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Caltrain approves governance reform plan, but member agencies still must adopt it

By Curtis Driscoll, San Mateo Daily Journal, March 4, 2022

“Caltrain has approved a governance recommendation proposal that will give San Francisco and Santa Clara counties more power and governance oversight, provided San Mateo County representatives approve it.

“Under the recommendation, the San Mateo County Transit District will no longer have sole final discretionary appointing power of an executive director, general counsel, and auditor. A majority of the Caltrain board will now decide upon the executive director, and Caltrain will maintain its own general counsel and auditor separate from SamTrans.

“The oversight role of SamTrans, the San Mateo County Transit District, has concerned the Caltrain board because it has ultimate oversight in hiring and firing staff. SamTrans serves as the managing agency, giving it control over staffing and ultimately hiring and firing the Caltrain executive director. … According to various board members, the contentious governance talks have impaired Caltrain’s ability to recruit staff and reduced staff time for other projects.

“Caltrain Vice Chair Charles Stone, a Belmont councilmember who also is on the SamTrans board, said it was hard to imagine the recommendation leading to adoption by the member agencies. … He noted the approval process that will now take place could take months or even years to complete.”

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