A Bay Area Council delegation is in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with lawmakers and Obama Administration officials on transportation, infrastructure and jobs in the wake of last week’s State of the Union address and last month’s U.S. Senate shakeup. That is, they’re talking money.

Melanie de La Grange Sury, the council’s vice president of communications, says meetings are set with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove; and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. Garamendi is the only Bay Area House member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as was his predecessor in the 10th Congressional District seat, Ellen Tauscher; DeFazio chairs the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

The delegation also will meet with Adolfo Carrion, director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, which is quarterbacking a new three-agency alliance between the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. And the delegation will meet with Transportation Department officials including Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy.

Leading the delegation is Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman, Hanson Bridgett LLP Managing Partner Andrew Giacomini, Webcor Builders President and CEO Andy Ball, and TMG Partners Chairman and CEO Michael Covarrubias. Others in the group include Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger, Port of Oakland Executive Director Omar Benjamin and Association of Bay Area Governments Deputy Executive Director Ezra Rapport.

The Bay Area Council is a public-policy advocacy group consisting of the CEOs of more than 275 of the region’s biggest employers, representing more than 500,000 workers (about one of every six private-sector employees in the area).

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, joined by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, wrote to President Barack Obama today in support of California’s requests for high-speed and intercity rail funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Read the full text of the letter, after the jump…
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Former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s district director, Jennifer Barton, has been selected BART’s new executive manager of external affairs.

BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger told her team this morning of her choice of Barton, who has been the face of District 10 for seven years. (See memo below.)

Barton has been working for newly elected Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, during the transition.

But BART is a good fit for Barton. She knows transportation; Tauscher was the ranking Californian on the House Transportation Committee. And Barton is highly respected and well-liked among East Bay power brokers.

“I am thrilled to have this new job at BART,” Barton said. “I started the application process back in June. It’s hard to leave such a great congressional shop, although I will still have the opportunity in my new job to work with a lot of the same people.”

Barton will succeed Katherine Strehl, who retired from BART.

Garamendi had this to say about Barton:  “I want to thank Jennifer Barton for her service to the 10th Congressional District. She has been an invaluable resource during my Congressional transition. While I am sad to see her go, I am happy for Jennifer and glad that BART has hired such a knowledgable and competent person as their director of external affairs. I look forward to working with Jennifer in her new capacity in the years to come.”

Read on for memo from Dugger:

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Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, just issued this statement on the Bay Bridge closure:

“First, I want to say I am relieved that no one was injured in the incident that forced authorities to shutdown the Bay Bridge. My office has been in constant contact with Caltrans, and I have been closely monitoring the circumstances surrounding the closure of the Bay Bridge and the work that is being done to repair the bridge.

“I have received assurances from Caltrans officials that crews are working as quickly as possible to make the necessary repairs and to be certain that the work is done properly. The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) provided funding for the initial repairs that were done during the Labor Day weekend closure of the bridge. The FHA has been contacted again by Caltrans to secure emergency funding for the repairs. These emergency federal funds will assure a speedy response to repair the bridge.

“The Bay Bridge is a vital transportation link between San Francisco and the East Bay, and it is imperative that we all work together to ensure the bridge repairs are done as quickly and safely as possible.”

That didn’t take long.

A day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill by Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, that declared the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges eligible for seismic retrofit dollars, the Bay Area agency in charge of tolls scheduled public hearings on fee hike to pay for the needed upgrades.

Where did you think the money was coming from?

Read on for details about the proposal and the hearing details. Read the rest of this entry »

Small business owners and civil-rights groups are trying to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging Caltrans’ Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, which is supposed to give minority- and women-owned business an equal shot at federally funded contracts. The would-be intervenors oppose the lawsuit and support the DBE program.

“Small businesses owned by women and minorities are a vital part of our state’s economy and deserve a level playing field,” Ingrid Merriwether, CEO of Merriwether & Williams, a small insurance services firm and a member of the Coalition for Economic Equity, said in a news release. “No matter how hard we work, without a fair public contracting system, small business owners will be at a tremendous disadvantage – as will the thousands of Californians we employ and the communities in which we work.”

The San Francisco-based coalition — an umbrella group for minority- and women-owned businesses — along with the San Diego chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR), the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, the Equal Justice Society and the law firm of Bingham McCutchen.

“Caltrans’ federally approved contract procedures give small businesses a fair shot at competing for contracts, including for transportation projects slated to receive millions in ‘stimulus funds,’” said LCCR Associate Litigation Director Oren Sellstrom. “California must continue to make a focused and concerted effort to ensure that every business in the state has equal access to these public contracts, and that no group will be disproportionately excluded.”

ACLU of Northern California Legal Director Alan Schlosser called the lawsuit “a blatant attempt to dismantle equal opportunity in public contracting” which “goes against core constitutional values.”

