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After coming under scrutiny by state leaders, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority released the results of its California State Audit report on June 11, which found the agency lacks necessary transparency in project costs, election decisions and financial viability.
Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) requested the audit of VTA in 2023, raising longstanding concerns regarding employee development and appointment, among other things.
“The State Auditor confirmed what we have known for years: VTA’s process for appointing directors lacks the appropriate transparency that the public demands, and the short length of terms that members serve is both an outlier among similar transit agencies and is an unnecessary obstacle to board members,” Berman wrote in a statement.
One group of cities in the county even appoints its directors to the VTA behind closed doors, according to California State Auditor Grant Parks.
VTA directors serve terms that last just two years, which is shorter than most other transportation agencies, like members of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors, who serve four-year terms. According to the audit report, this results in a less experienced board.
The auditor also critiqued VTA for not always including accurate operation and maintenance fees when estimating project costs. In the case of one project analyzed, the state auditor found that the construction costs increased by 24% from the start of construction.
“This is similar to concerns raised in January by VTA’s own internal auditor general, who found that VTA staff misled the board of directors about the true BART to Silicon Valley project cost and engaged in a ‘breach of transparency,’” Berman wrote.
While VTA is in good financial standing, Parks wrote, more than half of its revenue comes from sales tax, which is not a viable source of funding in the long term.
“Overall, the report was thorough, fair and thoughtful,” Board of Directors Chair Cindy Chavez wrote in a statement. “VTA has a strong commitment to continuous improvement and takes every independent evaluation very seriously.”
While VTA wrote in a statement that it agrees to implement most of the audit’s recommendations, it rejected amending state law to make its hiring process and rationale public. Instead, VTA recommended subjecting board appointees to a public questionnaire discussing their qualifications and willingness to perform the job.
VTA also rejected the auditor’s recommendation to extend board members’ term lengths, instead encouraging directors to serve two two-year terms.
“I found VTA’s rationale for rejecting these recommendations to be woefully inadequate,” Berman wrote.
The transit authority agreed with the remaining recommendations, changes that the agency says are already underway or planned to be.