Train Riders' Association of California

Jose Luis Moscovich
Executive Director
San Francisco Transportation Authority
100 Van Ness Avenue 25th Floor
San Francisco CA 94102
 
Subject:  Transbay Terminal/Caltrain Downtown Extension (TBT/CTX) Project

Dear Mr. Moscovich:
 
We received your letter of September 3, 2004, and are frankly disappointed with both it and with the recent actions of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (TA).
 
You suggest in Paragraph 2 that individuals and entities other than the TA want to solve complex issues “by sheer advocacy."  We reject that contention.
 
You add that the TA is "working to shed light" and "help identify technical solutions," meaning apparently that you are continuing to seek a way of permitting the 80 Natoma highrise development to proceed.  The TA has been analyzing this matter for several months now, and you have recently allotted yourselves an additional $10 million in TBT/CTX Project funds to finance still more TA analysis. If you continue along this path the inevitable consequence will be additional months of TBT/CTX Project delay and a significantly-elevated Project cost. 

You express concerns over the “costs and risks of the litigious approach”. Eminent domain is a common and accepted method of acquiring the lands needed to build projects of overriding public necessity. The TBT/CTX Project is such a project. The process may or may not involve litigation and if handled correctly does not adversely affect scheduling or project cost.
 
In Paragraph 3 you note with enthusiasm that the "Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), the local sponsor of the TBT/CTX Project) will receive $20 million in RM2 and Prop. K funds over the next 15 months.  However you fail to mention that because of your unilateral decision to hold $10 million in Project funds for your own use, the actual amount your agency would turn over to the TJPA would be only $5,495,000.  It is precisely this kind of fund splitting and management fragmentation that concerns us. In fact it was in the hope of heading off such ill-considered divisions of responsibility that TRAC wrote to you in the first place. The TJPA is the local sponsor of the TBT/CTX Project. As such it should promptly receive the funds and support it needs to do its job.
 
You suggest in Paragraph 4 that through stint of hard negotiation your agency succeeded in convincing the TJPA to "value engineer the project early on".  Go back and read the Caltrain Downtown Extension RFP, which was issued early last February, many weeks before your agency inserted itself into the TBT/CTX Project procurement process.  In Task 1 you will find a requirement that function be analyzed and cost cutting opportunities identified before design begins.
 
You state in Paragraph 5 that the clock is not ticking on the Project quite yet.  Really?  How can the clock not be ticking?  You go on to complain about "notions" of multimillion dollar monthly escalation costs, characterizing them as "entirely premature, less than prudent”, and as detracting from “an intelligent discussion of project-related issues."  On a project of this magnitude, the clock ticks, whether anyone wants it to or not.  With the passage of time the costs of major projects rise because of inflation and the stretching out of administrative costs.  This is inexorable. In the case of the TBT/CTX Project, escalation and other costs are already rising at an estimated rate of over $5 million a month.  In unnecessarily delaying and otherwise impeding the TBT/CTX Project, the TA is compounding this problem.
 
It is not important that you answer this letter. We would rather have you think carefully about what we are recommending, and then alter your program accordingly. The TA has an important fiscal oversight role to play; we believe it should confine its activities to that.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Richard Tolmach,
President
 
cc:  Honorable John Burton, Honorable Don Perata, Honorable Jackie Speier, Honorable Gavin Newsom, Honorable Matt Gonzalez, Honorable Tom Ammiano, Honorable Chris Daly, Maria Ayerdi, Fred Keeley, Jane Morrison, John Holtzclaw, Gabriel Metcalf, Andrew Sullivan, Norman Rolfe