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Commissioner urges clearer accounting of Measure V active-transportation funds
Summary
A commissioner asked staff to itemize how the county Measure V active-transportation set-aside is spent, citing examples of projects they questioned and asking the city engineer and MCAG to review categorization and ensure funds prioritize bicycle and pedestrian projects.
During the Oct. 28 meeting, a commissioner raised concerns about how the county's Measure V transportation tax is being categorized and reported, urging more specific, itemized accounting for the 20% set aside for active transportation.
The commissioner said they have raised the issue at the Measure V Citizens Oversight Committee and urged the city to show line-item costs of active-transportation work rather than folding small active elements into larger capital projects. They cited two specific examples they said were reported as Measure V active-transportation expenditures: replacing eight street light poles on Main Street (about $8,000) and a signal synchronization project (about $58,000). The commissioner suggested saving and targeting active-transportation funds for discrete bicycle and pedestrian projects instead of simply allocating a portion to large, preexisting projects.
Staff responded that the city engineer and the Merced County Association of Governments (MCAG) would review the projects and the guidelines for assigning expenditures to funding categories. The meeting record shows staff offered to send the Measure V oversight website link to BPAC and to follow up with engineering so commissioners can track relevant projects.
Why it matters: Measure V dedicates a portion of county transportation revenue to active transportation; commissioners said clearer, project-level accounting would help the BPAC and the public evaluate whether funds are being used to build bicycle and pedestrian facilities rather than being absorbed into unrelated capital work.
Provenance: topicintro SEG 422; topfinish SEG 512
