Members of the City Council:
Attached to this correspondence is a letter dated August 21, 2020 from Rick Ramacier, General Manager/CEP of the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority (County Connection). You should all have a copy of this letter as it was addressed to the Mayor and council regarding testimony made by Renee Powell of TJKM Transportation Consultants at the council’s meeting of August 10, 2020. On the council’ s agenda that evening was the staff-recommended acceptance of the CEQA addendum and approval of the Terraces project. The letter was in response to a query by former Mayor Don Tatzin after Ms. Powell testified at the August 10th hearing that the County Connection would be providing 22 busses to evacuate Acalanes students and 5 for Springhill students in the event of a wildfire. However, the letter indicates that contrary to Ms. Powell’s very specific testimony as to how the evacuation process would play out, it does not appear that the County Connection had any knowledge of this supposed arrangement. In fact it does not appear that TJKM ever contacted the County Connection at all. You’ll recall that the subject of wildfire evacuation of students from the schools near the Deerhill property had been of major concern to the council at the August 10th hearing, and the assurances ofTJKM that that evacuation would be handled by parents and County Connection busses, was meant to assuage those concerns. However, attached the letter states that no one on the County Connection staff recalled ever speaking with anyone from TJKM regarding the proposed project (the Terraces), the topic of wildfire evacuation, or with someone from TJKM at all.
The information contained in Mr. Ramacier ‘ s letter completely refutes Ms. Powell’ s testimony… CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE