As mentioned in the last column at the recent Foothill Transit annual meeting it was announced Cluster 3 was unsucessful in electing someone to their seat on the Executive Board. John Fasana of Duarte (who also sits on the MTA Board) was the incumbent. From what I overheard of the Cluster meeting one Councilman brought up objections of various sorts (this fellow was one of the 2-3 councilman attending the meeting who seemed to be naysayers) and perhaps ran against Fasana and caused a tie vote (?) Another election was held before the May 27 Executive Board meeting and the summary on the Foothill website indicates this time Mr. Fasana was elected to Cluster 3's seat on the Board. As far as I can tell this received zero coverage in the media.

Also last month I noted Foothill Transit is reconsidering plans to move its headquarters to Glendora, where Foothill would have built a new building. Reporter Karen Rubin in the June 2 San Gabriel Valley Tribune article "Transit agency mulls closer facility instead of Glendora site" revealed Foothill is in talks to possibly stay in West Covina by moving its corporate headquarters to the existing Washington Mutual Bank building.

I wrote MTA Deputy CEO John Catoe inquiring why the Metro Operations Performance Report formerly distributed to the Board each month was discontinued with the Dec. 2004 report. Mr. Catoe in his response explained "As part of Metro's budgeting process to reduce our $100 million deficit, we eliminated positions that were involved in the production and distribution of this report. The copying and distribution of this report was part of this budget reduction process. We will continue however, to provide this information every four months to the Board". This should be a wakeup call to anyone who thinks MTA is crying wolf about its current fiscal woes.

The good news is the Governor is allowing the Prop 42 funds this year go to fund transportation projects (and our members at the May 14 SO.CA.TA meeting signed a letter of thanks to Governor Schwarzenegger). Meanwhile Federal reauthorization is a mixed bag: California is well represented on the conference committee that will try to hash out differences between the Senate and House bills. But the impasse continues between the Senate and White House over whether the total spending should be $283.9 billion or $295 billion with the President threatening a veto of any bill larger than the lower amount. And a 7th extension of TEA21 has been passed in the interim.

When Howard Fine of the Los Angeles Business Journal for the May 30 article "Santa Ana Freeway Widening May Move Into Fast Lane" contacted me for a quote on the plans to widen I-5 in southern L.A. County, I inwardly groaned. I have long lamented this billion dollar project motivated in part by a bottleneck created when the segment of the freeway widened in Orange County shrinks down at the L.A. County boundary. But I tried to moderate my tone in making comments given the project appears a done deal: "There is a bottleneck there and I understand that. But we shouldn't fool ourselves though. The new lanes will fill up just as soon as they open and it will be just as congested". I went out of my way to urge Fine contact boosters of the project and I was gratified he included a paragraph by Steve Finnegan of the Auto Club. Why would I make an effort to make sure supporters were represented regarding a project I am unenthused about? Because I believe a dialogue from various points of view is important if we can ever hope to seriously grapple with the challenges we face.

I was delighted at the clever Ted Rall cartoon in the May 12 L.A. CityBeat mocking the Anaheim to Vegas Maglev proposal. And was even more delighted to have my letter lauding the cartoon while bashing Vegas maglev and SCAGLEV plus a closing swipe at monorail and personal rapid transit appeared in the May 19 L.A. CityBeat ("Runaway Train").

On a more somber note, my comments on the unexpected recent death of Torrance Transit Director Thomas Whittle appeared in the Ups & Downs column in the May 20 Daily Breeze. As I noted, Whittle will be much missed.

The May 27 L.A. Alternative Press interview with Center Theatre Group's founding director Gordon Davidson ("Curtain Call") on the occasion of his retirement includes some interesting comments by Davidson on how changes in transportation have shaped the cultural landscape: "[In the early 1960s] people didn't complain about traveling, it was 15, 20 minutes from the Westside. I used to go home after a days' work here, in the beginning days, leave at 6, have dinner with my kids, read them a story and come back in time for an 8 o'clock curtain. Now I'm lucky if I go one way. I know it's deterring people [from coming downtown] The city has to solve it. They've not been forwardthinking. I know the subway, there's an attempt, and buses, but it's deeper than that."

At the April 6 meeting of the South Coast Area Transit Board of Directors SCAT General Manager Deborah Linehan made an observation in the aftermath of the recent natural gas disruption: the SCAT Board took the Compressed Natural Gas fuel path in the mid 1990s on the assurance that there would be a reliable supply of high quality gas (high methane, low propane). On that basis a CNG fleet was purchased and CNG fueling station built. The minutes have GM Linehan conclude "Now, ten years down the road the Gas Company indicates that SCAT bus engines should be able to use low methane, high propane gas".

At the May 23 Access Services Board of Directors meeting Executive Director Alan Cantrell in item #15 reiterated the appropriate role of ASI's Community Advisory meetings, where discussions were not focused on the CAC agenda topics, but on personal ridership experiences or general displeasure with the paratransit plan proceedings, as well as discourteous statements made at workshops or CAC subcommittee meetings to or about Access Services staff members, I felt that the CAC had lost its focus and needed to be reminded in person of its official role and responsibilities ... Service complaints are not the purpose of the CAC, and should not become the main focus of every meeting. Following my presentation to the group, I heard from four members of the CAC who thanked me for addressing these issues ... [At past CAC meetings] some discussions were dominated by more vocal members to the point that other members’ viewpoints were not heard. Of particular concern is when the CAC votes to recommend a course of action at one meeting, only to be challenged by CAC members at subsequent meetings who were not present at the initial meeting where the vote took place. Staff and the Chair of the CAC will not permit revisiting of issues unless the item has been properly agendized for reconsideration."

Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in the article "Bay Transit Headed Wrong Way" (SF Chronicle June 3) observes "The real problem isn't that transit is being made less accessible to people ... Society is growing in a way that transit can't support. If we want transit to succeed, we have to live in a different way.''

I'll conclude by noting I had a good laugh at the reaction John Chalker of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce had when asked in the May Metro Investment Report in comparison to San Diego how does he think Los Angeles is handling its airport expansion process: "Well I don't know that L.A. is handling their situation any better than we are handling ours". Brother, Mr. Chalker, you hit the nail right on the head!