METRO Responds to Richmond Rail Legal Action

Every once in a while, we will feature guest bloggers on this site. On April 11, legal action was filed against METRO on METRO Solutions and the 2003 Referendum. Here's a post from Sandra Aponte Salazar, communications supervisor of METRO Solutions:

The Rule 202 petition was filed to allow depositions to elicit testimony and determine if a lawsuit should be filed. 

At a news conference yesterday, the petitioner accused METRO of not being transparent.  If you believed it, you were probably expecting a sound bite from us sounding something like this: "Under legal counsel, we will not comment on pending litigation,  and we will not try this case on the media."   Why wouldn't you assume that?  Even an assignments desk editor at KPRC told me he didn't call us because he assumed we would not comment.

However, the two reporters that actually covered the petitioner's news conference made no such assumptions.  Rad Sallee (Houston Chronicle) and Jeremy Desel (KHOU / Channel 11) sought and obtained comments from METRO.  And the comments did not come from some flack, either: they came directly from David Wolfe, Chairman of METRO's Board of Directors.

In addition, the following statement was sent to all local media outlets as well as to METRO Solutions NewsFlash subscribers:

The petition is a fishing expedition filed by one individual opposed to light rail on Richmond.

The fact is, METRO is in complete compliance with the letter of the law and the spirit of the 2003 Referendum.

By including other mobility improvements in the petition in search of "possible" compliance issues, it becomes clear that this is but the latest instance of a vocal few opposing public transit and blocking progress toward improved mobility and quality of life in Houston.

METRO has come to expect legal challenges whenever significant progress is being made on its METRO Solutions program. And, in fact, substantial progress has been made in recent months, including:

• Inclusion of the North and Southeast corridors in the Bush Administration's proposed funding for projects for FY 2008.
• Completion of the federal environmental clearance process on the North and Southeast corridors.
• METRO Board decisions on the alignment, or routes, for the North, Southeast and East End transit corridors.
• Selection of a design-build team to negotiate a contract for the development of the transit corridors.

METRO is confident it will prevail in any judicial proceedings.

METRO will not be distracted from fulfilling the wishes of the voters and building METRO Solutions.