# SUB APPENDIX PART 4 OF 

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Public Hearings TranscriptsPUBLIC HEARINGS TRANSCRIPTS 

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COMMUNITY INPUT I PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND CONSULTATIONDate of Hearing Pg #

January 12, 2016 2

January 19, 2016 19

January 21, 2016 47

January 23, 2016 62



### SUB APPENDIX PART 4 OF 

### 5

Public Hearings Transcripts1 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 COURT REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

16 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

17 JANUARY 12, 2016

18

19

20

21 ATKINSON-BAKER, INC.

COURT REPORTERS

22 (800) 288-3376

www.depo.com

23

24 REPORTED BY: ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

25 FILE NO: AA00565

11 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 Court Reporter's transcript of proceedings taken at

16 818 West 7th Street, 12th Floor, Los Angeles,

17 California, commencing at 7:03 p.m., Tuesday, January

18 12, 2016, before Anna Marie Spinelli, CSR No. 11805.

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20

21

22

23

24

25

21 A P P E A R A N C E S:

2

LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE:

3

4 Speakers:

5 Darin Chidsey, Director

6 Hank Fung

7 Beth Steckler, Move L.A.

8

9 Present Via Teleconference:

10 IMPERIAL COUNTY OFFICE:

11 Speaker:

12 Mark Baza

13

Ventura County Office

14 Riverside County Office

15

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY OFFICE:

16

Tressy Capps, Toll Free IE

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21

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25

31 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016,

2 7:03 P.M.

3 - - -

4

5

6

7 MR. CHIDSEY: Hi. My name is Darin Chidsey of

8 the Southern California Association of Governments.

9 We're here tonight to host a public hearing on the 2016

10 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Community

11 Strategy and we are currently opening that public

12 hearing up.

13 Before we get going tonight it's really just

14 one of many opportunities to hear from the public on

15 their thoughts of the draft Regional Transportation

16 Plan/Sustainable Community Strategy that was released by

17 our Governing Body the Regional Counsel in early

18 December.

19 For those of you that aren't familiar with the

20 plan there is a 24-year history document looking out to

21 the future that predicts various employment, populations

22 and households and the transportation and land use in

23 essence that are needed to make Southern California a

24 better liveable place.

25 It is required under federal law and state law

41 and this public hearing today is in accordance both

2 federal and state law.

3 To get started we're going to show a brief

4 video to give folks a little bit of more details about

5 the types of policies and projects and information that

6 is in the plan and then we will go through starting in

7 Los Angeles take any public comments there and then move

8 throughout all of the regional offices to hear from

9 everybody in each one of the offices.

10 So, we will start in Los Angeles, then go to

11 Imperial, then go to Riverside and then San Bernardino

12 and then Ventura.

13 So, thank you very much for being here and let

14 me introduce this quick video.

15 (Pause in the proceedings Video playing.)

16 MR. CHIDSEY: Great. Thank you. Before we go

17 to public comments, I did want to introduce Alan Wapner

18 who is the Council Member from the City of Ontario who

19 also is the Chair of SCAG's Transportation Committee.

20 He's in the San Bernardino Office.

21 He's, certainly, here representing the

22 Transportation Committee and is available to answer

23 questions to any that might be geared towards the

24 elected officials and the governing body of SCAG so

25 thank you, Alan, for being here. And with that, we're

51 going to go to Hank Fung.

2 MR. FUNG: My name is Hank Fung, I live in Los

3 Angeles County. I will reserve my comments about the

4 plan itself in written comments later on before the

5 deadline.

6 But in terms of the process, I think, it is

7 great that SCAG is doing the regional process with all

8 the different regional offices, although, I do see that

9 very few people seem to be at the outlying offices, but,

10 certainly, having the times available on evenings and on

11 Saturday for a hearing is much better than the process

12 when we were collecting public input where the City of

13 Los Angeles was omitted as a location and, also, when

14 the majority of the meetings were held during the

15 daytime with the only evening meeting in the Los Angeles

16 Basin at the Gateway City's Hall which I was

17 disappointed at.

18 They later did add more meetings but only when

19 I complained to the member of my regional council, my

20 Regional Council Member Sam Pedroza.

21 So, I do compliment SCAG on that. In

22 relationship to the plan itself, generally, I think that

23 SCAG needs to be taking a much more robust role

24 regionally.

25 For example, in the presentation just one items

61 they mentioned was the Tap Card and we need to see that

2 not just in L.A. County but we need to see that

3 regionally. We need to see the Greenhouse Gas Emission

4 reductions which the plan proposes.

5 So, we need to see more of these active

6 transportation project out in the San Bernardino,

7 Riverside and the Inland areas so that they are also

8 pulling their fair share of greenhouse gas reductions,

9 as it is mandated by SB375 that we reduce our greenhouse

10 gas emissions and the voters voted for that when they

11 turned down the oil companies' attempt to delay

12 implementation.

13 So, the voters have spoken, we want greenhouse

14 gas emission reductions and we want these projects

15 throughout the region.

16 L.A. County is doing a great job with Measure R

17 and with the different tax measures in the past, but I'd

18 like to see some of the other counties do the same as

19 well with their tax measures as they move forward so

20 that's all. Thank you.

21 MR. CHIDSEY: Thanks, Hank. Beth Steckler.

22 MS. STECKLER: My name is Beth Steckler I work

23 with Move L.A. and, boy, it's a lot to read; isn't it?

24 We don't know how many people in this room a lot of them

25 have written it.

71 But it is a very exciting plan. Great to see

2 that we are going to meet our targets very, very

3 critical. Also, that the investments the Transit

4 investments make up more than half of the total

5 expenditures and we think that is essential to reach a

6 lot of the goals that we just talked about in the video

7 giving people alternatives to being stuck in traffic.

8 So, the investments in Transit, the investments

9 in active transportation very happy to see active

10 transportation spending moved up to earlier years in the

11 plan as compared to the last RTPSCS.

12 What I wanted to talk about the most, though,

13 is the EJ analysis. Really, a very impressive document.

14 It's really a quantum leap from the last EJ analysis.

15 It is very thorough, covers a lot of different topics

16 and it is giving us both maps and charts to really

17 understand what the impact of investments are and where

18 we are moving to.

19 And one of the things that -- one of the

20 findings in the EJ analysis is that in some areas

21 nothing is ever true for the entire region; right, but

22 in some areas we are seeing these investments lead to

23 displacement of low income people.

24 So, Transit investments resulting in increased

25 property values and increased rents and pushing away the

81 people who use transit. And this is a really thorny

2 thorny problem.

3 And I really want to call on SCAG to work with

4 us to work with local jurisdictions. We stand ready to

5 work with you to get the tools and the resources that

6 you need that is really a local government issue, it's

7 about land use control, it's about, you know, where you

8 build, what you tear down, what are the income levels,

9 how much affordable housing is being built.

10 All of those issues are really local land use

11 and I know SCAG and we respect the land use authority as

12 local jurisdictions, but we think together we can work

13 to convince the legislature to take off some of the

14 restrictions on local government around controlling

15 demolitions, restrictions on rent control like the Ellis

16 Act as well as resources housing resources.

17 And the state is talking about, hopefully, it

18 will couple to pass, but just this week or just last

19 week they introduced, what, a 2 Billion dollar plan for

20 affordable housing in local jurisdictions.

21 So that needs to work its way through the

22 legislature and through the budget process, but I think

23 this is the first time since redevelopment was dissolved

24 that we're seeing this kind of response from the State.

25 At Move L.A., of course, we work to increase

91 local resources in L.A. County, excuse me, for

2 transportations, but we're also very very concerned that

3 we don't have those local resources for housing as well

4 because subsidy is a very key part.

5 But I just want to close by really commending

6 the SCAG staff and the Regional Council for overseeing

7 such a high quality document. I mean, I'm very very

8 impressed and I really encourage people to take a look

9 at the EJ analysis because you can really see with all

10 the maps kind of, you know, what's happening in

11 different places. So, thank you very much.

12 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you very much. Now, we're

13 going to move to our regional offices and we'll come

14 back to Los Angeles to close out the meeting.

15 Imperial County? Is there anyone in Imperial

16 County?

17 MR. BAZA: Can you hear me?

18 MR. CHIDSEY: Yes, we can hear you, Mark.

19 MR. BAZA: Okay. Sorry. Just so, you know,

20 we're providing technical comments in writing and just

21 appreciate the staff doing all the effort for this plan

22 as we believe it meets the Federal requirements for air

23 quality conformity and financial constraints as well as

24 the SB375 requirements for meeting our greenhouse gas

25 emissions that is, certainly, a big deal to us all.

101 So, just appreciating that, also, expressing

2 our appreciation for SCAG in its efforts to help us with

3 our active transportation efforts, the planning studies

4 and grants that our cities and ICTC is pursuing to help

5 us move forward in that effort.

6 Financing those active transportation projects

7 is a challenge for us and the assistance of SCAG has

8 helped us with those types of grants, even at times when

9 we were not as successful as we'd like to be with the

10 statewide grants that are available.

11 But anyhow, that's the general comments that we

12 have at this time and thank you. That's all the

13 comments we have here in Imperial County.

14 MR. CHIDSEY: Thanks. Would you mind just

15 introducing yourself and your affiliation for the

16 record?

17 MR. BAZA: I'm sorry, I'm Mark Baza. I'm the

18 Executive Director of Imperial County Transportation

19 Commission.

20 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Now, we're going to

21 move to San Bernardino office and our staff there.

22 Please, go through the names that you have.

23 MS. CAPPS: Hi, my name is Tressy Capps and I'm

24 with Toll Free IE and I have some comments on the plan.

25 I think that plan -- I don't like the plan. I

111 think what you are attempting to do is to transform the

2 West Coast into the East Coast and, I think, it would be

3 a lot easier if people want to live like that back and

4 pack and bikes and buses, if people want to live like

5 that they could just move to the East Coast or they can

6 move to Europe.

7 But to try to transform the West Coast and to

8 try to get people out of their cars is an exercise in

9 futility and you're wasting a half a trillion tax

10 dollars doing things that people don't want.

11 And I have an article right here from the Wall

12 Street Journal, "Car sales still have room to grow" this

13 is the January 4th, "Cars are selling like crazy." The

14 West Coast people love their cars.

15 But you've done this whole plan and it is based

16 on a fantasy that people will somehow leave their cars

17 and share bikes and take a train. And a good example of

18 the whole train concept not working is Arctic in Anaheim

19 that place is deserted and, now, Anaheim the City of

20 Anaheim is going to be left holding the bag on that.

21 So, you know, I realize you guys have these

22 ideas, but they are concepts that aren't based on

23 reality.

