High Cost Rail - Part 63 Taking it to Sac'to

Yesterday was a big day in Sacramento as the "new" business plan for High Cost Rail was unveiled at the High Cost Fail Authority's board meeting.  A number of B'gamers attended and spoke--all opposed--along with about 75 other members of the public.  Courtesy of one of the main watchdogs, here is a bit of a synopsis with links for more detail:

Cal Watchdog wrote an excellent summary of the nearly 2 hours of public comment at yesterday’s High Speed Rail Authority board meeting. Considering that the HSRA does not include public comment in their meeting minutes – which exacerbates the feeling of not being heard or acknowledged – this article performs a great public service of documenting these 60-second attempts to convey more than a sound bite.

Although Cal Watchdogger Katy Grimes quoted a full two dozen speakers, it was the necessary tip of the iceberg. For example, CARRD commented that they're using the same broken ridership models and that the Funding Plan which the board voted to approve may have trouble meeting its legal requirements. 

The HSRA will upload the board meeting video at: http://cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/2011_November.aspx

Cal Watchdog’s article and intro: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/11/04/hundreds-critique-rail-plan-at-meeting/

“Board Chairman Thomas Umberg announced at the beginning of the meeting that there were so many who had signed up to give public comments, there would only be 90 seconds allowed for each person to speak.  Before the public comments were finished, Umberg reduced the time allotted for comments to just 60 seconds."

“And speak they did. People traveled from Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford and towns throughout Kings County. They came from San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula, well-prepared with facts, figures and research, to tell the HSR board why the “boondoggle” rail plan should be shelved.

“There were only two of the usual city government brown-nosers in attendance, asking to partner with the Rail Authority to make sure that rail came through their cities.”

Congratulations to all who dedicated a day to voice their opinions and participate in the process, and thank you, Ms. Grimes, for such thorough coverage!

As we dig into the new $99 Billion dollar business plan that includes flip-flops on reusing parts of existing track as well as another fictitous ridership plan, we'll continue our coverage which you can check out here.

Comments

[Joe]

This is really, really rich. Let's see if you read any mention of this in any of your local newspapers. At least most of them read the Voice and may pick it up from here. From a friend in the Central Valley:

There is an interesting video below. As you can see, two CHP policemen are approaching Mr. Olivera at the request of the Chairman to remove him from the microphone.

What has this country come to when the Occupy Wall Street protesters are allowed to take over communities and trash them without consequence, but in this case, the citizens in Central California are threatened with police actions when trying to express their point of view for less than 2 minutes in a public forum about High Speed Rail and its devastating effect on their lives?


Subject: Fwd: Board Meeting Video

Hi Everyone,

We had very good day today at the CHSRA Board meeting. The Authority was again frazzled with the presence of probably over 100 people there to speak in opposition to the project. We owe a great deal of thanks to Frank Olivera for setting the event up for us. We had many new faces traveling with us and many people joining us from all over the State.

The Chairman Tom Umberg again could not manage the meeting very well and fumbled his way through the meeting. Someone should comment at a meeting that he is not "Chairman" material since he cannot even manage a public meeting. He initially gave all speakers 1.5 minutes to speak. Approximately 50 speakers went up for 1.5 minutes and when Mr. Umberg realized that the stack of cards he had were all from Kings County he announced that all speakers would only get 1 minute. This again shows his poor judgement being that he has had major issues with Kings County and allowing the appropriate public comment to take place. In Bakersfield he denied approximately 15 people from speaking from Kings County.

Frank was not happy with the restriction on time and gave the following speech. You will also see the completly inappropriate action that Chairman Umberg responded with and I should note that Frank did not go that long over time. Many people went much further over their time limits without any intervention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf693EF6Xy8

Please pass this along to your friends and family to show how the California High Speed Rail Authority is not concerned about Kings County. They see us as cheap dirt, and it is going to take the entire population of Kings County to stand up and say "NO" we count and you will not treat us like dirt.

[jennifer]

And then amazingly, as if they hadn't heard anything said in the preceding two hours, they went about their business and unanimously approved the funding plan for both segments adjacent to the Central Valley piece.

[jennifer]

Our own Charles Voltz--always good for a zinger.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/05/great-news-98-billion-estimate-for-california-high-speed-rail-is-lowball/

[Joe]

And behold, on Nov 5th of 2011, our very own Mercury Times finally figures it out!!!!!

Mercury News editorial: High speed rail is a great idea we simply cannot afford now
Mercury News Editorial

Posted: 11/05/2011 08:00:00 PM PDT

High-speed rail is a visionary idea that California today simply cannot afford.

This is a painful conclusion. We supported the $9.95 billion bond measure that voters approved for the project in 2008. We remained hopeful despite the High Speed Rail Authority's arrogance in dealing with communities and its lack of a credible business plan.

The plan announced last week is by far the most realistic, breaking the project into segments and taking advantage of existing commuter lines like Caltrain.

But the cost is now $98.5 billion -- more than double the $45 billion estimate in the 2008 ballot pamphlet. It no longer includes connections to Sacramento and San Diego, leaving just the line from Los Angeles to San Francisco -- and it pushes completion of that line out to 2034 instead of 2020. (end of excerpt)

Let's leave aside that they blew the original Prop 1A estimate (it was $33B not $45) at least they have started to do some of the same comparisons to other budget items like parks and schools that some of us figured out years ago. Belated kudos to the Times.

[JF]

I like the 98.5 billion price tag. Sounds so much better than $100 billion! And we'll throw in an electrified Caltrain absolutely free! Act now as supplies are limited.