Governance of the Valley Transportation Authority is outmoded,
and it’s time the VTA put it’s outmoded management model
permanently in the garage and roll out a new design.
Governance of the Valley Transportation Authority is outmoded, and it’s time the VTA put it’s outmoded management model permanently in the garage and roll out a new design.
A recent seizure of power to keep South County representation on the VTA Board constant demonstrates why it’s time to shift gears.
The VTA Board consists of 12 members, divided into five groups based on city boundaries within Santa Clara County. Since the VTA was evolved in 1995, the members of each group have rotated their representatives to serve as full-time board members and alternates for two-year terms.
But Gilroy City Councilman Perry Woodward teamed up with Morgan Hill City Councilman Greg Sellers earlier this month to vote to switch up the usual rotation for the Board seat they share with the city of Milpitas. Bob Livengood, mayor of Milpitas, cried foul calling the move “unprecedented” and labeled it an effort to “disenfranchise” the people of Milpitas for the sake of South County’s political gain.
The truth is South County and Milpitas have little in common from a transportation standpoint and should not be lumped together in some tortured fashion to simulate real representation.
Be that as it may, the groups also meet separately from the full board, usually once a month, and at this month’s meeting of the local group, known as “Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Milpitas,” or “MGM,” only two of the three members – Sellers and Woodward – were present. The South County pair appointed Woodward as the alternate board member for 2009, even though based on the pattern of rotation followed by group members for more than a decade, it would have been Milpitas’ year to hold the alternate’s seat.
The traditional schedule has a representative from Milpitas taking over that seat, but due to recent rule changes the past rotation schedule is no longer binding in selecting board members.
Sometimes it takes a crisis to promote action. Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Milpitas should all have a voice on the VTA Board. The VTA has a $363 million budget with about 2,100 employees, numbers that should never leave anyone unrepresented. Perhaps what we need is a directly elected VTA Board, perhaps Santa Clara County Supervisors should be running the agency. What’s clear is that a new model is needed, a model that gives all county areas a voice.
