And again: Another state audit rips local govt
Image by Amboo213 on Flickr.
First it was SJ's Housing Dept, getting blistered by a state audit for having little idea what impact, if any, its expenses were having. Now it's VTA's turn, as its governance, board, and project management shortcomings get savaged by the California State Auditor. Grace Hase reports in the Merc.
As the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority barrels ahead with extending light rail and the six-mile San Jose BART extension, a new state audit is calling for the transit agency to be reformed, criticizing it over weak project management and financial oversight.
The 78-page report released this week by the California State Auditor stems from a 2022 request from state Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, a vocal critic of VTA’s governance structure who has pushed for several legislative changes to the 12-person board of directors made up of South Bay elected officials.
“I think if you fix the governance issues, and if you have a board that is best equipped to provide the very detailed oversight that a complex transit agency like VTA needs, then I think a lot of these issues will be addressed and solved naturally,” Berman told The Mercury News.
“We’re considering introducing legislation to implement the auditors’ recommendations on governance that were rejected by the VTA board,” Berman said. “I was surprised and disappointed that the board continues to reject what in my mind are remarkably low-hanging-fruit recommendations for the governance reform that will lead to a better agency for Santa Clara County residents.”
A 2019 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report similarly criticized the board for being comprised solely of elected officials, stating that many board members didn’t have experience with transportation projects or have knowledge about the agency’s operations and finances. Two previous civil grand juries in recent years also came to the same conclusion.
Aside from how the agency governs, the audit emphasized the need for the transit agency to keep a closer eye on its massive capital projects.
Last weekend, VTA broke ground on the Eastridge to BART Regional Connector Project (EBRC) — a 2.4-mile light rail extension that will run alongside East Capitol Expressway in San Jose. The project has been decades in the making, but the state audit said the agency should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis before board approval.
“VTA’s ridership projections show that VTA expects that the EBRC project, projected to cost $653 million, will increase light rail ridership by only 1.5% by 2043 when compared to the number of riders expected if it did not construct the project,” the audit said. “The increase is the equivalent of about 2,500 additional riders per day in that year.”
The audit said cost estimates for projects were also “neither comprehensive nor fully documented,” and VTA staff failed to regularly report variances in the cost or schedule of a project, effectively leaving the board in the dark. However, 10 of the 12 projects for which the auditor reviewed cost estimates were generally accurate when comparing estimates to actual costs.
Read the whole thing here.
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