A behind-the-scenes look at the news of Claremont, CA. We focus on city hall, city staff, and the so-called "Claremont 400" or "Preserve Claremonters" or "Claremonsters", those goofy, too-serious, power types that run most of the town's service organizations, charities, and city commissions. Claremont is indeed a unique place, and we'll try to bring a flavor of that absurd "uniqueness" to the outside world, as well as spotlighting some of the finer things about our city and region.
Showing posts with label Foothill Transit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foothill Transit. Show all posts
You've probably heard by now about that fatal motorcycle versus bus accident at Foothill Blvd. and Mountain Ave. on Monday afternoon. According to the Daily Bulletin, the Foothill Transit bus involved had no passengers at the time of the incident.
The Claremont PD hasn't released the driver's name yet. Here's what the City's website had:
Fatal Traffic Collision
Claremont Police Department received numerous 9-1-1 calls around 3:18 pm reporting a collision between a Foothill Transit bus and a motorcycle at the intersection of Foothill Bl. and Mountain Ave.
Responding officers found the rider of the motorcycle suffering from wounds to the head and legs and rendered first aid until LA County Fire personnel arrived on scene. The Foothill Transit bus had no riders on board at the time of the collision. The Foothill Transit driver was not injured. The motorcycle rider was transported by ambulance to Pomona Valley Hospital for treatment. The victim later died from his injuries. His name is being withheld at this time until notification of next of kin. The LA County Coroner's Office is handling those notifications. The Claremont Police Department is currently investigating the collision.
Yes, folks, it's time for another edition of the biweekly tragicomedy, The Claremont City Council. In tonight's episode: Behind Closed Doors - secret talk about our men in blue. More specifically, our costly men in blue.
As this is being written, the regular session has begun, and you can watch it all here.
Among the hot topics tonight are:
New paratransit vehicles - four at a cost of $305,261.64 from the city's transit funds.
Trash contracts - two, one for recyclable material processing and one for solid waste transfer.
Funding for community-based organizations and for homeless programs.
The council is also considering a ban on smoking in outdoor public places in Claremont. We're not sure where this one came from.
Smoking used to have a friend in the film industry, but that's no longer the case. Bogart's Rick in Casablanca would have a hard time taking a drag in or out of his Café Américain nowadays. AMC's Mad Men gets away with a good deal of smoking, though it isn't necessarily romanticized, and Jim Jarmusch would have to retitle Cigarettes and Coffee. Come to think of it, if China Forbes comes to Claremont, she would need to think twice before launching into "Sympathique" (....Je veux seulement l'oublier/Et puis je fume.)
We haven't a clue as to how Wim Wenders would recast the Peter Falk's cigarette and coffee scene in Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1987). For those of you don't know the film, Falk explains some of the life's pleasures to the unseen angel Damiel, played by Bruno Ganz:
(If the film seems familiar, it was made into the really awful Nicholas Cage-Meg Ryan vehicle City of Angels in 1998.)
UPDATE, 8:20PM: The council just rejected the outdoor smoking ban, thanks in no small part to the Tessier brothers, Ed and Jerry, whose Arteco Partners refurbished and rebuilt the Packing House and the Padua Hills Theatre. The Tessiers reminded the council that restaurants like Casablanca with its hookahs and Nancy Tessier's Hip Kitty rely on customers who like to step outside for a smoke. Ed Tessier also mentioned the fact that wedding goers at the Padua Theatre often step out onto the patio for a cigar (not in fire season, we hope).
Councilmember Yao seemed a bit perturbed at the Community Services Commission, which approved of the ban and forwarded the issue to the council. Yao was bothered that none of the commissioners consulted with the council before referring the matter to the council. Yao and councilmember Corey Calaycay were also bothered by what they felt was an attempt to legislate behavior.
