Half Moon Bay City Council representatives missed 17 straight meetings of the City/County Association of Governments between April of 2004 and December of 2005. Former City Councilwoman Toni Taylor was the city's designee to attend C/CAG meetings in 2004 and 2005. Current City Councilwoman Naomi Patridge has been to three of four C/CAG meetings since her term began in 2006.
Why should city residents care whether City Council members attend those meetings?
 Traffic on Highway 92 has been the subject of debate among regional planners for years. |
The organization is comprised of 21 governments in San Mateo County. Each city, as well as the town of Portola Valley and the San Mateo County government, appoints one elected official to serve on the C/CAG board. A second official is appointed as an alternate. The group discusses a range of regional planning issues and acts as a middle-man of sorts for state and federal grant money.
"C/CAG programs discretionary transportation funds from state and federal sources that come to San Mateo County," Napier said.
Current Half Moon Bay Mayor Marina Fraser said she was shocked to learn the city had no representative at C/CAG meetings for months at a time.
"That is the most important committee assignment we have," she said.
Napier was quick to point out that Half Moon Bay was never out of the funding loop during the period its representative failed to attend meetings. He said the city's public works director, Paul Nagengast, was on top of funding opportunities and in regular contact with C/CAG officials.
That is not to say Half Moon Bay missed nothing by missing the meetings.
"It doesn't mean you will be left out, but it does mean you won't have all the information you will need," Napier said. He added that regular attendees - every government in the county except Portola Valley and East Palo Alto regularly attends the majority of C/CAG meetings - are better equipped to apply for grants and lobby for important projects.
"I can tell you there is a correlation" between attendance and program dollars. "It's not one-to-one, but there is definitely a correlation," he said.
Napier said Daly City is one municipality that has been very successful using C/CAG as a networking tool from which to leverage transportation money.
"The meetings are all in San Carlos and it's a long way to go and sometimes I don't get out of there until 9 at night," said Judith Christensen, a Daly City councilwoman who serves as her local government's representative to C/CAG. She said her regular attendance at the meetings allows her to know of grant money even before any request for applications. "It's just one of those bullets you have to bite. A lot of money goes through C/CAG."
Taylor did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story. Her alternate in 2004 and 2005, current City Councilman Jim Grady, said he was unaware Taylor wasn't attending the meetings. Grady noted that C/CAG meetings are only one of many avenues for the exchange of ideas between elected leaders throughout the county.
C/CAG board members clarified their attendance policy during a May meeting. The board agreed to provide attendance reports every six months. If a member misses several meetings the board chair will now discuss the absences with that city's representative. "At such time the committee member will decide to attend or vacate the position allowing the opportunity for a new representative to attend," according to C/CAG minutes from the meeting.
Napier said Half Moon Bay's spotty attendance would have no bearing on its ability to get money in the future, including new money for completion of the Highway 92 project.
"Highway 92 is an important project and we support it," he said.
Christensen said having friends in high places wouldn't hurt.
"If you don't go to the meetings it is going to be tough to get money when the chips are down," she said. "We try not to be that way but we are human beings and it is just human nature that we respond to people we know and that we care about."
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