ELECT the OCTA Board, stop the political appointments!

The nonsense described in this post, Supervisors Taking Issue With OCTA Board Majority, from Thursday’s union-funded Voice of OC suggests it’s time to expand on an idea we’ve offered in here before — the 17-member Orange County Transportation Authority Board ought to be ELECTED.

Adam Elmahrek’s piece well details the infighting, professional immaturity and malfeasance that’s developed on this too large Board of Directors that’s responsible for the OCTA and its $1.1 billion budget.  This Board could easily be downsized to a more effective group at least half its current size, say seven or nine people.  The non-voting Caltrans representative can be eliminated as worthless.

More importantly, it’s time that the Board be composed of tax-paying citizens who wish to serve and have the financial, legal and/or engineering background to contribute to higher-quality decision making and condone no (OK, less) politicization of the spending approval process.  Presumably, “ordinary” citizens (without vendor conflicts) have fewer favors to pay back or axes to grind than today’s collection of Supervisor or Legislator wannabes.

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