SACOG Transportation Committee 2025-05-15

The SACOG Transportation Committee will meet Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 10:00 AM. The meeting is at 1415 L St, Ste 300, Sacramento, CA. It can be viewed livestream via the link on the Meetings and Agendas page. Comments may be made in-person or by email ahead of time to the clerk, lespinoza@sacog.org. To be seen by the committee members, they must be emailed at least 48 hours beforehand, though they become part of the record if emailed after that deadline.


Agenda (pdf; the agenda below is abbreviated, see the full pdf agenda for details; for staff reports and other documents, select html agenda on the Meetings and Agendas page)

Consent:

  1. Approve Minutes of the April 3, 2025, Committee Meeting
  2. Engage, Empower, Implement Grant Reallocation
  3. Approve Scope Change for City of Marysville Sustainable Mobility Program project
  4. Approve Scope Change for City of West Sacramento “Great Delta Trail: Clarksburg Branch Line Extension”

Action:

  1. Request for Project Funding Transfers (Miguel Mendoza)
  2. Mobility Zones Adoption (Kathleen Hanley)

Information:

  1. 2025 Four-County State Funding Program Progress Report (David Pape)
  2. Federal Fiscal Year 2024 Project Delivery Report (Miguel Mendoza)
  3. Transportation Options for Upcoming A’s Games (Nicole Zhi Ling Porter)
  4. Report on Cap-to-Cap Trip & SACOG Tour (Lanette Espinoza)

Receive & File:

  1. Transit Financial Planning Efforts: Scope, Coordination, and Timeline (Leo Torres) staff report | underway
  2. 2026 Regional Trail Implementation Strategy Update – Prioritization Methodology (Summer Lopez)

Optional Presentation Funding Round Briefing (Noon-1:00 p.m.)


If time allows, I may add comments about some agenda items.

SACOG Board 2025-03-20 (in Rocklin)

The SACOG monthly board meeting will be held in Rocklin this month, Thursday, March 20, at 9:45 AM, at Rocklin Event Center, 2650 Sunset Blvd, Rocklin, CA. It can be viewed on YouTube via the Meetings and Agendas page. Comments may be made in person (in Rocklin), or via email ahead of time to lespinoza@sacog.org. Most board meetings are held at the SACOG Board Room on L Street in Sacramento, but some meetings rotate through the cities and counties in the SACOG region.


Agenda (the official agenda has more detail for each agenda item than below, and the html agenda on the Meetings & Agendas page has staff reports and presentation links; the links below are just a few items of particular interest to me):

Consent:

  1. Approve Minutes of the February 20, 2025, Board Meeting
  2. Approve Revised Local Transportation Fund Allocations for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 for Sacramento County
  3. Approve Local Transportation Fund Findings of Apportionment for Fiscal Year 2025-2026
  4. Approve State of Good Repair Fund Allocation for Fiscal Year 2025-2026
  5. Approve State Transit Assistance Fund Allocation for Fiscal Year 2025-2026; staff report; allocation
  6. Approve Low Carbon Transit Operations Funds Allocations for Fiscal Year 2024- 2025; staff report; allocation
  7. Approve Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority Appointment
  8. Approve Contract Authorization for SB 125 Long-Term Financial Plan and Recovery Strategy and Annual Financial Analysis; staff report
  9. Approve Engage, Empower, Implement Award Correction

Action:

  1. Approve 2025 Regional Active Transportation Program Funding Recommendation (Summer Lopez), recommendations, presentation
  2. Public Hearing: Staff Vacancies (Erik Johnson)
  3. Approve Draft Budget and Overall Work Program for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, Adopt Salary Schedules and Hold Hearing on Vacancies (Loretta Su)

Information:

  1. Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority Loan and Staffing Services (Erik Johnson)

Workshop:

  1. Lessons Learned from Rocklin’s Growth (Lanette Espinoza); staff report; no presentation available yet

Reports:

  1. Chair’s Report, Board Members’ Reports and Executive Director’s Report (Lanette Espinoza)

Receive & File:

  1. Regional Transportation Demand Management Platform “NorCal GO” Launch (Nicole Porter)
  2. 2026 Regional Trail Implementation Strategy Update (Summer Lopez)
  3. U.S. 50 Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan Overview (Dustin Foster)
  4. From Plan to Action: Implementing the 2025 Blueprint (Clint Holtzen)
  5. Advocacy Update (Renee DeVere-Oki)
  6. Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Quarterly Financial Report (Loretta Su)
  7. Green Means Go: Local Efforts to Accelerate Housing (Gregory Chew)
  8. Regional 511 Traveler Information Systems Contract and Service Continuity Considerations (Chase McFadden)

Adjournment:


big day of meetings!

