GILROY
– A longtime Gilroyan will represent the South County on two
influential transportation governing boards at a time when finances
threaten to stall local projects.
GILROY – A longtime Gilroyan will represent the South County on two influential transportation governing boards at a time when finances threaten to stall local projects.
If all goes as planned, Don Gage – who will bring South County’s voice to the Caltrain board for the first time in years and also takes the helm of the county’s transit agency’s board this year – will see much-needed projects completed in and around Gilroy.
“I will just continue to do what I’ve been doing, like getting the 101 done and getting the job done and … getting our voices heard on the issues that are important to South County,” Gage said.
Effective Thursday, the District 1 county supervisor will chair the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Board of Directors and represent the VTA on the Peninsula Corridor (Caltrain) Joint Powers Board for the next year.
Gage, who has sat at the board of supervisors dais for seven years, served on the 12-voting-member VTA board during the planning stages of a U.S. 101 widening project that relieved freeway congestion plaguing the corridor between San Jose and Gilroy for years.
For the first time in Gage’s tenure as supervisor, a South County representative holds a seat on the nine-member Caltrain board.
“I just think it’s important that we have representation … that we get our voice out there,” Gage said. “It’s a big issue.”
Gage will fill a seat designated for a VTA representative on the board responsible for administering Caltrain service from San Francisco to Gilroy.
Gage replaces Manny Valerio, a Sunnyvale city councilman, who is termed out.
Couple his Caltrain position with his new role on the VTA board and Gage has the sense that “we’re going to get good representation for South County.”
Gage said it will continue to take some elbow grease to get funding for projects on his plate, particularly the installation of a stop light and widening of Pacheco Pass Highway at Gilroy Foods.
“I have to use my own charm to get things done; being the chair doesn’t give you any more authority,” he said. “You’re still only one vote.”
The VTA has seen its share of troubles lately, with ridership hitting its lowest levels in almost two decades and existing VTA service expected to create deficits of $100 million annually without a new source of revenue.
Its financial problems have the VTA considering an additional half-cent county sales tax to pay for a BART extension to Silicon Valley and a list of other transportation projects, for which voters already approved a 30-year, half-cent sales tax in 2000.
The plan now, Gage said, is to borrow against future state money in order to fund local projects like the Pacheco Pass widening and stop light.
The project is one of many supposed to be funded by Measure B, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1996, but with the bigger projects from the measure finished – such as the U.S. 101 widening – there’s concern whether there will be enough money left.
Improvements to highways 17 and 85 will also require lobbying the state for funds, which does not look to be an easy task considering Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vow during his State of the State speech Tuesday to cut spending to make up a $14 billion budget gap. His detailed plan was due to be released at 11 a.m. today.
“I’ll know (Friday) when we receive (Schwarzenegger’s) revised budget, but I think that at this point in time, those transportation things will be out the window,” Gage said Thursday.
The nationwide, but slow, economic upswing buoys Gage somewhat.
“The economy is starting to turn, but Santa Clara County is a little bit behind the curve,” he said. “There’s still less money than we had 10 quarters ago, so I think that that whole issue of finance is going to come up, and we need to keep the trains running.”
Whereas the agency received $180 million in 2000, it now gets between $120 and $130 million per year. Yet, as the economy picks up and more jobs are created, train service must be able to keep up with demand, Gage said, which is why he supports a double-track for the San Jose-to-Gilroy Caltrain line that would bring 20 round-trip trains a day to Gilroy on weekdays, instead of the current four. It is possible to bring five trains if ridership improves.
A conversion of Caltrain to electric power, which would make the trains run quieter, cleaner and perhaps more efficiently, is another voter-approved project for which Gage is an advocate.
“I’m not looking to do anything more than what our plan was,” Gage said. “I’m just looking to get the plan done.”
He has already used his position as VTA board chair to re-arrange the monthly meetings to make them more productive.
“The meetings are not going to be short, they’re going to be messy,” he said.
The board will now hold closed sessions at 5:30, rather than after the 6 p.m. meetings, in an effort to maintain a quorum. Also, public communication will be moved to the start of meetings instead of the end.
“As a public agency, in terms of public presence, that’s why you have the public meeting, so people can talk,” Gage said. “If they know it’s at the front, they know they’re going to get on.”
Former mayor and VTA board member Tom Springer said the position of chair is regularly rotated between three groups represented on the board: big cities, such as San Jose; smaller cities, such as Gilroy; and the county supervisors.
