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Transportation Issues
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Please scroll down and join the discussion (below) to share your views, or to ask questions about things related to transportation. For example:
- Highway 118 in Moorpark, including truck traffic on LA Ave. and the 118 Bypass Proposal
- North Hills Parkway proposal (replacing 118 Bypass Proposal)
- City bus service in Moorpark
- County bus service (VISTA or SCAT)
- How to balance improvements to both public transportation and roads
- Metrolink or Amtrac
- Car/van pooling
- Teen and senior citizen transportation challenges and issues
- Vision for Future of Transportation (city and countywide)--in 2020, 2030, and 2050.
- Other (of your choosing)
NOTE: The most recent postings are at the END of the list.
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Subject Now the Vote if OFF--thank goodness!
Date
Wed Aug 2 10:14:
Author Roseann Mikos
(contactme@roseann-mikos.org)
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Thank goodness the Board of Supervisors came to their senses and decided (yesterday) to overturn their own foolish decision to ask county voters about whether or not to fix the Somis intersection!
I have been away on vacation but have been following this through the internet. I emailed or called every board member to try to help them understand why it was such a bad idea to have such a costly vote that would provide no valuable information and that (regardless of the voting outcome) would not permit the Board of Supervisors to take any action about the issue in question.
If the Board of Supervisors had put this on the ballot, it would be similar to them putting on the Ventura County ballot a question of national prominence like "Should Congress do something to ensure the economic viability of the Social Security and Medicare systems?"
While everyone has an opinion in response to such a general question, and they may vote on it, what jurisdiction does the Ventura County Board of Supervisors have to enact the wishes of voters who might vote on such a question? NONE! ABSOLUTELY NONE! To have such a vote would be a meaningless exercise that unnecessarily cost tax payers' money.
The same would be true if the Board had kept the Somis interchange question on the ballot. The Board has no jurisdiction to make Caltrans policy about roads.
To those who have written letters to the editor saying the whole county should vote on this so that what "THEY" want for the intersection can be done------you have shown your ignorance of the process for how Caltrans makes and improves roads.
No vote of Ventura County people on a county advisory measure to the Board of Supervisors provides any requirement for Caltrans to do anything you say.
Even if the Board of Supervisors themselves told Caltrans what to do, Caltrans does not have to follow the Board's advice. That is not how the process works! If the project were a county-sponsored project, then the Board would have jurisdiction, but this is not such a project and never was.
Caltrans is not directly beholden to the voters on each project. There is a rigorous public hearing and environmental review process that is currently ongoing about this intersection and it was bad policy for the Board to try to interfere, as if they could change the process.
The Board cannot change the process being followed in midstream, they should have known that before suggesting this ill-advised vote, and they have done a disservice to all county residents by confusing the voters about what is appropriate to vote upon and what is not. This was not (and is not) appropriate for a county-sponsored vote.
Thankfully, the Board finally realized this. However, shame on them for rushing to judgement before thinking the issue through carefully enough last week.
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