OXNARD : Transit Directors to Discuss Conferences

Members of the board of directors of South Coast Area Transit will consider Wednesday whether to allow its members to attend several out-of-state conferences next year, including one scheduled for Toronto.

Ventura Councilman John McWherter, who represents Ventura on the SCAT board, said attendance at the American Public Transit Association conferences are essential for members to keep up on pressing public transportation issues.

“We are all city councilmen or mayors and we don’t spend much time studying SCAT--not nearly as much as we do our cities,” McWherter said. Board members, he said, “bring back information to help run the district so we are not continually reinventing the wheel.”

The conferences are scheduled for Washington, D.C., in March, Austin, Tex., in April, and Toronto in the fall. Mel Chambers, SCAT’s director of administrative services, said the agency has set aside $40,000 to pay for conference-related expenses for board officers and executive staff.

As western Ventura County’s public transit agency, SCAT runs bus lines in Oxnard, Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula, Port Hueneme, and surrounding areas of unincorporated Ventura County. The cities and county jointly finance the agency. SCAT also receives state and federal mass-transit dollars.

SCAT board directors have their votes weighted in proportion to the amount of money their city donates. Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi, for example, commands 42% of the vote because his city contributes the largest chunk of SCAT’s budget.

McWherter has the second most influential vote--39%--because Ventura contributes the second largest amount of money.

McWherter said the transportation conferences often provide a crash-course in managing public transit agencies.

“We learn about routes, about operations of buses, the types of things other districts have tried . . . I feel we are more knowledgeable and save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if we spend several thousand dollars to attend,” McWherter said.