*The pay offs continue. The Board of the OCTA needs to resign. Let’s not just sugarcoat our response. The Board of the OCTA should be forced to resign “in toto”. Forcing the Cal-Trans Toll Road from Seal Beach to the 73 Freeway is an outrage! Who voted against it? Who voted for it? The Director of the OCTA needs to get gone too! Who are these people….certainly not our friends or neighbors. There are basic values at play here. Should any State Agency have the power to direct the development of Toll Roads without a vote of the people? These boards and commissions…have gotten out of hand. They have been given too much power and no prerequisite accountability.
How can the Board of the OCTA let Measure M funds be used in coordination with Toll Roads? We just need to know to vote them out of office – as soon as possible! We need someone to blame, who might that be? We need names, addresses and phone numbers.! We need to know what happened to the City Councils of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley? Where are their letters of outrage? Hopefully, they will all be forthcoming along with a demand for OC Board Members who voted for the Toll Road lane to immediately resign….in disgrace!
These things seldom happen in a vacuum. There are always lots of “behind the scenes negotiations”. Let’s see…..$1.7 Billion dollars being spent to rip off the driving public, ruin our day for two years of bumper to bumper traffic during the building process and at the end of the day…..be faced with another Toll Road Agency. That will go belly up, be sold to private industry, go belly up and then be resold to the 241/73/91 Toll Way……with rates for drivers rising each time during the process. Dumb deal folks.
Robert Poole definitely wins the CA Lotto on this round. Send him letters of congratulations immediately. Remember, “There is no Reason for it!” ever!
Can you put up the vote tally? it’s not online yet.
I thought OCTA board members were appointed by the various city council and the County BOD.
http://www.octa.net/About/Board-of-Directors/2015-Board-of-Directors/
For example, Irvine’s Rep is Jeff Lalloway. Jeff made some pretty specific campaign promises last fall: if he broker them I will bring this up at the next city council meeting.
*The Board of Supervisors appoints folks, some are legacy being from certain council seats. Two or three Supervisors sit on their as well. They love moving
the deck chairs around….so no one can hone in. Would be just nice to see them
all stand up and be counted.
All the Supervisors are on it. Others are appointed/selected by arcane procedures from city councils. Greg Winterbottom is the perpetual public appointee.
There is no accountability to the public at all. Zero. It’s just a massive gravy train courtesy of the engineers, contractors and vendors who make their living off of OCTA contracts.
I believe that all of the Supes sit on OCTA. The County is divided up into geographic districts and the Mayors of each district choose a representative, which is usually (or maybe necessarily) a City Council member, although their tenure on OCTA can survive their departure from the City Council. Two at-large members of the public are also chosen, although my sense that they in effect represent the views of the Staff — which is no surprise, but in this case is a problem.
*Wrongo Dr. D., in fact Michelle Steel and Andy Do voted against it along with Gary Miller and Jim Katapodis. Those were the four NO votes. Tom Tait did not show up. Jeff Lalloway serves as the Vice-Chair, and represented the “cheapos” who wanted the $82 Million dollars added to “our Measure M” money that goes into the project. Ya gotta love Cal-Trans and their nonsense….using that old game “of Chicken”…”we will do it on our own”….as the excuse. Then they have the temerity to tell us that the Toll Lane from Seal Beach to the 73 Fwy is only going to cost $400,000 dollars. We have some great swamp land they can try to sell down around Seminole country.
Now of course, OCTA is going to have to do “a study” to see what the potential Tolls will be! How much will that study cost? More than the $400K
you can bet your booties on that. OK, the first biggie against Lisa Barlett who serves as the Chair of the OCTA. She was either mislead, didn’t grasp or hasn’t a clue about getting into bed with Cal-Trans. Terrible, terrible move on Bartlett’s part. We will not forget. And can’t wait to see who will challenge her when she goes up for re-election. OK Lisa, YOU solve the Homeless problem around the County Government Buildings….right now! If you are looking for redemption. The kicker is that Cal-Trans says that the Toll Lane can still be used for HOV passengers “for three years”….cute!
http://www.octa.net/About/Board-of-Directors/2015-Board-of-Directors/
*Sorry Dr. D., you were right of course……some very sad votes on this one: Frank Ury, Greg Winterbotham, Todd Spitzer, Shawn Nelson……….whoa….
pretty sad indeed. Even Jim Righeimer showed up, along with other cities to say a NO…….that fell on deaf ears. We are sure that this vote will haunt these folks. They can laugh it off now ……but this issue really required a vote of the Measure M voters and they know it. These folks are using Measure M money that does not belong to them and selling out Freeway egress and ingress in the process. The Toll Road will allow entry only at Seal Beach Blvd. and exit ONLY at the 73 Fwy. Can’t believe you can’t even get off before Euclid or Harbor Blvd. Brilliant Highway Planning….NOT!
*It is certainly nice to know that many local communities profited from the sold out vote
of the OCTA. $6 million here, $8 million there and pretty soon, that free lunch starts to
look better and better. All of you losers that voted for the Toll Road will never get another vote of any patriot in this county……and you can bet the farm and your first born on that.