By Robert Haugh
A new Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report says the VTA Board failed to provide effective management, oversight and financial control of the massive BART Silicon Valley Phase II project.
Santa Clara Councilmember Suds Jain is on the VTA Board of Directors.
That makes Jain one of the elected officials responsible for overseeing a project the Grand Jury says is now loaded with financial risk, weak accountability and poor public communication.
The project is no small matter for Santa Clara residents.
BART Silicon Valley Phase II is supposed to extend BART six miles from Berryessa through downtown San Jose to Santa Clara.
The current price tag is $12.7 billion. Completion is targeted for 2037, though federal oversight projections put it closer to 2039.
The Grand Jury did not single out Jain by name. But it did single out the VTA Board.
“The Board has failed to exercise its obligation to provide the strategic direction needed for a successful project,” the report says.
Jain has not been shy about the role.
In his own District 5 newsletter, he wrote that he was “pleased” to be Santa Clara’s VTA Board representative and noted that he also serves on the BART Phase 2 Oversight Committee.
That committee also took heavy criticism.
The Grand Jury found that the Oversight Committee does not routinely make policy recommendations to the full board. It also found the committee does not hold VTA staff accountable for providing timely analysis.
The report points to serious warning signs.
The project’s cost has exploded from early estimates of $4.7 billion in 2014 to $12.7 billion today. Wow.
VTA still faces a major funding gap. It is relying on future sales tax revenue, some expiring tax measures and a possible new tax measure that voters have not approved.
The Grand Jury also criticized VTA for not maintaining a cash-flow model specific to the BART project, not having a clear alternative funding strategy and not giving the public enough information about costs, risks and schedule problems.
The report also says VTA has had coordination problems with BART, the agency that will eventually operate the extension.
Jain has been criticized by numerous Grand Jury reports while on the Santa Clara City Council.
One more thing.
Suds’s response to Robert relies on personal criticism rather than addressing the substance of Robert’s argument. Instead of engaging with the facts or explaining where he disagrees, Suds chose to attack Robert’s character and motives. That approach distracts from the real issue and weakens the discussion. Suds attack on Robert is because Robert writes the truth and Suds has nothing else but insults as comebacks.
Independent investigative journalists play an essential role in a free society. They help provide transparency by uncovering and publishing information about government actions that the public might not otherwise see or hear about.
By attacking Robert in this way, Suds appears to dismiss the value of independent journalists who bring important facts to light. That concern is especially relevant in light of recent efforts in California to target independent journalists, including figures such as Nick Shirley. Sud’s would obviously love a Nick Shirley type law in Santa Clara to silence his critics. Suds should be celebrating independent journalism rather than attack the reporters.
I will give Suds credit for one motivating thing: after reading Suds post, I just signed up to give a monthly donation to Santa Clara News and Robert in support of independent journalism.
And even though Suds came on here and wrote an ad hominin attack on Robert’s journalism, Robert, as a testimony to his character and journalistic integrity, published Sud’s comments, as Robert has done in the past when Sud’s writes his vitriol on Robert’s Santa Clara News.
Dear Suds,
At last night’s City Council meeting, the topic of the neglect of Santa Clara’s Senior Center was impossible to ignore. Our seniors are being treated shamefully by a city that should be honoring them, not dismissing them.
The Senior Center is in your district, and it has been allowed to deteriorate through inaction, excuses, and misplaced priorities. The heated senior pool—essential for many seniors’ health, mobility, and independence—is too often closed or in disrepair. Instead of properly funding repairs and hiring full-time, well-paid lifeguards, the city continues to offer half-measures while seniors are left without services they depend on.
Even worse, seniors on fixed incomes are being charged fees to use a facility many of them helped pay for over decades through property taxes. In a city with a budget in the billions, that is outrageous.
Meanwhile, because of YOUR failed special election that you were the driving force of, Santa Clara wasted nearly a million taxpayer dollars on a failed special election—money that could have repaired the Senior Center, reopened the pool, and hired qualified lifeguards. That choice speaks volumes about YOUR city’s priorities. (and no wonder the BART project you are a leader of is so far billions of dollars over budget, and no wonder why downtown is empty, thanks Suds)
Our seniors deserve dignity, respect, and action—not broken promises, closed facilities, and extra fees. They are watching, their families are watching, and voters will remember who ignored them when they needed leadership. This goes for all the city council members. We will remember this everytime we get an email that the heated pool is closed or the hours at the senior center have been cut yet again. Listen to the seniors who spoke at last nights meeting
Waiting for a comment on this from Roger Kint.
Probably won’t happen though as it would be redundant with another response already on this article
proof of jain’s idiocy
look at the photo he picked for himself looks like a dork with a propeller coming out of his head
When I first saw the pix I thought it was AI, but then realized he actually picked it. OMG.
