Attorney sues JTA over public records request

[thelakelander]

By Larry Hannan

A former attorney with the Jacksonville General Counsel’s Office is suing the Jacksonville Transportation Authority because he says it has not complied with his public records request.

Tracey Arpen  filed suit this week in Circuit Court over a request he filed in October. Arpen is a longtime advocate of the city’s sign law, and JTA successfully lobbied the City Council last year to amend that law so it could build bus shelters with advertisements.

Arpen and others opposed that amendment. The JTA board is expected to approve a request for proposal today  that will invite sign companies to bid for a contract to build and maintain shelters with ads.

The public records request asks for all documents identifying lobbyists, expenses, and communication regarding the sign law. It also asks for documentation that backs up an assertion JTA Executive Director Michael Blaylock made in a video on JTA’s Web site that said it was responding to thousands of people who’d called for more bus shelters.

JTA is a state agency and must comply with the state public records law, the lawsuit said. Arpen said there was no reason JTA couldn’t provide the documents. He expects a hearing to occur on the matter next week.

Arpen and other argue that amending the sign law will put the law banning billboards at risk via a legal challenge from a sign company that doesn’t get the contract. JTA and lawyers for the city’s General Counsel Office dispute that.

JTA had no comment, spokesman Mike Miller said.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-01-27/story/attorney_sues_jta_over_public_records_request

[stjr]

Lake, just caught this.  I posted same with my comments on the bus shelter thread we already have.  Basically, JTA is playing more games and continuing to lower their already low credibility in this City.

JTA is less and less a team player and more and more a street bully.  Failure of our City leaders to get JTA to be accountable and more integrated into City quality of life issues is a big problem and this issue, the BRT, and the proposed transportation center just bear this out on a bigger scale.  Previous failures including a poorly run bus system, the $ky-high-way instead of street cars, support of the Outer Beltway and 9B, etc. just show how long JTA has been dropping balls and holding this City back for a very long time.

[Ocklawaha]

While we're asking questions of JTA and the COJ, someone please find out...

"WHERE'S THE MONEY?"

Remember COJ had $100,000,000 dollars in BJP funds for mass transit, it was going to be diverted stolen by Peyton and Company for the new Courthouse, but apparently THAT didn't happen, meanwhile the cash that would COMPLETELY build a streetcar system from Riverside to the Stadium is A.W.O.L.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?

OCKLAWAHA

[uptowngirl]

I wonder where those thousands of requests came from? Is that over 20 years or something, I have as yet to see and even half full bus around this town...

[Dog Walker]

I think that the only really successful transit projects that JTA has implemented in the past few years are the "trolleys".  Because of the low head times, we now plan most of our downtown excursions from Riverside around the Riverside trolley's operation hours.

Maybe when they are in their plush new offices, er....in the new transportation plaza, their thinking will change.

[Kay]

While we're asking questions of JTA and the COJ, someone please find out...

"WHERE'S THE MONEY?"

Remember COJ had $100,000,000 dollars in BJP funds for mass transit, it was going to be diverted stolen by Peyton and Company for the new Courthouse, but apparently THAT didn't happen, meanwhile the cash that would COMPLETELY build a streetcar system from Riverside to the Stadium is A.W.O.L.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?

OCKLAWAHA

How much would it cost to build a street car system from the Stadium to Riverside (and where in Riverside would it go to?)?

[cline]

How much would it cost to build a street car system from the Stadium to Riverside (and where in Riverside would it go to?)?

The 2035 LRTP has the route from downtown to 5 points at 36 million and then from 5 points to King Street at 14 million (50million total).  

The 100 million from the BJP could go a long way- if we ever see that money.

[Lunican]

Less than one overpass.

[tufsu1]

How much would it cost to build a street car system from the Stadium to Riverside (and where in Riverside would it go to?)?

The 2035 LRTP has the route from downtown to 5 points at 36 million and then from 5 points to King Street at 14 million (50million total). 

The 100 million from the BJP could go a long way- if we ever see that money.

and the link from downtown to the stadium is also estimated at $14 million....and an extenion to Springfield/Shands could be done for about $40 million.

Total system could be built for slightly more than $100 million.

[Dog Walker]

TU, are you talking about a streetcar system or extension of the Skyway?

[Ocklawaha]

Actually, Light Rail Transit and Skyway cost exactly the same amount per mile +/- a few dollars for whistles and bells. The Skyway could be extended on City Right-Of-Way for around $30 - $40 Million per mile. Streetcar could cost as little as $3 Million a mile, but that is a system without a single improvement on it. Bare knuckles railroading.

Our wisest solution (so rest assured it will never happen) would be to expand the Skyway 4 directions as noted in many posts and articles, AND build the streetcar phase one and two, all at once. Create a matrix where one compliments the other, use bus for the slowest street to street traffic. Bus ties to Skyway and to Streetcar, use the Streetcar for the faster block group, by block group traffic. Use Streetcar to tie buses and Skyway together, meaning the Skyway would remain the premimum downtown express with limited stops - OVER the streets.

Such a matrix, with perhaps 3 to 4 blocks between lines and modes would thrive in Jacksonville, and Jacksonville would THRIVE with great FIXED mass transit.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

TU, are you talking about a streetcar system or extension of the Skyway?

streetcars....you can build them for less than $10 million a mile...with all the planning and design studies, it would still be less than $15 million a mile.

[Dog Walker]

Ock, there is just something off-putting about riding the skyway.  Maybe it's just the necessity of walking to the escalators, riding the escalators,then walking to the cars.  With streetcars, they are just right in front of you and you just step on.

Streetcars and those wonderful low-bodied European trams are friendlier somehow.  More accessible?

[JeffreyS]

DW when they where talking about building the skyway Ock was telling them they could grid Downtown with extensions into the surrounding neighborhoods with streetcars for the money.

[JeffreyS]

I like the skyway I love Streetcars.