24 And so, instead of for tax payers because as

25 you can see from this meeting there is nobody from the

121 public here it's just SCAG's staff and stakeholders and

2 myself and there is a few people who have figured out

3 what is going on with the vehicle mileage tax and toll

4 lanes.

5 What you are going to do is you're trying to

6 price people out of their cars so the only choice they

7 have is to use public transit because they are not going

8 to be able to afford driving their cars which is what

9 they like to do now.

10 And you have Hasan Ikhrata running around

11 saying that millennials do not want to drive cars that

12 they do not want to get their driver's licenses and that

13 is just a flat out lie.

14 Now, this thing the Constitution of The United

15 States, perhaps, you guys should brush up on it because

16 what SCAG is is regional government, it's shadow

17 government and this is not -- when the Founding Fathers

18 established our Nation Regional Government is not what

19 they had in mind.

20 And this is how you people -- you should all be

21 ashamed of yourself what you're participating in. You

22 are all a bunch of traders and I can't even understand

23 why this is allowed to go on.

24 And as far as the review period for this plan

25 that is so big to have it be two months of time, you did

131 it in December and January so right in the holidays.

2 There is no way that the public can -- even

3 knows about this plan much less can review all of those

4 pages. I doubt any of you have even read that whole

5 thing so to -- minimally, you need to give -- you need

6 to do real outreach.

7 You know, if people really knew what you were

8 planning with vehicle mileage tax and toll lanes they'd

9 be protesting in the streets. But they don't have a

10 clue because this outreach that you are doing is

11 completely bogus and, again, you should all be

12 completely ashamed of yourself.

13 To do what you're doing to the future to our

14 grandchildren they're not going to have a chance if you

15 get your way with this stupid plan. Thank you.

16 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you.

17 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: That's it. San

18 Bernardino, Thank you.

19 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Ventura County.

20 VENTURA COUNTY: Mr. Chidsey, no comments in

21 Ventura County.

22 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Anyone want to

23 comment from here.

24 PUBLIC: Is there anyone in Riverside?

25 MR. CHIDSEY: Well, we will continue to hold

141 the public hearing open at this time in case people come

2 in late.

3 PUBLIC MEMBER: Hey, Darin, is Riverside

4 online?

5 MR. CHIDSEY: We are checking, we don't think

6 there is anyone there. We're just confirming that there

7 is no one in Riverside.

8 For those of us in Los Angeles we do have some

9 information there are poster boards explaining the

10 elements of the plan that we'd invite you to visit and

11 there are, also, additional opportunities to continue to

12 comment through our website as well.

13 Just to let everyone know we are going to

14 continue to hold the public hearing open until 8 p.m. in

15 case additional people come over at that time. So,

16 thank you very much.

17 (Pause in the proceedings.)

18 MR. CHIDSEY: Good evening. I just want to

19 check in to see if anybody new came in? It doesn't look

20 like it. Okay. We're going to hold it up another five

21 minutes until 8 p.m., but thank you everybody for

22 coming.

23 (Pause in the proceedings.)

24 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you everybody for coming.

25 It's 8 p.m. and we are officially closing the public

151 hearing of the Southern Association of Governments

2 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Community

3 Strategies.

4 The public comment period remains open until

5 February 1st. You can attend another one of our public

6 hearings. There is also a series of workshops

7 throughout Southern California as well as comment online

8 or in writing.

9 So, thank you very much for coming and

10 appreciate you taking the time out of your day. Thank

11 you.

12

13 (The Public Hearing concluded at 8:01 p.m.)

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24

25

161 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

2

3

4 I, ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR No. 11805, a Certified

5 Shorthand Reporter, certify;

6 That the foregoing proceedings were taken before me

7 at the time and place therein set forth;

8 That the all objections and statements made at the

9 time of the foregoing proceedings were recorded

10 stenographically by me and were thereafter transcribed;

11 That the foregoing is a true and correct transcript

12 of my shorthand notes so taken.

13 I further certify that I am not a relative or

14 employee of any attorney of the parties, nor financially

15 interested in the action.

16 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws

17 of California that the foregoing is true and correct.

18

19 Dated this 12th day of January, 2015.

20

21 ____________ __

22 ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

23

24

25

171 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 COURT REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

16 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

17 JANUARY 19, 2016

18

19

20

21 ATKINSON-BAKER, INC.

COURT REPORTERS

22 (800) 288-3376

www.depo.com

23

24 REPORTED BY: ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

25 FILE NO: AA00566

11 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 Court Reporter's transcript of proceedings taken at

16 818 West 7th Street, 12th Floor, Los Angeles,

17 California, commencing at 10:04 a.m., Tuesday, January

18 19, 2016, before Anna Marie Spinelli, CSR No. 11805.

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

21 A P P E A R A N C E S:

2

LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE:

3

4 Speakers:

5 Jeff Liu

Mark Butala

6 Bill Sadler

7

8 Present Via Teleconference:

9 Imperial County Office

Ventura County Office

10 Orange County Office

11

RIVERSIDE COUNTY OFFICE:

12

Michelle Hasson

13

14 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY OFFICE:

15 Tressy Capps, Toll Free IE

Peggi Hazlett

16 Kenneth Koh

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

31 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016,

2 10:04 A.M.

3 - - -

4

5

6

7 MR. LIU: Good morning everyone. Welcome

8 SCAG's public hearings for the 2016-2040 Regional

9 Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities

10 Strategy. Just introduce everyone the 2016 RTPSCS was

11 released on December 4th for a 60-day public review and

12 comment period.

13 The document includes 20 technical appendices

14 and a program environmental impact report. As part of

15 the process of developing this plan, the staff has

16 worked carefully to understand the many issues in the

17 region.

18 Today's staff will present a quick overview of

19 the draft 2016 RTPSCS as well as what will occur from

20 now until the anticipated adoption of the plan by the

21 Regional Council in April of 2016.

22 Following the overview presentation we will

23 call individuals from the public who would like to

24 provide comment up to the microphone.

25 With that, I would like to introduce Mark

41 Butala Manager of Regional Services who will give you

2 the presentation.

3 MR. BUTALA: Thank you, Jeff. Good morning

4 all. Prior to starting the public commentary we did

5 want to give you just a really brief overview of the

6 2016 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable

7 Communities Strategy process followed by a brief 7

8 minute video that, I think, encapsulates this process

9 very well.

10 So, first as a bit of background SCAG as a

11 Metropolitan Planning Organization for the six-county

12 region in Southern California is required to update the

13 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities

14 Strategy every four years.

15 We began this current process, approximately, 3

16 years ago by meeting with each of the 191 cities within

17 our region and with our 6-County Transportation

18 Commissions.

19 Since this time, we've held dozens of public

20 meetings, public workshops, open houses and meetings

21 with our Policy Committee and Regional Council.

22 This plan has several requirements: First, on

23 the federal government side we are required to meet air

24 quality conformity for six criteria pollutants in our

25 horizon year of 2040, additionally, on federal side we

51 are required to meet financial constraints, meaning, we

2 must identify reasonably realistic funding sources for

3 all of the projects and strategies in the Regional

4 Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy.

5 On the California State side, we are required

6 to meet our green house reduction goals for the years of

7 2020 and 2035 as set forth by the California Air

8 Resources Board.

9 I'm pleased to announce that the 2016 Resource

10 Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy

11 does meet all our Federal and State requirements.

12 So, let's next show a brief 7 minute video

13 that, I think, gives you a very nice overview for the

14 2016 Plan.

15 (Pause in the proceedings a Video is playing.)

16 MR. BUTALA: Okay. In just a moment, I'll be

17 turning it back over to Jeff Liu who will open the

18 public hearing, but I wanted to briefly go over the

19 remainder of the schedules on RTPSCS leading up to its

20 adoption in April.

21 As Jeff had mentioned our Regional Council

22 released the draft Regional Transportation

23 Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy for public review

24 on December 3rd.

25 Our Regional Council released the draft RTPSCS

61 for public review on December 3rd. Public comment

2 period opened on December 4th. It will remain open

3 until 5 p.m. on February 1st.

4 During this time period we will be holding four

5 public hearings and 13 elected official briefings.

6 Once the public comment period closes, we will

7 be reviewing our public comments summarizing them and

8 presenting them to our Regional Council at their

9 regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 3rd, on

10 Thursday March 24th this we'll be holding a special

11 joint meeting of our Regional Council and our Community

12 Economic and Human Development, Transportation and

13 Energy Environment Committees to recommend to the

14 Regional Council to approve the RTPSCS and we anticipate

15 an action by that Regional Council on April 7th to

16 approve the RTPSCS.

17 With that, let me turn it over to Jeff Liu.

18 MR. LIU: Thanks, Mark. So, now, we'll hear

19 from the public. We'll begin with the satellite offices

20 and then take turns one-by-one.

21 Before you begin speaking, please, state your

22 name clearly. We do have a court reporter here taking

23 your comments and SCAG staff will prepare comments -- or

24 responses to these comments as part of the formal review

25 process.

71 With that is there anyone in Imperial that

2 would like to speak?

3 IMPERIAL COUNTY: No comments in Imperial.

4 Thank you.

5 MR. LIU: Thank you. We will next go to Orange

6 County. Anyone want to speak in Orange County? No

7 comments in Orange County, okay.

8 We'll next go to Riverside County office? Does

9 anyone want to speak in Riverside?

10 Okay. Next is San Bernardino, any comments in

11 San Bernardino?

12 SAN BERNARDINO OFFICE: We do have a couple of

13 speakers in San Bernardino. We have Kenneth Koh from

14 Inland Action.

15 MR. KOH: Can you hear me fine. I have just a

16 comments and just a couple of personal observations of

17 who I am and my history in transportation.

18 I'm the Co-Chair of the Environmental Committee

19 -- my name is Kenneth Koh, I'm the Co-Chair of the

20 Environmental Committee of Inland Action which is a

21 group that addresses the Inland Empire issues related to

22 its economic, environmental, education and health

23 benefits. It's a broad group.

24 And we really are a non-partisan group and just

25 really try to focus on which way to improve the County.

81 And my history is I've had families involved the

2 development of Barton Bay Area, family members who

3 served on the Barton forum and they originally put that

4 together.

5 I understand the difficulty in going through

6 all the many obstacles including putting together a plan

7 like this and I appreciate SCAG reaching out to

8 different groups and the burden they have in doing this.

9 I think I just want to make sure that, you know, people

10 involved in this process realize that it's tough and the

11 public does as well.

12 So, one of the huge issues that we identified

13 in Inland Action is that in 2023 under the Clean Air Act

14 we will lose our federal funding.

