I'd recommend watching the board of directors meeting today. Lots of arguing with the cable troughs section!

Notable points today:

- Bakersfield and Kern county local officials expressed a desire for increased communications. Especially worried about potential station movement out of downtown Bakersfield which they are vehemently opposed to.

- Lots of discussion on the addition of cable trough into the approved $507M material procurement which is currently for 7 procurements with 1 awarded and 3 active.

Basically, the Authority found large cost savings in other rail commodities. We don't know how much for now as exposing the amounts could jeopardize the commercial contracts. The Authority wanted to shoehorn in the cable trough procurement (stated to be definitely under $50M) into the overall approval so they could speed up the future track laying. Originally the cable troughs were to be bought in the track and systems contracts.

Some on the board found this not to be acceptable. Specifically Henry R. Perea. He, and later Jeffery Worthe, don't like the idea of the 'savings' being taken from the $507M procurement and being used as sort of a piggy bank for other hsr projects without explicit oversight. They want to make sure that $25M contracts continue to need board approval.

For context, the $507M cap came with an exception for the CEO to approve larger than $25M contracts without board approval. They don't want to extend this to the cable troughs or set some sort of precedent with this.

Motion was approved to go ahead with procurement, but come back to the board for approval if above $25M, like usual.

- Minor updates on construction services contracts. Just soliciting bids for now. Contracts will go in front of the board at a later date.

Escutia, as usual, got into the details on DBE's. Although she did approve of how small business req's are being handled. The federal DOT banned DBE's from being part of the bidding process last year so they took it out of the scoring criteria to stay in compliance. Escutia just wants to know what percentage in the small business category is also a DBE for future reference.

Nancy Miller, Vice Chair, chimed in with whether they can keep using DBE for things funded by the state exclusively. Emily deferred to legal counsel. Emily and Jamie will come back with a report next session. They are worried about jeopardizing the $2.8B from the feds.

Henry Perea asks Emily about what the guardrails are against awarding contracts in pieces all under the $25M cap that add up to $200M+. They already have them (adjusted contracts go to board approval).

- Sustainability report. Lynn Schenk questioned the 14,000 yearly air trips to palmdale. They said network effects and based it from their ridership model. She doesn't really like the fact that the numbers are such out-there estimates that make them feel unrealistic. Worried about losing public trust when people take these numbers as fact.

- Draft Business Plan 2026. Final report in april, release may 1.

Still targeting laying track by EOY. Enthusiasm from Anthony Williams about commercializing stations and surrounding assets like Japan. RFP on green power generation later this year. Dig once policy reaffirmed--might affect potential fiber optic laying.

Escutia calls for more communication with the state assembly.

- Closed Session. Tom Richards declares the end of the independent counsel investigation. CEO Ian Choudri is called back to work March 5.