Daily Post 3/17/2011 Page 1

Insider blasts rail authority

The California High-Speed Rail Authority, which wants to build a
controversial railroad on the Peninsula, is getting harsh criticism from an
unusual source — one of its own board members.

Quentin Kopp yesterday slammed the authority for its multimillion- dollar
contract with the public relations firm Oglivy, which is trying to sell the public
on high-speed rail.

“The criticism from the Legislature, the media, academia ... has
worsened since Oglivy started draining taxpayer money and nothing has
happened,” said Kopp, a former judge and state legislator. “It saddens me,
it’s a struggle.”

Kopp said he’s told State Senate Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg that
he doesn’t wish to be reappointed to the board. In his place, Steinberg is
expected to appoint union leader Bob Balgenorth, president of the state
Building and Construction Trades Council, Kopp said.

Kopp, 82, paved the way for the rail authority board with a bill he
introduced in 1996 while in the state Senate. But Kopp has increasingly
grown at odds with his fellow board members. Last year, he went after board
Chairman Curt Pringle and member Richard Katz for holding public offi ces
that were incompatible with their rail authority board seats. Kopp’s call for a
discussion on the issue was denied, but after a state attorney general
investigation, Katz stepped down. Pringle remained because he was termed
out as mayor of Anaheim, the incompatible office.

‘Runaway contract’

“It’s been sad to observe the incompatibility of public office, the conflict of
interest problem which still exists today, and then this runaway contract with
Oglivy,” Kopp told the Post.

Kopp said Oglivy has been paid $2.5 million in 14 months “with no
discernible results.”

Kopp also had a sometimes tumultuous relationship with rail critics in

the mid-Peninsula. In fact, in August, the rail authority instructed Kopp and
former rail board member Rod Diridon not to talk to mid-Peninsula rail
groups.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the fi nal hours of his governorship,

replaced Diridon, a former Santa Clara County supervisor, with Los Angeles
Business Journal publisher Matt Toledo. Some seats on the board are
appointed by the governor while other board members are selected by the
Senate leader.
 Kopp said State Sen. Steinberg has been pressured to add a member
from Sacramento, which explains his choice of Balgenorth, who lives in
Folsom. Balgenorth has been president of the state building and construction
trades council since 1993 and was reelected to his fourth term in 2008. The
council represents 186 private-sector unions, approximately 350,000
workers.

Palo Alto Councilman Larry Klein said he doesn’t know much about
Balgenorth, but union leaders in general have been supportive of high-
speed rail, citing the jobs it would create.

Klein, who has been highly critical of the rail board and orchestrated a
“no confidence” vote by City Council last year, said he doesn’t regard Kopp’s
depature as a “victory.”

“The issue isn’t one or two people,” Klein said.

Kopp said he plans on sending an application today to apply for

state commissions. He wouldn’t say which commissions, but said a friend of
his who is close to Gov. Jerry Brown urged him to do so.

Kopp said that despite his concerns about the rail authority, he will
continue to support the concept of an 800-mile modern railroad from San
Francisco to Los Angeles.

“It’s what I believe in and have believed in since I rode high-speed rail
in France in 1982,” Kopp said.