[Editor’s Note: South Los Angeles community leader/journalist Mr. Goodmon sent this message to the Metro Board before yesterday’s 9 to 3 confirmation vote to place a 30-year extension of Measure R, the sales tax initiative, on the November ballot. Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe voted No. Metro’s vote only counts for 50 percent, meaning that Measure R will not go on the ballot unless the County Board of Supervisors also vote approval this afternoon.]
Mr. Leahy, Ms. Bybee, Ms. Welbourne and Metro Board members:
I reviewed the staff report (link to pdf) for the sales tax extension to be voted on at this morning's Metro Board meeting. Accordingly, I'm a bit perplexed by the blatant fabrications and misrepresentations. If one were to look up deceptive in the dictionary, he would see reference to this report.
Pages 19-29 of the staff report appear to be the informational pamphlet regarding the sales tax extension that staff is recommending the Board approve for dissemination to voters. Page 28 (aka slide 9), which I've taken the liberty to mark up and attach to this email, is the Orwellian titled “Fact Sheet.” Among the text on this page is a list of the transit projects that will be accelerated by extending the sales tax:
“The accelerated transit projects will be the second phase of the Gold Line Eastside Extension; the Crenshaw Transit Corridor; the Green Line Extension: Redondo Beach Station to South Bay Corridor; the West Santa Ana Branch Corridor transit project; the Regional Connector; the San Fernando Valley 1-405 Transit Corridor; and the second and third phases of the Westside Subway Extension.” (Emphasis added.)
This is a blatant falsehood. The same staff report provides a graph on page 23 (aka slide 4) that clearly illustrates the transit projects in which construction will be accelerated from the additional 30 years of taxing residents in South L.A. It illustrates a slew of accelerated projects in districts represented by Metro Board members who voted against the May 26, 2011, motion to add resources to the Crenshaw/LAX project to address the rail safety, environmental justice and access issues that remain on the line.
Crenshaw Transit Corridor is NOT a project that will be accelerated by extending the sales tax 30 years. Yet staff proposes Metro falsely state to voters that it is.
While this presentation seriously undermines the credibility of the staff report, so, too, does the map presented on page 21 of the staff report (aka slide 21), which includes lines on the countywide map for projects that are “presently unfunded.” I have spent a good amount of time this weekend to see if previously unfunded projects had ever appeared on maps for Metro ballot measures and my preliminary conclusion is no. Why do they appear on this one? How can staff propose the Board present to voters such a thing? Talk about a bait-and-switch.
The literature should make clear:
There is no acceleration, no extension, no improvement, nothing for the Crenshaw Corridor Project that residents will receive by agreeing to tax themselves an additional 30 years.
I fail to recognize the reason staff feels the need to falsely state otherwise. Perhaps one of you could enlighten the public. The Metro Board cannot allow this fabrication to be sent to the voters.
Mr. Goodmon, Chair, Crenshaw Subway Coalition, may be contacted at dg@crenshawsubway.org
