For its first and only meeting in December, the newly-formed
Gilroy City Council will be tackling what is arguably the most
controversial issue facing the city. Up for vote will be $150,000
to fund rail experts and grant applications for the
highly-criticized California high-speed rail project that could not
only split downtown but has divided the Council in the past.
For its first and only meeting in December, the newly-formed Gilroy City Council will be tackling what is arguably the most controversial issue facing the city.
Up for vote will be $150,000 to fund rail experts and grant applications for the highly-criticized California high-speed rail project that could split downtown and has divided the Council in the past.
According to Councilman Peter Arellano, it will be the first major high-speed rail expenditure for Gilroy.
It comes on the heels of the California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO, Roelof van Ark, announcing his Dec. 16 visit to the area after a vote of no confidence sent Oct. 18 by the city.
The resolution had critics claiming a small victory after the Council voted 4-3 to tell the CHSRA that it didn’t agree with its policymaking.
Monday’s Council meeting could be a precursor to how Gilroy will handle the $45-billion, 800-mile bullet-train system that will have a major stop in the city.
The Council will welcome newly-elected Peter Leroe-Muñoz to the dais, who said during his campaign that he is a staunch supporter of the bullet train and the business it will bring to downtown.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker is questioning the timing of the budget amendment proposed by City Administrator Tom Haglund and staff.
“I don’t understand how we as a council can vote no confidence and then, weeks later, spend a lot of money on the high-speed rail,” Tucker said.
She is also concerned if Gilroy shows it’s ready to fund a portion of the project, the CHSRA won’t take its request for funds seriously.
“They can’t just rely on us to foot the bill,” Tucker said.
Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro and his Morgan Hill counterpart Steve Tate requested CHSRA funds June 30 for an expert to independently review information related to the project before the vote.
According to Haglund, the request has remained unheeded. This prompted Arellano and Councilman Dion Bracco to suggest using city money for an expert at an Oct. 4 meeting.
“Information is not harmful. We need information and guidance from experts. I think that’s better than going from meeting to meeting and guessing and hoping we’re doing the right thing,” Arellano said.
The CHSRA will be coming to the table very soon – Dec. 16, to be exact – and Gilroy said it will continue to press for funding at the meeting for an expert.
But Gilroy city staff says the need for money is too urgent to wait for the results of the meeting.
The staff is eyeing a $150,000 Community Design in Transportation grant – not to be confused with the amount requested from Council – from the Valley Transportation Authority. It’s meant to help cities in transportation-related planning studies, and requires cities to match the grant by 20 percent.
In Gilroy’s case this means a $30,000 matching fee and $7,000 to pay a bullet-train expert to help draft the 20 to 30-page application. According to the VTA, the deadline is early January.
“It really sends the wrong message,” said Yvonne Sheets-Saucedo, Gilroy resident and high-speed rail critic. “The message it sends is that we’re supporting their process and we’re not. Our no confidence resolution says, ‘we don’t have confidence in your process,’ so why are we going to spend money to engage in a process we don’t believe in?”
CEO Van Ark will meet the Gilroy and Morgan Hill joint high-speed rail task force behind closed doors. The task force is comprised of Mayor Al Pinheiro, Councilman Perry Woodward, City Administrator Haglund and Morgan Hill representatives – Councilman Greg Sellers, Mayor Steve Tate and City Manager Ed Tewes.
“Sadly, in the absence of a real public process, I think it’s a horrible waste of money for the city,” Sheets-Saucedo said.
She is not the only critic. Van Ark arrives amid a backdrop of turmoil and loss of faith in the bullet-train project.
More than six California news organizations peppered their newspapers Thursday with criticisms in preparation for the CHSRA announcement made the same morning that it will build its first 65 miles of track between two tiny towns – Borden and Corcoran.
Critics are calling the proposal from the California High-Speed Rail Authority the “train to nowhere” and are urging federal authorities to stop it.
Borden and Corcoran – south of Madera and Fresno respectively – have a combined population of about 25,000. The decision prompted Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced to ask the U.S. Transportation Secretary to intervene.
Rail authority officials held months of meetings to discuss whether to build the first segment of the statewide bullet-train line between Fresno and either Merced or Bakersfield.
Corcoran is perhaps best known for the state prison where Charles Manson is locked up. Borden, meanwhile, is an unincorporated community for which the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t even keep official population estimates.
This causes more confusion for Gilroy on the time frame for construction. CHSRA board member Rod Diridon said in November that if the Merced to Fresno section were to be built, then a second extension to be constructed would be from Merced to San Jose – running through Gilroy.
The bullet-train is slated for full operation in 2020 with routes from Sacramento to San Diego with connections to the Bay Area.
Gilroy still has to wait for the project-level Environmental Impact Report that the CHSRA said will answer most of Gilroy’s questions.
But it is not due until the summer, said Gilroy City Engineer Don Dey. Hence the budget request by the city.
Dey said the study that would result from the grant will help the city decide on the best rail alignment for Gilroy. The CHSRA has narrowed the options to two alignments. It will either align with the current Union Pacific tracks and run through the downtown corridor or cut through the rural area east of U.S. 101. A combination of the two routes is also possible.
“The concern is that we don’t want HSRA coming in and saying, ‘well, we’ve selected the station here,’ and in six months we have to react,” Dey said. “We have a limited time to react and if we don’t do our homework we can’t respond adequately.”
If the budget allocation is approved, Dey said the city would be working with Hexagon – a San Jose-based transportation engineering company – to draft the grant application.
For further studies related to the bullet train, the city already works with Hexagon and two other companies: Rail experts Hatch Mott MacDonald, based in Millburn New Jersey, and EMC Planning Group of Monterey for environmental impact studies. The $150,000 sum asked of City Council is based on past billing for traffic studies with these companies, said Dey.
Tucker understands the urgency of applying for a grant. She said she is on the fence for approving the whole amount, but would consider giving a thumbs up for the $37,000 price tag.
“They haven’t answered any of our questions and I just don’t want to be throwing money out without them coming to the table,” Tucker said. “I don’t know what kind of message that gives. (They’ll say) ‘we don’t have to give them any money because they’re paying for it.’ ”
