|
|
Would you like to join with other AIA volunteers in following the decisions of four groups of elected officials that make decisions about Alamo's roads?
Your role would be to receive an agenda for a monthly meeting of one of these groups -- the TWIC, the SWAT, the CCTA, or the TVTC -- and to review it for agenda items that affect Alamo. If you saw such an item, you would attend the meeting, or alternate attendance with another AIA volunteer, and report decisions made in the meeting to your fellow volunteers.
Other AIA volunteers would be available to answer your questions and give other support.
In some instances, if you wished, you would also speak about the wishes of Alamo residents regarding the agenda item during the public speaking portion of the meeting.
The TWIC, the SWAT, the CCTA, and the TVTC are acronyms for more formal names. All groups are public bodies that meet in public sessions that are not generally well attended by members of the public or the press.
The Transportation, Water & Infrastructure Committee is a two-member committee of the five-member Contra Costa Board of Supervisors. The 2009 TWIC monthly meetings are generally on a Monday at 10:30 AM at the County Administration Building in Martinez, but the Mondays fluctuate. The TWIC discusses and makes recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on all matters of County infrastructure, including County roads. Usually, these recommendations are accepted by the Board, which often passes them on the "consent" calendar -- meaning that the Board votes on all consent items in one "yes" vote and doesn't discuss them publicly.
The Southwest Area Transportation Committee is a sub-group of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (below) and makes decisions about roads and transportation that pertain to SWAT's member jurisdictions. The SWAT includes an elected city council member from each of the cities of Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Danville, and San Ramon, and an elected member of the County Board of Supervisors. The County member represents Alamo. The 2009 SWAT monthly meetings are first Mondays at 3 PM at Lafayette City Hall.
The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is the transportation decision-making government entity for all jurisdictions in Contra Costa County. Its Board of Directors is made up of an elected city council member from each of the nineteen cities in Contra Costa County and a member from the County. The County member represents Alamo. Each member has "veto power" for his or her jurisdiction, but there is no veto power for Alamo because Alamo is not a jurisdiction. The CCTA Board meets monthly on third Wednesdays at 6 PM at CCTA offices in Pleasant Hill.
The CCTA manages allocation of revenue from the county half-cent sales tax for transportation to the nineteen cities and the County. It also manages the county Growth Management Program, which requires every jurisdiction to implement a traffic mitigation project within its borders that is funded -- even if it requires a change to the General Plan -- or risk losing its share of half-cent sales tax revenue.
The Tri-Valley Transportation Council is an agreement among the five cities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore, and the counties of Contra Costa and Alameda, to fund projects that mitigate traffic impacts of new development. It is made up of an elected member of each city council and each county. The Contra Costa County member represents Alamo. Each TVTC member has veto power.
The TVTC makes decisions about which proposed local traffic projects will be implemented, and where, to mitigate traffic impacts of new development that often occurs elsewhere. It also sets fees on the new development to pay for the mitigation projects. As above, the Contra Costa jurisdictions are subject to loss of their half-cent sales tax revenue if they do not implement a project that receives TVTC funding. The TVTC meets quarterly at San Ramon City Hall.
These four entities have total decision-making power over Alamo roads. The proposed widening of the Stone Valley Road/Danville Boulevard intersection, aka the "Ultimate Configuration", so unpopular with Alamo residents, germinated in the public, scantly attended meetings of the TWIC, SWAT, CCTA, and TVTC. It appeared only on the consent agenda of the more well-attended meetings of the Board of Supervisors. It still appears in the current County roads plan (CRIPP), but only by title, so that without historical knowledge of the project, the reader cannot know what it actually is.
Alamo is not represented as a jurisdiction on any of these entities. So a particular danger to Alamo is that if a project unpopular with Alamo residents is funded, it still must be implemented -- because the County, which represents Alamo, would not risk its half-cent sales tax revenue by rejecting the project funding.
The Transportation Committee of the AIA has a long history of tracking local government roads proposals in Alamo. If you would like to be part of this effort, please contact us. We invite your participation!
|
|
