The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has inexplicably extended the deadline by another 30 days for county residents to apply for the so-called “Transit Expert” seat on the nine-member San Mateo County Transit District Board of Directors.
What is a “Transit Expert”? Who knows? The Transit Expert position has never had any defined criteria associated with it and the appointment has always been at the discretion of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
In fact, the only public acknowledgement of the opening to date is buried on the listing of county commission vacancies deep within the San Mateo County government’s web site. Only someone who was actively tracking this would even know where to look. But worse yet, unlike every other commission vacancy listed on the page, the SamTrans Transit Expert post contains no information, no link to detailed information describing what the position entails, what qualifications one may need or even whom to contact to make such an application. The deadline to apply for the unusually classified Transit Expert seat on the SamTrans board is was Dec. 6, 2010 but it has now been extended by another 30 days.
The SamTrans board oversees a $94-plus million annual operating budget and employees 765 people in the county bus, Caltrain and paratransit services for all of San Mateo County. The position pays approximately $400 a month and board members are eligible for health care benefits. The current Transit Expert, Arthur L. Lloyd, has served in the same capacity for nearly 25 years, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 or 9 consecutive terms. Lloyd, 85, is a resident of Portola Valley and is a former Amtrak executive. By virtue of his position on SamTrans, Lloyd also serves as a director of the Peninsula Joint Powers Authority Board which directly oversees Caltrain.
While it is laudable that the Board of Supervisors has extended the filing deadline to hopefully generate greater public interest in applying for the position, the extension has no bearing on the fact that the lack of appropriate criteria and qualifications for the position is simply strange and inconsistent with the requirements of a public office charged with overseeing a great deal of public money and critical services.
This is not the first time the county has been criticized for the oddity of the “Transit Expert” position but there has never been any effort to define criteria. The time has come. The Supervisors need to act on this issue and end this charade.
Bruce,
ReplyDeleteThe problem lies in the California Public Utilities Code, which sets the SamTrans Board. The relevant section reads:
"103100. The government of the district shall be vested in a board of directors, which shall consist of nine members, selected as follows:
(a) Three members, two of whom shall, at the time of their appointments and during their service as directors, be members of the board of supervisors and one of whom shall possess expertise in the field of transportation, appointed by the board of supervisors. (etc.)"
Under this, it appears that the County Board of Supervisors can use whatever arbitrary criteria they want to determine "expertise." I wouldn't deny that Lloyd has expertise, having worked on railroads for decades. A former bus driver would also know more about transit than almost everyone else. Heck, I ride the bus every day and have taken urban transportation classes in graduate school. Some would call ME an expert.
The Supervisors need to establish some criteria. Failing that, it's time for Jerry Hill or Ira Ruskin (or his successor, I guess) to change the code. If there's not agreement on how to define "expert," perhaps the code should be changed and the chair of the SamTrans Citizens Advisory Committee should get the seat, as he or she is likely to be a regular transit user. (Disclaimer: I am the immediate past chair of the CAC.)