Caltrain Discussions Reveal Character

Hillsdale, 2006: commuters and rain

In a story we've been following for weeks, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties have been trying to seize control of Caltrain from San Mateo County through a ballot measure that would provide financial relief for the beleaguered rail line.

However, the deadline for submission has forced them to eliminate governance language and draft a "clean" bill:

The deal, crafted by political leaders in the three counties over the weekend, separates the governance issues from the ballot measure. Officials in Santa Clara and San Francisco counties wanted the ballot measure to require Caltrain and San Mateo County officials to agree on governance changes before being able to spend most of the money. The deal cleans up the ballot measure with the Caltrain board agreeing to pass a resolution with those changes. The governance issues would not be part of the ballot measure language.

San Francisco and Santa Clara will likely get the control they want after November, but at least their threat to shut down Caltrain if they didn't get their way will not have succeeded.

In future negotiations, when these counties try to take the moral high ground in discussions with monied entities, we shall remember how they behaved when they had the financial upper hand.