See video of yesterday’s approval at
As expected, the California Public Utilities Commission, (CPUC), reversed itself and approved the street-level Metro light rail train crossing at Farmdale at yesterday's meeting: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-expo-line
City Councilman Bernard Parks stated in his newsletter, which came out last night, that the CPUC's decision ends all legal challenges and the railroad crossing will be installed across Farmdale this weekend.
Bernie's understanding of CPUC law is no better than his understanding of campaign finance or MTA ethics law.
You will remember that his illegal fundraising from MTA contractors for his failed Supervisorial campaign, which we first exposed (http://tinyurl.com/parks-mta-atm), resulted in him being forced off the MTA board (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/parks-steps-dow.html), after I called for him to resign for just that violation (http://tinyurl.com/goodmondemandsparksresignation). Parks mysteriously remains on the Expo Board, a subsidiary of MTA.
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Farmdale at-grade crossing includes circa 1916 Pacific Electric rail tracks
FACT: THE CPUC DECISION CAN AND WILL BE APPEALED TO A REAL COURT
The reality is that every CPUC decision can be appealed to the California Court of Appeals, and our legal team is at work on that as I type. After it became apparent last winter that the CPUC had no intention on sticking to their initial decision that REJECTED an at-grade crossing (http://tinyurl.com/pucrejects), we began focusing our efforts on an appeal.
The great news is that the CPUC decision is so wrought with factual inaccuracies, literally and quite blatantly misinterpreting the record, that our appellate rights are pretty strong. Aside from having a crossing previously ruled unsafe suddenly ruled safe after hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars went toward lobbying the CPUC, the decision claims has such gems as that “there are no issues in dispute.” I can't make this stuff up.
So today, we actually celebrate the opportunity to get out of the CPUC court, where the Commissioners essentially do what the politicians tell them to do, and into a real court where judges’ black robes are far more likely to give us a fair hearing.
FACT: THERE WILL BE NO CROSSING INSTALLATION AT FARMDALE THIS WEEKEND
Also regarding construction, much will be going on at Farmdale in preparation of a variety of things unrelated to the railroad crossing. The first of which will be installation of a new sewer line, which is expected to begin on Monday and last a minimum of two weeks.
NEXT MEETING
We're currently locking down a venue for our next community meeting. We hope to send out a formal newsletter tomorrow or Sunday with the date and location of the meeting so we can bring people up to speed and explain our next steps.
Mr. Goodmon of the Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line may be contacted at www.FixExpo.org
