Group Will Push to See Valley Gets Transit Funds

A group of San Fernando Valley civic leaders has organized a new lobbying group to pressure Sacramento to come through with $500 million in transportation improvements promised by Gov. Gray Davis and other agencies for the Valley.

The new group is co-chaired by David Fleming, who heads the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, and former Assemblyman Richard Katz, who heads a transportation committee for the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

VICA Chairwoman Cathy McGuire is also a member of the new San Fernando Valley Transportation Strike Force board. Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) will head an advisory committee for elected officials.

“All of that money is in the general fund, and if we don’t make sure it goes out to the projects in the Valley, we have the potential to lose all that money,” McGuire said. “We need to be a watchdog.”

The campaign, which will use lobbyists and engineers to ride herd on transportation projects and budgets, is already generating controversy. Davis and Caltrans questioned the need for the new group.

It is being financed with $500,000 from Washington Mutual Inc., parent company of the developers of the controversial Ahmanson Ranch project. Critics of the massive housing proposal at the east end of Ventura County charged that the gift is an attempt to buy favor with the Valley’s top leaders.

“They are trying to influence these people not to oppose this disastrous project,” said Mary Wiesbrock, director of the group Save Open Space.

The 3,050-home Ahmanson development just across the border in Ventura County is expected to generate heavy traffic for the already congested Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley, and Wiesbrock said the Washington Mutual gift appears to be a public relations effort to quell opposition from Valley civic leaders.

McGuire denied that, noting VICA has already gone on record supporting the Ahmanson project.

The nation’s largest savings and loan decided to contribute because it has a major investment in the Valley, in the form of billions of dollars in home loans, and believes the economic future of the Valley depends on having a good transportation system, said Tim McGarry, a spokesman for Washington Mutual.

“This issue is critical to the future of the Valley,” McGarry said. He said an improved Valley transportation system could have a positive ripple effect on traffic generated by the Ahmanson development.

“We certainly hope and expect that improvement of the circulation in the Valley will radiate to other communities along the county line, including Ahmanson Ranch,” McGarry said.

The Times reported in October that Hertzberg and other Valley civic leaders met at the Sheraton Universal Hotel to begin pressuring Caltrans and other transit agencies to expedite Valley projects contained in Gov. Davis’ $5.2-billion Traffic Congestion Relief Plan.

The new Valley group, a self-styled “strike force,” cited a number of projects to watch, including $145 million for an east-west busway along Chandler Boulevard, connecting North Hollywood and Warner Center, and $100 million for a north-south busway.

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The group also wants to expedite a $90-million project to add carpool or HOV lanes along the northbound San Diego Freeway in Sepulveda Pass, and $34 million in improvements to the 101/405 interchange.

Caltrans spokesman Dennis Trujillo said the agency is already committed to making sure approved projects are built quickly, even without the new pressure group.

“The department doesn’t feel it’s necessary,” Trujillo said. “There is a process for approving projects and getting them going, and we will follow that process.”

A representative of Gov. Davis also questioned the need for a new group.

“The governor made a huge commitment to transportation and improving traffic,” said Hilary McClean, a spokeswoman for Davis. “That money is allocated and it’s now law.”

But Valley officials said past projects have been plagued by delays, and money that goes unspent can be grabbed by other areas of the state where transportation agencies start construction quickly.

The group plans to provide transportation consultants to help solve problems that might hold up projects, said David Grannis of Planning Company Associates, a transportation lobbyist that will serve as chief consultant for the strike force.

Katz said the group was formed on the premise that, in government, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

“The purpose of this is to make sure the money the governor and Speaker Hertzberg fought so hard to get for the Valley actually gets spent in the Valley and as quickly as possible,” Katz said. “Without this money, congestion will get worse.”

The benefit of having an advocacy group became apparent last year during the Economic Alliance’s summit when a city Department of Transportation official said it would take six years to build a traffic light synchronization system for the Valley.

“We said that seemed absurd, and a week later they came back and said it would take four years,” Katz said. “We figured if we ask a few more questions they might come back and say it can be done in two years.”

Katz said he continues to oppose Ahmanson Ranch, but the group will not take a position on the project.

“The role of this group is not to take positions on those kinds of projects,” he said.