California’s high-speed rail project now is acquiring the land needed for construction, but is meeting resistance from property owners who charge the process is being rushed.

At is Feb. 13 meeting, the California State Public Works Board approved condemning private property for the rail project. The parcels are listed beginning on p. 18 of the board’s agenda. The agenda explained:

“The site selections took place after an extensive environmental review process where it was determined that any alternative alignment would include the selected parcels, or where a preferred alignment had already been approved by both the High Speed Rail Authority Board and the Federal Railroad Administration. Acquisition of these properties will allow the High Speed Rail Authority to move forward with construction of the HSTS.”

Objections

The charges of rushing the property takings came in a Feb. 10 letter to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which runs the project. The letter was from Frank Oliveira, co-chair of Citizens for California High-Speed Rail Accountability, which opposes the project.

The letter included what went on during a Jan. 23 workshop in Laton the CHSRA held with Fresno County Farm Bureau, Fresno Economic Development Corporation and County of Fresno. The workshop affected “right of way” property owners in Fresno County between American Avenue and Kings River.

The letter charged:

“The consensus of the audience was that most of their properties had been ‘Flash Appraised’ without their input or knowledge. The resulting Offers rendered by the ROW [right of way] Agents did not account for factors such as water delivery systems, wells, infrastructure, leases and other business agreements associated with the property to be acquired as well as the after effect on the remainder of the affected parcels and associated Agro Businesses. 

“The result of the Flash Appraisals are offers that logically are grossly undervalued and do not offer proper compensate to those affected by the project. 

“Offers in some cases were probably 100’s of thousands of dollars below value.”

The CHSRA insists it is paying fair value for the properties. CHSRA Spokeswoman Lisa-Marie Alley told CalWatchDog.com in an email, “We continue to work with impacted property owners along the alignment in the Central Valley. It’s our commitment to move the right of way process forward, in accordance with the law, and in a respectful manner that results in a positive outcome.”

Abuse alleged

But Oliveira told CalWatchDog.com he was not satisfied with the CHSRA’s response. “We are aware of the widespread abuse of agricultural landowners within a 10-mile portion of the Right of Way (ROW) between Fresno and Hanford,” he said. “These landowners have been Flash Appraised and had their properties intentionally undervalued for acquisition by the Authority’s contracted ROW agents.”

He said the CHSRA’s ROW agents have made appraisals without much consideration that these properties are not just raw real estate. He charged: 

“These properties are Agro Businesses that are being destroyed. There are so many complications when you are talking about irrigation. If the farmers’ land is cut diagonally, watering is a challenge.  Does the Authority have to build new wells or will they allow lines to be built under the right of way at certain junctures. Some Authority agents say yes, some say no. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent answer.  

“The cost of water wells has also been grossly undervalued in appraisals.  In one case in the appraisal the Authority provided, it noted $40,000 replacement value for a well. But a more realistic value might be $100,000 to $150,000. There also is a wait list up to one year because of water shortages and there is no mention of that in the appraisal.”

At the Feb. 10 board meeting, CHSRA Chairman Dan Richard, promised he would look into Oliveira’s complaints.

Delays

Ongoing legal challenges are a major reason the CHSRA now is rushing the property condemnations. But the legal challenges over the condemnations also could add to the delays.

Although courts have upheld the right to take property, “just compensation” is open to legal dispute.

The Owners’ Counsel of America, which represents property owners in eminent domain disputes, lists 12 “considerations” that may come up, including, “Is the property designed for a special use, giving rise to unique valuation techniques?” And, “How are fixtures treated in condemnation?”

Kathy Hamilton is the Ralph Nader of high-speed rail, continually uncovering hidden aspects of the project and revealing them to the public.  She started writing in order to tell local communities how the project affects them and her reach grew statewide.  She has written more than 225 articles on high-speed rail and attended hundreds of state and local meetings. She is a board member of the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail; has testified at government hearings; has provided public testimony and court declarations on public records act requests; has given public testimony; and has provided transcripts for the validation of court cases. 

In what probably is the last train stop of opposition to California’s high-speed rail project, today the California Supreme Court refused to hear a case that could have stopped it. The case, by Kings County and two local landowners whose property would be bulldozed for the project, objected that the Legislature had altered the project from the clear language of Proposition 1A in 2008, which authorized $8.6 billion in state bonds for the project.

According to California High-Speed Rail Authority Board Chairman Dan Richard, as reported in the Times, the decision:

“reaffirms that the Authority can continue building a modern high-speed rail system that connects the state, creates jobs and complies with the law. We will continue to move forward aggressively to deliver the nation’s first high-speed rail system.”

Actually, what it affirms is what I’ve said all along: The project exists to spend the $8.6 billion in bond money, plus $3.5 billion in federal moolah from President Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus program. Total: $12.1 billion: so much money the state’s political establishment — from the governor’s office to legislative leaders to the high court — was not going to let it remain unspent.

But that’s all that will be built. The project promised more federal and private support, but none will be forthcoming. No private investment firm would pour money into this tracked turkey. And the Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives — and who likely will control it at least until 2019 — won’t drop a penny on this track. A major opponent is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

PLF summary

Here’s a good summary of the situation from attorney Harold Johnson of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which in the case filed a petition before the court against the project:

“This is a disappointing development for the interests of California taxpayers and for the cause of integrity and common sense in government. The appellate court said that the High Speed Rail project is still in ‘flux’ so it’s too soon to judge whether it conforms with what voters authorized when they passed Proposition 1A in 2008. But the appellate court also ordered that $8.6 billion in bonds for the project be approved by the judiciary, so the bonds can be sold. That’s a self-contradictory ruling, and it now stands, because the Supreme Court has declined to review it. This means that billions of dollars in bonds can be sold, even before we know what the money will be spent on, and even before we know if the final shape of the High Speed Rail project is true to the voters’ will and the state Constitution’s requirements. In other words, more than $8 billion can be borrowed on the taxpayers’ credit card, for what amounts to a pig in the poke. That’s bad public policy, and I believe it’s wrong as a matter of constitutional law.”