Mayor Linda Elderkin and Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza were torn between not wanting to appear anti-business and the risk of displeasing their left-leaning supporters, many of whom were in favor of the outdoor smoking ban. Pedroza seemed particularly uncomfortable, giving his long, tongue-tied Sammy explanation for his vote. Councilmember Larry Schroeder was the only one who seemed to be in favor of the proposed ordinance.
Communitarian and Fourth of July Committee member Ed Reece, by the way, spoke in favor of of the ban, saying he was a cancer survivor. Frankly, Reece being for anything is usually enough evidence for us to vote against it.
The Sacramento Bee reports Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the states four legislative leaders (the Big Five) have reach a tentative budget agreement that will close the projected $42 billion budget gap through the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year.
The Bee says:
The plan includes $15.8 billion in spending cuts, $14.3 billion in taxes and $10.9 billion in borrowing, according to a budget outline obtained by The Bee.
Leaders are counting on federal stimulus money as the package approaches closure in Washington. If California receives at least $10 billion, more than half of that money -- $5.5 billion -- would eliminate the need for a short-term loan, while $1.8 billion would eliminate taxes and $1.2 billion would eliminate spending cuts.
The plan would raise sales taxes by 1 cent on the dollar, increase income taxes across the board and hike the vehicle license fee from the current 0.65 percent of the vehicle's value to 1.15 percent. The taxes would last a minimum of two years. If the federal stimulus money arrives, the income tax increase would be reduced.
The proposal would cut the state's dependent credit in half, raising taxes for parents and those who take care of elders.
According to the Bee, the state legislature will vote on the agreement Friday, though a few details have yet to be worked out. The Bee's article also states that the deal will rely on $10.9 billion in more borrowing, this time against future state lottery revenues. The borrowing will have to be approved by California voters.
There will also be a $8.9 billion cut in state education spending, though Sacramento will ask voters to change state law to allow the cuts in education to be restored at a later date. $5 billion of education cuts will come from K-12 spending (Claremont Unified better batten down the hatches). The state will also completely cut funding for local transit agencies - this means you, Foothill Transit.
In addition, Schwazenegger would get some of the changes in state environmental laws he has sought to spur construction. Another concession to Republicans is the institution of a state spending cap and the creation of a rainy-day fund.
We received a response to yesterday's post about the Gold Line that pointed out that readers might come away with the mistaken opinion that Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is opposed to extending the Gold Line from Pasadena to Claremont.
In fact, Antonovich has been supportive of the extension, as a recent editorial by the supervisor demonstrates. In the piece, Antonovich argues for equitable revenue sharing for the $40 billion or so that would be generated by a proposed half-cent increase in Los Angeles County sales tax that would fund transportation projects in the county.
Antonovich points out that in 2006 California voters passed the $19.9 billion Proposition 1B transportation bond partly with the help of residents and elected officials from so-called county subregions like the San Gabriel Valley. (In Claremont, Prop. 1B funds will be used to pay for the Claremont Trolley.)
Antonovich writes that once Prop. 1B passed, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) gave the lion's share of the fund allocated to the county to projects in the City of Los Angeles:
So what happened? Prop 1B passed and Los Angeles city took over 48 percent of the $3.16 billion in funding the county received from bond categories designed for highway, rail, bus, streets, roads and traffic signal synchronization projects.
By contrast, the San Gabriel Valley only received 5 percent of this funding, the South Bay Cities 2 percent, the West San Fernando Valley Cities 0.05 percent and the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys 0.7 percent.
This result was well below these subregions’ fair share of funding based on any measurement of equity, most notably population. Once again, they were a victim of Los Angeles city’s greed.
From the three major Prop 1B funding categories for highways, transit and traffic signal synchronization, the city of Los Angeles took home a whopping 61 percent, 52 percent and 94 percent of the county’s share, respectively.
