Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Drives Gov.'s Transport Agenda

Sunne, you very recently heard a report from the California Center for Regional Leadership regarding infrastructure, public/private partnerships, and regionalism. Can you summarize the administration's approach to this agenda, which you have been so prominently in support of for years?

Governor Schwarzenegger has been focused on how we can create a prosperous economy while protecting and enhancing our environment. In fact, he has his entire cabinet working on how we can grow differently in the future so that the people of California will benefit. As a result, our current agenda is to meet the challenges of bringing all the needs to the table and integrating them into a better future for the state.

Due to the $22 billion deficit we inherited, Gov. Schwarzenegger labeled last year the "year of recovery." He concluded the state of the state address by saying, "I did not take this job to cut, but to build. I did not seek this job to preside over the demise of a dream, but to renew it." The governor has dubbed this year "the year of reform." We are advocating changes in the way the state does business, changes in the way California grows, changes in the way that we use resources so that we can accommodate population growth, and continue to attract capital investment. We are making changes in order to be the place where employers want to start and expand companies and still have a high quality of life and a very enjoyable environment.

More than a year ago you did an interview for MIR in which you said that there is not enough return on the state's investment in transportation. It is now more than a year later. Has there been progress in the agenda to realize this greater return on our transportation investment?

When we did that interview, the Governor had just issued the budget and directed the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency to meet with all the transportation stakeholders in the state, which we did. We provided the governor with recommendations that became the beginning of an agenda. This led to the governor's dedication of funds to support legislation for developing high-occupancy toll lanes in order to speed goods movement. We had hoped for a much more robust set of reforms last year but they simply just did not come out of the process. This year, with input from stakeholders, we presented the governor with a comprehensive proposal. The governor has incorporated the pieces of this proposal into the budget under the name Go California. This is a very significant effort aimed at improving mobility. While the plan is not solely about roads and freeways, the governor has underscored the fact that it does address roads and freeways, because Californians rely a lot on their automobiles. Having said that, our commitment is to, over the next ten years, respond to the growing demand on the transportation system from population increases and economic growth, while also reducing the level of congestion from what it is today.

Consistent with this being the year of reform, we are changing Caltrans from a transportation bureaucracy to a mobility company by focusing on performance measures and accountability. We're changing the way Caltrans operates, which will result in $50 million in savings in administrative costs that will be put into projects. We are also sponsoring legislation for expanded authority for project delivery in order to build projects more quickly. Increasing or expanding the authority for design sequencing, design bills, and public/private partnerships will accomplish this. Additionally, we are bringing to the table private investors who will build facilities. This public/private partnership will improve goods movement and can support jobs in the logistics industry. By diverting the goods movement to more rail, dedicated truck lanes, near docks, and inland ports, we will also reduce emissions, support good jobs in the logistics industry, and reduce traffic congestion.

Having said that, Go California is also about the connection between housing, land use and infrastructure investment, including transportation. We need to have a different land use pattern if we are going to be able to reduce congestion levels. According to the latest transportation modeling, it is just not possible to achieve our goals unless there is more housing for workers that is appropriately located. This requires a change in land use patterns. It requires us to use congestion pricing and market based solutions. It requires us to fully deploy intelligent transportation systems, in the roadbed and in vehicles. Every tool we can possibly imagine needs to be brought to the table to get a higher return on investment so that the money we put into new capacity (freeways, rail, bus rapid transit, and even walkways) will then result in higher or improved mobility. This higher return on investment will happen because we have done all of these other things first. That's why this is the year of reform.

Is there too much resistance to achieve this reform agenda? Can it be accomplished at the state, regional and local levels?

The state must provide a framework that is going to enable local jurisdictions and local officials working together at a regional level, to better do their jobs. We need to streamline processes and minimize paperwork requirements. It can be done. I believe there is a critical mass of leaders at all levels throughout California who realize the peril that California faces if we do not change the way we do business and the amazing opportunities that will exist if we pull all the pieces together for California's future. We want to embrace market forces, and understand the true roots of problems like sprawl, the undersupply of housing, and the high cost of housing. Despite spending money on transportation facilities, congestion continues to increase due to inefficient land use. Understanding those root causes is essential to coming up with truly effective solutions.

Turning to the movement of goods, which you stated is high on your mobility agenda, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation is releasing a report that asserts that there are 500,000 good jobs at stake with respect to goods movement in the near future. The report also suggests that the state can assist with the creation of a regional framework for addressing the balance among environmental protection, economic growth and mobility. Is the state playing this role?

The LA Economic Development Corporation, SCAG, and the LA Chamber of Commerce have been among the principal civic organizations that we have turned to for information. The governor has charged the cabinet with listening to people and then developing an action plan for the him within a month. We have been holding conferences with in Los Angeles and Oakland. We met with legislators and Cal/EPA Secretary Alan Lloyd and I are co-chairing a cabinet working group that includes Caltrans, the Highway Patrol, Homeland Security, the California Office of Emergency Services, the Health Department, and the Agriculture Department.

We have been analyzing the issues, and I think we've really gotten an understanding of the jobs that are at stake, the potential for the economy in California, and the need for the logistics industry to have well paying jobs. It is sort of a flipside of manufacturing going offshore, the goods have to come back through. We have got to move them back through our ports and to the border.

With regard to regional approaches, we are looking at the principle corridors of goods movement in California: the San Pedro Harbor into the Inland Empire to California's Eastern border; the Port of Oakland through to the Port of Sacramento and the associated rail and road network; the Port of San Diego and the connection to Ensenada, Mexico; and the south-north backbone of California Highway 99 as well as the south-north rail line.

Our timetable is aggressive because we want a truly informed if not unanimous position from California to articulate at the federal level with regard to the transportation reauthorization legislation. We must have the federal government at the table as well. We need to build a local regional leadership and we have got to have regional solutions, but it can't be just California alone. It has to be California with the federal government, with the nation, since we have the majority of all of the goods going to the western United States – all the way to Chicago -- coming through California's ports, moving on California's freeways and handled at California's logistics centers.

These issues are so important for California but do not get the coverage they deserve. How can you get the word out so that these issues are discussed in communities and neighborhoods throughout California?

My job is to first listen and then work on plans to respond to the issues, which doesn't necessarily make for an exciting story. However, Gov. Schwarzenegger is the best communicator I know, and along with MIR and organizations like the California Center for Regional Leadership, I am confident that we can get the message out about these critical issues.

The people of California are intelligent and sophisticated and understand that these issues touch their daily lives. I think they will be very receptive to an agenda that is about solutions, rather than merely articulating problems.

To conclude, in an interview with Assemblyman Canciamilla for this issue and previously in an interview with Assemblyman Richman, we discussed what it was like to be a centrist in the Legislature. You are a Democrat in a Republican administration. What is it like to be a centrist in state government today?

Well, I think of myself as a ‘forwardist', not a centrist. I often say that the bases of the left and the right are fairly irrelevant. Left and right are not where we are trying to go; we are trying to go forward. It can be frustrating and lonely to try to plow new ground. We are going forward and we're plowing new ground, we are tilling new soil, but it is not as lonely as it used to be. As I mentioned earlier, there is a critical mass of concerned leadership that is not just calling for action, but working to make it happen.