such that they "require a vote of the majority of the total membership to pass an item...and rescind the March 4, 2004 action approving an amendment to permit a majority of the quorum to pass an item." Forrest Williams mentions that the Citizens Advisory Committee has 13 to 17 members present. Liz Kniss mentions how attendees to committee meetings are punished for showing up when no majority is in attendance, and will vote NO on the proposal. The item was approved by an 8-2 vote, with one other VTA Board member as well as Liz Kniss dissenting.
Mr. Bradley spoke briefly on Agenda Item 17 (spend $1.1 million for a consulting firm to examine new transit corridors), only mentioning that the APCs should be used to measure new transit corridors in addition to ridership. The item was approved by the VTA Board unanimously.
Fast forward to Agenda Item 20, where VTA wants to spend $600,000 of your tax dollars on two (2) wheelchair mobility restraint kits for all 415 buses thru Nor-Cal Mobility, Inc. While Mr. Bradley mentions the need for the restraints, he expresses concern that it took VTA paying $2 million of your tax dollars via a lawsuit filed by a passenger before this purchase came up for approval. Clearly an example of action by litigation. The item was approved by the VTA Board unanimously.
The last big item was Agenda Item 22, which dealt with the formation of a task force to develop ideas to increase ridership. Mr. Bradley had expressed concerns that labor and business interests would be on the task force, and that conclusions must conform to standards set in the VTA's long-range plan, VTP2030. Two other speakers, including Tom Fink of ATU 265, corrected Mr. Bradley in that other groups, including SCVTARU, were also included in the task force. The proposal passed with a unanimous vote.
VTA's Chief Operating Officer, Matthew Tucker, noted to Mr. Bradley that he personally requested inclusion of SCVTARU on to the task force. No meeting date or time or location for the task force has been specified yet.
After the meeting, Mr. Burns requested Mr. Bradley to help give the APC counters a test. Mr. Bradley noted that he would get back to the group and make formal arrangements for a representative for the testing.
--SCVTARU - September 8, 2005
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