Public commenters press for trainset contract update; one speaker seeks action on pre-construction practices

During the public comment period, in-person speaker David Schwegel praised Precision Civil Engineering and its regional consulting work on Merced-to-Sacramento and urged the authority to consider private operators for some segments. Schwegel said a former project manager had formed a new firm and suggested industry partners "looping Sacramento into the iOS changes everything." An online commenter, Rob Davidoff, asked whether the authority would issue an update on the trainset contract and when a procurement decision will be announced. Davidoff said people following the project's train procurement are "eagerly anticipating" the decision. Schwegel also said he had submitted a request to the attorney general to revoke business licenses for design builders that, he alleged, began construction before full right-of-way acquisition and claimed this had cost taxpayers $9 billion; the authority did not respond to that allegation during public comment. Chair Richards said staff would return after the closed session to report any board actions. The public-comment speakers were called in sequence (in-person and virtual) and were limited to two minutes each, according to the board secretary's public-comment instructions.