By admin 
The board of directors for the California High Speed Rail Authority voted to strip its chief executive of the power to unilaterally approve contracts after a watchdog said consultants improperly billed the state nearly $700,000 for rideshares, luxury travel and steakhouse dinners between 2024 and 2026.
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Last month, the rail authority’s Inspector General found that rail authority leaders, including CEO Ian Choudri, approved $2 million that four consulting firms had billed the bullet train system. A little under $700,000 was improperly reimbursed because those dollars went towards visits to an escape room, restaurants, bars, a strip club and a gym, according to investigators.
The board voted Friday 7-2 during a special meeting to strip Choudri of his sole discretion to sign off on contracts under $25 million after investigators said he and other leaders often overrode staff who objected to the consultants’ requests for reimbursement. In-house attorneys must now approve or change new or existing contracts, and the board has the power to approve contracts over $25 million.
One of the consultants, Denver transportation attorney Brett Butzin, billed almost $130,000 for flights in a single year while charging almost $600 an hour for his services. The consultants were KPMG, which advises on financial matters; Denver law firm Nossaman LLP, where Butzin is a partner; and joint ventures Systra-Typsa and AECOM-Fluor, which are in charge of track and design systems and program delivery support.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently appointed two of his trusted advisors, Jason Elliott and Steve Kawa, to the rail authority’s board. He told reporters last week that he “cleaned house” at the agency, which has been criticized for being years behind schedule and millions over budget since voters first approve it in 2008.
Inspector General Ben Belnap previously knocked agency officials for not being forthright that the project was at risk of running out of money by December 2027.
Choudri also made headlines earlier this year after the authority put him on leave after police arrested him at his Folsom home following a fight between his daughter and fiancée. He returned to the agency after an internal investigation and authorities declined to press charges.
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“I can’t make up for the origin story. (The rail project) gone back three administrations,” Newsom told reporters last week during a news conference. “We’ve radically reorganized and reprioritized this project from what I inherited seven, eight years ago. … I can’t make up for the last 30 years, but we are on the other side of all that.”
Choudri told the board during the hearing that the agency had adopted measures to reduce consultant costs. But he declined to give specifics to reporters who pointed out that he held personal ties to the consultants named in the report, like KPMG, where his fiancée works.
Assembly Republican Leader Alexandra Macedo, R-Tulare, called on Choudri to step down in light of the report. Choudri declined to comment to reporters after the hearing.
Kawa, Newsom’s chief of staff when he was mayor of San Francisco, said Friday’s vote “adds an additional set of eyes and ears and authority over approval issues with the high-speed rail contracts (and) procurements.”
“This board is taking seriously the issues that this authority is dealing with,” Kawa said. “And what the public is seeing is a board that is very active, that is committed to make sure that we are doing right for the taxpayers of California.”
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