SANDAG to make announcement on new director Friday

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Association of Governments will make an announcement Friday on a new executive director, pending approval of an employment contract, a SANDAG official told the county Board of Supervisors today.

Terry Sinnott, chairman of the SANDAG board, didn't divulge any further details or names regarding the replacement for Gary Gallegos. The regional planning agency's longtime director resigned in August 2017 amid the fallout from a scandal that began with an economic modeling error that caused SANDAG to overstate the projected revenues from 2016's Measure A, which would

have raised the countywide sales tax by a half-cent in order to pay for transportation and environmental improvements.

Staff became aware of the problem before the November 2016 election, but failed to inform board members or the public. The measure fell short of the two-thirds necessary for passage.

Gallegos stepped down shortly after the release of a scathing report from an Orange County law firm commissioned by the agency that primarily delved into details of the failed economic forecast, but also found that agency executives ordered the deletion of documents related to the issue that were less than 60 days old.

Sinnott's comments about the pending executive director appointment came at the end of a presentation in which he updated supervisors about how SANDAG transportation projects progressed in 2017. "An awful lot of is going on in our region,'' he said.

Supervisors and those sitting in the meeting room watched a short video highlighting improvements, including a 12-acre Tijuana River Valley project, the Phase 2 Inland Rail Trail from San Marcos to Vista, the Gilman Bridge across Interstate 5, a one-mile bike path in Mission Valley, additional track along the coastal rail corridor, and the state Route 11 project near in Otay Mesa.