Buffa Is Awarded $25,000 OCTD Contract for Video : Transit: The contract for the production was not competitively bid. It also stipulates that the Costa Mesa mayor raise another $50,000 elsewhere.

Costa Mesa Mayor Peter F. Buffa, co-founder of a private group that promotes high-technology rail transit, on Monday was awarded a $25,000 contract by the Orange County Transit District to produce a video promoting high-tech transportation.

The OCTD board voted 4 to 0, with William E. Farris abstaining, to award the contract to Buffa, who owns a video production company. The contract, which was not competitively bid, carries the condition that Buffa must raise the remainder of the $75,000 production cost from other agencies in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

San Juan Capistrano rancher Tom Rogers, a frequent critic of county transportation officials, criticized the contract as an example of government insiders’ receiving favored treatment.

Buffa could not be reached for comment.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Don R. Roth is an OCTD member who also is chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Ground Transportation Commission, a bistate panel overseeing plans for a 200 m.p.h. magnetically levitated train between Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Buffa has been a leading advocate of the train, and his video will include material about it, OCTD officials said. The video will also show light rail, monorail, people mover and automated highway systems.

Last March, Buffa accompanied Roth on a 10-day trip to Europe to ride a maglev prototype and the French TGV.

“I deplore it,” Rogers said of the contract decision. “They should not be entering into a contractual agreement with people who may be a factor in future votes. . . . It’s the height of arrogance, and it leads to the appearance of impropriety.”

Roth said he did not help Buffa secure the contract.

“I was not at the last (OCTD) board meeting where they went into an in-depth discussion about this,” Roth said. “I don’t have any problem with putting out a video about all forms of transit.”

Buffa is a co-founder of Transportation Alternatives for Southern California, a private group based in Newport Beach that promotes high-technology rail transit. Buffa also is a member of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, which is exploring rail transit for the median of a toll road now being built between MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach and Interstate 5 near San Juan Capistrano.

Farris said he abstained because he had not seen backup materials supporting the video proposal.

Last year, the Orange County Transportation Commission drew fire for hiring Newport Beach Councilman John C. Cox Jr. as a lobbyist for Measure M, the half-cent sales tax proposal that was defeated 12 months ago and that appears again on today’s Orange County ballot.