15 And all this will tell you that don't worry we

16 won't let that happen, but the fact is that's what the

17 law is today. We lose all federal funding if we don't

18 meet the standard setup of the Clean Air Act. And our

19 ability to meet those strict standards looks pretty

20 grim.

21 Regardless, we must address goods movement,

22 clean technology and readily available options. And so,

23 I just wanted to point at a couple of things that we

24 have noticed, appreciated and want to draw attention to

25 and, hopefully, the public will as well.

91 We appreciate that allowing businesses to

2 choose their way of getting to the clean air goals

3 through deciding whether it is going to be through

4 electrical, natural gas or whatever format they want to

5 use as long as they get their allowing them that

6 flexibility is considered a process and it also engages

7 with the end goal so I appreciate that.

8 A couple of things that have to do with current

9 technology and, I think, we're going to get this done in

10 the next 8 years, we have to use what is available now,

11 in particular, there advocacy in the report for, without

12 reading it altogether, but I want to say on page 7 they

13 want to implement zero near zero emission freight

14 systems, well, that's available now through using

15 natural gas. It's another option and we support that.

16 Also, more emission trucks and locomotives. In

17 here in this part of the Inland Empire the emissions of

18 locomotives is a huge issue. The most readily available

19 option is going to be transferring them into natural

20 gas. And I think that's -- we applaud doing that and

21 doing that sooner rather than later because we need to

22 meet this goal within 8 years.

23 Also, to get to near zero emissions some of the

24 gas tendered [sic] cars, the G-4 engines that can be

25 retrofitted with diesel appropriately can be with

101 natural gas now and we encourage them to do that.

2 And the same thing is true with all rail

3 locomotives. That includes -- if we scan the SCAG

4 region they can be transformed to natural gas and this

5 is the readily available technology to let us get to a

6 positive output right away.

7 We need to meet -- we're not going to meet

8 these goals, but if we don't make every effort to do it

9 we're not going to have much more legal power to be able

10 adjust federal transportation dollars.

11 And without that, we will be, you know, that is

12 half of our road budget now so we can hardly do with

13 what we have. We must have with it -- I can't imagine

14 where we would be.

15 So, I encourage the things in this report that

16 are readily available, particularly, the ones that

17 incorporate natural gas because that is the technology

18 available right now and there is no reason to hesitate

19 in doing that. Thank you.

20 MR. LIU: Before we go to the next speaker, I

21 just want everyone to be aware that there is -- even

22 though this is a public hearing, there is a member of

23 the public who is video recording this and in so if you

24 are at all uncomfortable with being video recorded,

25 please say so before you begin. All right. Thank you.

111 MS. HAZLETT: Good morning, my name is Peggi

2 Hazlett. As a former assistant to the Mayor for the

3 City of San Bernardino, I have the distinction of saying

4 that I represent the City that was one of only a handful

5 of cities in the Nation that have filed for bankruptcy

6 protection.

7 Now, as the President and CEO of the Ontario

8 Chamber of Commerce I have the distinction of saying

9 that I am a representative of a business community that

10 has the worst air quality in the Nation.

11 There was the September 9th, 2015 L.A. Times

12 Article Tony Barboza reported with the blazing headlines

13 that people living near the 60 Freeway in Ontario

14 breathe the worst air in our Nation.

15 The studious distinction is not one to be proud

16 of. California needs to improve our quality and health

17 of our communities.

18 As noted in the L.A. Times Article and other

19 resources the transportation sector is the leading air

20 polluter accounting for 80 percent of the region's smog

21 for emitting emissions and over 40 percent of the

22 region's green house emissions.

23 Heavy duty trucks account for the largest

24 source of the region's air pollution. According to the

25 Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Industry

121 Report retrieved on October 14th of 2015, residents in

2 the Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario Metropolitan area

3 only have the luxury of 7.5 percent of good air quality

4 days per year.

5 Again, leading the nation with the worst air

6 quality following closely by 8.8 percent of good days in

7 the L.A., Long Beach, Santa Ana Region. This means that

8 our residents in the Ontario area only experience good

9 air quality one out of every 12 days. This pollution

10 contributes to health risks such as asthma, cancer and

11 premature death.

12 Those likely to be the most impacted are the

13 disadvantaged communities near and around transportation

14 quarters and ports. Poor quality also puts us at risk

15 for failing to meet the stringent state federal air

16 quality standards that Kenneth alluded to.

17 California state is at critical need for the

18 reduction of critical pollutants and green house

19 emissions in an effort to curtail smog, climate change,

20 address first the affects of these critical health

21 issues, if not the particular part pollution reduces

22 reduction addresses real human needs that need to be met

23 now.

24 Technologies like ultra low nox, heavy duty

25 engines are a viable solution in addressing California's

131 air pollution and climate change goals. Alternate

2 fueled vehicles can help reduce harmful emissions.

3 But in order to put more clean vehicles on the

4 road we need the fuelling infrastructure to support

5 them. In the Inland Empire we have less than a dozen

6 CNG locations and of those several require keypads to

7 access.

8 In Aurora, Colorado Majestic Realty Company in

9 cooperation with the City of Aurora opened a major

10 Compressed Natural Gas fueling station at the Majestic

11 Industrial Park in late 2014.

12 Interestingly, this is just outside Colorado

13 Springs which is in the top eight for cities in the

14 Nation with the best air quality where its residents

15 experience 86.7 percent of clean air days per year.

16 This public private partnership is open 24/7 to

17 all users commercial and private at a much lower price

18 than gas or diesel. CNG can offer up to 25 percent

19 reduction in green house emissions and 20 to 45 percent

20 reduction in nox.

21 SCAG should support all new alternative fueling

22 infrastructure and the development of intermodal fueling

23 strategies. Please take advantage of the existing

24 infrastructure and strive to avoid these strategy

25 offsets.

141 At the Ontario Chamber of Commerce we too

2 strive to increase mobility, economic opportunities and

3 healthier communities with a better quality of life.

4 Thank you.

5 MS. CAPPS: My name is TRESSY CAPPS. I have a

6 question. At the least public hearing was the court

7 reporter taking notes.

8 MR. LIU: Yes.

9 MS. CAPPS: Okay. Good. I'll talk slow. I

10 don't have written notes. Okay. So, my name is Tressy

11 Capps I am here to talk about the plan. I do agree with

12 things that were said today about natural gas. I,

13 actually, drive a natural gas vehicle and I've been.

14 So, I know that here at SANBAG we're developing

15 this Redlands Rail and I don't think those are natural

16 gas. I don't think that train is going to be natural

17 gas.

18 Anyways, I think that natural gas is a good

19 technology and it is clean so I would fully support

20 anything like that that would actually be a solution

21 versus some of the things that are in this plan that are

22 somewhat ridiculous and so I'll go through some my

23 thoughts about that.

24 I have an article here that just was in the

25 paper yesterday. It was written by Thomas Elias and

151 it's entitled -- the Commentary it's entitled Worst

2 Bottleneck Stalled Traffic In Spite of Nearby Transit

3 Lines.

4 And it's a very well written commentary and it

5 makes the point that "One lesson here, then, is that

6 mass transit doesn't solve all congestion." Just look

7 at the 10 between Downtown Los Angeles and the City of

8 West Side where commuters sit and wait while trains

9 dis-unmolested [sic] along the almost parallel mostly

10 completed Metro Express Line.

11 So, I think, the problem I have with this plan

12 is that it is an exercise in a fantasy. SCAG is

13 assuming, assuming, that people are going to abandon

14 their cars and they're going to take public transit, and

15 it's just not going to happen, like I spoke about

16 before.

17 And so, now, I've got -- I've been examining

18 the plan, I have some specific comments about that.

19 First of all, you start out the plan with this picture

20 here, as you can see there is no cars. So, clearly, the

21 gist of this plan is to get people out of their cars for

22 their health or, however, you want to justify it.

23 The next big picture that I wanted to show is

24 this picture of this bus tying up traffic in Los Angeles

25 and I've, actually, videotaped down by the SCAG office

161 this exact same area.

2 So, what is going on is a bunch of empty buses

3 are running around Downtown L.A. an they're actually

4 creating traffic and so I don't agree with doing that.

5 I don't think those buses are solving much of anything

6 other than creating traffic. Some buses are necessary

7 but a lot of the lines are empty and we've documented

8 that on videotape.

9 Okay, my next comment is about trains. So,

10 here you've got the train and all these happy people,

11 that's nice that works in some places the East Coast,

12 perhaps.

13 It is not going to work here on the West Coast

14 and my example for that is ARTIC and that was a SCAG

15 boom-dawdle that cost a bunch of money and Anaheim will

16 be paying for that for a very long time. And if anyone

17 wants to go check that out that big snow globe on the

18 side of the 57 Freeway, no one is using and it is a

19 complete failure and that was SCAG's bright idea. Good

20 job at bombing.

21 Okay. So, now, onto the bikes. So SCAG

22 imagines that everybody is going to get on a bike and

23 Hasan claims that millennials, I brought my little

24 Minion here millennials, that they like to travel in

25 packs on bikes to the movies.

171 Now, I have never witnessed this phenomena

2 anywhere so, maybe, if I saw a video of it, you know, I

3 mean here in the Inland Empire my niece goes to Etiwanda

4 High School and I see all the young kids driving their

5 cars to school or their parents are driving them to

6 school or they come on the bus.

7 But I do not see a lot of people on bikes,

8 there is a lot of traffic, it would be very dangerous

9 and they'd probably end up at Stanley if they were to

10 take a bike so.

11 But anyway, you have this picture here which I

12 found kind of amusing, I don't know if everyone can see

13 it but you see all the kids are all saluting. It is a

14 good Communist salute. You know, it really is -- it's

15 really a funny picture.

16 So, anyways, so again natural gas sounds like a

17 good solution, I don't know if that is somewhere here in

18 the plan, but the parts of the plan that I have seen

19 involve, like I said, pricing people out of their cars

20 and so they plan on using -- doing that through a series

21 of things.

22 Toll lanes is one of the ways that SCAG wants

23 to price people out of their cars. Another way that

24 SCAG plans to do that is vehicle mileage tax and that is

25 just going to be tea bagging the people in California.

181 I'm not sure if you guys have noticed but in other

2 states gas is like 80 cents a gallon but here in

3 California we're still paying 2-something a gallon, I

4 don't know because I drive a natural gas car, but I know

5 it's not anywhere close to 80 cents a gallon.

