Under what authority does MTC exist?

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), a statutorily created regional transportation planning agency pursuant to Government Code Section 66500 et seq., is for the purposes of the Political Reform Act, a local government agency pursuant to Government Code Section 82041. Federal law [Title 23, United States Code, Section 134 (d)] designates MTC as the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. As such, MTC must adopt and regularly update a long-range regional transportation plan.

The Commission's work is guided by a 21-member policy board, with 18 of the commissioners designated as voting members. Sixteen of the voting commissioners are appointed by local elected officials in each county. The two most populous counties, Alameda and Santa Clara, each have three representatives on the Commission: the county board of supervisors selects one member; the mayors of the cities within the county collectively appoint another; and the mayors of the biggest cities in these two counties (Oakland in Alameda County and San Jose in Santa Clara County) each appoint a representative.