Angels Can’t Get Over Hill

Gov. Gray Davis removed embattled Caltrans Director Jose Medina late Friday after a series of embarrassing missteps during his stormy 16-month tenure as head of the state’s largest agency.

Medina, 58, has been criticized for his handling of state contracts, minor misuses of state funds and, most significantly, his controversial decision to give the go-ahead for the sale of the state’s only private road, Orange County’s 91 Express Lanes, to a nonprofit group of businessmen.

Davis replaced Medina with a top official from the Chicago Transit Authority. The governor’s move comes as he prepares to press a plan to significantly expand freeway and mass transit spending.

Medina declined all interview requests on Friday.

His ouster, and the announcement that he will take slot on the Integrated Waste Management Board at a salary of $113,287, came as little surprise to many legislators who have closely watched the rocky term of the former San Francisco supervisor.

His departure comes after a yearlong fall capped by an internal audit accusing him of several instances of minor misuse of state property, including criticism that he bent state rules to get a bigger car, a small refrigerator for his office and $1,600 worth of Caltrans mementos for visiting dignitaries.

Medina’s term came as Caltrans went through one of its roughest periods, much of that involving Orange County problems: faulty welds in the Orange Crush, the routing of oversized trucks under low bridges, and revelations that the agency had approved noncompetitive agreements prohibiting the state from making road improvements near toll roads.

Although some lawmakers said they hadn’t expected Friday’s announcement, it was well-known that Davis had been looking to find another position for Medina.

“It will be nice to put all of the rumor mills and innuendo and all the speculation about whether Jose was going to stay or not stay behind us,” said Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), a member of the Senate’s Transportation Committee.

Dunn and others who have been critical of Caltrans, however, were careful to point out that many of its problems predated Medina.

“A lot of these problems that Jose walked into are problems that have been lingering at Caltrans for a long time,” said Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee and called for several hearings into Caltrans problems in the past year.

But other criticisms centered directly on Medina’s choices, particularly decisions he made regarding the 91 Express Lanes: to approve the sale of the lanes and to back off from improvements to the heavily congested Riverside Freeway in order to protect business on the private toll road.

Halting plans to add freeway lanes, which some Caltrans engineers had said were needed to address a severe safety problem, Medina settled a lawsuit filed against Caltrans by the road’s operators, a key condition of the sale.

Selling the money-losing toll lanes to a nonprofit group of businessmen with close ties to the road’s private operator would have netted California Private Transportation Co. about $90 million more than it cost to build the road.

The sale was halted by state Treasurer Phil Angelides after public furor over terms of the deal and Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer began investigating. Riverside County filed a lawsuit trying to overturn the 35-year franchise on the road, and legislators are contemplating a public buyout.

“[Medina] got a bum rapid on that toll road,” said Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), suggesting that bureaucrats in the Department of Transportation set Medina up.

Lawmakers said Friday that they will continue to look for more accountability from Caltrans under its new chief, Jeff Morales, who had been executive vice president of the Chicago Transit Authority since 1997. He will be paid $118,524 a year.

Morales, 40, has worked for U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on transportation appropriations. He also was policy director and special assistant to the U.S. secretary of transportation.

“He has the experience and the expertise to get the job done,” Davis said in a statement.