Watchdogs Vie to Oversee ‘M’ Funds : Transportation: Finalists to keep an eye on the spending of the $3.1 billion are trimmed to 24 out of 324 who first applied.

A civics teacher, a law student, a policeman and a private investigator are among the applicants. So are two engineers, a postal service manager and a homemaker.

They have little in common except a desire to keep a vigilant watch on how the county spends $3.1 billion on road and rail projects in the years to come.

When voters last week approved a half-cent sales tax to raise money for transportation projects, they also approved formation of a Citizens’ Oversight Committee to monitor spending. On Thursday, county officials will select by lottery eight people to sit on the panel.

Interest in Orange County’s traffic mess is so intense that 324 people applied for the positions. That list has been whittled down to 24 finalists by the Grand Jurors Assn. of Orange County, a group of former grand jury members hired by the Orange County Transportation Commission to screen applicants.

“It’s a good group,” OCTC Executive Director Stanley T. Oftelie said of the nominees. “They will make sure that we keep our promises to the voters.”

The watchdog committee, which will be headed by Auditor-Controller Steve Lewis, will have the authority to block any proposed changes in the way Measure M proceeds are spent and can demand written explanations from transportation officials for any perceived failure to adhere to the plan approved last week. However, the committee members will have no formal role in setting spending priorities.

“We’re in such a mess here in Orange County,” said Donna Lucchino of Fountain Valley, an applicant in charge of Pacific Bell’s ride-share program in Orange. “We need all of the projects, and it would be hard to make a bad decision about them, but I want to make sure the money is spent wisely.”

Under the Measure M spending plan, proceeds from the half-cent sales tax are earmarked for freeways, street improvements, mass transit and lower bus fares for seniors and the handicapped. Freeway projects total $1.325 billion; street and road improvements $650 million; transit projects--including rail--$775 million, and regional projects such as super-streets and signal coordination $350 million.

Fearing critics would argue that one region of the county would benefit more than another, Measure M authors provided that one member must be appointed from each of the county’s five supervisorial districts, and no more than two can come from the same district.

Committee members are not paid and will serve staggered two- and three-year terms. No currently elected or appointed city, district, county, state or federal official can serve, except for the county auditor-controller.

Many of the applicants have some previous experience with transportation issues, either through sitting on a city traffic panel or working on public works projects. Others lack any technical qualifications and were nominated because of their volunteer efforts in their communities and a commitment to attend meetings.

For example, Kirk Watilo of Santa Ana, vice president of community services at Leisure World, served on a two-year citizens’ advisory panel that helped draft OCTC’s $20-billion master plan for transportation. The projects listed in Measure M came from the 20-year plan.

“I want to have some input on the initial part of the plan so that it gets off on the right foot,” Watilo said.

Trent Harris of Huntington Beach, a supervisor at the Newport Beach Police Department, said he applied for the committee because his job has given him “a lot of traffic experience.”

“I’d rather be on the panel than have someone there who doesn’t have that much experience with traffic management,” Harris said.

Joseph Pendergast, an engineer who helped plan the corkscrew ride, parachute jump and Montezuma’s Revenge at Knott’s Berry Farm, participated in OCTC’s “100 Traffic Solutions” program last year in which innovative proposals were solicited from the public.

“I believe that Measure M must be implemented in the most efficient manner possible,” Pendergast said. “Like a lot of people in Orange County, I’m interested in traffic and wanted to be part of the solution.”

Applicant Brian Bennett, former chief of staff for Rep. Robert K Dornan (R-Garden Grove), was an opponent of Measure M. He told the Grand Jurors Assn.’s screening committee that Measure M foes should be included on the oversight panel to help reassure the public.

“The opponents would be the best watchdogs to ensure that the money is spent the way the voters meant it to be spent--that this won’t just be business as usual,” said Bennett, who now works for Southern California Edison.

Establishment of the oversight committee was inserted into the politically brokered ballot measure in part to appease slow-growth activists and others who argued that sales tax proceeds would simply be used to benefit new development. Also, public opinion surveys were finding an intense public distrust of government’s ability to spend transportation money wisely.

The Measure M spending plan can be changed but only by a vote of the electorate or ratification by a two-thirds vote of the oversight committee. City officials in particular did not want the committee empowered to formally propose switches or transfers of funds between spending categories, or even to decide which projects will be built first. Such authority still rests with the elected and appointed officials of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

Still, transportation officials must respond within 60 days if the committee should demand a written explanation for any alleged deviations from Measure M’s spending plan. And the committee is empowered to hold public hearings and has the right to hire its own consultants who can issue reports.

But these powers don’t satisfy everyone, in part because panel members will not have any formal role in advising which projects have first call on Measure M proceeds, or even if changes should be made if a project is of dubious merit.

For example, Tom Rogers, a San Juan Capistrano slow-growth advocate, said such limitations were a key reason why he switched from supporting Measure M last year to opposing it in the recent election.

“No matter who they pick as members, they won’t have enough clout to really do anything but act as a rubber stamp,” Rogers said.

But Bennett disagreed.

“Anybody who has a mouth on the committee can use that mouth to get to the public through the media,” he said. “There are ways to influence things even when you don’t have explicit power.”