Tulare County: Supervisor Eddie Valero kicked off regional transportation board

After several years of turmoil at the Tulare County Regional Transit Agency including the announced withdrawal of the city of Porterville and threatened withdrawal of others in the joint powers authority, Tulare County Supervisors decided this month to remove their representative on the transit board, fellow Supervisor Eddie Valero.

The county leader represents Dinuba and the north portion of the county.

The relatively new JPA has faced financial issues, including slow reimbursement of expenses from funding agencies. Supervisor Pete Vander Poel said the agency could soon face a $1 million shortfall, and that the county might have to dig into their road fund to keep transit in business.

He said the county is considering joining Porterville in withdrawing from the agency although not soon because Tulare would be left without a city transit program.

The majority of the supervisors suggested they did not know what was going on at the agency and had not been informed. Supervisor Amy Shuklian suggested the new transit agency executive director should come to the board of supervisors to update them. Shuklian is the alternate representative of the county on the Regional Transit board. She suggested that Valero not be removed and more updates come more often.

Among the complaints by supervisors was that Valero joined striking Visalia transit workers last summer on a picket line even though he represents the voters. In a letter to the board of supervisors Woodlake Mayor Rudy Mendoza called Valero's action "a violation of the public trust.”

After losing their executive director last year, the transit agency hired a new lead staffer, Abul Hassan in November.

The Tulare County Regional Transit Agency is a joint powers agency formed in 2020 by the cities of Dinuba, Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, Porterville, Tulare, Woodlake, and county of Tulare. Subsequently, the transit board approved the membership of the Tule River Indian Tribe of California in 2022.

With the large low income population in Tulare County, who need to travel sometimes long distances to get service, groceries or medical care, a good public transportation system is an absolute must, leaders said.

Transit agencies during the Covid years suffered from very low ridership, helping to make the launch of this new agency particularly difficult.

Despite the trouble, Valero defended his actions and the actions of the transit agency to strike out a new direction by offering micro transit service to more towns as opposed to larger buses on a route. The new service is on demand and  currently operates a microtransit service called “transPORT” in the cities of Porterville and Lindsay.

Earlier this year, Valero announced  that the transit service will serve residents living in the areas of Cutler-Orosi, Delft Colony, Dinuba, London, Monson-Sultana, Traver and Yettem-Seville as of April.

Also, the transit service has now launched highly anticipated routes to and from the Tule River Tribe of California's reservation this spring after the agency was awarded money.

Valero cited the difficult times the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation went through and that they have now turned around.

"You didn't put the board representative to the EDC up for a vote then?" he asked his fellow elected officials.

Valero charged that the supervisors were making a public spectacle at his expense in a clear sign the five member board doesn't always get along.

Porterville Mayor Martha Flores told the Board of Supervisors that they will soon run their transportation system on their own beginning July 1 and suggested the County appoint a new representative to the regional agency.Agreeing was Mayor Vicki Riddle of Exeter, who supported “a new direction.”

Most critical of the supervisors proposal to remove Valero was Daniel O'Connell who argued that the three Republican supervisors proposal to remove the only Mexican American supervisor ever to be elected in the county amounted to racism.

Supervisors reacted angrily to that idea, noting that both Mendoza from Woodlake and Flores from Porterville are Mexican American, though neither are supervisors.

Chairman Larry Micari said that he believed that” trust and faith” had been lost, fearing the transit agreement would fall apart.

Looking to cool things down and acting as peacemaker, Visalia-based Supervisor Amy Shuklian suggested tabling the proposal to remove Valero so that the executive director could come to a meeting - but that motion failed 3 to 2 and a subsequent vote removed Valero as the board's transit representative.

Valero said he would still attend the transit agency meetings as a public member and Micari will now be the board representative on the panel. Shuklian will remain an alternate.

Micari and Valero have clashed in public forums recently over Micari's statement that Valero favored Mexican American staff at the county, an assertion he later apologized for in person to Valero at a supervisors' meeting in February. Micari, a retired sheriff's captain, ran for reelection in District 1 in March, winning handily despite low turnout, while Valero was not up for election.

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Tulare County: Eddie Valero kicked off regional transportation board