Modesto city council members criticize citizens oversight group on Measure L projects

Some Modesto City Council members claim an oversight commission is delaying road projects and overstepping its authority 20 months after voters approved the Measure L sales tax to improve traffic conditions throughout Stanislaus County.

In a push to rewrite proposed bylaws for the Citizens’ Transportation Sales Tax Commission, Councilman Doug Ridenour said the commission has been functioning without bylaws since it began meeting in late October 2017. He said it seems the group needs to get back to its original intent, not acting as a policy-making group.

“We shouldn’t be giving away our authority to someone else,” Ridenour said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

Dave Thomas, chairman of the oversight commission, said the city council members’ criticism was not factual. He called the council’s attempt to rewrite the commission’s proposed bylaws “a typical governmental bait and switch ploy” to fool the voters into approving a tax increase with a promise of a citizens’ oversight commission.

“The Measure L (oversight) commission is charged with evaluating street improvement projects from planning to completion,” Thomas said Thursday.

Thomas also is the president of the Stanislaus Taxpayers Association, and one of the reasons that group agreed to support the sales tax was the city council’s promise to create a commission to oversee Measure L spending.

He said the commission is not a decision or policy-making group. The commission’s tasks include informing the public as to spending, project planning and completion, Thomas said, and the commission makes recommendations to the city council for spending Measure L tax revenue.

“The council uses these recommendations as it sees fit,” Thomas said.

City officials said Modesto has received about $10.6 million in sales tax revenue since voters approved Measure L in November 2016. The city has budgeted $12 million for road improvement projects that have been completed, are under construction or in the works.

For the fiscal year 2017-18, only a project on Carpenter Road, between Chicago and Kansas avenues in west Modesto, is under construction, according to a report submitted July 31.

Construction is complete on a project to connect a Modesto Junior College bike path to the Virginia Corridor. And new traffic signals have been installed at Floyd Avenue and Millbrook Avenue; Prescott Road and Mt. Vernon Drive; and Roselle Avenue and Belharbour Drive.

The city has 13 other road projects in the works in varying stages. The design is done for the Lakewood Neighborhood Street project and construction could begin in October. Construction on the Standiford Avenue project is expected to begin next month.

There are projects in which the designs haven’t been completed, are awaiting review or are in the planning stages. Information about the Measure L projects in Modesto is on the city’s web site.

Criticism of the oversight commission arose at Tuesday’s city council meeting, when an item to approve the proposed bylaws for the commission was included in the consent agenda. The item was pulled out to allow the council members to discuss the issue before voting.

Councilwoman Jenny Kenoyer said the bylaws should reflect what the council approved when it voted to establish the oversight commission. She said the commission should not be looking into every transportation project it has.

“It’s not their job to decide what has to be done,” Kenoyer said Tuesday about the oversight commission.

She said the city has staff that provides recommendations on which projects must be done, and the commission’s interference is causing the delays.

Modesto Mayor Ted Brandvold said he hasn’t seen anyone on the oversight commission trying to set policy, and that anything the group does in its monthly meetings must come back to the city council for approval.

The mayor suggested that the council’s attempt to rewrite the proposed bylaws would be limiting the commission’s ability to oversee how the city is spending the sales tax revenue and reducing transparency for the public.

Cecil Russell, president and CEO of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce, asked the city council to go back to the “drawing board” to define the role of the oversight commission. He said the commission was never intended to dictate to city staff on which projects have priority.

All of the county’s nine cities, plus county government, began receiving Measure L proceeds at the same time about a year ago. As of last month, the local transportation tax brought in $41.5 million in its first full year, or $3.5 million more than predicted. In its 25-year life, the half-percent increase could generate $960 million, or about $38 million in an average year.

Stanislaus County public works began its projects earlier, repaving a lot of Salida streets last year and following in recent weeks with new sidewalk curbs accommodating wheelchairs, plus, a project for new traffic signals near Hughson, both on Geer Road as it intersects with Whitmore and Santa Fe avenues.

Councilman Mani Grewal made the motion for a vote to rewrite the commission’s bylaws to ensure they emulate bylaws for the Stanislaus Council of Governments, which has a hand in overseeing spending of Measure L money throughout the county.

Grewal and others on the city council seem to believe that StanCOG is doing a good job providing oversight on many Measure L projects. “It seems like they got all their ducks in row,” Grewal said at the city council meeting.

Craig Lewis, chairman of the Measure L oversight committee for Stan COG, told the city council that the Modesto commission appears to be “wrestling” on how to spend the tax revenue. He said that should be the job of the paid professionals on the city’s staff.

Lewis said his oversight committee is geared toward monitoring how the tax money is spent in each category. The spending plan dictates how much money is spent for local streets and roads, traffic management, bike and pedestrian safety and transit services.

Councilman Bill Zoslocki said timing is crucial on road construction projects, which can be stalled by weather in the fall and winter. He said the oversight commission shouldn’t be slowing that process with debates on which projects should be launched.

“That is reserved for the council to make those kinds of decisions,” Zoslocki said Tuesday.

City Attorney Adam Lindgren advised the city council that it can decide to change the bylaws, which have some ambiguities in the language, but the proposed bylaws on Tuesday essentially quoted the ordinance that created the oversight commission.

Councilwoman Kristi Ah You seconded Grewal’s motion to ensure the bylaws emulate StanCOG’s oversight bylaws, because she said there’s still work that needs to be done. The mayor and Councilman Tony Madrigal voted against the motion, which passed on a 5-2 vote.

Madrigal said he couldn’t find the language in Tuesday’s proposed bylaws that gave more authority to the oversight committee than what was originally intended. The city council is expected to take up the issue again at its first meeting next month.

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This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 4:52 PM.