Matt Click is the executive director of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency. We sat down with him to talk about why he chose Placer County, what transportation means for the region's future, and how he thinks about working across sectors through organizations like PBA.
You came from a career that had you working all across the country. Why Placer County specifically, and why did you make such a full commitment to being here?
It happened in steps. I was in a private sector role that had me covering all 50 states, working in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. At some point I decided that if it was possible, I wanted to do what I do for my own community.
When this opportunity at PCTPA came along, I believed this was where I could apply my experience and do good work locally. And then the more I got into the work, the more I fell in love with the place. After about six to eight months of onboarding, you start meeting the elected officials from the cities, the county, the sheriff, the police chiefs, the fire chiefs, the people running the water agency, the school systems.
I had spent 30 years working with public sector clients across the US, and I can tell you: every place says they are unique and special. Placer is different. I witnessed it. So, I made the decision to move from Sacramento to Roseville, and if they fired me tomorrow, I would not be leaving. It is just a high quality of life, and the level of commitment from the people leading this region is genuinely inspiring.
That sense of commitment seems connected to why you engage with PBA. What draws you to the organization?
One of the smartest things PBA does is get all of the major sectors in one room. That cross-pollination is extremely valuable to me personally.
I also participate in Sacramento Metro Chamber's Cap-to-Cap, a six-county regional effort that does something different and important. But because I am a transportation person, I am always on the transportation team there, and my lens is regional. I might be helping SacRT in a meeting, which I am happy to do in that regional capacity, but it has little to do with Placer specifically.
PBA is different. Everyone is together, focused on this county. I hear from Kaiser and Sutter about healthcare, from Sierra College, and from city managers about what municipalities are wrestling with. That matters because transportation is the connective tissue between homes, businesses, schools, shopping, and recreation. Understanding what is happening at those destinations makes me better at my job.
What is PCTPA, and how do you think about its role in the county's economy?
The short version of what I tell people is: we plan, fund, and help deliver transportation.
That might be a road project, new lanes on Interstate 80, or capital dollars for newer buses. We do not own any facilities or operate any transit ourselves. We work with our member jurisdictions, Caltrans, public works departments, and transit agencies to help them plan and deliver. We see ourselves as a delivery body.
But the broader point is that infrastructure is the connective tissue of the economy. People live in one place, work in another, shop somewhere else, and recreate in a fourth. It is the transportation network that connects all of that, the same way water or electricity does. A well-functioning transportation system is necessary for a robust economy and a high quality of life. People only really notice it when it breaks down.
Funding is a real constraint for PCTPA right now. What's the short version of where things stand?
The short version is that Placer does not have a dedicated local transportation funding measure, which most large California counties rely on, and that puts us at a real disadvantage when competing for state and federal grants. We're closing that gap through developer impact fees and aggressive grant pursuits, and we recently won a major federal grant that proves the strategy can work. We're also looking at longer-term funding models, including tolling, to build toward bigger projects.
So where does PBA fit into all of this?
The public sector does not do this alone, and we could not do it without a robust private sector to work with. It is an iterative loop between the two. You cannot say it starts in one place or the other.
That is why I show up. When I am in a room with health care leaders, economic development people, educators, and municipal officials all focused on the same county, I do my job better. Transportation is infrastructure for everything else that makes this place work. The more I understand what that everything else looks like, the better I can serve it.