Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, February 21, 2007

(02-21) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and officials from the Bay Area and other urban counties urged the California Transportation Commission on Tuesday to change its list of preferred congestion-relief highway projects to include widening Interstate 580 and improving access to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Local officials testified before the nine-member commission -- which determines state transportation funding -- during a five-hour hearing to evaluate 43 proposed anti-gridlock projects that could be paid for with a portion of the $20 billion transportation bond approved in November.

The commission asked its staff to reconsider the list of preferred projects before the final vote, scheduled for next week.

The Republican governor took the unusual step of issuing a news release -- accompanied by his suggested project list -- in the midst of the debate before the commission, whose members he appoints. Traditionally, governors offer policy suggestions before staff members make recommendations, not during public hearings.

"As a stakeholder, the governor has a responsibility to make sure these monies are spent appropriately," said Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's press secretary. "He felt the time was right to weigh in before the commission makes its final vote on Feb. 28."

Part of the impetus for Schwarzenegger's statement is pressure from representatives from urban areas like Los Angeles and the Bay Area, who want a bigger share of the $2.8 billion that will likely be spent on this round of congestion-relief projects.

Local representatives groused that important congestion-combatting projects were omitted from the commission's recommended project list in order to pay for highway improvements in rural areas, such as $175 million to reroute Highway 101 to bypass Willits in Mendocino County.

"The Bay Area has the second-most congestion in the nation," said Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley. "Drive with me eastbound on (Interstate) 580 at 3:30 p.m. You'd know why I'm here."

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, urged the commission to spend $175 million to help pay for the $800 million reconstruction of the Doyle Drive access through the Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge.
"There isn't a day there isn't a major delay or fatality there," Ma said.

That project was fifth on the governor's wish list of projects he wants the commission to fund.

The commission's staff recommended Friday that congestion-relief bond money be spent on nine of the 30 projects proposed by Bay Area transportation officials.

Among those recommended for funding are a fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, a wider Highway 4 in eastern Contra Costa County, and carpool lanes in both Sonoma County and eastbound Interstate 580 in the Tri-Valley area.

Commissioners themselves were divided over the staff's recommendations. Several believed that between $3.5 billion and $4 billion should be approved for immediate spending rather than $2.8 billion.

Some, including the governor, said the whole chunk of money should be spent at once.

"More money should be spent in Los Angeles. More money should be spent in the San Francisco Bay Area and the whole $4.5 billion should be spent," said Jeremiah Hallisey, a San Francisco lawyer appointed to the commission in 1999.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, both Democrats, urged the commission to reconsider its decision not to fund $730 million for a carpool lane on Interstate 405, the most congested freeway in the state.

Earlier in the day, Villaraigosa ally Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, blasted the commission's staff recommendations, saying they didn't address the state's traffic.

"If the goal here was to relieve congestion at a statewide level and to do it in important areas, the staff, maybe, was reading from a different book," Núñez said.

Giving Los Angeles money for the I-405 diamond lane was the first project on Schwarzenegger's list. He signed legislation last year to expedite the project.