One of our Grand Jury report

The 2003-2004 Santa Clara Civil Grand Jury wrote 27 reports during our tenure which ends on Thursday, June 24, 2004. For those of you not familiar with grand juries, this was one of our reports as a watchdog of local governments. The following was reported in the Oakland Tribune.
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Grand jury raps BART linkup to San Jose

Report blames Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for financial mismanagement of sales tax money

By Sean Holstege, STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 -

South Bay transit planners cannot afford to build a BART extension to San Jose and should stop spending money on it, a Santa Clara County grand jury has concluded.

The 22-page report blames the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for financial mismanagement of local sales tax money. An inexperienced, oversized and overly political board failed to keep a tight leash on planners, who may have misled voters, the jury suggested.

The report, released late last week, is the latest in a string of setbacks for the $4 billion San Jose extension, but it also spells bad news for Fremont residents and could prompt the region to rethink its priorities for a Bay Area rail network.

That's because the proposed $634 million extension to Fremont's Warm Springs, which has been on the books for decades, hinges on two things now very much in doubt.

One is money from San Mateo County, from the operating surplus on the new SFO line. SamTrans is to contribute $145 million, but the trains have been far emptier than expected, so empty that the line is operating in the red to the tune of $20 million a year.

Warm Springs construction cannot proceed until all the money for a "rail connection" into Santa Clara County has been secured, according the Alameda County ballot measure that paid for work. But South Bay voters only raised about half of the funds for the BART line. State money is in limbo, and earlier this year the Federal Transit Administration recommended against federal money for BART to San Jose.

The grand jury report noted that "VTA does not have the funds to complete BART anytime in the next 20 years" and acknowledged VTA's view that Warm Springs "was in jeopardy."

Critics of extending BART said the grand jury reinforces their claims. Backers said the report reconfirms what is known about the bleak financial outlook, and plays down the fact that voters on both sides of the county line overwhelmingly supported BART.

"Warm Springs would be one of the least effective transportation investments this region has ever made. It's in an industrial area with very little around it," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition.

"It will have horrible ridership. BART will be faced with a major question about doing the project, especially if there is a financial implosion in Santa Clara," he added.

Not so fast, say longtime supporters such as Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty.

"I think we'd be extremely short-sighted by not investing in BART going south," Haggerty said. "How much BART can be built, that's the question. Maybe it's time we talk about phasing the project and going to Milpitas."

A BART connection to Santa Clara's light-rail system at Milpitas is achievable and enough to get the Warm Springs project, said Christine Monsen, who runs the agency spending Alameda County's Measure B sales tax transportation money.

She and BART Director Dan Richard said the grand jury report should prompt the area to look again at its commitments to a regional rail system.

"There's no question Warm Springs will take longer. It's very hard to get there on the track we're on," Richard said.

Voters in March shuffled in an extra $85 million for Warm Springs when they agreed to increase bridge tolls by $1. How the deck gets sorted is the job of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The MTC has asked project sponsors to report by next month how much money they have, and how much they need.

"We are taking each of those projects and giving them a good hard look-over," said MTC's policy director, Therese McMillan. "Right now, I don't have enough information to rethink that project. Show me the numbers, then we can see if there's a case to me made."

Contact Sean Holstege at sholstege@angnews-

papers.com .
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Now that our term is almost over, I can talk about those reports that have been distributed to the government agencies and the media.