6 So, here you just want to tax, tax, tax us so

7 -- or SCAG does, so that we have -- Hasan will tell

8 you it's so we have choices. But I will tell you, my

9 opinion, it is to make sure that people are priced out

10 of their cars and forced to these choices and, I think,

11 that that is wrong. So, let see what else.

12 So, again, it is a fantasy to envision that

13 people are going to be biking around. It sounds like a

14 third world country not anywhere I want to live and so,

15 I think, this plan is awful, I think the outreach is

16 completely bogus and fake.

17 At the last public hearing Riverside didn't

18 even show up so I don't now how you are going to address

19 that, but I would say that that last public hearing you

20 had is invalidated [sic] because the Riverside County

21 Office wasn't even participating so you better do that

22 public hearing over again is my suggestion. Thank you.

23 MR. LIU: Anybody other comments?

24 SAN BERNARDINO: I think that's it for San

25 Bernardino.

191 MR. LIU: Okay. Thank you, San Bernardino.

2 Next is Ventura County, any person want to speak in

3 Ventura.

4 VENTURA: No comments up here, Mr. Liu. Thank

5 you.

6 MR. LIU: Okay. We'll move on to Los Angeles.

7 So, any speakers here in Los Angeles? No speakers.

8 Okay. Well, are there any new attendees to any of the

9 satellite offices that would like to speak?

10 RIVERSIDE: Jeff, here in Riverside.

11 MR. LIU: Okay. Let's go ahead.

12 MS. Hasson: Hi. My name is Michelle Hasson

13 and I'm Leadership Counsel for Justice and

14 Accountability. I did have some comments on the plan,

15 really, respected more about a focus on people movement

16 and how SCAG can really use the opportunity of the

17 RTPSCS to uplift people movement; right.

18 I represent organizations in the Inland Empire

19 and we've notices that a lot of the strategies of models

20 for growth are focused on transit oriented development

21 and high quality transit areas which are really fabulous

22 cornerstones for good planning, but somehow don't really

23 fit with a lot of these realities in the Inland Empire.

24 In the Inland Empire and it is very well noted

25 in the RTPSCS itself that, you know, we have the worst

201 job/housing balance in the region. Inland Empire

2 employees have to travel the farthest distance and we'd

3 like to see SCAG prioritize investment in transit.

4 I know that some people think that transit

5 doesn't work but transit doesn't work because we don't

6 have the infrastructure in the IE. Only .5 percent of

7 low income people in the IE actually have access to a

8 decent and efficient transit stop. We'd like to see

9 models for growth that can be more adaptable and

10 appropriate for a not so-densely populated urban region

11 like Los Angeles.

12 We would like to see something like the

13 neighborhood mobility areas or the high quality transit

14 corridors, maybe, adjusted to suit the realities of less

15 densely populated regions within SCAG.

16 Growth models, SCAG should really uplift best

17 practices throughout the region, specifically, in the

18 Inland Empire that show good strategies for smart growth

19 in a rural community like how instant in those

20 developments is done in a less densely populated

21 community.

22 How different acceptabilities of ride sharing

23 could be uplifted and folded into a more formal transit

24 network so that when we are looking for a different

25 funding sources that prioritize transit and development

211 we're not excluding non-traditional forms of transit.

2 We're also allowing for our growth models to be

3 reactive and adaptive to the different kinds of

4 realities throughout SCAG.

5 Another thing that we hear that SCAG did and I

6 have brought this up before and I know that your team is

7 really great at looking at different ways of qualifying

8 and identifying communities within the subregions; but,

9 again, I do want to bring up the point again that the

10 definition of rural of, basically, anything of 2,500 or

11 below is rural and 2,500 and above is urban, I think

12 kind of limits the ability for SCAG to really predict

13 growth in this variety of communities, right.

14 I don't think an area like Thermal [phonetic]

15 California which is largely a farm worker community

16 shouldn't even be qualified as urban. But there are

17 opportunities for smart growth, there are opportunities

18 to look at what a neighborhood mobility area could look

19 like in a less-densely populated.

20 How do we promote and uplift those strategies

21 for growth and invest in an existing communities so that

22 we're not consistently building new communities to adapt

23 to where there is transit and we really need better

24 indicators to where we need to invest in gaps in our

25 system; right.

221 I think the Inland Empire 40 -- we are home to

2 40 percent of this country's goods movement which is a

3 huge burden, but we also are home to people and people

4 who have the worst infrastructure in the region have

5 limited access to public transit.

6 And we'd like to see strategies that really

7 uplift and prioritize investment in the regions of SCAG

8 that are kind of falling behind. I'd also like to see

9 SCAG really address the issue of disadvantaged

10 communities in a much flippant [phonetic] and strategic

11 way throughout the plan.

12 SCAG houses 68 percent of California's

13 disadvantaged communities it shouldn't be left in

14 appendix. Prioritizing and investing in disadvantaged

15 communities throughout our region should be part of the

16 plan, it should be an initiative within itself and it

17 should be prioritized in all the different areas.

18 And I think SCAG has a lot of jurisdictions

19 that can really demonstrate great practices of how to

20 prioritize investments in disadvantaged communities.

21 So, that's it. Thank you.

22 MR. LIU: Thank you. Any other comments from

23 the satellite offices? Okay. I understand we have one

24 comment here from Los Angeles.

25 MR. SADLER: Good morning. I'm Bill Sadler

231 with the Safe Practices School National Partnership and

2 I wanted to express support for the active

3 transportation investment in the RTPSCS, particularly,

4 the RTPSCS doubled the amount of active transportation

5 funding from the from the previous plan from 6 Billion

6 to 12 Billion.

7 And about 20 percent of trips in the SCAG

8 region according to SCAG's data are by walking and

9 biking. I myself walk and bike and I know many other

10 people in the region that do and many of us people would

11 do more if there was more safety infrastructure

12 available.

13 78 percent of trips in the region are under

14 three miles that these are drive and the SCAG plan

15 identifies strategies to make these short trips easier

16 to walk and bike.

17 Moreover the plan makes significant investments

18 in new transit service, include funding for operations

19 and maintenance to keep the system we already have in

20 good condition.

21 According to some estimates L.A. -- the City of

22 L.A. or its L.A. Metro has the second highest bus

23 ridership in the country so there is not an

24 insignificant amount of people that are taking transit

25 and many of these people are low income or from the

241 disadvantaged communities which as a previous speaker

2 mentioned we have about two-thirds of the states, so

3 making investments in transit is a good idea for the

4 region.

5 And it also -- the plan also pays particular

6 emphasis on public health and environmental justice in

7 the two appendices, both of which the public health plan

8 which is new for the first time and the EJ appendices

9 which has been significantly enhanced with additional

10 data, so we are particularly supportive of those

11 elements of the plan in general.

12 We do, you know, have some concerns that the

13 funding is primarily still about roads and highways and

14 we recognize that most of the region still drives.

15 But we do think with a significant amount of

16 people that walk, bike and take transit that we could do

17 even more to link our investments within ways that

18 people actually get around and, especially, make it

19 safer for people to get to their schools, their jobs and

20 parks around the region.

21 So, thank you for allowing me an opportunity to

22 comment today and we'll be submitting more formal

23 written comments in the few weeks. Thank you.

24 MR. LIU: Thank you. Any additional comments

25 here in Los Angeles? Okay. We keep the public hearing

251 open until 11 o'clock just in case anyone shows up late.

2 Feel free to stay. I want to thank everyone

3 for making -- coming today and for those who made

4 comments thank you very much.

5 I, also, did want to before anyone leaves just

6 let everyone know that there are two additional public

7 hearings scheduled. The next one is January 21st it's

8 in a few days at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation

9 Center and that's at 6 o'clock p.m. and the one after

10 that will be held Saturday, January 23rd, at 10 o'clock

11 a.m. and that will be held in L.A., Riverside, Imperial,

12 San Bernardino and Ventura.

13 So, with that, we'll just hang out here. Thank

14 you very much for coming. I appreciate it.

15 (Pause in the proceedings.)

16 MR. LIU: Okay. Hello, everyone. I just want

17 to go around the different SCAG offices to see one last

18 time if there is any new people that showed up that want

19 to provide public comment on the RTPSCS.

20 If anyone wants to speak, can you let us know

21 now? Imperial? Orange? Riverside? San Bernardino?

22 Ventura looks empty. Okay. Anyone from Los Angeles.

23 PUBLIC: Not at this time.

24 MR. LIU: Okay. Last call. All right. With

25 that, we will close our public hearing for today. I

261 appreciate everyone for coming today. Thank you.

2 And just, again, we do have one other public

3 hearing on January 21st at 6 p.m., at the Santa Ana

4 Regional Transportation Center and then the one

5 following that is Saturday January 23rd at 10 o'clock

6 a.m. at Los Angeles, Riverside SCAG office, San

7 Bernardino SCAG office, Imperial and Ventura SCAG

8 offices as well. All right. Thank you very much. I

9 appreciate you coming.

10

11 (The Public Hearing concluded at 11:00 a.m.)

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271 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

2

3

4 I, ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR No. 11805, a Certified

5 Shorthand Reporter, certify;

6 That the foregoing proceedings were taken before me

7 at the time and place therein set forth;

8 That the all objections and statements made at the

9 time of the foregoing proceedings were recorded

10 stenographically by me and were thereafter transcribed;

11 That the foregoing is a true and correct transcript

12 of my shorthand notes so taken.

13 I further certify that I am not a relative or

14 employee of any attorney of the parties, nor financially

15 interested in the action.

16 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws

17 of California that the foregoing is true and correct.

18

19 Dated this 19th day of January, 2016.

20

21 ____________ __

22 ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

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281 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

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15 COURT REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

16 SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA

17 JANUARY 21, 2016

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20

21 ATKINSON-BAKER, INC.

COURT REPORTERS

22 (800) 288-3376

www.depo.com

23

24 REPORTED BY: ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

25 FILE NO: AA00B84

11 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

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15 Court Reporter's transcript of proceedings taken at

16 100 East Santa Ana Boulevard, Logan Room, Santa Ana,

17 California, commencing at 6:02 p.m., Thursday, January

18 21, 2016, before Anna Marie Spinelli, CSR No. 11805.

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21 A P P E A R A N C E S:

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LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE:

3

Present and

4 Speakers:

5 Darin Chidsey, Director

6 Kevin Gilhooley

Christopher Tzeng

7 Philip Law

8

Eric

9 Tressy Capps

Kristina Rogers

10 Sarah Bremer

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31 SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016,

2 6:04 P.M.

