It was the largest crowd local transit and transportation officials had seen in months.

One of the newcomers made a beeline for the podium near the beginning of the Amador Regional Transit System Board of Directors meeting Wednesday evening, shortly before the elected officials would take off their transit hats and govern as the Amador County Transportation Commission.

"This is my first time at the ACTC meeting," said Lynn Morgan, a Pioneer resident and Upcountry Community Council member, "and you all are acting like everyone knows who you are."

According to upcountry residents asking for greater representation in county government, that's exactly the problem.

A request for more consideration when it comes to appointing elected officials to both transit and transportation boards was made in writing by upcountry residents Debbie Dunn and Ruth Gottstein. They and others had brought the subject up informally at past meetings and wanted their request considered before possibly taking it to the board of supervisors.

Specifically, they were asking that one of the two positions currently held by a county supervisor be replaced with a representative from upcountry, one of the county's more populated areas. Taxation with representation, they called it.

Proponents were told, via attorney letters and staff reports, that changing the makeup of these appointed bodies rested with county supervisors and local mayors. In a letter from Cota Cole & Associates, attorney Christopher J. Conant explained that a joint powers agreement governs how the ARTS board is comprised, stipulating that the six directors would be made up equally of board of supervisors appointees and city council members chosen by the Amador County Mayors' Select Committee.

"As drafted, the JPA unfortunately gives little to no authority to the ARTS Board of Directors to change its composition on its own," Conant said in his letter. "Instead, the composition of the ARTS board may only be changed by the Amador County Board of Supervisors or the Amador County Mayors' Select Committee. In short, ARTS is powerless on its own to ensure that representation on its board better reflects the geographic diversity of all those it serves."

"I kind of disagree with that," remarked Louis Boitano after reading that paragraph aloud. Besides being the chairman of both the ACTC and ARTS boards, Boitano is also the District 4 supervisor. "They can vote us out."

A member of both boards and chairman of the board of supervisors, Richard Forster objected to what he called "personal language" in Conant's letter, saying words like "unfortunately" and "regrettably" had no place in a legal opinion.

Once it became clear that county supervisors and local mayors would be the decision-makers, upcountry residents shifted their hopes to getting some support from the ARTS and ACTC boards.

They weren't enthusiastically received.

Though the staff report prepared by new associate transportation planner Neal Peacock showed a disparity in the projects benefiting upcountry residents and recommended referral to the board of supervisors, Boitano and Forster took exception to implications they hadn't been responsive to upcountry concerns.

"I'll try to be as diplomatic as possible," Forster said. "I think there's no doubt that members of this board try to do what's best for the entire county."

He added that real consideration of an upcountry presence could happen when the ACTC considers forming a joint powers authority in the fall.

"As far as changing the composition of this board, I do not support it at this time," he said, "but I think it is coming."

Forming a JPA would give the ACTC a greater role in land use planning, as well as more authority in deciding its makeup, explained ACTC Executive Director Charles Field. The idea was born, Field said, because transportation pressures continue to increase as funding opportunities dry up.

But upcountry residents were given no guarantee that a JPA would be formed or that an upcountry representative would be added if one was formed. If a JPA didn't happen, Forster said, that would be the time to consider bringing the matter before the board of supervisors.

An estimated 22,560 people live in unincorporated parts of the county, 12,800 of whom reside upcountry. That compares with a little more than 12,000 estimated to live in the five incorporated cities. According to the staff report, the upcountry area received an estimated $30.1 million in highway improvement projects since 1990, while the remainder of the county received $79.7 million over that same period.

"That belies the argument that no one here looks to their constituencies," said Pine Grove resident John Carlson, one of five people to speak in favor of greater upcountry representation.