Robert’s article speaks for itself, and so does the Grand Jury report. I’d just add this:
Councilmember Jain has sat on the VTA Board since January 2022 and on the BART Phase II Oversight Committee for years. The Grand Jury found that Board failed to provide the strategic direction this project needed, and that the Oversight Committee doesn’t routinely make policy recommendations or hold staff accountable for timely analysis. That’s not a commentary on any one vote. It’s a finding about the body he’s been a part of the entire time the cost went from $4.7 billion to $12.7 billion.
You can’t claim credit for being the project’s “biggest critic” while also being one of its overseers when the Grand Jury finds the oversight itself failed. Those two things don’t fit together.
If the figure on cost-of-delay was being used to pressure bad decisions, as he says, the right response from a Board member is to put that on the public record in real time and push for the cash-flow model and funding strategy the Grand Jury says never existed. Pointing to one no vote after the fact isn’t oversight.
Santa Clara residents are the ones who will live with this project’s cost, schedule and funding gap for the next decade. They deserve Board members focused on fixing that, not on relitigating who said what about whom.
Offer solutions instead of being critical.
Suds Jain is more responsible for Becker’s conviction for perjury than Becker is. Jain personally engineered the 49er meetings with three council members for months. Santa Clara Plays Fair patron Suds Jain attacked Gillmor for the stadium and received millions of independent money. Jain would not only sell out his own mother, he would send her c.o.d. my views on Mr Haugh are well known. I severely question Mr Haugh’s objectivity, but he actually takes time to write his material and he does work at it. Mr Haugh owes my nephew a thorough explanation over leaving him out of WrestleMania, but I do think Jain is considerably belligerent and unfair to Haugh and his readers. Teresa did a lot to support Jain in the past as well as Becker.
Jain turns on Teresa like a switch. There is no requirement for Haugh to meet with Jain at all. Haugh seems to give a lot of space. I will be happy to list the dozen things Haugh has gotten wrong, but Haugh does get some things right. Lisa Gillmor is a very strong political player and a fierce one. But in 36 years of service, Lisa has never lied once. Teresa has been wrong on things, but she is one of the most sincere people I know.
Jain is an insignificant little man with a firm belief he is the smartest man around. Sad and dangerous.
Well said, but we have enough to cove w/o involving WrestleMania.
With a small adjustment this BART extension could join the high speed train to nowhere in terms of progress, delays and budget explosions. And Suds would fit right in.
The VTA people are probably thinking to themselves, no big deal! We’ll just put another bond or another targeted tax on the next ballot, and get more money, so we can make up the difference! And because it’s a SPECIAL targeted increase of money, no big deal, let’s just screw the residents AGAIN, and it will only need > 50% to pass!!!
Suds Jain is not very good at any of his jobs.
Robert Haugh is the laziest and most dishonest self proclaimed “Journalist” I have ever encountered. He regularly writes articles attacking me without ever having interviewed me. I have it on good authority that he was fired from the Santa Clara weekly for misusing an expense account and for being a lazy “reporter”. Then he wandered in the desert before being encouraged by Lisa Gillmor and Teresa O’Neill to start this highly biased blog which has awarded many Jabronis to me while Gillmor who has mismanaged the City for years, has escaped even a single Jabroni.
Now to the VTA BART project. I refer Robert and his readers to the following Mercury News article where it’s clear I’ve been the biggest critic of the BART project– Grace Hase actually interviewed me. Grace does watch VTA meetings and clearly Haugh doesn’t.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/17/civil-grand-jury-says-vta-failed-to-manage-nearly-13-billion-san-jose-bart-extension
This is from the article
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“Santa Clara Councilmember Suds Jain, who sits on the committee, said agency officials often say that each month of delayed decisions adds $20 million to $30 million to the project’s cost. He feels the figure is often cited “to force us into bad decisions.” In an interview, Jain called the report a “great wake up call.”
“It echoes a lot of things that I’ve been saying about the project and I feel like a lot of the stuff I’ve been saying has fallen on deaf ears,” he said.
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Haugh should also have done his research and realized that I was the sole no vote on the board for continuing the 53 foot tunnel for the entire 5 mile section (scenario 1 option) at the October 17, 2025 board meeting. He should also have known that I serve as an Ex-Officio member of the oversight committee and don’t get to vote on that committee.
Remember Sam Liccardo told me that Gillmor “didn’t seem to have much interest in the agency” after the City Council appointed me to be the representative in January 2022.
There are two reasons I don’t meet with or call Suds.
First, I work for a living and have limited time. So I email people for comment and print their replies. I do this with everyone, not just Suds. I’ve never misquoted anyone with this practice.
Second, even when Suds replies in writing, he frequently attacks people to avoid answering the questions. Many readers have pointed this out.
When the facts are clear and indisputable, it’s not really necessary or worth the time to reach out when Suds will just deflect and avoid responsibility. Today is a good example. He attacks me again maliciously and dishonestly.
And if you notice, he doesn’t answer the questions I’ve raised or the Grand Jury raises.
Lisa Gillmor will forever live in Suds’ head.
Has the VTA board seen how Suds threw them
under the bus. Way to go Suds!
And Suds finally met a GJ report he liked!