Let us not be deceived by the twisted “truths” being dished out by PACs as we approach the upcoming election.

No doubt we have all received our latest mailer from that PAC from Pasadena that now blames Bill Dodd for the failure of bolts on the east span of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Yes, it is true that Bill Dodd was the representative from Napa County on the Metropolitan Planning Commission during the period of construction for the east span of the bridge and he served as MTC’s chairman twice during that period.

However, Bill Dodd, even in his capacity as chairman, would have had no role in approving the use of those defective bolts. Caltrans was the agency responsible for oversight of the details of the construction of that Bay Bridge project.

MTC is “the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area” (see www.mtc.ca.gov). The role of MTC is the same as the role of our own region’s transportation planning agency, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. Just as the city of Davis, not SACOG, is responsible for overseeing the construction of our Fifth Street road diet project, Caltrans, not MTC, was responsible for overseeing the construction on the Bay Bridge.

Hopefully on Tuesday, we all will have had the perseverance to acquire the facts and contexts of those facts and not be inadvertently influenced by deceptive political tactics.

Joan Bollman

Davis

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