The board overseeing California's bullet train project voted Friday to take away some of its chief executive's power over contracts, a day after the state's top Assembly Republican called for him to be fired.
What the board did
Meeting in Sacramento on Oct. 9, the California High-Speed Rail Authority board voted 7-2 to end CEO Ian Choudri's ability to sign and manage contracts under $25 million on his own, CalMatters and KCRA reported. The authority's in-house lawyers must now approve any new contract or change to an existing one. Contracts above $25 million already needed a board vote.
Board chair Steve Kawa told reporters the move adds more oversight of contracts and procurement. He said the board is interested in looking more closely at how consultants are paid, beyond travel.
What investigators found
The vote follows a report from the project's inspector general that examined travel bills from four consulting firms over two years: KPMG, the law firm Nossaman, the AECOM-Fluor joint venture and the SYSTRA/TYPSA joint venture. According to CalMatters, investigators flagged about $600,000 in questionable expenses, including first-class flights, luxury rides and stops at a nightclub, a cigar lounge, bars and restaurants. Many trips were not authorized or poorly justified, and some were made at top executives' request, the report found.
One legal consultant collected $40,800 in travel reimbursements plus $86,500 for "travel time" over 30 trips between Denver and Sacramento in a year, CalMatters reported. He told investigators Choudri had asked for him to be there in person.
KCRA noted that the state paid the four firms more than $250 million from 2024 to 2026, while the inspector general reviewed less than $2 million of that spending.
What happens next
The authority has paused travel payments to the four firms and says it will try to recover the improper charges, its chief financial officer told the board. New travel approval rules and training are planned by next spring. Choudri, who did not speak to reporters, said in a statement that only pre-approved travel within contract scope will be reimbursed.
The stakes are high for a project that voters approved in 2008 as a roughly $45 billion line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Its latest estimate runs from $126 billion to $231 billion, with the first segment planned between Merced and Bakersfield.