Our opinionated guide to the X-Games. Failure to receive certification means the region is ineligible for federal transportation dollars. Transit activists welcomed the agencies' emphasis on public input but said the report fails to challenge MTC planning assumptions and priorities. I was hoping they'd decertify the SOBs, or at least put more definite, stronger conditions on them. Transit activists have long argued that the MTC obfuscates its workings through a bureaucratic maze and that it doesn't provide enough advance documentation or time for public comment, nor any details of public testimony in meeting minutes.
Critics say the MTC routinely ignores public input.
It's an insult to the public. They're controlling millions of dollars in revenue. The federal report says the MTC should heed those complaints and revisit its 1994 public involvement plan. MTC deputy executive director Steve Heminger said that the MTC is already taking steps to correct the problems raised in the report. In March the agency retained the Lew Edwards Group to conduct an independent review of the public involvement process.