County supervisors expressed serious concern with the future of
the metropolitan planning agency that oversees transportation
planning in the region, and whether to push for changes or consider
leaving the organization altogether.
County supervisors expressed serious concern with the future of the metropolitan planning agency that oversees transportation planning in the region, and whether to push for changes or consider leaving the organization altogether.
The discussion Tuesday came about due to AMBAG’s recent financial and operational problems. An AMBAG official at this week’s board meeting even acknowledged the group has experienced “significant cash-flow issues” in recent times – partly attributed to a housing project that he said the organization “should never have done,” along with late reimbursement payments from Caltrans.
Five months ago, AMBAG’s board comprised of 25 elected officials from the participating jurisdictions in San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, fired then-Executive Director John Doughty, who made $160,000 annually. Officials at the time declined to discuss details surrounding his departure from the agency with a nearly $6 million budget.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho brought the issue to the board, as he sits on the Council of San Benito County Governments, the regional planning agency focused solely on San Benito County, which has been part of AMBAG since 2005. Botelho questioned whether COG and other regional agencies could handle some or all of the workload from AMBAG. Botelho expressed the same concern broached by other area leaders in recent months – whether there is duplication of services among transportation agencies.
Botelho said there is a planned AMBAG vote in November on whether to continue operating as it currently does, change the organization’s functions, pass off some of the transportation responsibilities to other agencies, or just abolish AMBAG. Supervisor Robert Rivas sits on the AMBAG executive committee and said he had planned to broach some of the local board’s concerns there at a meeting in Marina on Thursday.
Botelho said he primarily is concerned about potential liability with AMBAG’s financial troubles.
“That’s the only thing that kind of weighs in on that concern from my part,” he said at the meeting.
Representatives from both AMBAG and COG spoke to supervisors. AMBAG Principal Planner Randy Deshazo noted that the group started in the late 1960s as a way to add political clout for smaller communities. He said the group has saved the county with its Energy Watch program and contended that San Benito County, if it left AMBAG, likely would lose funding support from the federal highway administration for transportation model planning – because it would not be part of an MPO.
“You would have to come up with new sources of funding,” Deshazo said.
Botelho even showed some concern about such a drastic move – and how the smaller, regional planning organizations can pick up the slack with transportation modeling. Still, he said the group’s financial standing sits “in the back of my mind,” and he acknowledged Monterey and Santa Cruz counties will be the “drivers” for any change.
Other supervisors weren’t quite as skeptical about AMBAG. Rivas underscored how leaders are always trying to cooperate with other municipalities, noting that the county recently consolidated with Santa Cruz 9-11 and how the sheriff’s office and police department are studying a possible merger. He said AMBAG’S problems have been performance related.
“It’s just a matter of ironing out those performance issues,” he said.
