Assemblymember Das Williams, third from left, stands next to Ventura County Fifth District Supervisor, second from left, and other members of the Gold Coast Transit District board of directors. Courtesy photo.
OXNARD — Gold Coast Transit (GCT) awarded Assemblymember Das Williams a special proclamation and his very own GCT bus stop sign at the Nov. 6 board of directors meeting in recognition of his leadership and sponsorship of Assembly Bill 664, the organization reported in a media release.
“Passage of AB 664 will allow us to better serve the transportation needs of residents, employees, employers, students and visitors in western Ventura County,” Ventura County Supervisor John Zaragoza, who is the chair of the GCT Board of Directors, stated in the release.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 664 on Oct. 3, 2013. The bill that creates the Gold Coast Transit District. Authored by Williams (D-37), AB 664 will sunset the current Gold Coast Transit (GCT) Joint Powers Authority and the GCT members will form a transit district.
The district will initially include the cities of Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme and Ojai and the unincorporated areas of the County of Ventura. Other cities Ventura County would be able to subsequently join the district in the future should they so desire, officials said. The district will go into effect on July 1, 2014.
Under the current JPA, funding for scheduled bus service and paratransit dial-a-ride service is dependent on individual members’ ability to pay.
“While this was not a problem for much of our history, during the recent recession, the level of bus service some of our cities could afford decreased dramatically,” GCT General Manager Steven Brown stated in the release. “When we are a district, our funds will be pooled, and we can more effectively allocate services to meet the needs and demands of the area.”
Williams said he recognized the leadership and vision of the GCT Board of Directors for working together to sponsor the district legislation, which will allow for GCT to collectively improve service for the residents of western Ventura County.
Gold Coast Transit provides fixed-route bus and paratransit public transportation that serves the diverse needs of the cities of Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Ventura and in the unincorporated county areas between the cities. Using a fleet of 54 clean-fueled buses, GCT carries more than 3.6 million passengers annually on its 19 bus routes.
GCT is a joint powers authority governed by a board of directors made up of an elected official from each member jurisdiction. Visit www.GoldCoastTransit.org for more information