Executive Director Steve Heminger's Report to the Commission Meeting of May 23, 2012
DeSaulnier Releases Legal Opinion
Sacramento, May 7
State Senator Mark DeSaulnier released an opinion by state Legislative Counsel on the purchase of 390 Main Street by the Bay Area Headquarters Authority. We issued a press statement responding to that opinion the following day. To refresh your memory, I’ve also included the original legal opinion (PDF) from our bond counsel Orrick upon which we relied to purchase the property.
Dougherty Appointed Caltrans Director
Sacramento, May 9
Malcolm Dougherty can remove the word “Acting” from his title as he was formally appointed Director of Caltrans by Governor Jerry Brown. Congratulations to Malcolm on this well-deserved recognition.
Joint ABAG-MTC Meeting on Plan Bay Area
Oakland, May 17
I would like to thank all the MTC commissioners and ABAG directors who toughed it out through an extremely long night session to approve a preferred land use, transportation, and housing strategy to evaluate in the environmental review process for Plan Bay Area. At the same meeting, MTC commissioners gave final approval to the One Bay Area Grant program that is intended to incentivize local jurisdictions to approve new housing construction near existing and future public transit facilities in Priority Development Areas. Thanks especially to MTC directors Doug Kimsey and Alix Bockelman and their staffs for all the hard work on both of these noteworthy endeavors. [More info]
Joint Policy Committee
Oakland, May 18
The highlight of the regular Joint Policy Committee (JPC) meeting was an appearance by Senator DeSaulnier to discuss his recently amended Senate Bill 1149 which would create a new Bay Area Regional Commission. The senator announced that he would withdraw the bill from active legislative consideration this year, and would instead pursue a dialogue for the remainder of the year with members of the JPC on how to improve the workings of the JPC and its constituent organizations.
Award-winning MTC Staff
Congratulations to David Cooper and Pam Grove of MTC staff who won a California Association of Public Information Officers' award for an animated video, titled "Transportation Priorities: How Would YOU Invest?"The video was used at Plan Bay Area workshops in January. We will be sharing the video at your meeting. MTC planners Ashley Nguyen and Brenda Dix, along with staff from BCDC and Caltrans, also received two awards from the American Planning Association for their report, Adapting to Rising Tides: Transportation Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Pilot Project, which was funded by the Federal Highway Administration and prepared by MTC, BCDC and Caltrans
MTC Operational Statistics
The monthly report on the performance of MTC’s operating programs: