Santa Clara County Grand Jury
• 2018-2019
• Agency Response
City of Milpitas*
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 1 findings
F1
Page 1
The VTA Board, currently made up exclusively of elected officials from the Santa Clara County, Board of Supervisors, the City of San Jose and other small cities in the County, suffers from: A lack of experience, continuity and leadership; . Inadequate time for the directors to devote to their duties to the VTA Board due to their primary . focus on the demands of their elected positions; A lack of engagement on the part of some directors, fostered in part by the committee system, . resulting in VTA functioning largely as a staff-driven organization; Domination, in terms of numbers, seniority and influence, by representatives of the Santa Clara . County Board of Supervisors and the City of San Jose; and Frequent tension between the director's fiduciary duties to VTA and its regional role, on the one . hand, and the political demands of their local elected positions, on the other. City of Milpitas Response: The City of Milpitas agrees with this finding. The Valley Transportation Agency (VTA) has expanded far beyond simply providing bus transit . service. Today, the VTA develops and implements bus and light rail systems, regional transportation planning, capital projects such as the BART extension, High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and Express Lanes on County expressways and State routes within the County. The VTA has also recently broadened its involvement in transit-oriented mixed-use housing development and operation of local jurisdiction traffic signals. The efficient leadership and management of VTA, with a broad vision to innovate mobility in the County, requires experienced Board members that have the technical ability and time to devote to remain engaged and provide oversight of the organization.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1c
Page 1
As constituent agencies of VTA, each of the cities in the County should prepare and deliver to VTA and the County Board of Supervisors a written report setting forth its views regarding VTA governance, with specific reference to the elements listed in Recommendation la. These reports should be completed and delivered prior to December 31, 2019. City of Milpitas Response: . The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted at this time. The City of Milpitas requests that VTA provide funding to an appropriate fiscal agent such as a countywide Cities Task Force, to provide the resources needed for a thoughtful discussion of alternatives and positions by cities without designated seats on the VTA Board. This discussion should include the potential support for organizations similar to Councils of Governments that can sustainably represent the interests of multiple municipalities. Once this funding is committed, at least 120 days will be needed to complete the discussion and documentation of perspectives and recommendations to the VTA Board and County Board of Supervisors <b>Recommendation 1d:</b> following the completion of the studies and reports specified in Recommendations la, 1b and 1c, the County of Santa Clara and/or one or more of VTA's other constituent agencies, should propose enabling legislation, including appropriate amendments to Sections 100060 through 100063 of the California Public Utilities Code, to improve the governance structure of VTA (which potentially could include an increase in the directors' term of service, the addition of term limitations and the inclusion of appointed directors who are not currently serving elected officials). City of Milpitas Response: . The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted at this time. As VTA is a countywide agency, the City of Milpitas recommends that the a countywide Cities Task Force be established to take the lead in proposing legislation. The City of Milpitas is open to participating in the review of such potential legislation as appropriate. <b>Recommendation 1e:</b> In order to provide more continuity in the leadership of the VTA Board, following the completion of the studies and reports specified in Recommendations 1a, 1b, and 1c, the County of Santa Clara and/or one or more of VTA's other constituent agencies, should propose enabling legislation amending Section 100061 of the California Public Utilities code to provide that the Chairperson of the VTA Board shall be elected for a term of two years rather than one. City of Milpitas Response: . The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted at this time. As stated in response to Recommendation 1d, as VTA is a countywide agency, City of Milpitas recommends the establishment of a countywide Cities Task Force to take the lead in proposing legislation. The City of Milpitas is open to participating in the review of such potential legislation as appropriate. This completes the City of Milpitas' response per correspondence sent to the City by the Grand Jury dated June 18, 2019 and per Penal Code 933(c). Sincerely, Rich Tran, Mayor City of Milpitas
No Responses Found 2
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Transit Authority
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.