The BUREAUCRATS AT CALTRANS and their political allies.

Prop. 35 is on the ballot for one reason only: To fix a dangerous and costly problem caused by a small group of bureaucrats at Caltrans – the same bureaucrats who are now bankrolling the campaign against Prop. 35. In an effort to meet peak workloads, create competition and complete more seismic retrofitting and other transportation projects, state transportation managers began using qualified private sector architects and engineers to supplement Caltrans’ design staff. The public employees union of Caltrans engineers (PECG) – motivated by a self-interest in keeping all work IN-house – brought a series of lawsuits that severely restricted state government’s ability to continue contracting with private sector firms. The threat of further lawsuits also forced California schools, local governments and special districts to begin halting contracts as well. The bureaucrats’ lawsuits have: 1) forced the termination of 15 earthquake retrofit contracts with private firms; 2) slowed down the delivery of thousands of highway, rail transit, school construction, flood control and other overdue infrastructure improvements; and 3) added thousands of new public employees to the taxpayer payroll. Now, that same small group of Caltrans bureaucrats, who caused the problem in the first place, is trying to defeat Prop. 35 by claiming it would result in project delays. This ridiculously ironic argument would be funny if there wasn’t so much at stake. We urge you to read Prop. 35 for yourself. It is a straightforward, common sense initiative that will fix the problem caused by the Caltrans bureaucrats. It will simply give state and local governments the flexibility to use qualified private sector engineers and architects – something most other states already do – to complete overdue highway, rail transit and other public works projects sooner, safer and at a taxpayers savings. (Return to Top)