[Sosfbay-discuss] VTA -

[Wes Rolley]

This past week marked a major setback for the Valley Transportation 
Authority.

To begin with, Philadelphia based consultancy, The Hay Group, released a 
report on the VTA's finances.  According to the Mercury News 
<http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5502823>, the viability of extending 
BART to San Jose is threatened. 
> The 38-page report criticized the agency's decision-making process as 
> being overly influenced by political rather than transportation needs 
> by putting routes in areas where they don't serve the most commuters. 
> The auditors also slammed the agency for expansion plans that fail to 
> deal with a shortfall of at least $2.8 billion over the next three 
> decades and for not being forthcoming about the financial challenges 
> it faces.
The result has been the resignation of the CFO this past week.

Today, an editorial writer in the Morgan Hill Times uses that report to 
justify her call for killing the BART to San Jose project. (Not yet 
online and limited to subscribers anyway).   Her primary reason?  How 
about this...quoted from the Hay Group report.  "The board has approved 
capital project that were political solution to address the needs of 
certain local neighborhoods at the expense of regional congestion 
management.  As a result, VTA has built transportation system that have 
low ridership and are also expensive to operate and maintain."

If now is a time of crisis in the VTA, if the board is being attacked 
for playing politics with tax funded project, if transportation is again 
becoming a major issue, is this not a time for Green action?

In many ways, the Hay Group audit only echos the findings of a Civil 
Grand Jury published in 2004. It seems that we have not learned much 
since nor had the will to make substantive change. Maybe having Mayor 
Reed in San Jose rather than Cheerleader in Chief Gonzales will make a 
difference, but I would not want to bet my home equity on it.   Ooops, 
maybe I am.  The VTA is about to end bus service to my area of Morgan 
Hill. What was that line about "expensive to operate and maintain?"


-- 

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; 
We must do. –Leonardo DaVinci
Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024 - http://cagreening.blogspot.com