September 18, 2014
The Press Democrat
By Matt Brown
Officials overseeing the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
authority have strongly rejected findings by a Sonoma County grand jury that
called on the agency’s board of directors to improve its financial oversight
and its communication with the public.
The recommendations stemmed from a highly critical grand
jury report that faulted the agency for not being upfront about risks to its
tax revenue at the outset of the recession and called out SMART’s board of
directors for delays in delivering the commuter rail project promised to voters
in 2008.
In its official response this week, the SMART board
disagreed or partially disagreed with all 13 of the findings in the grand
jury’s report, released in July. The board also said it will not implement
seven of the report’s eight recommendations, calling them unwarranted.
A SMART official who drafted the response said the grand
jury missed the mark with its findings. The SMART board, made up mostly of
elected city and county officials, has adeptly managed the rail agency through
tough financial times, the official said.
“We’ve done really well, and I don’t think (the grand
jury) got all of the information,” said Jim Eddie, who along with fellow board
member Barbara Pahre authored the agency’s response to the grand jury.
No comments:
Post a Comment