So, the Gold Line's fate is now linked to the successful passage of a half-cent county sales tax increase in November. Unfortunately, MTA is once again in charge of the allocation of those funds, and there is no guarantee that money would be shared fairly with residents outside of the city of Los Angeles. Antonovich says in his article that voters in the San Gabriel Valley, who passed Prop. 1B with 70-percent of the vote, may not feel like getting burned again - fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
There are other problems facing the proposed sales tax measure, as an article in the Daily Bulletin notes. The measure must be approved by the MTA board at its meeting next Thursday, July 24th, and then it a similar version must be approved by the state legislature. All this must be done before the August 8th deadline to get the measure to the county for the November ballot.
The Bulletin article laid out the possible roadblocks to getting the sales tax measure on the ballot:
The county version of the measure might not get passed at next week's MTA meeting, either. Several board members of the MTA said they had objections to the expenditure plan that still needed to be worked out.
Michael Cano, the transportation deputy for county supervisor and MTA board member Michael Antonovich, said his boss would introduce amendments to the proposed ordinance at the meeting.
He said Antonovich wants language that guarantees each region receives a percentage of the sales tax money that is equal to the percentage of the county's population in each region.
The San Gabriel Valley is currently allocated 16.4 percent of the money, while the MTA estimates it has 18.3 percent of the region's residents.
Cano added that the MTA should commit to funding the full $1.4 billion cost of the Gold Line.
He said Antonovich also has concerns that projects on the expenditure list that are not yet approved, like the 710 Freeway tunnel, might end up not being built.
Antonovich will likely not vote for the measure in its current form, said Cano. If the measure does not get passed next week, he said, the only recourse will be for the board to schedule an emergency meeting before the Aug. 8 deadline.
Part of the opposition the MTA and the City of Los Angeles might face in getting this sales tax increase passed is the result a blowback against MTA's track record of project mismanagement and waste (and in some cases accusations of possible fraud) and LA's record of stiffing its neighbors.
Of course, another problem is that what's really needed to move people effectively from the our area to Pasadena and Los Angeles is not a light-rail but a real commuter train like the Metrolink. As the Foothill Transit board could tell you, in a city like Paris, to get to many areas outside the city you take a regional express train (the RER). The smaller metro trains are used mostly for shorter hauls, like a bus system on rails.
But, the Gold Line is what we're left with, so we'll have to take what we can get. Or just choose not to have it.
You've got to credit the nine-member delegation from Foothill Transit to the "conference" [note scare quotes] in Lyon, France for their diligence and good communication. They wrap up their business today and travel back to the U.S. tomorrow. However, they did manage to get off a brief postcard:
click on either image for a slightly larger version
We have received a brief communication from the 9-member Foothill Transit Delegation to Paris and other points in France. They spent the Fourth of July in Rouen, the capital city of Normandie province. The Executive Director of Foothill Transit, Doran Barnes, says that Rouen is very like the Foothill Transit service area.
Now, since we haven't had the advantages of foreign travel that Director Barnes is having, we'll leave it to him to elaborate on the similarities at the next Foothill Transit meeting after his return. So far as we can tell--and we're no experts--the chief similarities are that they both use buses and have a system map, though not the same buses nor the same map. Oh. And they are both managed by French companies.
We have covered the French adventure here, and here. The Foothill Cities Blog contributes an explanation by Foothill Transit in comment 2 of this post.
Darold Pieper, agency general counsel, who valiantly is on the clock every business day, contributed this note on Friday's activities:
Hi Everybody: We are really busy, so I will just send two transit-related pictures from Rouen.
We saw this bus of the TEOR system. It takes a country mile to turn around, which in French they say hectare du pays. Doran is figuring it will be perfect for the Claremont Trolley Route.
Dave Reyno tried this form of public transit in Rouen. Ha Ha.
Today, for you Stay-at-Homes, our delegation of nine (9) Foothill Transit employees, board members, general counsel, and alternate reports on a visit to the Veolia Environnement Campus outside Paris, France. Veolia is the French company hired by the Foothill Transit Board to manage its operations here in the Foothill area. For example, Doran Barnes, Executive Director of Foothill Transit, is a Vice-President of Veolia Transportation, the contractor. Similarly, all the other "employees" of Foothill Transit--at least on the management side--are really employees of Veolia. The operations (of the actual buses) are similarly contracted out to other vendors. For simplicity (at the expense of absolute accuracy) we have and will refer to such workers as "employees".
