The Morgan Hill and Gilroy city councils want to keep a strong
local voice in the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority,
despite losing their board representative to Milpitas at the end of
2003. Each council is approaching the issue in a different way.
The Morgan Hill and Gilroy city councils want to keep a strong local voice in the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, despite losing their board representative to Milpitas at the end of 2003. Each council is approaching the issue in a different way.
Morgan Hill’s council is actively supporting the idea of each city having its own seat at the VTA table. Gilroy City Council will attempt to resurrect quarterly talks with a Milpitas representative who will represent all South Valley on the VTA Board for the next two years.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said Wednesday that he has been satisfied with area representation, even through Milpitas, but said plans to improve the situation are under study.
“There is an ad hoc restructuring committee considering giving each city its own representative,” Kennedy said, “though their vote would be weighted, depending on population.”
San Jose would have a “weightier” vote than Morgan Hill or Gilroy, Kennedy said, because it has more residents.
Kennedy testified before the committee and the Morgan Hill City Council sent a letter to VTA in favor of the proposal. The ad hoc committee is headed by Los Gatos Town Council Vice Mayor Joe Pirsynski, who represents his town on the VTA board.
Past transportation meetings between Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Gilroy officials were “very successful for a time, and then it stopped happening,” Gilroy City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “It was just like a Thursday where we’d meet for coffee and talk about the issues.”
The three cities share a rotating seat on the VTA Board. Former Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer held the post for the past two years, but the seat shifted to Milpitas at the same time he stepped down as mayor. Morgan Hill will get the seat in 2006. Gilroy won’t see it again until 2008.
Milpitas’ VTA rep is Patricia Dixon, vice mayor on that city’s council. She could not be immediately reached for comment. Kennedy is her alternate. When Morgan Hill takes over the seat in two years, a Gilroy rep will be the alternate.
The two South Valley towns still have one advocate on the VTA Board – namely, Chairman Don Gage, also a county supervisor and a Gilroy resident – but Baksa noted to Council members that Gage represents the entire county, not just Gilroy. They agreed they would prefer to channel their concerns through the Milpitas rep as well.
Gilroy Councilman Paul Correa volunteered at the Council’s Jan. 16 and 17 retreat to meet with Dixon and Morgan Hill officials four times a year.
Baksa said Gilroyans have an interest in ensuring that improvements to state highways 152 and 25 are funded as soon as possible. Morgan Hill’s major VTA-related effort – widening Hwy. 101 – was completed in March 2003.
“In the past we have been very successful in getting our share of monies, and we just want that to continue,” Baksa said.
Correa said he would advocate to Dixon for South County road improvements and bus service, but his number-one goal would be to increase Gilroy’s voice on county transportation matters. He would support reorganizing the VTA Board to give Gilroy a permanent seat.
This reorganization is unlikely, however, according to Edwin Chan, Gage’s transportation policy aide.
“They can talk all they want about it, but San Jose would never say yes to it because they have a majority,” Chan said. “Why would they want to give that up? … This is the way it is.”
