Response to Civil Grand Jury’s VTA Report
City leaders are required to respond to a Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report released earlier this year that heavily criticized the governance of the VTA Board, which Santa Clara leaders did Tuesday night.
One of the major findings included concern that San Jose leaders dominate on the board in terms of representation and that the board suffers from a lack of continuity and time commitments, among other issues. The Civil Grand Jury asked Santa Clara and other cities to respond to its recommendations related to those specific findings, and Santa Clara did — by saying they need more time and analysis.
“We did agree with the findings,” Councilmember Debi Davis said of the report during the meeting. “We wanted the full council to really hear that because we don’t know if these recommendations will cure the problem.”
Meanwhile, the VTA has also created its own ad-hoc committee to address some of the issues brought up in the Civil Grand Jury report. Councilmember Teresa O’Neill, who is also the chair of the VTA Board this year, said that VTA is interested in doing additional study, including by looking at how other cities or transit boards are governed.
The city will now put together an ad-hoc committee that can study the findings and recommendations as well as other options for fixing some of the issues brought up in the Civil Grand Jury report.
August 20, 2019
San José Spotlight
By Janice Bitters
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