Since our post of yesterday, the Foothill Cities Blog posted a comment from Felicia Friesema, a representative of Foothill Transit, which includes the information that our post of yesterday was in error: There are nine (9) representatives from Foothill Transit in France, not eight. Darold Pieper, General Counsel to the agency, is also in Europe with the group. He will be helpful in resolving any legal issues on the application of the Napoleonic Code.
Today, after a good night's rest from the long flight, our plucky group jumped into a cab, or two cabs, or a small bus, and headed for the outskirts of Paris to visit the "Mother Church" of Veolia. This visit was followed by dinner back in Paris at a fine Parisan restaurant.
This is our information on the day's events, which we deem reliable but which cannot be guaranteed:
Just a quick note and a few pictures to let "The Folks Back Home" know a little bit about our fabulous Parisan tour. After a very interesting night, about which the less said the better, Thursday was working day with a visit to the Veolia Campus. There we saw some buses so that qualified this trip as "business". Doran got his instructions for the year from the senior Veolia management; what with the dollar down against the euro, we will be needing to report more profit back up to headquarters. We think Peggy and Roger will go along with this because they really got the first-class treatment and the gift of those fine wines won't hurt a bit. Gallic hospitality.
We went to the "transportation campus" of Veolia and Doug Tessitor got to drive a bus. Luckily, they have a good crane and they will get it turned back upright by tomorrow they assure us. It's a mistake anyone could make.
Even though they have a great cafeteria on the Veolia Campus, we went back into Paris for dinner. For the nine of us and for our Veolia hosts and minders the bill came to just over 2,000 euros. Ever the gracious guest, Doran pulled out the Foothill transit credit card. He is so generous.
After all this hard work, it is lucky we have an open day Saturday after a visit to Rouen tomorrow. Remember, Rouen is just like the Foothill cities. Except it is really scenic, old, exotic, and it is in France.
Thanks to you on the home front for making this possible.
We are told by one of our readers that Foothill Transit, our local bus agency, has sent eight (8) representatives to a two-day conference in France. [update Thursday: actually, nine representatives. Darold Pieper, agency general counsel went to Europe, too] This is the same agency that recently had to increase bus fares for the low-income or environmentally-conscious folks who use the bus system. At first we found this unbelievable, and frankly dismissed it as a crank complaint.
However, we are always open to new information, and the new information is that the old information was true. The group left on Tuesday, July 1, and will return on Wednesday, July 9.
The 8-person Foothill contingent is made up of three elected officials, Peggy Delach (chair of the Executive Committee and Covina councilmember), Roger Chandler (member of the Executive Committee and Arcadia councilmember), and Doug Tessitor (member representative from Glendora and Glendora councilmember). Two senior staff members are attending: Doran Barnes, the Executive Director, and David Reyno, the Director of Government Relations. In addition, there are three worker bees getting the nod for this plum trip: Arciela Lopez (transit store manager), Dietter Aragon (planning), and Gary Nehls (procurement). You, the bus riders and taxpayers who subsidize Foothill Transit (3 dollars in subsidy for every dollar paid into the farebox) are lucky to have these eight hard-working representatives doing your work in Paris, Rouen, Lyon, and St. Etienne. One can only imagine the things they will see and do. In fact, we here at the Insider do imagine these things, starting with this email from Doran Barnes back to the folks at headquarters:
From: Doran Barnes Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 3:48 PM (France time, Oooh-La-La) To: Michael De La Torre; Lola Storing; Paula Lantz; Cc: Kevin McDonald; Christina Lopez; Darold Pieper; Doran Barnes; Bob Arthur; Claremont Insider Subject: FTA Public Private Partnership Conference in Lyon, France
Friends Back Home at Foothill Transit
Boy that was a long flight, but we landed safe and sound at Charles De Gaulle Airport (he was an important Frenchman). And now our little group (except for Dave; we lost him somewhere) is now safe and sound in our swell hotel with a nice view of the Arc d'Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.