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7 MR. CHIDSEY: Good evening, Everybody. I want

8 to officially open up this public hearing of the

9 Southern California Association of Governments 2016

10 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities

11 Strategy.

12 It is currently out for public review for 60

13 days, it's released by our Board State Regional Council

14 on December 3rd. That comment period will end on

15 February 1st at 5 p.m.

16 Today is one of a series of public hearings

17 that we're doing throughout the region and we would

18 officially like to welcome all of you and thank those of

19 you here for attending.

20 Please, if you are here and would like to

21 provide comments we do have a court reporter here taking

22 those comments and we will continue to hold the period

23 open for a time to allow comments to be made.

24 So, please, welcome and state your name and

25 provide any comments that you have. I will say it's

41 tradition on these public hearings we've had an overview

2 of the plan a video and power point presentation. We

3 don't have that available tonight.

4 One of the things I did want to do is just note

5 all the materials that are here and are available to

6 review. There is an Executive Center Plan there are

7 copies of the full document and as well the Specific

8 Benefit and Fact Sheet for Orange County.

9 PUBLIC: Is there a copy of the full document

10 on the CD?

11 MR. CHIDSEY: The Regional Transportation

12 Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy the document.

13 PUBLIC: The whole document can be? When you

14 say the whole document is here to review.

15 MR. CHIDSEY: The document --

16 PUBLIC: -- the draft or the actual CD has the

17 whole 1800 pages; right?

18 MR. CHIDSEY: There is the document the public

19 hearing the Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable

20 Communities Strategy that document is here and we have

21 been referring to the Program Environmental Report

22 that is accompanied by an environmental document for the

23 plan and, yes, there are CDs available.

24 PUBLIC: I just want to be clear on what you

25 are talking about so I know.

51 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. And with that, if

2 anybody would like to provide comments the floor is now

3 open.

4 Please offer any comments if those of you here

5 have comments that you'd like to provide, the court

6 reporter is here so please.

7 ERIC/PUBLIC: Okay. First and foremost, SCAG

8 is a Corporation and because SCAG is a corporation I do

9 not consent to any of your mandates, edicts or demands.

10 You need to show me the contract that I signed as a

11 willing consenting adult before we can even have this

12 conversations.

13 Secondly, SCAG is not constitutional. Nowhere

14 in the Constitution does it talk about JPA it's a

15 made-up term to steal government away from people at the

16 local level.

17 There is nothing good about Regional

18 Government. When you take 191 cities and put them

19 altogether in one body which is what SCAG is, you have

20 created a massive government. There is not one big

21 government in history that has ended well for the

22 people.

23 This whole SCAG Regional Transportation process

24 proves why Regionalism is terrible for this country. An

25 associate of mine who is not here we discussed -- he and

61 I discussed sitting down and reading the thousands of

2 page that are in the SCAG RTPSCS and EIR documents we

3 were going to make notes and eventually publish a report

4 refuting the plan.

5 The whole idea of reading the document that is

6 published in the report is not even possible given the

7 time constraints; secondly, even if we were able to get

8 the report complete we would then have to go to through

9 191 elected representatives in 191 different cities and

10 try to convince them on a side to vote, that's 191

11 people and we only have several months to do all of

12 this.

13 So, we have to take the localism and local

14 government if the same thing were happening in a local

15 city we would only have to convince three people to

16 agree with us on the plan. That is three versus 191.

17 That example that I just read is the very reason why

18 this regionalism has to stop, it completely shuts we the

19 people out of progress.

20 Now, let's get into what the plan is based on.

21 The entire plan is based on sustainability. Now, when

22 you ask these planners what sustainability is they are

23 likely to say something along the lines of making

24 development that fits the current needs while preserving

25 the ability for future generations to meet their own

71 needs.

2 What the hell does that even mean? Seriously,

3 half the time you ask a planner what sustainability is

4 they usually use the word sustainability in their answer

5 which tells me they don't even know what it means.

6 So, I have spent four years trying to figure

7 out what sustainability actually is and I have the

8 answer. Sustainability is rational. It is being forced

9 to use less of everything. Less water, they've got that

10 covered already. Less energy, they are attempting that

11 as renewable.

12 Renewable energy is a giant total capital scam

13 where the government takes one of the looters and crops

14 up field industries by that trade [sic]. Less food,

15 that's been worked on by the United Nations right now.

16 Less mobility, I cannot believe you guys think

17 we are so stupid that people are actually going to

18 believe that going from a car to a bus or a bike is

19 somehow getting around quicker. Seriously, that is

20 insane.

21 Less freedom, freedom is choice and you are

22 destroying our choices with this plan. And let's talk

23 about those choices. You are acting like you are doing

24 us a favor by providing us a bike lane, buses and trains

25 that most people want nothing to do with. However, this

81 is all a huge scam.

2 Last year the state attempted to cut gasoline

3 in half by 50 percent the bill was called SB350. The

4 bill passed but the gasoline language was taken out of

5 the bill. We have confirmation the state will be trying

6 to pass that again this year in 2016. So yes, the State

7 of California is trying to get us out of our cars.

8 We are seeing all of this planning right now

9 because you know the main auction that everyone wants is

10 going to be to eliminated. So, stop with this garbage

11 that you are doing us a favor. This is a surrounded big

12 government that is waging war against us. You are not

13 doing anybody any favors.

14 Lastly, I want to address this lie about the

15 millennials how my generation wants to walk and ride

16 bikes everywhere and live in little shoebox apartments.

17 First off, my generation is glued to their

18 phones so they are completely disengaged, as a result

19 they are not coming to these meetings and demanding what

20 you are saying, they are demanding. I have yet to see

21 this ever happening.

22 Secondly, we are told the millennials want to

23 spend lots of money with small apartment. How is that

24 going to happen? We were screwed by older generations

25 when they told us that we must go to college. Not only

91 is a college degree worthless now, but it has put all

2 the young people in debt so they're not going to be

3 spending $400,000 on a so-called luxury apartment.

4 The truth is every single city is increasing

5 the number of housing units and we have a president that

6 has opened up the borders and brings in illegal aliens

7 and refugees in the different wars that are going on.

8 Those people need a place to live if they are going to

9 be here. That is the real reason why we are seeing all

10 this building.

11 America is being transformed into a Third World

12 Country and that is evident by the fact that the

13 American dream of a golden card is being destroyed. If

14 you want to know what Obama's fundamental transformation

15 looks like this is it.

16 All this planning this Central planning that

17 you are engaged in this is communism. Mouths trying to

18 sell Russia in a 5-year, 10-year and 20-year planning

19 cycle. I mean, come on, this is such a joke. How is it

20 you are throwing this at our faces.

21 The head of this organization Hasan Ikhrata

22 is a planner in Soviet Union and is now involved in a

23 half trillion dollar plan to transform Southern

24 California into a public Utopia.

25 If I try to sell that as a movie picture nobody

101 would believe me, but it's our reality. If you are in

2 favor of all this planning then you are un-American it's

3 as simple as that. America was not planned. America

4 exploded into being a revolution.

5 All of those great inventions that we have seen

6 over the last 200 years has not occurred because

7 top-down big government central planning. Those things

8 happened because America had the freedom to be creative

9 and innovative. America did not become great because it

10 was planned. America became great because it was free.

11 All this planning puts everyone into a box,

12 literally and figuratively, it is going to restrict what

13 we can and cannot and that is wrong. So, I hope you

14 will wake up and realize what is happening. Thank you.

15 MS. CAPPS: You guys are all traitors. This is

16 sad.

17 PUBLIC: I was just going to say that this

18 public hearing is so small. But here's the thing so

19 we've got a really hugely growing population. I mean,

20 side to side all your feelings about everything else, we

21 have the second worst congestion in the country.

22 So, it is taking a long time to get around and

23 that actually does put a burden on people that have less

24 money. I mean, I just moved back to California I used

25 to be a homeowner, I can't afford like a $2,000

111 apartment and to have a car and drive around and

2 transition between careers.

3 So, being able to jump on something quickly the

4 obligation to not own a car would really help me so I

5 could afford a $2,000 apartment and I could get around.

6 MS. CAPPS: This is a public hearing so testify

7 to that.

8 PUBLIC: So, here is my thing, what is the

9 solution, you guys? We have so many people in this

10 environment.

11 MS. CAPPS: The solution is public borders and

12 stop transportation of immigrants.

13 PUBLIC: Okay. We don't have a population

14 problem people are leaving. Hang on a second, are

15 population is so depends on farming in California and we

16 are losing people.

17 ERIC: Wait, what does that mean? Explain what

18 you mean?

19 MR. CHIDSEY: Let's stop this, I want to keep

20 moving the public hearing along. We have other people

21 here. If you can want to continue to have a dialogue

22 that's great, but I do want to provide an opportunity

23 for them to listen to what they have to say.

24 MS. CAPPS: Okay. This is a public hearing and

25 this is a public place so we're free to film and this

121 lady back here got really upset.

2 STAFF: I am not just people and -- I said I do

3 not consent you filming me.

4 MS. CAPPS: Well, this is a public hearing.

5 (Interruption in the proceedings, arguing

6 and disagreements going on.)

7 MR. CHIDSEY: So, any other individual that's

8 present here today that would like to comment? We'll

9 continue the public hearing and leave it open at this

10 time.

11 (Pause in the proceedings.)

12 MR. CHIDSEY: Good evening, everybody. It is 7

13 p.m. I want to check in and see if anyone wants to make

14 any public comments?

15 PUBLIC: I would like to say Thank you very

16 much for doing an extra public hearing in Orange County.

17 I know you didn't have one planned and this one was an

18 added one so thank you very much for making sure that we

19 had an opportunity to be here.

20 MR. CHIDSEY: Would you state your name for the

21 record?

22 MS. BREMMER: Sure. Sarah Bremer (phonetic).

23 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Anyone else /STKH of.

24 PUBLIC: Yeah. I think together can we say

25 thank you because we actually have had a good dialogue.

131 Like we're having like an actual conversation about

2 specifics. So thank you for having a public hearing.

3 MR. CHIDSEY: Would you mind stating your name

4 for the record?

5 MS. ROGERS: Sure. Kristina Rogers.

6 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you so much.

7 PUBLIC: So, really, thank you because it's all

8 great support that you're here.

9 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank everybody for attending.

10 Just to reiterate the plan is currently out for public

11 review and comment. You can comment on the website, you

12 can comment through writing. There is an official

13 public hearing on Saturday, 10 a.m.

14 It will be webcast at all of our SCAG offices

15 so that is another opportunity to comment which will

16 close at 5 p.m. on February 1st.

17 And if there is no additional comments, I will

18 make sure we close the public hearing tonight. Thank

19 you.

20

21 (The Public Hearing concluded at 7:02 p.m.)

