Caltrain Board Adjourns Meeting in Mike Nevin's Honor

By

December 6, 2012

San Carlos, Calif. – The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board of Directors, which owns and operates Caltrain, today, adjourned its regular meeting in memory of former JPB Chair and transit leader Mike Nevin, who died Saturday.

“He was truly Mr. Transportation,” said a tearful Adrienne Tissier, current Chair of the JPB, at the conclusion of the Board meeting. “He laid an incredible foundation for all of us.”

Mr. Nevin’s work in the area of transit and transportation is unparalleled among San Mateo County officials and is an embodiment of the impact he had in so many venues during his quarter-century in public service.

Elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1992, Mr. Nevin became a member of both the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board of Directors and the SamTrans Board of Directors, which owns and operates the bus and Paratransit services for San Mateo County. He served as chair of the SamTrans Board four times and the Caltrain Board three times.

During his 13 years on those two Boards, Mr. Nevin became one of the most influential transit officials in the Bay Area, representing not only SamTrans and Caltrain needs but also sitting on Transbay Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Bridge and Toll Authority and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors.

Mr. Nevin used those positions to advocate for more mobility on behalf of the people he represented and to protect the vested interests of San Mateo County residents, the Peninsula and the Bay Area.

He was an early and leading advocate for the extension of BART down the Peninsula from Daly City to Millbrae. Behind the scenes, he was a key negotiator in ensuring that the extension would be completed without the requirement that San Mateo County join the BART District and commit to a permanent half-cent property tax to the regional rail service. It was, as Mr. Nevin said, a great bargain, saving San Mateo County taxpayers millions of dollars over decades.

Mr. Nevin championed the cause of transit-oriented development, the practice of building housing and retail adjacent to transit as a means of encouraging ridership growth, environmental benefits and a lifestyle of convenience and mobility. He was a devoted advocate of the development of a residential/retail project at the BART station in Colma. The street upon which the project sits was named Mike Nevin Way.

Concerned that San Mateo County’s disparate transit entities were lacking in clear and coordinated direction, he advocated for the creation of a transit CEO position in which a single individual would be in charge of Caltrain, SamTrans and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. The consolidation of these responsibilities brought clarity and purpose to the county’s transportation and transit activities.

Mr. Nevin was a leading proponent in 2004 for the renewal of Measure A, a half-cent sales tax ballot measure that would fund transportation projects in San Mateo County. Approved in 1988 by the voters, the measure was renewed in 2004 with 75.6 percent of the vote, nearly 10 percentage points more than was necessary for passage, largely because of Mr. Nevin’s commitment to the reauthorization effort, aggressive fundraising and public speaking, and the public’s trust and support for him.

During his tenure on the Caltrain Board and as chair, Mr. Nevin led the effort to implement the Caltrain Baby Bullet, an express train service that transformed the railroad. As a result of these changes, Caltrain now is experiencing record ridership and revenues.

After retiring from elected office, Mr. Nevin joined the Service League of San Mateo County as the executive director and is credited with transforming that organization into a highly effective, well-financed provider of critical services to jail inmates seeking a new start to their lives.

Upon his resignation from the Joint Powers Board, Mr. Nevin wrote, “I’m convinced this community is poised for a great leap forward in the mobility options available to our citizens.”

“He was right, and it simply would not have happened without him,” said Mike Scanlon, San Mateo County Transit District CEO. “He was a true champion for transportation and how it could be a means for people to improve their lives. He combined the understanding of how transportation works with the political skills to make government work and the passionate belief that the work was worthwhile.”

###