Sweet.
At the April Executive Board meeting, the Executive Board considered sending representatives to participate in a Public-Private Partnership Conference that will be held in Lyon, France. the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the American Public Transportation Association, and The Embassy of France are collaborating on an international workshop on public private partnerships in the public transportation industry July 6-8 in Lyon and Saint-Etienne, France. The workshop will focus on how to fast-track new projects with partnerships that include private sector financing as well as private sector responsibilities for turnkey design, construction and operation of the project. We are not sure how fast tracking new projects in France relates to the Foothill Cities, but with eight [nine, actually]of us here, and with the fine wines and all, we know we can figure it out.
The Board took action to authorize the Executive Board Members and Executive Board Alternates to attend this event. Don't look for any information about this boondoggle on the Internet; our sponsors are smarter than that. We only distribute this information on a "need to know" basis. It slipped by at the APTA with a cryptic reference, here.
We do anticipate that a Board Member will be making a presentation at the Workshop on the Foothill Transit experience (even now, with the session only 5 days away, we are a little unsure whom that will be). We are planning to include site visits to the City of Rouen and the Veolia Environment Campus as part of this trip. Rouen is a very interesting city in that it shares many characteristics with the Foothill Transit service area. I can hardly wait to get back and tell you what those are.
In the meantime, this email contains a few pictures we took at Charles de Gaulle Airport. We last saw Dave Reyno in this igloo... Thanks! Doran
Doran Barnes Executive Director Foothill Transit ph: 626.931.7200 fx: 626.915.1143 100 South Vincent Ave., Suite 200 West Covina, CA 91790
The LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted yesterday to leave Phase I of the Gold Line Foothill Extension off its Long Range Transportation Plan. This means that the first part of the extension, from Pasadena to Azusa, will not only not receive $80 million of county money, but will also lose out on a $320 million federal grant because that money had been dependent on the county providing some matching funds.
The extension will now have to wait until November to see if a possible ballot measure for a half-cent county sales tax increase passes. In the best case, the Gold Line Extension's construction start is pushed back a year.
The FC Blog has the a full discussion. One comment raised an interesting question. With all the transit-oriented development planned around the Gold Line extension's stations, what happens if it doesn't come through.
[Update, 9:30 p.m. We hear from a reader that the Foothill Transit Board didn't take the smack in the face from the MTA very well. MTA sent a representative to the Foothill Transit Board meeting this morning (Friday) in West Covina. Seems the MTA wanted approval by the Foothill Transit Board of some cockamamie plan--you'd have to figure such things originate in Washington--to turn the HOV lanes on the 10 and 210 freeways in to TOLL lanes. This is the so-called Congestion Reduction Demonstration Initiative. Well, the Foothill Transit Board was having none of it. Pomona College graduate and Pomona City Councilmember (and Foothill Transit Executive Board member) Paula Lantz opened up on the hapless representative, who was reduced to citing a poll of poor people saying that 80% of them supported the toll lanes because--we're not kidding--they hoped someday to have enough money to use them.
Ms. Lantz brought three of her colleagues with her, and the motion to support MTA's pursuit of the Federal Congestion $$$ failed, 4-1.
Apparently there is NO support in the San Gabriel Valley Legislative Caucus for this crazy plan, which will accomplish nothing so much as grinding the regular freeway lanes to a stop. How much intelligence does it take to figure out if you want people off the freeway, those people need an alternative?--like the Gold Line. This plan is to nothing more than one to turn the left lane into a profit center.
Kudos to Lantz for pointing out the elephant in the room.]
The two transit lines are competing for the same pot of LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) construction money, but the Expo Line has run into some controversy over street crossings. The Gold Line doesn't face the same sort of problems and is seen as ready to go.
