EXPECTE TRANSIT HEAD SET TO RIDE HANDS-ON APPROACH PROMISED FOR VALLEY.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer The likely new head of transit services in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. pledges to ride buses and trains and hold community meetings to find out the Valley's transportation needs. David Armijo, a 21-year transportation industry veteran, is the expected choice to oversee transit services in the Valley under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's new decentralization de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. plan, officials said Tuesday. ``The public is going to see a lot more public outreach,'' said Armijo, who has served for the past six years as director of operations for the Orange County Transportation Authority The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the public sector transportation planning body and transit service provider for Orange County, California. Its ancestor agencies include not only the prior Orange County Transit District but also such diverse entities as . ``They will have the opportunity to communicate with us. They will see new initiatives providing more opportunities to ride the bus, and buses that operate on time and are clean.'' The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Valley sector is one of five new regions recently carved out to try to bring local control and accountability - principles that had been laid out in the unsuccessful proposal for a Valley transit Valley Transit is a city bus and paratransit commission operated by the city government of Appleton, Wisconsin. The system operates across the Fox Cities and serves the cities of Appleton, Kaukauna, Menasha and Neenah, as well as the towns of Buchanan, Grand Chute and zone. The sector is expected to start July 1. Armijo was named interim general manager by MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. officials in February. The MTA board of directors wants to decide on the Valley sector's governance structure before naming the permanent manager. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky Zev Yaroslavsky (born December 21, 1948) is a Los Angeles County politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D. Edelman. , who sits on the MTA board and has been the president of the transit zone, has proposed transferring the membership of the zone board to the new Valley transit sector board. ``There is no need to re-debate the membership issue,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``The zone idea is not gone until we see how the MTA board is going to structure the sector and what kind of authority we're going to delegate to the sector. ``If it's an advisory board in name only with no power over routing and budgetary decisions, then the zone will rise again.'' MTA Deputy Chief Executive Officer John Catoe said Armijo believes in finding out what riders want before making changes. ``He has great experience and his fundamental belief in customer service is what is needed in the San Fernando Valley,'' Catoe said. Armijo, 43, began his career in El Paso, Texas, and worked at the Dallas Area Rapid Transit The Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority (or DART) is a transit agency based in Dallas, Texas (USA) that operates buses, light rail, commuter rail, and HOV lanes in Dallas and 12 of its suburbs. It is the current largest light rail operator in the state of Texas. system. He left to oversee the start-up of a new transit operation in Santa Fe, N.M., the first system to operate exclusively on alternative clean fuels. He lives with his wife and three children in Mission Viejo, but has rented an apartment in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or and plans to move to the Valley. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: ARMIJO |
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