Blog Note: A major newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, is reporting on a
grand jury report of a county grand jury more that 100 miles to the north of
Los Angeles. The grand jury report criticizes the Kings County Board of
Supervisors for its lawsuits against the California bullet-train project is
drawing fire in the sparsely populated Central Valley farming community. Grand
jury reports frequently stimulate public debate, sometimes outside county boundaries.
County Supervisor Doug Verboon,
a walnut farmer who testified on the matter, said grand jurors misjudged public
sentiment about the rail project.
"They were all nice
people," Verboon said. "But I don't think their views represent the
thoughts of the community."
The grand jury's annual report,
issued in June, concluded that supervisors should not have approved public
funding for litigation involving privately owned land that the state high-speed
rail project is seeking for the right of way.
The grand jury, a panel of 19
citizens, issued a 167-page report on a range of county issues, including
litter on school playgrounds and repairs to fire hydrants. But the finding on
high-speed rail, titled "The Train Has Already Left the Station," was
what drew the attention of officials in Sacramento.
"Kings County has been one
of our largest opponents," said Lisa Marie Alley, spokeswoman for the
California High Speed Rail Authority. "The question is why is the county
opposing the project."
The grand jury raised the same
issue, asserting that the rail line would not take any county-owned land,
except for where it crosses public roads. And it questioned the expenditure of
$150,000 in county funds on the legal battle.
Verboon said the county elected
to fight the project when the state in 2011 refused to provide a detailed plan
for taking property, choosing to put the line through the middle of farm fields
rather than along existing highways.
"I am not going to let
somebody come in here and destroy taxpayers' property," Verboon said. The
high-speed rail authority has said it conducted extensive outreach in the
Central Valley to address local concerns.
The county is involved in two
lawsuits. One alleges that the state will fail to comply with a 2008 bond act
that requires the system to operate without subsidies and to have trains
designed to run between Los Angeles and San Francisco in two hours and 40
minutes. It has also filed a suit that asserts the project failed to comply
with state environmental laws.
Verboon said the county's
attorney, Michael Brady, is taking on the case pro bono. The $150,000
authorized by supervisors is paying for Brady's direct costs only, and is just
half of the total amount for the suit. The other half is being paid by private
citizens.
The grand jury said supervisors
had failed to solicit public input before filing those lawsuits. It also said
the supervisors declined to apply for grants that the rail authority was
offering to offset displacement costs from the program, allegedly because the supervisors
did not want to give any indication of support for the project.
After the findings were
released, the board issued a rebuttal to Kings County Superior Court Judge
Thomas DeSantos. In a letter to the judge, the supervisors said the county held
at least eight public meetings with state officials to discuss their concerns
from 2011 to 2013, before filing the suits.
As far as declining to seek the
grant, the county said it was the state's job to administer compensation for
damages, not the county's.
In addition
to Kings County, the high-speed rail authority has been sued by Madera County,
Kern County, the cities of Chowchilla, Atherton and Bakersfield and various
other agencies, groups and private citizens.
August 9, 2015
Los
Angeles Times
By
Ralph Vartabedian
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