09/26/2007: "letter of comment to SANDAG in re recent SDMTS fare increase"

Sept. 26, 2007

SANDAG Transportation Committee
The Honorable Jim Madaffer, Chair
Fare Public Hearing
401 B Street
Suite 800
San Diego, CA 92101

Dear Mr. Madaffer:

We are the Southern California Transit Advocates, a non-profit organization working to improve public transportation in the Southern California region. We are disappointed that the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (SDMTS) adopted the fare increases in its August budget deliberations without soliciting any public input, thus making your role in the fare increases essentially ministerial.

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While a fare increase may be justified, different scenarios should have been presented to the public for their input. The current fare increase appears to place a disproportionate impact on suburban San Diego County, where Premium Express Bus fares and Local Bus fares are set to rise at a higher percentage than the rest of the system. SANDAG's public outreach efforts do not include any meetings in Eastern San Diego County, where the most impact occurs. It is also unclear what, if any authority SANDAG has to revise the fare increase without submitting it again to the SDMTS board.

The SDMTS's role in "pre-approving" the fare increase also appears to violate the spirit of federal regulations requiring public input for fare changes. News media such as the San Diego Union Tribune have indicated that the fare increase was approved and would go into effect in January, thus indicating that there is no more opportunity for riders to comment. While many agency boards approve proposed fare increases for submittal to the public, none have the Board ratifying a budget stating a specific fare increase before the public hearing for that fare increase is held. Failure to adopt the fare increase would put SDMTS in a budget bind, but the public's opinions should have been solicited prior to the budget being approved, as was the case at Los Angeles County MTA, Riverside Transit Authority, and other transit properties throughout the state and nation. In addition, the time frame of the fare increase hearings do not provide any time for staff to reconsider or rework its fare increases before the Board must approve a fare increase.

Therefore, we respectfully respect that the SANDAG Transportation Committee delay its first reading of the Fare Increase Ordinance until all public comment has been considered and responded to. In the future, agencies should also incorporate any service changes or fare increase hearings in their budgeting process, rather than having hearings after the fact. That way, a menu of options can be presented to riders who may then express their preferences. SANDAG should also solicit more input from the areas directly affected.

We appreciate your consideration of these comments.


Respectfully


Dana Gabbard
Esecutive Secretary