ACE to COG: Let my People go

The executive director of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, who is facing criminal charges on the heels of an investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, recently left his post.

Nicholas Conway last month was placed on leave after being charged with four felonies in connection with his allegedly obtaining grants from the agency to benefit his own firm.

Now there is an agency that wants to leave the COG, according to published reports.

The Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority was formed in 1999, as an agency to build roadway underpasses for vehicles to pass under freight trains, rather than wait for the trains to pass through, the San Gabriel Valley News reported.

The ACE was named after the traffic corridor used for goods traveling by rail from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach; it was an offshoot of the COG, which represents 31 cities and unincorporated county areas, as well as water districts, the SGVN reported.

The ACE – it has built eight total underpasses and overpasses, most of them in industrial San Gabriel Valley -- has asked the COG to let it break away, the article states.

It is preparing to build 11 more under/over passes in the next eight years, the paper reported.

The COG board last week approved the ACE’s request and authorized it to prepare a separation agreement, which would transfer the contracts, the newspaper reported.