North County Transit District has approved a multiyear contract for up to $600,000 with a lobbying firm to help obtain federal grant money for capital projects such as double-tracking and the transition to electric buses and locomotives.
"These are multimillion-dollar projects, hundreds of millions," said Mary Dover, NCTD's governmental affairs director, in a presentation last week to the district's board of directors.
"We utilize our federal advocates to set up meetings with members of Congress to work out what they might be interested in us submitting, and how we can utilize all the resources we have to make sure we get as much funding to the district as possible," Dover said.
The board unanimously approved the contract with Holland & Knight LLP, a multinational law firm known for its expertise in Washington, D.C. The firm was one of seven that responded to the district's request for proposals.
Holland & Knight will be paid $360,000 for the initial three-year base contract, Dover said. After that, the agreement allows two one-year extensions at $120,000 each, or a maximum total of $600,000 for the five years.
Federal money could be available from several sources, including the fiscal 2024-25 budget appropriations, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, the Railway Safety Act, and the Federal Transportation Authority's "spare ratio requirements," which require transit agencies to have a percentage of vehicles set aside as backup for vehicles in service.
The district intends to retain a different firm for state level advocacy in Sacramento, Dover said.
High-priority unfunded or partially funded projects in the district include double-tracking two more segments of the Coaster rail corridor between Oceanside and San Diego, improving the Sprinter rail corridor between Oceanside and Escondido, and switching locomotives and buses to zero-emission vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded NCTD and the San Diego Association of Governments a $53.9 million grant in January to replace the 108-year-old San Dieguito River railway bridge in Del Mar. That project includes nearly a mile of double-track and construction of a special events platform at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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