Mr. Kutras’ refusal to distribute Board (BOS) polices,
and shocking denial of “any violations”
Modern Transit Society May 2007

The Modern Transit Society (MTS) requested Mr. Kutras, County Executive, to distribute the list of Board polices and orders to all engineers and managers at County Roads Department. (See email below). The reason for distribution was that the County’s highway engineers and managers do not know about them, and have violated every one of these 9 policies.

In his reply (below), Mr. Kutras refused to distribute these Board policies for pedestrian safety to the very people who need them, engineers actually doing the roadway design and their managers. This refusal means that these Board policies are made completely meaningless. All the time and effort that not only we spent, but also the Supervisors spent reviewing and passing the policies, is wasted until that occurs. Details are in the email from MTS to Mr. Kutras, below, and the speech to the Board.

Mr. Kutras’ alleged reason for refusing to distribute these Board polices is his denial that “any violations have occurred.” This was despite MTS showing photos of violation examples to the Board and Mr. Kutras at several Board meetings, on the overhead projector, and giving a link to violation details in the email. Mr. Kutras’ denial endangers pedestrians where they are forced to walk in traffic lanes, acceleration lanes, and where motor vehicles make a right-turn on red or yield. All these are violations of Board policies.

Making the achievement of compliance even more difficult, Mr. Kutras also sent his reply as Cc to a number of County staff, which include Michael Murdter, Director of Roads and Airports Department. Mr. Kutras’ message indicates to these staff that they do not have to comply with these Board policies and orders, by denying that there are “any violations.”

Even if Mr. Kutras were correct in his denial, the policies need distribution to County’s highway engineers and managers to prevent future violations. But his denial is incorrect, as every one of the 9 policies have been shown to be violated in this link:

moderntransit.org/quote

Mr. Kutras stated that the MTS’ presentations “strikes me as inappropriate.” Mr. Kutras contradicts the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration), which states that “citizens are an important way for agencies [highway/traffic staff] to learn about problems.” It further states, “The first step is to figure out the problem that the citizen is trying to solve.” [Source: page 20, How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, FHWA, dated February 2006.] All problems described by MTS are the result of County staff’s poor roadway design that occurred by ignoring the fact that pedestrians use arterial roads, which include expressways, and by non-compliance with Board policies and orders. Contrary to Mr. Kutras, MTS’ presentations, with descriptions and photos, are very appropriate. Mr. Kutras’ refusal to take any action, not even to investigate these unsafe conditions, is extremely inappropriate.

The refusal of Mr. Kutras, County Executive, to take any action to correct County’s poor roadway designs that were presented by the Modern Transit Society to Mr. Kutras and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors at a number of Board meetings, which would be corrected by complying with the nine (9) Board policies and orders as presented by the Modern Transit Society, may result in a crash of a motor vehicle into pedestrian(s), resulting in injuries and/or fatalities.

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Mr. Kutras’ email reply

(the email addresses are shown abridged)

Subject: Re: Distribution of Board policies regarding pedestrians

To: Akos Szoboszlay [@MTS]

Cc: Gary.Graves@oba.[SCCo], Jane.Decker@ceo.[SCCo],

michael.murdter@rda.[SCCo], Ann.Ravel@cco.[SCCo],

phyllis.perez@tenmail.cob.[SCCo], Dan.Collen@rda.[SCCo]

From: Pete.Kutras@ceo.[SCCo]

Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 09:47:12 -0700

Mr. Akos Szoboszlay:

Please be advised that I will not be distributing any of the material you

have submitted. As we have indicated in numerous reviews of your

submissions and letters to you we do not concur with your assessment that

any violations have occurred. Your continued insistence and presentations,

while within your right to comment, strikes me as inappropriate.

Peter Kutras, Jr.

County Executive

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Email from Modern Transit Society (MTS) to Mr. Kutras

From: Akos Szoboszlay, President, Modern Transit Society

To: Pete Kutras, County Executive, Santa Clara County

Subject: Distribution of Board policies regarding pedestrians along expressways

Date: 3:33 PM 5/2/07

Dear Mr. Kutras,

Attached is the pdf file of my handout for the Board meeting yesterday, listing Board policies and orders. After verifying the information is true, would you distribute it to all engineers and managers at County Roads Department? To verify, links to the original County documents for each quoted policy and order are in this web page:

http://moderntransit.org/quote

It also contains example violations of each Board policy.

Nobody in the Department seems to be aware of Board policies except possibly Murdter and his Deputy, Dan Collen. I called your highway engineer for Montague Expressway, Roy Cabaltera, requesting compliance with the Board's pedestrian safety policies. He had never even heard of them. Maybe this is one reason that Montague has, by far, the worst violations for pedestrian safety. This is despite the fact that Montague has always allowed pedestrians, and has the second highest level of pedestrian use among expressways. Violations that endanger pedestrians just keep occurring, such as forcing people to walk in the traffic lane after eliminating shoulders that pedestrians used for decades.

I keep bringing these facts up to the Board because Murdter and staff do nothing about the violations despite our repeated requests, for years, for compliance and correction. And I bring them up to you because Murdter has never replied to any letter, phone call, or email from the Modern Transit Society for over the past 10 years!

Furthermore, Murdter and Collen have been opposing Board policies by contradicting them before cities and committees. I will prove that to you, if given the opportunity, using Murdter's and Collen's own reports, a letter from Murdter to Santa Clara City Council, and audio clips of Murdter's statements opposing Board policy, by claiming the opposite of what the policy actually states. For example, Murdter and Collen both falsely stated that Board policy opposes all shoulder use by pedestrians when in fact the 2003 policy states:

"[Wide] shoulder or path facilities can serve for occasional pedestrian use." [page 93]

Sincerely,

Akos Szoboszlay, President

Modern Transit Society

http://moderntransit.org PO Box 5582, San Jose CA 95150 408-221-0694

Update: Speech to Board (BOS) under public comment (5/14/07)

Recently, I called your chief engineer in the Highway Design section, Mike Griffis. I asked him if I can talk to or meet with him regarding Board policies about pedestrians along expressways. He said, “I’ll pass on that.” He then hung up on me! How rude!

Griffis was not only rude to me, he is rude to the transit patrons and pedestrians, by scaring the heck out of them, by forcing them to walk in the traffic lane. Example shown on Montague is a new curb after widening the road, but no dirt path or sidewalk. This violates your policy requiring that “pedestrians do not have to enter the travel lane." [2003]

Your 9 policies need to be distributed. Otherwise, they will continue to be violated. Staff’s tactic to avoid compliance seems to be not wanting to hear those policies.

Here are the policies. [Handed 15 copies.]

More information is at Expressway topics, links page.

Also see this article as a formal letter, called a Constructive Notice, sent to County staff, at his link:
moderntransit.org/expy/kutras07notice.html

Original file = kutras07.doc