Caltrain has agreed to a $1.3 million, two-year agreement with SamTrans to rent office space at the SamTrans headquarters for staff, along with reimbursement for previous office use.
The two-year lease agreement term officially started Oct. 1, 2021, and it includes a monthly payment of $56,000 to SamTrans for the use of office space at SamTrans headquarters, located at 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos. The two-year term will total $1.3 million and includes some money for requested security improvements, with an option to continue on a month-by-month basis afterward at $56,000. The lease will be for the Caltrain Modernization Program. Terms include using half of the first floor of SamTrans headquarters as office space. The Caltrain board agreed to the terms at its Jan. 5 meeting.
In addition to the agreement, Caltrain has also agreed to reimburse around $288,000 to SamTrans for Caltrain staff using office space at the site from September 2018 through December 2020 based on an independent evaluation of rent.
SamTrans did not charge rent or get reimbursed for the use of the site during that time, with around 4,138 square feet of space used. Payment will come from the existing Caltrain budget.
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Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard said working in the SamTrans headquarters was important because staff needed a large enough space to be in the same office.
Caltrain staff said it discovered SamTrans had not invoiced bills and Caltrain had not paid rent for the area, despite its intent to do so.
Once staff found out Caltrain was not paying rent, it moved to address it. Caltrain attorney James Harrison said the organization said more issues like this could arise because of several informal arrangements between SamTrans and Caltrain going in both directions.
“There have been a number of informal arrangements that have not been documented, so we are in the process of trying to clean up a number of different issues,” Harrison said.
Caltrain and SamTrans in August completed a governance process that will see more separation between the two agencies. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties now have more board oversight around decision making, staffing and authority.
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