The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will pay nearly $5 million in benefits to the families of victims killed in last May's mass shooting at a San Jose rail yard.
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The VTA Board of Directors unanimously approved the $4.9 million agreement between the agency and the union representing its workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, that will pay out at least $3,000 per month to qualified family members of the nine people killed on the May 26, 2021 shooting at Guadalupe Rail Yard, as well as the family of a shooting survivor who died by suicide last August.
"Our board of directors realized that all of the victims who were killed in the May 2021 tragedy were the sole breadwinners for their family," VTA Public Information Officer Stacey Hendler Ross told KCBS Radio in a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon. "And so the board wanted to try to do something that would help at least financially compensate the families a little bit more because they lost that major income for their family."
While the VTA board had previously authorized financial assistance to victims' families, including a year's worth of equivalent wages, seven of the 10 victims weren't yet eligible to receive retirement benefits when they died. The other three were eligible, but they could have earned greater benefits had they continued to work for the agency.
Under the resolution, the agency will make a $4.9 million payment to the Board of Pensions by the end of the year. The board first needs to ratify the agreement, which is expected in June.
Ross said the families are expected to start receiving payments sometime between August and October, the latter of which is when the salary payments end, in order to minimize the families' potential financial disruption.
"VTA has tried to do as much as we possibly can in many ways, including offering mental health counseling … and these payments so that families are not without their income, which they lost when their loved ones were killed," she said.
VTA light rail service didn't resume for months after the shooting, and last week’s resolution claimed nearly 100 employees are still contending with the trauma of that day. Henry Gonzales, a body and paint worker at the rail yard who witnessed and survived the shooting, died by suicide in August, leading to criticism that the agency wasn’t doing enough to support its workers' mental health.
The agency said in December it was seeking proposals to hire a consultant who could "aid the agency in making significant and meaningful changes in the organizational culture and climate." Proposals were due on Jan. 31, and Ross said the agency is in final negotiations with an organization. The VTA Board of Directors could approve an agreement as soon as April 22, when the board convenes for a workshop.
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