As I reported when the lawsuit was filed in June, recent changes to the DBE program require that 6.75 percent of federally funded state road and highway contracts be awarded in a “race-conscious” manner. That encompasses small businesses owned by women as well as African-Americans, American Indians or Asian/Pacific Islander- Americans; it doesn’t include businesses owned by white, Latino or certain other Asian-American men.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the Associated General Contractors of America’s San Diego Chapter, claims this policy runs afoul of the state constitution as amended by Proposition 209 of 1996, barring public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity in education, employment or contracting. It also violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment because there is no evidence of discrimination by Caltrans to justify a race-conscious remedy, the suit claims.

The DBE program had dropped its race-conscious component in 2006 to comply with a federal appeals court decision requiring a showing of discrimination against minority-owned contracting firms. In February, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved Caltrans’ reinstatement of the quota, noting that in light of the new economic stimulus funding about to become available for California transportation projects, Caltrans needed to reverse its more than 50 percent decline in DBE participation in federal contracts since 2005.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

“Delaying negotiations any longer is not the answer. The majority of employees have already reached an agreement and there is no reason why Amalgated Transit Union and BART cannot resolve their issues without punishing the public. I strongly encourage both sides to sit down, negotiate in good faith and resolve their differences as quickly as possible. State mediators are ready and available to help both sides reach an agreement over the weekend.”

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland:

“Constituents in my district and commuters throughout the Bay Area rely on BART and its workers to provide them with safe, efficient and reliable transit service. I encourage both BART and the ATU to resume their negotiations as soon as possible in order to work out their differences and reach a settlement that works for all parties.”

Lt. Gov. (and CD10 candidate) John Garamendi:

“Californians, especially commuters in the Bay Area, have been watching BART labor negotiations with increasing concern, especially in these last 24 hours as BART management has imposed terms and conditions on members of ATU Local 1555 and union members have responded with a strike to start late Sunday night. Tonight I am calling on both sides to put the public first. I call on BART management to lift the imposed contract, and I call on ATU Local 1555 to suspend its call for a strike Sunday night. After four months of negotiations, the people of California need both sides to return to the table and act in the best interests of the state. During these challenging economic times, public transportation is a critical. All of us need to focus our attention on securing a settlement that protects our economy.”

I’d written a story for today’s editions about the federal lawsuit filed yesterday by San Diego Associated General Contactors against Caltrans, claiming the transportation department’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program is unfairly setting racial and gender quotas for federally-funded contracts.

This afternoon, I received a statement decrying that lawsuit from the Center for Policy Initiatives, a San Diego-based nonprofit “dedicated to the interests of working people in the San Diego region,” according to its Web site. “Through research, community organizing and outreach, we seek policy change to promote economic justice and raise workers from poverty to the middle class.”

“The need is clearly demonstrated and growing” for programs like DBE, said CPI research and policy director Murtaza Baxamusa; in 2005, 90 percent of all federal contracts were awarded to companies owned by white males, and in 2008 that number increased to 95 percent.

Programs like DBE help address this disparity, stimulating economic recovery in places where people of color and other disadvantaged workers live, the center claims.

“The AGC has gone too far this time, putting self-interest ahead of true economic recovery,” CPI Executive Director Donald Cohen said. “This lawsuit undermines the intent of the economic stimulus money to help disadvantaged communities get on their feet.”

The center’s news release accuses the AGC of a history of actions “harmful to working families and communities of color” such as opposing policies providing prevailing wages, overtime pay for excessive hours, and equal opportunity for all subcontractors to work on City of San Diego contracts.

“Our economy cannot recover unless we move forward quickly with targeted actions to lift people out of poverty,” Cohen said. “It’s time for the contractors’ lobby to get out of the way.”

Rod Diridon Sr., executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute , participated this morning in President Barack Obama’s announcement of a national high-speed rail master plan, as detailed in the Washington Post’s web site.

“The announcement underscores the president’s high regard for high-speed rail and its ability to create jobs and mobility for the United States,” Diridon said in a prepared release.

Diridon is chair emeritus and a member of the board of directors for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, a project that voters recently allocated nearly $10 billion.

California is also counting on another $8 billion in federal economic stimulus dollars although it will still remain well shy of the $40 billion it needs to build the high-speed train service.

As envisioned, it will whisk passengers 220 miles per hour from San Francisco to Los Angeles in about two and half hours, roughly the same amount of time you spend standing in the airport security line.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a news conference in Merced just now, has highlighted the 57 road and highway projects costing $625 million that’ll be first in line to get infrastructure-focused federal economic stimulus funding (creating an estimated 11,000 jobs), selected last week by the California Transportation Commission.

Looking at that list, I see a grand total of one project in the East Bay: a rehab of the bridge deck where Interstate 880 overpasses Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland, costing about $12.63 million. That’s it for Alameda County, and there are no projects in Contra Costa County.

These 57 projects come under the State Highway Operations and Protection Program, put at the top of the list “because protecting public safety is the highest priority and preserving the state’s investment in its highway system is highly cost-effective,” the governor’s office says. This is only the first round; California might get about $2.57 billion in all for highways, local streets and roads, freight and passenger rail, and port infrastructure projects from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law Feb. 17 by President Barack Obama.

Let’s hope we see some more of that in the East Bay, and soon.