Policy Frees Funds for Roads, Finds Transit Needs Met

There are no reasonable public transit services that are not planned or already being provided locally, a policy adopted Friday by the Ventura County Transportation Commission concludes.

That legal determination frees millions of dollars in state transit money for cities to spend on street and road improvements instead of new buses and train service.

But it also stirs an ongoing debate between the county and the Planning and Conservation League, a Sacramento group that sued Ventura County a year ago over a similar ruling.

“There are desperate, unmet needs in the county, and that’s what these funds should be used for,” said Jim Knox, urban affairs director for the league.

The local Transportation Commission each year is charged with spending millions of dollars in state Transportation Development Act funds--money set aside for public transit projects. For the fiscal year that begins July 1, the commission has more than $18 million in Transportation Development Act money to distribute.

Transportation Commission officials, however, identified just $5.7 million worth of public transit projects that would be funded with that money. Those funds will help pay for MetroLink, South Coast Area Transit buses and other mass transit efforts.

The rest will be divided among the county and its 10 cities to use on street and road projects--money that officials have come to rely on when adopting their public works budgets. State law allows agencies to spend those transportation dollars on streets and roads only after the commission determines that it has met all public transit needs deemed reasonable.

“Use of these funds for streets and roads is legal, accepted and part of the act,” said Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “It is a very clear use of these funds.”

But officials at the Planning and Conservation League, which tracks transportation issues across California, criticized Friday’s ruling that there are no new mass transit projects worth funding in Ventura County.

“There are a lot of communities in Ventura County where you can’t catch a bus after work because the buses have stopped running,” Knox said. “The people who don’t have a car are out of luck.”

Transportation Commissioner Michael Wooten of Camarillo disagreed. “If we discover an unmet transit need, then we will deal with that,” Wooten said during the two-hour discussion.

Ventura County last year withstood a lawsuit filed by the Planning and Conservation League when an appeals court said the issue was moot because the money had already been distributed. Knox and other critics said if the league decides to file another lawsuit, the league’s attorneys will request an injunction to prohibit distribution of the money before the case is settled.

“There are lots of other funds available for road repairs,” Knox said. “This is one of the few funds available for transit, and that’s what it should be used for.”

Neil Moyer, president of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition, was a plaintiff in the 1995 lawsuit. Friday, he told commissioners that cities should not be using transit money for street repairs.

“The public works directors are very comfortable with that process,” he said. “But I’m not sure you should be.”

Moyer encouraged the commission to support projects such as extending MetroLink train service to Ventura. Gherardi said the commission is committed to bringing MetroLink to Ventura but not immediately. Long-range plans call for extending commuter train service to Ventura within five to seven years.

Also, Gherardi said, the commission spends nearly $30 million a year from a variety of local, state and federal sources on public transportation programs in Ventura County. For instance, the commission is studying a plan to launch evening service for South Coast Area Transit buses.

“We disagree with the Planning and Conservation League,” she said. “We are taking orderly steps to do what we need to do for the county.”

Commissioner David M. Smith, mayor of Camarillo, agreed. He said he would not welcome another lawsuit, but said he is confident that Ventura County would prevail once again.

“I don’t think their [Conservation League] claim can be supported,” Smith said. “We dealt with all of these issues during the last lawsuit.”