OCTA Director “Election”: Good and Bad News

From the OC Politics Blog

Thursday last, the OCTA City Selection Committee (comprised of all 34 OC elected and appointed Mayors) was gathered by the UNelected Association of California Cities – Orange County (who’s membership do not include every city in the OC) to rule on the selection of new OCTA Board Directors, one for each Supervisorial District.

OCPB Proprietor Art Pedroza covered the results for Anaheim at his New Anaheim Blog. Tait’s four-mayor-to-two win pushes

Anaheim Councilmember Gail Eastman off the Board and hopefully sets up this 17-member cabal that controls a $1.1 billion budget and directs spending of sales taxpayer loot that’s confiscated via both the old and new Measure Ms to become more responsible — Tait’s predecessor, Mayor-for-Hire Curt Pringle had an enormous (and too long) influence on this Board.

More importantly, Mayor Tait can now assist in putting the kabosh on the $318 million Anaheim streetcar project that he’s voted against on his own city council. Last June, the unjustifiable trolley was pushed back to its proponents (that is, the rest of Tait’s council) as it was double or triple the cost of any other useless streetcar system that’s been built in the United States in decades and as it serves no earthly purpose except to destroy private businesses and benefit the Mouse.

Mayor Tait was once on the OCTA Board, but by his own decision exited as he owns and runs an engineering firm. He’s agreed to abstain from any Board decision that might involve Tait & Associates — so it’s obvious that Tom Tait isn’t from the same grimy class that Eastman, a former Anaheim Planning Commissioner, comes from given her voting record with the corrupt Anaheim council majority.

Eastman’s deserved defeat might also have been related to Curt Pringle-lick spittle Matt Cunningham’s endorsement at his Anaheim Blog: Gail Eastman On OCTA: Two More Years! Be careful who your friends are, Gail — but then maybe you didn’t impress your previous backers with your support for spending nearly one-half BILLION dollars of OCTA tax and fare revenue on your streetcar and Pringle’s glass barn — the $174 million ARTIC train station — that’s never ever going to see the about-to-be-declared-illegal Bullet Train. Maybe Tait can apologize for that to 33 other OC cities and millions of Measure M taxpayers who will never see an ounce of benefit from it.

Of course, this election of a powerful agency board is an exercise in political privilege that we’ve slammed before. Simply put, this Board needs to be elected, and we’ll add, be term-limited to not more than a pair of two-year terms. This lack of political discipline causes situations like the noxious Greg Winterbottom to be re-appointed as one of the two Public members year after year. Term limits are appropriate for all political offices (like Dana Rohrabacher’s long past his service life), and is particularly important for the OCTA given the vulturous engineering vendors that infest the back of the Boardroom and Big Lucy Dunn’s OC Business Council “investors” that have far too much influence in their campaign funding and futures. A two-term member limit would also end HB Councilman and $ix-figure OC Waste PR guy Matt Harper’s career as a chair-warmer — though maybe he can use his next two years to learn how to avoid another DUI by brushing up on OCTA’s bus routes.

Electing this Board by the voting public would have also avoided Thursday’s issue with Costa Mesa Mayor Jim Righeimer — Riggy didn’t show, and since he’s opposed to the 405 Tolling, he likely would have supported Westminster’s Diana Carey who’s mortally opposed to this taxing of what we’ve already paid for. Steve Jones of Garden Grove won the job, but a public election would have prevented such a close outcome.

Neither was this “event” noticed to the general public as an election is — we saw NO notice of it by the OCTA or the Register — we presume this is to deliberately discourage the unwashed from attending, rubbing elbows with the ruling class and having any input.

Mayor Tait’s presence on the OCTA Board could be great for Measure M taxpayers. Unfortunately, we don’t know his position on TOLLING THE 405 which will again be before the Board on December 9th. Eastman, who will still be a Board member, might support this tax as Big Lucy would demand even though she should honorably abstain and avoid having the controversy follow her. She’s been no friend of her own taxpayers who’ve been ponying up tax subsidies for Anaheim developers that she and her Council colleagues, except Tait, have approved.