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DowneyBeat.com An online newspaper in Downey California

Light rail builder outlaws sponsored trips to Asia for board

members

Oct. 13, 2011 by Ben Baeder

SOUTH GATE – The planning agency in charge of building the light rail through South Gate, Downey and other southeast cities banned its board

members from taking sponsored trips to China or other countries.

The Orangeline Development Authority (OLDA) at its meeting at South Gate City Hall on Wednesday rejected a last-minute effort by board

member and Cerritos City Councilman Bruce Barrows to let outside companies, agencies or governments pay for OLDA members to visit

high-speed rail projects in other countries.

The item was not on OLDA’s agenda, but the board voted to allow Barrows to discuss the matter because Cerritos Mayor Carol Chen is hosting a

trip to Asia in November before the next OLDA meeting.

An public agency is required by law to tell the public what will be discussed at meetings at least 72 hours before the meeting unless the item in

question is an emergency, according to the state’s open-meeting laws, known as the Brown Act.

Barrows said foreign investors and the Chinese government have expressed interest in investing in the Orangeline project.

“I had a meeting with some Chinese,” he said. “They’re the ones that brought it up. There’s a series of meetings they would like us to engage in in

Beijing. I want to see what another government would bring to us as far as an investment opportunity.”

Huntington Park Councilman Andy Molina was the only board member to vote against taking the matter up for discussion.

He and Downey Mayor Luis Marquez led the charge against the Barrows’ proposal.

Molina was irritated, and he said OLDA had already decided at a past meeting that such trips exposed the agency to allegations of favoritism.

The agency is getting down to the brass tacks of station placement.

Next month, a route analyis — the main document that would guide the construction of a light rail line from Los Angeles to Santa Ana — is due to

be released.

Molina didn’t want any board members or OLDA executive director Michael Kodama out of the country.

“Not only do I not want any of us going on any sponsored trips, I want to make sure our executive director is not included on the trip, because we

need him here,” Molina said.

Marquez said the trips could end up leading to “unsolicited bids,” meaning builders and investors could end up trying to influence the board to use

their companies.

While the Orangeline has always been pitched as a high-speed, magnetic levitation train, Kodama and the board are backing away from

committing to the mag/lev technology, saying they instead want to consider all types of train technologies.

Wednesday’s vote was linked to a new direction taken by OLDA, which has had a hard time getting anything started since the light-rail line was

proposed in 2002. The board is now open to any technology and is focused on letting cities decide which type of development will work best in

each community.

“We are going out of our way to be technology neutral,” Marquez said.

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“If someone wants to go on his or her own dime and say they are on the OLDA board, that’s fine with me. But I don’t want anybody coming in

here and paying for us to take trips,” he said.

Tags: Andy Molina, Carol Chen, Cerritos, China, Downey, Huntington Park, Luis Marquez, Michael Kodama, OLDA, Orangeline

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