Coalition Votes to Fight Transit Fund Suit

Rather than leave the litigation solely to county lawyers, a coalition of Ventura County cities agreed Thursday to hire its own attorney to fight a lawsuit over the use of millions of state transit dollars.

The Assn. of Ventura County Cities, a low-profile group of elected officials from each of the county’s 10 cities, voted unanimously to spend at least $25,000 to wage the upcoming legal battle.

“You don’t do this to tickle them,” Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig told the panel. “You do this to crush them. I’d like to go in there and show them we mean business.”

The agreement next must be ratified by each of the city councils, with each asked to pay proportionate shares of the legal fee.

The Sacramento-based Planning and Conservation League filed suit in Ventura County Superior Court last month, alleging that county transportation officials misspent nearly $9 million in transit funds.

Members of the environmental group claim that the county Transportation Commission should spend more of its $14 million a year on public transit, rather than turning millions over to cities to improve streets and roads.

They are asking Judge John J. Hunter to freeze the funds and order the commission to spend more on trains and buses. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20.

The Planning and Conservation League is a 30-year-old organization of about 10,000 members that supports environmental causes.

It was responsible for placing Proposition 116 on the statewide ballot in 1990. That measure provided $2 billion in bond money for rail projects, said Jim Know, the league’s urban affairs director.

“By law, [state transit] money is supposed to be used for public transit,” Knox said. “Instead, it’s being misused as a slush fund for road projects.”

Neil Moyer, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said the commission has failed to explore alternative transit projects such as on-demand bus service and public shuttles to regional airports.

“They’ve basically blown those off because they don’t fit into established government structures,” Moyer said.

Association members said they need an attorney who specializes in transit law to represent the cities, even though the county Transportation Commission has its own lawyers and the cities were not named in the lawsuit.

“They adequately represent themselves, but their interests aren’t necessarily ours,” Camarillo City Manager Bill Little said. “We feel it’s in our interest to have someone representing the cities.”

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said the legal fees will very likely swell far beyond the amount agreed to Thursday. “That’s just a down payment,” Stratton said. “History has shown that $25,000 doesn’t go very far.”

The agreement requires that any amount above $25,000 be reviewed by the association. Members left it up to a panel of city attorneys to decide what law firm to hire.

Since 1971, state law has required that one-quarter cent of the state sales tax be invested in public transit. Each year the commission holds hearings to determine how to spend Ventura County’s $14-million share.

Guidelines call for counties to spend as much of the money as is deemed reasonable on “unmet transit needs,” allowing any leftover funds to be used for street and road improvements.

Last year, the commission funded just over $5 million in “unmet transit needs,” declaring the other $8.7 million as surplus and distributing the funds proportionately to the 10 cities.

But Moyer said the Transportation Commission could, among other things, beef up the countywide bus system, add two more Metrolink trains to the Ventura County line and extend commuter rail service to Ventura.

“Ventura County is not integrated into the transportation system development going on in the rest of Southern California,” he said. “We’ve been a roads-only county.”

But Fillmore Councilman Roger Campbell said Ventura County cities would have a hard time maintaining streets without the transportation dollars provided by the state sales tax.

“There’s a lot of money involved in paving our streets,” he said. “I think it’s incumbent upon us” to fight the lawsuit.

Santa Paula Mayor Al Urias, who also serves as chairman of the Assn. of Ventura County Cities, said Ventura County’s investment in mass transit “is as good as anyone else’s. But in smaller cities, we need the money to fix potholes and pave streets.”