By Chris Reed

The immense perception gap between East Coast and West Coast journalists when it comes to reporting on the Golden State was never in sharper relief than in 2003. If you were in California, the recall of Gov. Gray Davis felt like a political earthquake, a sign of vast public discontent and — at least if you liked the recall — an affirmation of the value of direct democracy.

To lazy East Coasters, it was an opportunity to paint Californians as flakes. When I whined to Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory about his extroardinarily superficial column on the recall, he replied with a condescending, contemptuous email.

This disconnnect may be emerging on California’s bullet train. On this coast, the Los Angeles Times editorial page may be gung ho, and some other editorial pages are still all aboard. But it’s difficult to remember the last in-depth piece of any kind in the news pages of any California newspaper that didn’t carry the implication the California High-Speed Rail Authority was poorly run and unrealistic and that the project was on track for boondoggle status. Journalists are pretty liberal in general, but they’re also front-runners, in a sense. The non-pundits don’t want to seem to back losers, so coverage has turned negative as the insanity of the project has become clear.

Mr. ‘Wonkblog’ gives his blessing

But on the East Coast, the extent of Cali’s bullet train folly hasn’t really sunk in. The New York Times’s editorial page, whose writers show zero sign of having followed what’s actually happened in the Golden State, is in the tank. But so is the rising young media star Ezra Klein, who writes the heavily read Wonkblog column for the Washington Post and is a Bloomberg News columnist and MSNBC commentator. There has arguably never been an American pundit who in his 20s already has enjoyed more success and access to a bigger audience than Klein. Here’s what he had to say in a recent lengthy Post blog about President Obama’s accomplishments to date:

“A partial accounting of Obama’s first term reveals more accomplishments than most presidents secure in two. The health-care law, of course, is almost certainly the most significant piece of social policy passed since the Great Society. The rescues of the financial and auto sectors, though begun under President George W. Bush, were mostly carried out and completed under Obama. The Dodd-Frank financial reforms included the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The stimulus financed long-term investments in everything from weatherization to electronic medical records and high-speed rail.“

The bolding is mine. I acknowledge that all the other things that Klein lists can be touted by liberals as achievements, even if conservatives disagree. People value different things. But Klein’s inclusion of high-speed rail as an Obama triumph — a funding category where by far the most federal money has gone to California — amounts to an indictment of his credibility. As I noted earlier, the newsrooms of California newspapers have turned on the bullet train because they worry about their reputations. Klein should worry about his, too, if he touts this fiasco.

Post editorial page vs. Post blogger

As it turns out, the editorial page of a major East Coast newspaper also sees its credibility at risk if it cheers for high-speed rail. And it turns out to be the newspaper that has Ezra Klein as a full-time employee — The Washington Post. This is from a Post editorial in November 2011:

“Things just went from bad to worse for high-speed passenger rail in California. After the Golden State’s voters approved a $9 billion bullet-train bond issue in 2008, officials said they could build an 800-mile system by 2020, for $35.7 billion. The cost projection now, as issued by the state Nov. 1: $98.5 billion, with a completion date of 2033.

“Time to pull the plug, right? Not according to Gov. Jerry Brown (D). The new ‘business plan is solid and lays the foundation for a 21st-century transportation system,’ he said. Equally upbeat, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood offered Mr. Brown his congratulations on ‘a sound, step-by-step strategy for building a world-class high-speed rail network.’

“This is unreal. Apart from the bond issue and $3.6 billion in federal funds already in hand, the cash-strapped state hasn’t credibly identified a source of funds for the system. The new report basically repeats previous assertions that, if California builds, federal and private-sector dollars will come. This is wishful thinking in an era of massive federal deficits, and if the opportunities for the private sector were really so great, where are the companies clamoring to invest?”

Yes, since then Jerry Brown has come up with a plan that purportedly shaves $30 billion off the cost of the project. But the complaints the Post went on to make about the stupidity of building the first segment in the Central Valley hold up as well as ever:

“U.S. and California officials tout this lonely corridor as the “spine” of a system that will connect big cities later on. After all, they argue, the interstate highway system started in Kansas. But that project had a dedicated funding source from the get-go: the federal highway trust fund, supported by fuel taxes.

“More realistically, Sacramento’s Legislative Analysis Office calls the Central Valley starting point a ‘big gamble.’ In the all-too-likely event that funding for the rest of the system never materializes, the report adds, ‘the state will be left with a rail segment unconnected to major urban areas that has little if any chance of generating the ridership to operate without a significant state subsidy.’ It would be a train to nowhere, but at least it would go nowhere fast.

“As questionable as this project is, we would have less business objecting if the only money at risk was California’s. But the Obama and Brown administrations are talking about devoting the nation’s funds to what looks more and more like a boondoggle. If the president and governor won’t slam on the brakes, then Congress or the California legislature must find a way to prevent the spending. Somebody, please, stop this train.”

So how could Washington wunderkind Ezra Klein not grasp the basic points his employer makes?  If you have a reputation as a very shrewd public policy analyst, that’s vastly difficult to square with being a bullet-train enthusiast.

The final twist: Klein was born in Irvine and went to UCLA. It didn’t take long for him to adopt the default East Coast media disdain for actually studying how the Golden State works before pretending to understand its twists and turns.