Recommendations in a Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report calling for major overhauls to the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) Board will require “further analysis.”
The report, issued in June, made three recommendations for Santa Clara: that the City submit a report to VTA and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors detailing its views on VTA governance, introduce legislation to alter the VTA governance and propose legislation to have the VTA Board Chair elected to 2-year terms instead of a 1-year term.
The Santa Clara City Council’s response will inform the Grand Jury that following its three recommendations for Santa Clara might not be feasible without first forming an ad hoc committee to study their effectiveness.
“We do not know that these recommendations will cure the problem,” said Council Member Debi Davis. “Things are going in the wrong direction.”
According to the report, the Grand Jury believes the VTA Board suffers from “a lack of experience, continuity and leadership,” “inadequate time for the directors to devote to their duties,” “a lack of engagement,” and “frequent tension between the director’s fiduciary duties … and … political demands.”
Craig Mobeck, Director of Public Works, said the City “unanimously” agrees as to what the problem is, but has questions as to whether the recommendations will ameliorate the problem.
Council Member Teresa O’Neill, Chair of the VTA Board, said the Board has already commissioned a “rather robust” study looking into some of the same issues and that it is “pursuing a number of avenues.”
Part of the problem, she said, is that VTA districts, like Santa Clara’s, which also includes Milpitas and Sunnyvale, rotate a member on the Board while seven of the 12 members are from San Jose.
“It is almost impossible for us to get any kind of fair share,” said Mayor Lisa Gillmor. “Not all the problems are in San Jose.”
August 21, 2019
The Silicon Valley Voice
By David Alexander
No comments:
Post a Comment