The money hunt is pitting Westside LA against San Gabriel Valley communities, Hymon reported:
The Westside Cities Council of Governments grew sufficiently concerned about the issue that they met last month with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to try to persuade him that funding for Westside projects must come first.
"The fear is that the Gold Line has all its ducks in order and they [the Council of Governments] were worried that the Gold Line could leapfrog over the Expo Line" for money, said Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the far Westside and attended the meeting. "They wanted to make sure the mayor knew the Gold Line couldn't leapfrog ahead of the Expo Line -- that the Expo Line construction time-line is sacred."
The first phase of the Expo Line is under construction from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City. But the line has run into controversy about street crossings that could delay construction of the first phase and delay the second phase from getting underway. The Expo Line will need federal money for its second phase and officials worry it's hard enough without having to compete with a Gold Line extension.
San Gabriel Valley officials have long chafed at the structure of the MTA Board, which gives the most political muscle to the city of Los Angeles and the western half of the county. Now those officials want leverage and have privately hinted that if the Gold Line doesn't get money now, they may not support a prospective ballot measure in November that would raise the sales tax in Los Angeles County by a half-penny to pay for a pile of transit projects.
"The San Gabriel Valley is not without its political clout," said Monrovia Mayor Rob Hammond. (An earlier version of this post incorrectly gave the mayor's last name as Martin.)* "The timing is such that it’s all coming to a head right this minute and part of the agreement that is out there is that the San Gabriel Valley, through the foothill extension, will receive favorable support from members of the MTA Board."
That view is somewhat echoed by MTA board member David Fleming, who was appointed to the board by Villaraigosa.
"We’ve talked to them about this sales tax and told them 'Look, you want our help, we have to have your help,'" Fleming said. "I personally think your extension is a good one and we need it. Part of the consideration for supporting them, they have to support the sales tax, which they agreed to do."
The man in the middle -- both geographically and politically -- is Villaraiogosa. His press office declined to say whether he would vote to give the Gold Line money this month, although the mayor has expressed support for the project in the past. At the same time, he is under pressure to provide mass transit for the Westside and likely needs the sales tax increase if the subway-to-the-sea is to become a reality.
The key to the Gold Line moving forward quickly is it's inclusion in the MTA's Long Range Transportation Plan. A final decision on the plan will be made at the MTA's board meeting on June 26th. If you're interested in attending, you can sign on at the Metro Gold Line's website.
The project is the brainchild of San Francisco photographer Christopher Irion. The first 200 people to show up will get their photos placed into a large mural that will be displayed in the east plaza of the Claremont Packing House beginning December 1st and running through at least December 16th.
The first 200 people get their photos up. No exclusions, no one gets edited out.
_______________________
In other news, Foothill Transit is holding several public meetings to discuss a proposed fare schedule increase. The rising cost of gas and maintenance, along ith a funding cut, has led to the need for the increases.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 6:30PM El Monte Station (Google Map Link) El Monte/ Metro San Gabriel Valley Sector Offices 3449 Santa Anita Ave. El Monte, CA 91731 Take Foothill Transit Lines 178, 269, 481, 482, 486, 488, 492, 494, and the Silver Streak.
Thursday October 25, 2007 6:30PM Pomona Public Library (Google Map Link) Conference Room 625 S. Garey Ave. Pomona, CA 91767 Take Foothill Transit Lines 286, 291, and 480.
Thursday, November 1, 2007 6:30PM Foothill Transit Administrative Office (Google Map Link) 100 S. Vincent Ave, 2nd floor Board Room West Covina, CA 91790 Take Foothill Transit Lines 272, 284, 480, and the Silver Streak.
Comments on the fare increases can also be emailed to 2007@foothilltransit.org, via FAX to 626-967-4608, or by snail mail to the above Foothill Transit Administrative Office address in West Covina. Comments need to be received by November 1st.
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