New Bill Would Oust CA High-Speed Rail Board

All nine board members of the controversial California High-Speed Rail Authority may have to find new jobs if a bill introduced Friday by Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) is signed into law.

The bill, SB 517, would disband the beleaguered group and replace it with members who have specific expertise, and who agree to new ethical requirements and are subject to more administrative accountability.

“The high-speed rail project is the most complex transportation project ever undertaken by the state. As a supporter, I believe the project would be better served if the board members had specific expertise,” said Lowenthal.

The new board of directors would include a financial expert, an environmental specialist, an attorney familiar with construction law, an engineer with expertise with megaprojects, a business person, and representatives from local government and labor.

Lowenthal said that the backlash against the High-Speed Rail Authority began here in Palo Alto, where residents who had originally enthusiastically supported the project turned against it when they felt their voices were being ignored.

“It was really a disaster the way the way they came into tell Palo Alto and said they were going to build a 30-foot berm,” said Lowenthal, “and people said not in our community, and I think it really highlighted to me the need for the High-Speed Rail Authority to be responsive to the needs of the community.”

The High-Speed Rail Authority has similarly indicated it would create an aerial structure through Burlingame for the train. Burlingame leaders have worked with officials from Palo Alto and other concerned cities to express their disagreement with the building and environmental plans put in place by the authority.

The new authority would be accountable to the secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency—an appointee of the governor.

Having board members with greater expertise has also been strongly advocated by Palo Alto-based .

“I think it’s a serious effort to make this a body that’s appropriate to the task,” said CARRD co-founder Elizabeth Alexis. “It’s a big job.”

Alexis noted that having an environmentalist on the board, for example, is “a big deal in the Central Valley.”

Lowenthal hopes that the bill, if passed, will help restore faith in the $43 billion project among Peninsula residents.

“Up until now, people on the Peninsula thought the High-Speed Rail Authority acted in an arrogant manner by coming in and telling people what was gonna happen,” he said. “Decisions were made to meet the needs of the high-speed rail decision makers.”