Editor's Note: Margaret Okuzumi, Executive Director of BayRail Alliance, attended this VTA Workshop. Here are her notes.
The second VTA ballot measure, about continuing with VTP2020 is apparently mandated by law to be put on the ballot every few years. don't know the history of that.
I went to the VTA board workshop last Friday. here are my belated notes.
ALSO NOTE. The board packets are now available on-line at the vta website,
www.vta.org This is a tremendous improvement. although they had a few handout at the meeting which are NOT posted on-line, such as the funding for highway projects and also a handout on funding for Caltrain which they ran out of copies of.
Paratransit. A number of changes are proposed which will greatly increase fares and also make it more difficult for people to qualify to use the Outreach Paratransit program. Basically, any person who _might_ be well enough to take the bus (i.e. does not have multiple disabilities) will be forced to take the bus instead of Paratransit. Even if it will take them four hours and three or four transfers to get there. VTA is also proposing curb-to-curb service instead of door-to-door, charging extra for door-to-door service. About a dozen folks testified against the changes. Bob Brownstein of Working Partnerships testified that his father, who used Paratransit, might have been well enough to fail to qualify for Paratransit under the new standards 95% of the time, which means that there was a one in 20 chance that his father would have fallen and broken a hip taking the bus instead of paratransit.
The mayor of Gilroy, Tom Springer, expressed his view that Caltrain should be electrified from San Francisco to San Jose only for the time being, and that monies allocated to electrifying San Jose-Gilroy portion of the line should instead be redirected to double-tracking and improving the tracks instead. Springer advocated for "operating the San Jose to Gilroy portion of the line as a separate system" from the rest of the line. "They should be two systems that are fully compatible," Springer said.
He made a formal motion to direct staff to study this, which was seconded and approved unanimously by all members present. although there was some joking afterwards about the heavyhanded manner in which Springer had given his pet concern priority and asking for a vote at a workshop instead of a regular board meeting.
Springer also asked whether staff was working with Monterey County to extend the Caltrain line to Salinas. At least one other VTA board member asked for clarification of this also. VTA staff replied that they have been meeting with TAMC staff regularly, however, mostly as a "reality check" to help TAMC realize that the $20 million the Governor appropriated for this project is not enough to complete the project. The extension to Salinas is planned to begin in 2005 with two round trips a day. (The TAMC staff person I spoke to today claims the project is on track, but they are having some issues with the city of Salinas over right-of-way issues and development connected to the station.)
John McLemore mentioned that the city of Santa Clara doesn't want the Airport People Mover to go around the airport because of neighborhood impacts. They prefer that it go under the runways. Pete Cipolla responded that it's the city of San Jose that controls what goes on with the APM planning. When it was expressed that surely the city of San Jose would be sensitive to Santa Clara's concerns, Cindy Chavez said, "...Maybe!" [laughter]
there was a presentation on the options for bonding to fund the transit projects in VTP2020. Scott Buhrer presented four scenarios which are available in the board packet on the web. The first is "pay as you go" which they dismissed as producing unacceptable project timetables, and then progressively worse scenarios. For example, Scenario 2 would result in 36% of gross program receipts going to debt service, Scenario 3 in 46%, and Scenario 4 which they wouldn't even calculate, it's so risky. Forrest Williams made some comments about how Scenario 2 looked like it entailed a significant amount of risk. Later during public comment Bob Brownstein spoke and said that Scenario 3 and 4 are in there just to make Scenario 2 look good, but that Scenario 2 would "make Enron blush".
I spoke about the 3 lawsuits that MTC lost the previous week, and so VTA needs to make Caltrain electrification and Dumbarton Rail a top priority because these projects will be key to the region settling the lawsuits. VTA board member Francis LaPoll agreed with me, although he kept referring to the Dumbarton Rail project as the "Dumbarton Bridge" project, saying that north county must not be shortchanged when it comes to setting priorities.
an insider told me that VTA is going to lay off a lot of people this year, because sales tax revenues have remained stagnant.
he also told me that he thought the VTA ballot measure dedicating all discretionary monies for highways and roads would strengthen the case for another 1/4 cent sales tax dedicated to transit. VTA badly needs to find another revenue source.
Please note the following info which was included in the board packet. VTA is about to formally decide what their funding priorities/spending plan is going to be exactly.
The development of the VTP 2020 transit expenditure program will occur over the next five months. The three Board workshops, starting with the August 2 workshop will cover policy discussions that are required for completion of the plan. The three workshops will include the following topics:
Board Workshop 1 (August 2, 2002): This first workshop will provide a status of Measure A transit projects. It will also provide revenue projections for Measure A sales tax and other sources and the impacts of various levels of bond financing. Board input will be requested regarding certain project assumptions to help staff develop project priority scenarios for the October workshop.
Board Workshop 2 (October 25, 2002): The second workshop will include alternatives for implementing the transit projects based on various scenarios regarding level of debt financing. Board input will be requested on the appropriateness of the project priority scenarios and level of debt financing.
Board Workshop 3 (November 8, 2002): Based upon Board direction from the October workshop, VTA staff will present a recommended transit implementation plan for the Boards concurrence at the third workshop. The recommendation will include the impact of the debt financing, if necessary, and the operating cost implications of the recommended plan. It is anticipated that the VTA Advisory Committees would review the transit expenditure plan at their November committee meetings, with Board consideration of adoption in December 2002.
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