San Berdoo transportation planning chief resigns

San Berdoo transportation planning chief resigns    The head of the San Bernardino County's council of city governments and transportation planning agency resigned Thursday, a day after a closed-door evaluation of his performance by the group's governing board.
   Tony Grasso told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he turned in his effective-immediately resignation Thursday morning, ending a 17-month stint as executive director of the San Bernardino Associated Governments, or SANBAG. The group comprises representatives from 24 cities located in the county and is responsible for regional and transportation planning for more than 1.9 million residents.
   “There was just mutual agreement that things weren’t working, so I resigned,” Grasso told the Press-Enterprise.
   Deborah Barmack, SANBAG's director of management services, has been named as interim executive director for the group.
   Grasso’s resignation comes as the group is prioritizing requests for $2 billion in state transportation bond money that will be available statewide next year for transportation projects. Earlier this year, the California Transportation Commission did not include two key freight highways in San Bernardino County in a first round of bond funding. SANBAG had applied for more than $531 million in state funds, including projects to widen the Interstate 215 and I-15 highways. The two routes are heavily traveled by cargo trucks moving containers from Southern California ports to distributions centers located throughout San Bernardino County, located about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Highways in the region have begun experiencing severe congestion, due in part to the increased number of trucks on the road. The CTC's February funding list included about $153 million worth of projects for the San Bernardino area.