22

23

24

25

141 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

2

3

4 I, ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR No. 11805, a Certified

5 Shorthand Reporter, certify;

6 That the foregoing proceedings were taken before me

7 at the time and place therein set forth;

8 That the all objections and statements made at the

9 time of the foregoing proceedings were recorded

10 stenographically by me and were thereafter transcribed;

11 That the foregoing is a true and correct transcript

12 of my shorthand notes so taken.

13 I further certify that I am not a relative or

14 employee of any attorney of the parties, nor financially

15 interested in the action.

16 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws

17 of California that the foregoing is true and correct.

18

19 Dated this 21st day of January, 2016.

20

21 ____________ __

22 ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

23

24

25

151 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 COURT REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

16 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

17 JANUARY 23, 2016

18

19

20

21 ATKINSON-BAKER, INC.

COURT REPORTERS

22 (800) 288-3376

www.depo.com

23

24 REPORTED BY: ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

25 FILE NO: AA00567

11 - - -

2

3 THE 2016-2040 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN/SUSTAINABLE

4 COMMUNITIES STRATEGY PUBLIC HEARING

5 PRESENTED BY

6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 Court Reporter's transcript of proceedings taken at

16 818 West 7th Street, 12th Floor, Los Angeles,

17 California, commencing at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, January

18 23, 2016, before Anna Marie Spinelli, CSR No. 11805.

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

21 A P P E A R A N C E S:

2

LOS ANGELES COUNTY OFFICE:

3

Present and

4 Speakers:

5 Darin Chidsey, Director

6 Alan Barr

Leland Dolly

7 Vivian Romero

John Paul Garcia

8 Shannon Kellen

Debbie Espinoza

9

10

11 IMPERIAL COUNTY

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

12 VENTURA COUNTY

13

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY:

14

Tressy Capps

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

31 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2016,

2 10:00 A.M.

3 - - -

4

5

6

7 MR. CHIDSEY: Good morning, Everybody. Welcome

8 to a public hearing for the Southern California

9 Association of Governments 2016 Regional Transportation

10 Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy.

11 I thank everybody for coming this morning.

12 This another in a series of public hearings that we're

13 holding on the plan. It was released by our Governing

14 Body the SCAG's Regional Council for 60 days public

15 review and comment on December 3rd that ends at February

16 1st at 5 p.m.

17 So thank everyone for coming and we really

18 appreciate it. We are going to start this public

19 hearing off with a brief video, it's about 7 minutes,

20 describing various components of the plan and then we'll

21 open it up to receive comments here in the Los Angeles

22 office.

23 There are materials around the room as well as

24 some of the other offices throughout the SCAG region to

25 get more well-associated with the type of information

41 that's in the plan and --

2 SCAG OFFICE: Darin, you need to speak up we

3 can't hear you.

4 (Interruption in the proceedings.)

5 MR. CHIDSEY: Okay. So, I'll start again.

6 Good morning everybody. Thank you for coming. Today is

7 a public hearing on the Southern California Association

8 of Governments Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable

9 Community Strategy the document which lead for public

10 review and comment on December 3rd by SCAG's Regional

11 Council.

12 The 60-day public review and comment period

13 will end February 1st. Today is a public hearing but we

14 are going to provide some preliminary information about

15 the plan through a video.

16 There's, also, materials here at Los Angeles

17 Office as well as all the other offices six additional

18 back sheets concerning facts about the plan so we

19 welcome you to peruse those documents as well.

20 With that we're going to open it up with the

21 video, but I did want to introduce first our Chair of

22 our Transportation Committee Alan Wapner is here. And

23 I'm looking through the other regional offices to see if

24 there is any other SCAG Regional Council members present

25 and I don't see anyone else.

51 But welcome and, please, enjoy the video then

2 we'll go into the public comment portion of the hearing.

3 Thank you.

4 (Pause while the video is playing.)

5 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. There is a little

6 background on the Regional Transportation

7 Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy. We are aware

8 there is an echo and we are working on that to clear

9 that up as quickly as possible so we apologize for that.

10 Now, to move onto the public comment portion of

11 the hearing. Just to let everybody know we will start

12 in the Los Angeles Office and then we'll go to Imperial,

13 Riverside, San Bernardino then following Ventura and we

14 will circle back around to see if any of the offices

15 which to provide comments. So with that, I'm going to

16 call, first off, Vivian Romero.

17 Did somebody say something? Give us one

18 moment.

19 (Interruption in the proceedings.)

20 MR. CHIDSEY: Okay. The next speaker will be

21 Leland Dolly.

22 MR. DOLLY: Good morning. I'm grateful to SCAG

23 for setting this on a Saturday and, I think, it's

24 dangerous to give a guy like me unlimited time, but I'm

25 grateful for that to.

61 I want to tell you I got here really quickly

2 about 80 miles an hour average so good timing. I

3 represent the City of Alhambra former City Attorney and

4 I'm here to support without qualification the draft RTP.

5 We wish to final in the same form it is.

6 MR. CHIDSEY: Ladies and gentlemen, we're take

7 a quick pause so we can address the echo issue.

8 (Interruption in the proceedings.)

9 MR. CHIDSEY: All right. Thank you for your

10 patience let's try this again. Leland Dolly.

11 MR. DOLLY: My name is Lee Dolly and I'm former

12 City Attorney for the City of Alhambra since the early

13 70s, retired, somewhat, and still involved in this case

14 and I'm speaking on behalf of the City Council of the

15 City of Alhambra today.

16 We are here to give unqualified support to this

17 RTP. It is a great job. We are grateful, of course,

18 that the 710 North Gap is within the RTP and we're here

19 to present documents that we presented to Caltrans in

20 the study currently on-going for the 710 for the funding

21 and Caltrans approval.

22 I would like to hand out first the comment

23 letter to put into the record and, second, a brief

24 overview of it also to put in the record. These

25 documents are directly to the 710 and not all to the

71 RTP, but the 710 North Gap completion will, without any

2 question, be a very important part of your RTP so we

3 present in the spirit of supporting the RTP.

4 We, also, present it because it is a thorough

5 in-depth study by experts and others of the 710 Gap

6 closure and more specifically the air quality and

7 traffic conditions that are relieved by the completion

8 of the 710 so we're here to support.

9 The 710 is critical to these plans because it

10 is not only in the RTP right now, the tunnel, but it's

11 also in the Measure R that was passed by the people

12 several years ago and it's actually coming to fruition

13 now. There is money, specifically, voted on

14 $780,000,000 by the people of this County. We think

15 that is a pretty good mandate to build this tunnel so

16 it's voter approved.

17 It is in your current RTP as a tunnel. It is

18 also in the long range plan of Metro. It's also

19 Caltrans' project that has been on the books since the

20 early 50s or earlier than that and it is, of course, in

21 your draft RTP right now. The document that we handed

22 out is a very complete document. There are three

23 attachments to it and are pertinent here.

24 The first attachment deals with traffic

25 conditions, the second, Appendix B, deals with air

81 quality and the third with environmental justice. The

2 City directed me sometime ago to engage the help and

3 expertise of folks that know the subjects and we did so.

4 We hired some of the premier air quality and traffic

5 experts anywhere and in this County. One is Mr. Pat

6 Gibson of Gibson Transportation he has done traffic

7 studies all over here for many, many, many, many years

8 he has down at the Universal site right now and

9 Disneyland and so forth, his qualifications are all

10 contained in the documents so I'll move on.

11 We've also hired Ms. Julia Lester. Now, Julia

12 is a very very top flight in explaining air quality

13 because air quality is not the easiest thing to

14 understand.

15 We ask these two people to go into the guts and

16 the depth of the thousands and thousands of pages and

17 find the bottom-line models the bottom-line guts of

18 these two areas. We asked them without telling them

19 what we wanted. We asked them to do a straight job and

20 they did a straight job.

21 The traffic studies show that there is

22 significant reduction in traffic by the completion of

23 the tunnel over the entire San Gabriel Valley Region

24 going south into toward the Long Beach Area.

25 The region study by Metro is huge it goes all

91 the way out to La Canada, all the way out to the 605

2 journeying down to the 5 and tries to -- includes El

3 Serino but not all of Downtown Los Angeles. The air

4 quality studies show that there is a significant

5 reduction in health risk, specifically, a reduction

6 significantly of a cancer risk.

7 I will not go terribly deep into discussing or

8 describing those items to you, but I do want to give a

9 couple of quotes. It is all in the document and it is

10 pretty reasonable. The first quote is by Pat Gibson,

11 this is right out of the documents, and he says "If a

12 tunnel is built of 57,600 vehicles per day will be

13 removed from local streets cut through, dramatically

14 reduced."

15 He says "It is drastically reducing traffic

16 cutting through the San Gabriel Valley on arterioles of

17 open street by more than 43 percent." Significant. He

18 also says that "6.78 million hours of travel will be

19 saved by constructing the tunnel 6.8 million it's a huge

20 number." So, right away we think the traffic is going

21 to be helped.

22 We go back to logic, forget what the experts

23 say for a second, if stopped the freeway in a lawsuit in

24 1973 what happens, the traffic goes on local streets.

25 Fast forward to today, if you build a tunnel hasn't that

101 traffic build up 100 times, a thousand times, we don't

2 know. A huge amount that's why we are studying it

3 because traffic is horrible. If traffic is horrible,

4 air quality is horrible so pure logic to me says let's

5 build it, but we have experts to prove it.

6 Let me go onto Judy Lester just a short quote

7 from her. "The air district data shows that cancer risk

8 in communities near and around the south bend of the

9 710, that's Gap, is 20 percent to 100 percent greater

10 than compared to neighborhoods north of the freeway Gap

11 as shown in the guts of the draft environmental justice

12 only this tunnel regresses that disparity."

13 Finally, the third attachment deals with

14 environmental justice. All of these are not easy issues

15 but let me try and summarize. In this case there are

16 many neighborhoods that are by law minority we describe

17 them that way and what we see is a great disparity

18 between the north cities and the south cities, you heard

19 it in cancer risk, you heard it in traffic risk.

20 But justice really requires that there be some

21 balancing of the affects over a larger period in the

22 larger area, specifically, we got a lot of traffic on

23 air quality in the south and those communities and are a

24 very difficult portion of the problem down there, and we

25 have a different and lower impact now on other cities to

111 the north. And we find that the entire San Gabriel

2 Valley is going to be helped immensely by this tunnel.

3 I'm just going to say justice really requires

4 that the burden is, at least, close to equally shared

5 and that is not now.

6 The City of Alhambra is going to make

7 presentations like this and provide facts and data by

8 experts and other people that know what they are talking

9 about. There is nothing dreamed up. No wild plan to do

10 some traffic planning and whatnot that has been offered.

