What’s the plan?

At their most recent meeting, Calexico council members fired poison darts at members of the Imperial County Transportation Commission over the apparent denial of funding for border traffic control affecting Imperial Valley’s southernmost town.

At the meeting, council members Raúl Ureña, Gloria Romo and Gilberto Manzanarez strongly criticized the members of the commission, made up of fellow council members from other Imperial Valley cities, the County and the Imperial Irrigation District.

Basically, the border city authorities bitterly exposed the apparent refusal of commission members to allocate provisional aid to control the intense southbound vehicular traffic that chokes Calexico streets almost every single day.

Border authorities expressed disappointment and surprise at the alleged stance of their colleagues from the rest of the Imperial Valley. At the meeting, they singled out Imperial County Supervisor Luis Plancarte, Brawley Mayor George Nava and the representative of Imperial, Robert Amparano, as well as the now former Commission Chairwoman María Nava-Froelich for rejecting the request for funds.

At the time, Manzanarez, who agreed to have remotely seen the commission’s meeting, stated that in the event that help is denied, the problem will reach neighboring cities to their homes. Honestly, I don’t know how.

The deal is that almost daily the long lines and the lack of respect of motorists who drive to Baja California’s capital city affect people and the provision of other services, mainly those related to security and emergencies.

As Councilmember Romo said, the problem has been caused by the authorities of the National Customs Agency of Mexico, which for a long time have only opened a few lanes despite the fact the Mexican side of Port of Entry has about 10 booths; a problem that was not addressed by United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar on his recent visit to local border ports.

Romo suggested seeking a solution diplomatically before the Mexican federal government, but with the creation of a united front made up of authorities from the entire Imperial Valley, as well as legislators and other officials, to pressure to open more lanes on the Mexican port of entry.

The issue here is Calexico received financial support from the commission for three years in order to somewhat alleviate personnel expenses, which until last year were more than $800,000. However, the commission granted the City of Calexico, as well as the City of El Centro, these funds in exchange for developing a traffic control plan that, according to a commission member, has not been produced to date.

Despite having failed to comply with the commission’s request, Calexico authorities bitterly complained about the alleged refusal to provide them with resources that can be used in other transportation projects.

The one who showed a more political attitude was Councilmember Camilo García, who invited his colleagues to seek funds at the state or regional level to cover part of the cost of border traffic control.

In the event that the problem continues, perhaps the most logical thing to do as a temporary solution would be to shut down all the streets that lead to the West Port of Entry and send the thousands of motorists who cross to Mexicali through the East Port, where the hot potato would remain in the hands of the County Sheriff and the California Highway Patrol, but at the same time allowing Calexico taxpayers to stop spending funds on this problem – which seems to me to be federal – and invest them in solving the many pending issues in public safety and services.