Once every few months, there are four transportation-related meetings on a single day, and that day is tomorrow, February 20, 2025. Except for retired folks with nothing better to do (me), no one could attend all four meetings. Three of the meetings are during the work day, which are scheduled then for two purposes: 1) because the members don’t want to do anything in the evening, and 2) to ensure that most of the public cannot participate. Nevertheless, I encourage readers to pick one meeting that seems of most interest, and attend in person or watch online. And comment! Though you may not have expertise on the topic being discussed, you have expertise and lived experience as a member of society.

Of the four meetings, one accepts comments online, the SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC). The others do not. To comment, you must either attend in person, or submit comments online ahead of time. Comments submitted at the last moment will be included in the meeting record, but the board/commission/council/committee members will only see those comments submitted well ahead of time, usually three hours, though it varies with meeting. Meeting agendas, and select agenda items are below. I picked some agenda items of interest to me, but your interests may be different, so I suggest you take a look at the entire agenda and documents. You won’t find any presentations, because, well, that is the games agencies play with agenda presentations. Though, as a pleasant surprise, all the CARTA presentations are already available.

9:30 AM, SACOG Board of Directors, Meetings and Agendas page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at SACOG’s offices, or Written comments: May be submitted via email to the clerk at lespinoza@sacog.org.

12:00 noon, Capitol Area Tolling Authority, Board Meetings page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or Written comments: May be submitted via email to the clerk at rtadevich@sacog.org.

2:30 PM, SacRT Mobility Advisory Council (MAC), MAC page. Comments In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or online via Zoom.

5:30 PM, Sacramento Active Transportation Commission (SacATC), Upcoming Meetings page. Comment In-person: Public comment may be made in person at the meeting location, or via eComment on the Upcoming Meetings page. eComment is open when the agenda is posted, and remains open until the beginning of public comment on an agenda item. Commissioners will not see eComments submitted during the meeting, but these will be part of the public record.

the games agencies play with agenda presentations

For the public meetings I attend or follow, which includes Sacramento City Council, Sacramento Active Transportation Commission, Sacramento Transportation Authority, SACOG Board, SACOG Transportation Committee, Sacramento Regional Transit, and SacRT Mobility Access Council, the slide presentations given at the meetings are rarely available ahead of time. Agendas must be published three days ahead of time, under the Brown Act. Agencies have done better on doing more than three days. There are staff reports, but usually the slide presentation are not available. Yet the slide presentations offer key information that is not available in the staff reports, including charts, data, lists, and photos. Without the slide presentations and their detail, it is difficult for the public to understand what the agenda item is really about, and to develop comments ahead of time. I myself often have to significantly modify my preliminary comments based on the slide presentation.

I realize that there may be occasional instances when the slide presentation is still being worked on right before the meeting, for late breaking changes or to answer questions that board members have asked ahead of time. But that is usually not the case. Usually, the slide presentations are available ahead of time, but are not shared with the public.

SACOG is the worst agency in this respect. Every meeting I attend or follow, I have to send an email to the board clerk to request the slide presentations. They are sent to me, and also added to the agenda items, but this occurs during or after the meeting. I have requested slide presentations beforehand and not received them.

This is the game agencies play to make it difficult for the public to comment on agenda items. Board and council members, and staff, give lip service to transparency, but do not actually provide it.

Freeport Blvd to council today

The Freeport Blvd Transportation Plan is on the Sacramento City Council Agenda today. I failed to notice this, and submitted my comment late, so will have to attend in person or on Zoom. The item is on the consent calendar, so it is particularly important that people comment on the item so that the city recognizes there is significant opposition. You might also contact your council member to request that they remove the item (#6) from the consent calendar.

You may read my previous blog posts at https://gettingaroundsac.blog/category/city-of-sacramento/freeport-blvd/. You may read other’s comments on the agenda item at https://sacramento.granicusideas.com/meetings/4599-5pm-city-council-closed-session-begins-at-4-00-pm-updated-02-slash-21-slash-2023-at-1-30-p-dot-m/agenda_items/63eeca6df2b670376d010289-6-freeport-boulevard-transportation-plan-final-dr