11 And, actually, is a plan that was rejected by Caltrans

12 many years ago.

13 So, here is, finally, to say that your RTP

14 we're grateful that in your RTP you are included the

15 closure of the 710 Gap four years or more in the making.

16 We thank you for the opportunity. City Council of the

17 City of Alhambra greets you and has asked me to pass

18 along their regards not only for this opportunity for

19 the Board itself and the ladies and gentlemen that work

20 so hard and diligently and doing what you do so well.

21 Funny, how we get to travel better together and

22 this is a great project to help that in the entire SCAG

23 Region at the same time breathe better. That is why

24 we're here and we thank you.

25 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Now, onto our next

121 speaker Vivian Romero.

2 MS. ROMERO: Hello. First of all, I just want

3 to make a comment about parking situation. It makes it

4 very difficult for people like myself, I'm able-bodied

5 but if there is anybody who likes to come to speak at

6 these types of forums when you don't allow people to

7 park in your building on a particular day it makes it

8 very difficult. There was no signage at all to indicate

9 where to park. You, also, put another financial

10 blockage when you make them pay for parking. People get

11 turned off by that. So just, please, consider that next

12 time you have a Saturday meeting.

13 I want to start by addressing some of the

14 concerns about the traffic flow that continues to plague

15 residence in my neighborhood. I'm off the SR60 Freeway

16 the Pomona freeway, have been for years, my family has

17 been there for years. Actually, my family purchased a

18 home in 1964 and the developer never disclosed that the

19 SR60 was even going to be graded in the future.

20 Over the years there have been issues with all

21 the residents and there is many original homeowners

22 there that had issues with and complaints with flooding,

23 cracked foundations, they've had windows that have

24 vibrated, windows that have loosened off their frames.

25 Some residents' problems have been exacerbated

131 with heavy rains due to the runoff from the freeway

2 lanes, the cracked Arroyo drain canal causes flooding

3 and ground water issues to rise over the two-foot broken

4 Arroyo drain cracked wall between the freeway and

5 backyards into homes that get submerged leading into

6 people's living rooms like it happened back then in,

7 probably, all the residents homes there, and at the

8 bottom of our street most recently about, I would say,

9 two and a half -- no, three and a half years ago where

10 cars were submerged in water at the bottom of Arroyo and

11 I have photographs of all of this.

12 I did submit them to Caltrans as well. They

13 did repair some of the cracked canal and they removed

14 some of debris that is there. There is also a cracked

15 sound barrier wall that was it's original to the freeway

16 as is the cracked pavement along the SR60 Freeway behind

17 the homes.

18 As you may or may not know, there is no

19 irrigation between Veil, Markland and Paramount

20 Boulevard which would help with the air quality issues.

21 There is an industrial park on the Monterey Park side

22 which is the Edison Sub Basis Station which it has plans

23 right now, I believe, for expansion.

24 There is a proposed market place that is

25 supposed to go and it has come to some of the residents'

141 ears that Caltrans plans to expand those ramps to be in

2 line with the Paramount Bridge expansion -- I'm sorry,

3 with the Ramp Expansion Project to align with the new

4 bridge that was compromised during the tanker fire and

5 so the freeway is going to come and encroach more upon

6 the homes.

7 Without that irrigation in that part of the

8 corridor you've got another issue which gets exacerbated

9 over there which is constant exhaust and fumes from

10 tailpipes and soot and dirt and dust. You know, you

11 have got a poor wall design that was constructed in the

12 early 1960s. You've got excessive inhalation of

13 tailpipe fumes, you're breathing the soot the gas the

14 dust, the particles are going into people's lungs every

15 minute of the day.

16 You've got cars that are queuing going

17 westbound in the morning probably starting at 5:30 in

18 the morning. I had to go to Sacramento the other day

19 the cars were queuing starting at 5:45 in the morning

20 and it doesn't stop until, probably, 9:30.

21 Then going eastbound you've got cars queuing

22 starting around 3 p.m. going all the way up until about

23 6:30 p.m. So, every minute of every day people are

24 breathing and having health problems and then you have

25 no trees oxygenating your air and you have no irrigation

151 there because I've talked to District 7 and I've talked

2 to Mike Miles and Debra Wong and various people at

3 Caltrans and I asked "Why don't we have any landscape

4 there? Can we put any landscape there?" And they said,

5 "No, we have no irrigation there."

6 You know, how can we mitigate some of the

7 noise? How do we help with the fine particulates that

8 everybody is breathing? How are people going to have a

9 quality night's rest when you've got your house shaking

10 because of the vibration?

11 They've done some noise studies there houses

12 are shaking constantly. You hear the trucks, the

13 18-wheeler trucks, you know, going over the lanes of the

14 cracked payment on the SR60 which is, again, original

15 payment, and when you have an empty 18-wheeler shaking

16 you've got these booms going on. You hear the tire pop

17 and we've signed petitions and we've asked, you know,

18 and had formal complaints signed and we get -- we get

19 nothing, you know, it falls on death ears.

20 So, we've got cars and traffic, we've got air

21 quality issues, we've got flooding issues, we've got a

22 host of environmental issues here and those are the

23 primary focus of my, you know, and my reason for coming

24 to you today. Because there are many concerns about the

25 constituents and the people, the residents, like myself,

161 in my neighborhood and -- so I looked at your plan, it

2 did not include any kind of a project in our area

3 between the 710 and the 605.

4 It should be that you look at disadvantaged

5 communities which that area has moderate to low income

6 and we're significantly impacted by the movement of

7 freight and goods through our corridor through the SR60,

8 you know, all of this movement of freight and goods

9 coming through, you know, to eastern parts of the

10 country and through different counties is coming through

11 the SR60.

12 And because we're severely impacted by all of

13 these air quality issues and human quality issues and

14 environmental injustices, I would ask that you please

15 consider the route 60 because it is a very congested

16 corridor. There is not even an HOV lane there. There

17 is no -- nothing to remedy some of the issues and the

18 excessive traffic, vibration, sound.

19 So, please, in your further studies I would ask

20 that you please consider some funding and in the very

21 near future for that corridor. SCAG has a

22 responsibility, especially, for disadvantaged

23 communities, to consider those. And I anticipate that

24 in the next round that you'd be a little more astute and

25 a little more sensitive to these things. Thank you.

171 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you very much for your

2 comments. Next up in Los Angeles Office we have John

3 Paul Garcia and Shannon Kellen.

4 MR. GARCIA: Good morning, my name is John Paul

5 Garcia, I'm a resident of Montebello and also a culture

6 immigration commissioner and I stand with my colleague

7 Shannon Kellen and she also sits with me on the

8 Commission.

9 I do echo with what Vivian Romero who just came

10 up to say, I would also like to request that the SR60

11 corridor in the Montebello area be considered in the

12 RTP. I believe, that an HOV or a carpool lane be

13 considered on the SR60 from the 710 to the 605. That's

14 all I have.

15 You know, just being advised of this meeting

16 yesterday so it's kind of short-notice to be prepared to

17 say something so thank you.

18 MS. KELLEN: Thank you.

19 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you very much. Next

20 speaker Debbie Espinoza.

21 MS. ESPINOZA: Good morning, everyone. Thank

22 you for this opportunity to provide comment on a

23 Saturday. I'm here on behalf of Safe Back to School

24 National Partnership my name is Debbie Espinoza. And

25 the Safe Back to School National Partnership is an

181 Organization that advocates for plans and policies that

2 improve the built environment for people to access

3 walking and biking infrastructure, especially, school

4 children.

5 So, first, we would like to comment on SCAG on

6 the increased focus and commend SCAG on the increased

7 focus on active transportation and environmental justice

8 in the 2016 RTPSCS compared to previous plans.

9 Particular elements I want to applaud today include the

10 doubling of the amount of investment in active

11 transportation from 6.7 billion to 12.9 billion; Second,

12 adding a public health appendix to the RTPSCS for the

13 very first time and stronger attention to social equity

14 and environment justice, especially the more robust data

15 analysis in the EJ appendix.

16 Today, I would like to highlight two specific

17 recommendations that I think could strengthen the

18 RTPSCS: First, in bolster the safe routes to school

19 goal to 75 percent. The RTPSCS states a goal of 50

20 percent of communities having a safe route to school

21 plan by 2040.

22 Given that 30 percent of communities currently

23 have one or plan to create one we recommend going with

24 Policy B recommendation of 75 percent by 2040. And this

25 could be easily achieved by completing the Regional Safe

191 Back to School Plan.

2 Second, we recommend creating an environmental

3 justice disadvantaged communities working group. As a

4 standing environmental justice and disadvantaged

5 community work group we could provide guidance for

6 integration in EJ and disadvantaged community per our

7 presentation process and County and City level

8 Transportation Planning. We can also ensure that the

9 project list included in the future RTPSCS's have been

10 developed with an eye towards equitable transportation

11 investment.

12 Greater investment in EJ and disadvantage

13 community readiness will have the added benefit of

14 increasing the competitiveness of the SCAG region in

15 other statewide funding competitions that are subject to

16 SB535 requirements.

17 Furthermore, as a Riverside native I'm

18 particularly concerned about Riverside and San

19 Bernardino disadvantaged communities and the impact of

20 carbon emissions from the goods movement. The RTPSCS is

21 still primarily about funding highways and we want to

22 look toward ways to continue invest in active

23 transportation.

24 While doubled this last year, it still makes up

25 less than two percent of RTPSCS's funding amount, yet,

201 20 percent of trips in the region are by walking and

2 biking and 78 percent of trips are under three miles

3 driven. Overall, the draft of the RTPSCS envisions a

4 region where people have more transportation choices

5 they can walk, bike, take transit and, of course, drive.

6 It has been said by SCAG's executive director

7 that people aren't going to stop driving but they will

8 drive differently. By investing in active

9 transportation and transit as well as bringing in new

10 shared use systems and technologies we give everyone in

11 this region a variety of options to get around safely,

12 efficiently and sustainably.

13 Thank you, again, for providing this

14 opportunity to provide comments and we look forward to

15 partnering with SCAG as you implement this plan.

16 Thanks.

17 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. That's all the cards

18 we have in Los Angeles. Is there anyone else here that

19 wishes to provide any comments.

20 PUBLIC: I have question. Will they plan on to

21 put bike lanes to go under the construction of the areas

22 of the freeways?

23 MR. CHIDSEY: Today is a public hearing so

24 we're just kind of receiving comments, but we,

25 certainly, if you want to provide that we can get back

211 to you.

