DATE: May 3, 2016
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: City Manager
RE: Overview of ABAG/MTC Proposed Merger and Potential Adoption of Council Position on the Issue
RECOMMENDATION
That Council reads this report and provides guidance to the Mayor, Council Member Zerme?o (as the City's representative to the Association of Bay Area Governments [ABAG]), and staff regarding the proposed merger of ABAG and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).
SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to seek guidance for the City's representatives to the Association of Bay Area Governments (Council Member Zerme?o as Delegate and Council Member Elisa Marquez as alternate) and for staff as it relates to Council's perspective on the critical proposed merger of the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. (NOTE: Mayor Barbara Halliday serves on ABAG as the Alternate to Mayor Bill Harrison of Fremont as representatives of the Alameda County Mayor's Conference.)
BACKGROUND
Council of Governments (COGs): COGs (also known as regional councils, regional commissions, regional planning commissions, and planning districts) are regional governing and/or coordinating bodies that exist throughout the United States. CoGs are normally controlled by their member local governments, though some states have passed laws granting CoGs region-wide powers over specific functions, and still other states mandate such councils.
CoGs may either be distinct from-or encompass-regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). MPOs are multi-governmental urban transportation planning entities that arose out of the requirements of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which made federal financing for urban transportation projects contingent upon the existence of a "continuing, comprehensive, urban transportation planning process undertaken cooperatively by the states and local governments".
The Association of Bay Area Governments: In 1961, the Bay Area's local g...
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