Bill Would Give Cities More Say on OCTA

A bill to give Orange County’s four largest cities guaranteed seats on the local transportation agency was introduced this week by Assemblyman Tom Harman.

In a letter sent today to the county’s 34 mayors, Harman said cities deserve a greater role in determining regional projects and funding through the Orange County Transportation Authority. Harman’s home of Huntington Beach, for instance, is the county’s third-largest city but hasn’t had a voice on the agency board in 14 years.

The bill is getting a lukewarm reception by the OCTA. Officials there complain that the legislation threatens to concentrate decision-making power in one area of the county and would erode what the agency calls a regional focus.

They also fear that the assigned seats will be taken for granted. “Basically, you’ll have a situation where positions aren’t given based on merit, but because they’re just handed over,” said OCTA spokesman George Urch.

OCTA Director and Fountain Valley Councilwoman Laurann Cook said she opposes the bill. “Small cities are going to be the losers in this process,” she said. “I think the current system works very well. Someone will have to show me some strong reasons for why it needs to be changed.”

Harman, however, argued that control of the board has been skewed to favor county supervisors, who have four seats on the 11-member panel.

“Only 5% of Orange County’s population is in the unincorporated area, but the supervisors have a substantial bloc of votes,” Harman said Thursday. “The largest cities should have a permanent place at the table.”

The bill, AB476, would reduce the number of supervisors on the board to three. It would add seats for the four largest cities--currently Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Garden Grove.

Another five city representatives--one for each of the supervisorial districts--would be chosen by the county chapter of the League of California Cities, according to the bill. Currently, the authority’s six city members are chosen by the league.

The panel members themselves would continue to choose the board’s one public member. The board’s one nonvoting member, the director of the local Caltrans district, would continue as a gubernatorial appointment.

Harman’s bill to shake up OCTA’s governing structure comes in the wake of the agency’s retrenchment from a controversial light-rail project through the heart of Orange County. The so-called CenterLine project collapsed after Santa Ana and Anaheim officials objected to the overhead train’s proposed route, telling planners it would be too disruptive to their cities.

The transit project might have been successful, Harman said, if the cities had had greater involvement in planning it from the beginning. Huntington Beach supported the project.

Harman’s push to bolster city clout on the regional transportation panel coincides with an attempt by his Assembly colleague Ken Maddox to reduce the amount of city involvement in another large agency, the Orange County Fire Authority.

Though he hasn’t introduced specific bill language, Maddox has called the 23-member fire board unwieldy and advocated reducing it to five members, one representing each of the county’s supervisorial districts. City officials have protested, saying each city deserves a direct say in how fire services are provided.

Harman said he opposes Maddox’s idea to streamline the fire board.

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Challenging the Authority

Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) has introduced a bill that would change the governing structure of the Orange County Transportation Authority, which determines how regional transportation dollars are spent.

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Current structure:

Four county supervisors (three regular and one alternate)

Six city representatives (one for each of the five supervisorial districts plus one at-large)

Public member

Nonvoting: Governor appointment (Caltrans District 12 director)

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Proposed change:

Three county supervisors

Four representatives, one from each of the four largest cities (Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove)

Five city representatives (one for each of the supervisorial districts)

One public member

One nonvoting: Governor appointment (Caltrans District 12 director)

Source: Assembly Bill 476