2 PUBLIC: Okay. Thank you.

3 MR. CHIDSEY: So, thank you. Onto Imperial

4 County, any public comments in Imperial County? Okay.

5 Thank you. Riverside County.

6 PUBLIC: No comments there either.

7 MR. CHIDSEY: Okay. Thank you. San Bernardino

8 County.

9 MR. BARR: Yes, we do I.

10 MR. CHIDSEY: So, I also want to introduce

11 Council Member Frank Barr San Bernardino Regional

12 Council Office.

13 MS. CAPPS: Good morning. Tressy Capps with Toll

14 Free IE. I'm with the Committee to keeping toll lanes

15 out San Bernardino and I'm a resident of Fontana,

16 California. And there are -- I do not agree with this

17 plan I've made that very clear. I'm here today because

18 I am expressing my displeasure with the plan.

19 I've been to all of four public hearings and I

20 can tell you we've been documenting the process and the

21 public outreach is a complete farce. I mean there is

22 just no other way to describe this.

23 The problem with regional government and

24 organizations like SCAG and SANBAG is they are shadow

25 governments, they are secretive in nature and this keeps

221 we the People, the voters, out of this entire process

2 which is not what we had for government -- our founding

3 fathers didn't have this in mind when they established

4 our nation, okay, so this is a top-down government.

5 This entire plan is based on climate change

6 which is, in fact, a false religion and so the whole

7 plan is based on something that is not even real. So,

8 of course, I don't agree with the plan. We hear

9 constantly about sustainability and we as human beings

10 cannot affect the climate with our activities. Jesus

11 made the world and he is the only sustainer and so

12 what's going on here is pretty shocking but this is in

13 the world and so the Bible is very clear that the world

14 operates very differently than the way God intended when

15 he created the world.

16 So, anyways, I reject the plan. I also reject

17 SCAG and SANBAG and I would like to see both

18 organizations abolished, gotten rid of. SCAG has been

19 existence for 50 years and, in my mind, it's 50 years

20 too long. This is a Transportation Organization and I

21 see them doing everything but facilitating

22 transportation.

23 I even heard a speaker today say that the whole

24 point of this is so we can breathe better. So, okay,

25 this is just really gotten out of hand. So I brought I

231 copy of the Constitution with me, I think the people who

2 run SCAG, particularly, Hasan Ikhrata who is the

3 planner in the Soviet Union really needs to acclimate to

4 our society, he needs to educate himself about how

5 things work here, we would like to play a clip of him

6 saying that people need to be coordinated, I disagree

7 with that completely.

8 I have referred to Hasan as Tony Soprano.

9 He does not allow much room for not going along with his

10 edicts, Arnold knows because Arnold and Mark kicked me

11 out of the 50th thing that little shindig you guys held

12 with taxpayer expense out there in Palm Desert. And the

13 reason why I was ejected from that event was my friend

14 Jamie Baca who is no longer with us, he passed away

15 recently, I was at that event, you know, to learn about

16 what is going on at SCAG.

17 And so, if they had nothing to hide they had no

18 reason to kick me out of that thing. I was registered

19 to attend it, but again, that is how Mr. Ikhrata

20 operates. Just like on the show Tony Soprano if you

21 don't agree with his, you know, that's an extreme but,

22 of course, you could end up in someone's trunk or buried

23 somewhere out in the desert.

24 So, anyways, Hasan is a bit of a hypocrite

25 he lives in a 4400 square foot house in Rancho Cucamonga

241 I have driven by it myself. He drives a big black SUV

2 which I've also documented on videotape. He has

3 expressed on tape that he cannot ride a bike and he does

4 not take the train.

5 So here we have somebody who, you know, whose

6 organization is pushing all these things and, yet, like

7 a dictator he is not subjected to any of these things.

8 So there is just a big disconnect between what SCAG is

9 trying to accomplish and the rules don't apply to them

10 so I have a big problem with that.

11 And then, lastly, I got an e-mail this morning

12 from somebody who I respect very much he teaches classes

13 on the Constitution his name is Douglas Gibbs and so if

14 you could -- I'll read this real quick.

15 It says "Douglas Gibbs sometimes you have to

16 take a leap of faith first. I believe we can turn this

17 country around and return it to principles contained

18 within the United States Constitution, but we must be

19 aware of who and what we are up against, it will get

20 worse before it gets better." And I'll interject here

21 that I really hope that this election will turn around

22 what's been going on around the last 7 years.

23 "The Republic that was America has been invaded

24 by something worse than socialism those in power," like

25 SCAG, "largely are there for the power or the money."

251 And I'll interject here again, every time I see Hossaini

2 talk about his plan he sweats profusely and wipes his

3 brow while he is talking about the billions of dollars.

4 Anyway, back to what Mr. Gibbs says "Many,

5 however, are there for an agenda. The end justifies the

6 means and that is why President Obama did not even wince

7 when he trampled the Constitution with unlawful

8 Executive Orders and Hilary Clinton doesn't understand

9 what the big deal is about regarding the confidential

10 e-mail or her own server. They believe they are above

11 the law and their illegal actions are good ones if for

12 the advancement of their status agenda."

13 The United States Constitution here is my

14 commentary again, this country was founded on laws,

15 we've become a lawless nation, "The United States

16 Constitution is seen by these people as being an

17 obstacle and an outdated way of doing things that never

18 worked in the first place. These people are the King

19 Henry and King George's," I'll interject here too King

20 Hasan, "who believes that people are too stupid to

21 take care of themselves we need to get coordinated."

22 That's what Hasan believes.

23 Self reliance as a consent of the governed is a

24 mistake and localism is a joke. So all these cities

25 that belong to these regional governments they

261 completely assert their authority and they have no local

2 control anymore.

3 The general will of the people is something

4 that the people are incapable of understanding and,

5 therefore, it must be forced upon them by a ruling elite

6 who alone are incapable of understanding what is

7 beneficial for the ultimate common good. The framers

8 call is utopianism and collectivism in today's language

9 we call these people Marxists, socialists, communists,

10 fascists, progressives and liberal. In reality they are

11 something worse.

12 At least Karl Marx as flawed as his thinking

13 was believed that eventually in a communal society

14 government would no longer be necessary and would fade

15 away. These people relish big government and expect

16 government to provide in a never-ending over reach that

17 expands and expands and will never be satisfied with the

18 amount of control it has over the people.

19 With today's status there is no end to what the

20 government can do. How much is enough government to

21 today's liberal less Democrats, always just a little bit

22 more, and any threat to that expansion of big government

23 be it the Constitution, conservatives, Christians, the

24 Republican part, the Tea party, people like me, or any

25 other kind of right-wing thinking would either change

271 their thinking and join the status or be eliminated.

2 After all limited government to the status is

3 practically anarchy. So, again, in review, I'm

4 completely opposed to this plan. I'm opposed to this

5 entire process and I know a lot of you work with SCAG,

6 I've come to know some of you through this. I realize

7 you have to have, you know, employment. I know there is

8 a high turnover at SCAG and I can imagine why so I

9 understand why some of you are participating in this,

10 but surely to -- I don't know, this is just such an

11 awful setup and I hope through all of this that some of

12 you will embrace the Constitution, educate yourselves

13 about the way things are supposed to be done.

14 And I'll give you an example with our Toll

15 lanes flight why this regional thing is such a bad setup

16 for We the People. So in San Bernardino County the Toll

17 lane process has been going on since December of 2013,

18 the public is largely clueless and that's by design.

19 And so, ever every time you have a vote at

20 SANBAG, you know, the one rep for the city, you know,

21 they are slowly starting to change over and vote no. We

22 have had two County supervisors in a couple of cities I

23 think that's a no vote, you know, out of 29. And so,

24 but what is happening is these cities they are not even

25 being consulted at a local level to decide what that

281 city's vote is, so that is a huge flaw in the process.

2 And furthermore, cities are getting to vote on

3 Toll lanes when they won't even be affected. So, why

4 does Big Bear Lake get to vote on whether or not we get

5 Toll lanes they are not going to be affected. But I'll

6 tell you who will be affected the City that I live in

7 Fontana, we have the 10 and the 15 bordering our city.

8 So Adelanto gets to vote on whether or not we get Toll

9 lanes. Does that seem fair or right? No. It is not.

10 So, this whole process of Regional Government this

11 top-down government, Hasan running the show,

12 minimally I'd love to see Hasan lose his job because

13 I do not like the way he runs SCAG.

14 It is wrong to take people out of events

15 because they don't agree with you. That's not how we

16 operate in this country, Hasan, and we have been

17 hoping we're in the Soviet Union but this is the United

18 States of America. Thank you.

19 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. Now, we'll go to the

20 Ventura Office any public comments?

21 PUBLIC: No comments at this time. Thanks,

22 Darin.

23 MR. CHIDSEY: Okay. Thank you. And we'll come

24 back to L.A. anybody come in since then? Well, we will

25 continue to hold the public hearing open for some

291 additional time to ensure that no one comes in late, but

2 at this time we will continue to hold it open but just

3 be on hold. So, thank you.

4 (Pause in the proceedings.)

5 MR. CHIDSEY: Good morning. I just want to do

6 another check throughout the offices, are there any

7 additional public comments here in Los Angeles?

8 Riverside.

9 PUBLIC: Not here, no.

10 MR. CHIDSEY: Okay. Imperial County?

11 PUBLIC: No comments out here.

12 MR. CHIDSEY: All right. San Bernardino County

13 any additional comments.

14 PUBLIC: No further comments.

15 MR. CHIDSEY: Thank you. And Ventura? No

16 further comments in Ventura.

17 With that, we will close the public hearing for

18 the 2016 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable

19 Communities Strategies. Comments can still be submitted

20 until February 1st at 5 p.m. either in writing or on

21 SCAG's website. Thank you for your participation today

22 and we appreciate it and that will conclude this

23 hearing. Thank you.

24

25 (The Public Hearing concluded at 11:18 a.m.)

301 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

2

3

4 I, ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR No. 11805, a Certified

5 Shorthand Reporter, certify;

6 That the foregoing proceedings were taken before me

7 at the time and place therein set forth;

8 That the all objections and statements made at the

9 time of the foregoing proceedings were recorded

10 stenographically by me and were thereafter transcribed;

11 That the foregoing is a true and correct transcript

12 of my shorthand notes so taken.

13 I further certify that I am not a relative or

14 employee of any attorney of the parties, nor financially

15 interested in the action.

16 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws

17 of California that the foregoing is true and correct.

18

19 Dated this 23rd day of January, 2016.

20

21 ____________ __

22 ANNA MARIE SPINELLI, CSR NO. 11805

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