From The Post-Dispatch:
For nearly 15 years local gadfly Tom Sullivan has waged war on what he considers wasteful spending, railing against organizations such as the local sewer district and the region's transit agency.
He is persistent, sometimes annoying and often right.
Sullivan is the man behind the Public Transit Accountability Project, a group that says it wants to make Metro more accountable to taxpayers. Sullivan's latest battle could end up costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars if construction on MetroLink's cross-county extension is halted.
Publicly, Sullivan has doggedly pursued a referendum that would allow voters to decide the fate of $150 million in bonds needed to finish the Metro extension. The St. Louis County Election Board is expected today to validate his group's petition for a referendum.
If the signatures are validated, Sullivan has 40 days to collect the 27,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.
But privately, Sullivan has another plan in mind. According to e-mails recently obtained by the Post-Dispatch, Sullivan told Metro officials earlier this month that he doubts his group can win the fight and hoped an agreement could be reached. He offered to back off seeking a public vote if MetroLink can come up with $75,000 to hire a new "public transit officer."
A thorn in Metro's side
Sullivan has never been a fan of Metro. He worked on the campaign to oppose a quarter-cent sales tax increase earmarked for the extension in 1997 and since 2000 he has been a loud critic of the agency.
He said frustration with the situation led him and his fellow project members to seek the referendum.
Such an action would set back an eight-mile light rail extension that has already experienced delays. And if the issue makes it to the ballot, it could kill the extension. The effects of that would be felt throughout the region: A $682 million project might never get finished and a major corridor through the area could remain closed.
According to officials, as of Aug. 31, Metro has written checks for $479 million on the project. That money would essentially be thrown away.
"It will literally be a train to nowhere," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley.
In the message sent to Metro Board Chairman Hugh Scott on Sept. 7, Sullivan writes that while there is "incredible hostility" with the cost overruns, "there is a feeling that the project should get completed."
In the message, Sullivan suggests the referendum could be avoided.
Ombudsman proposal
He offers a solution, something he calls a "Public Transit Officer." The position would be responsible for reviewing projects, conducting service studies and fielding customer complaints.
To pay for the new position - which he estimates will cost $75,000 annually - Sullivan recommends that the county cease doing business with the Community Program Development Corp., a consulting agency.
In an interview Monday, Sullivan said he was not interested in the job for himself.
Sullivan's backdoor bargaining has struck some area officials as careless and poorly timed.
"I don't think it is right to use the petition system when you have no intention or likelihood of prevailing," Jones said. "That is not what the system was intended for and to misuse it now is reckless."
Scott said in a telephone interview that he was unclear on the motive behind the e-mails.
"(Sullivan) has now made himself the focus of an effort that ultimately will cost the taxpayers a great deal of money," he said. "I'm not sure he's acting in the best interest of the taxpayers in that regard, accountability not withstanding.
"I don't get Tom. I've known him for 20 years, and I've never understood his motivation."
Scott said he didn't respond to Sullivan's invitation to negotiate.
"My conclusion was that he was trying to broker some kind of a deal because at some point he began to realize that this effort was ultimately going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money," Scott said. "My response to that was no response. I just ignored it."
Sullivan, who said his e-mails were in response to requests from Metro, said there is nothing wrong with trying to come to an accord.
"Some people in our group want (Metro chief) Larry Salci's head and some want Metro to say no more bond debt without voter approval. I told them that may be more than we could get," Sullivan said in his e-mail.
Sullivan said in Monday's interview that while he doubts his referendum would actually kill the extension, he was willing to work with officials to bring this situation to an end.
"We are trying to use this referendum to get some scrutiny, some accountability, some answers from Metro," he said. "A public transit officer was just one idea of how we could accomplish that."
End of the line?
The cross-county extension, which broke ground in April 2003, was supposed to open this spring. But last year, Metro officials fired and sued the construction and management team known as the Cross County Collaborative. Metro said the group's design problems led to missed deadlines and unexpected costs. The collaborative disagrees, and is countersuing the transit agency for $17 million. On Monday, a St. Louis County judge ordered the two sides to try to mediate their differences.
Metro announced in March that the project would run at least $96 million over the original $550 million budget. Some estimates have it now at $132 million in the red.
Salci has said that the effort to seek a public vote on issuing the bonds would ruin the project, which would extend MetroLink tracks from Forest Park to Clayton and on to Shrewsbury. The line now runs between Lambert Field and Scott Air Force Base.
Because the sale of the bonds will be stalled, Salci said Metro would stop building the extension on about Oct. 15. The agency, he said, would be out of money.
Even a temporary shutdown would delay the reopening of Forest Park Parkway, as well as keep trains moving slowly because northbound and southbound trains now share a single track through Forest Park, Salci said.
But St. Louis County officials have vowed to make sure the light-rail project gets built despite its financial problems.
One idea under review is to have the county borrow the money, lend it to Metro, then have the transit agency pay the county back.
Metro is asking the courts to determine whether the county ordinance supporting the bonds is subject to a referendum. A judge will hear the arguments Wednesday.
"To stop now, to leave that extension undone, would be borderline criminal," said the county's Jones. "We are too far along now to stop."
Me now:
This guy seems like a idiot to me.
So sad for the transit haters. In the end, Metro will prevail. How will they sleep when trains are wizzing through Clayton filled with shoppers, commuters, and holidaymakers? They know this is a slippery slope that can only lead to one thing --- a cry from the public for more trains to more places. After years of trying to protect St. Louis from itself, their efforts will be for naught. That perfect world without transit is getting further and further from their grasp. But wait, there is hope, maybe Metro can be forced to hire a new officer for $75,000 annually