EDITOR: The county civil Grand Jury findings on the Santa Clara
Valley Transportation Authority came as no surprise to us. With the
VTA
’s Board of Directors’ 9-2 vote on June 3 to raise transit fares
for the third consecutive year, the VTA is clearly out of control
both fiscally and operationally.
EDITOR:
The county civil Grand Jury findings on the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority came as no surprise to us. With the VTA’s Board of Directors’ 9-2 vote on June 3 to raise transit fares for the third consecutive year, the VTA is clearly out of control both fiscally and operationally.
We agree with the civil Grand Jury that all BART planning be halted immediately. Something is wrong when VTA borrows $700 million against ‘anticipated’ Measure A funding to jump-start a project – borrowing that voters were never told would occur. Clearly VTA needs to come clean to taxpayers about how much the BART extension will truly cost.
We absolutely agree on the civil Grand Jury’s recommendation to disband the VTA Board of Directors. We have been fighting to have a VTA Board directly elected by voters for the last few years. Currently, you cannot run for a seat on the VTA Board, nor can you elect or recall members of the VTA Board. We would like to see a management model similar to what AC Transit and BART have, where voters can elect who spends their transportation sales tax dollars.”
I havae spoken with Jim Cunneen, CEO of the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, about VTA management reform. Given the civil Grand Jury decision, we plan on working together to make VTA fully accountable to all Silicon Valley taxpayers.
Eugene Bradley, founder,
Santa Clara VTA Riders Union
