Toll Road Appointment Hits Snafu

San Clemente's spot with the toll roads agency was thrown into limbo Tuesday when two city councilmen voted to remove their colleague from the post because of his stance on extending the 241 toll road.

That created a 2-2 tie because the city's current Transportation Corridor Agencies rep, Jim Dahl, had to abstain under new procedures issued by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.

The FPPC ruled that council members cannot vote to appoint themselves to any post that comes with a $250-or-larger stipend per year.

Because of ongoing legal challenges to past appointments of Orange County council members to boards and joint powers authorities like the TCA, San Clemente officials were baffled about how to break the tie, and delayed the issue until their Jan. 17 meeting.

Dahl remains on the agency boards until council changes its decision on an appointee.

Councilman Bob Baker said he was upset by Dahl's recent TCA vote, and subsequent hypothetical discussions about building another section that could potentially end at Avenida Pico in San Clemente.

Councilman Tim Brown echoed those concerns.

According to TCA spokeswoman Lori Olin, stipends for TCA board members are $120 per meeting and include 55-cents-per-mile mileage from city offices to the headquarters in Irvine.

The stipend is available for a limit of 18 meetings per agency, per quarter.

For a board member sitting on both the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency board and the San Joaquin Hill Transportation Corridor Agency board, the potential stipend could be more than $17,000-per year, plus mileage, depending on the number of board meetings each board held.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The last three paragraphs were added as of 3 p.m. Jan. 4, 2012.