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B’game Train Station ADU?

I guess deputy directors at Caltrain struggle to find affordable living quarters on the Peninsula even though the payroll at Caltrain is very bloated IMHO.  But who knew it would get this weird?  Former deputy director for operations Joe Navarro and a contractor friend named Seth Worden have been charged with skimming public funds to create living spaces in the B'game and Millbrae train stations!  In small increments, Navarro is alleged to have paid Worden $42,000 for the secret apartment in the B'game station and another $8K for the Millbrae hideaway.

As shown below, the B'game station has always had living space on the south side as that was the original station master's quarters (to the right of the arches).  Later on, it was the B'game Chamber of Commerce office and had a kitchenette and toilet already.  That was where an arsonist tried to burn the place down in 2016.  It must be tricked out pretty nicely for $42K.  According to the Merc

Worden was caught first, in 2020, after employees discovered the converted space, authorities said. But the transit agency was reportedly unaware of Navarro’s place in Burlingame until getting an anonymous tip in 2022.  Navarro was fired after being confronted with the tip, and reportedly admitted to “occasionally using the station as his residence,” prosecutors said, though they allege that he was using the small apartment as his primary residence.

I can't wait to find out why it took years to bring the felony embezzlement charges.

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19 responses to “B’game Train Station ADU?”

  1. resident

    https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/ex-caltrain-workers-accused-of-misusing-funds-to-build-homes-at-train-stations/

  2. Joe

    Let’s stay within the general vicinity of the topic, please.
    Per later reports, Worden was a station manager who hired the contractors, not a contractor himself.
    While the authorities are at it, perhaps it’s time to check out the hired contractors working without permits?

  3. Paloma Ave

    Now that it has been built, rent it out as a fundraiser for the Burlingame Historical Society!

  4. Paloma Ave

    Joseph V Navarro
    Deputy Chief, Rail Operations
    San Mateo County Transit District,
    2021 $234,745.71 $0.00 $35,552.50 $270,298.21 $61,155.74 $331,453.95
    Must have been difficult getting by on his meager wages and benefits?

  5. Jennifer Pfaff

    Everyone who does work on any part of that station (and all the historic stations on the old SP line) has to have the scope of work (down to the smallest detail) vetted by the South Bay Railway Association (Santa Clara).
    The Burlingame Historical Society has done that (properly) for years, always asking permission and showing plans and diagrams, not wanting to cause any damage to the structure. That’s why we’ve needed to construct several sets of freestanding walls, as no nails or screws of any type are permitted to pierce the stucco, for example.
    Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that these folks bothered, even though it would be hard to believe they were unaware. That side of the building (The Stationmaster’s Quarters) is its own separate entity, the blinds are always down. In any case, I hope any damage they caused is reversible.

  6. Joe

    Check out the buffoonish YIMBYs:
    Crime or peak urbanism? YIMBYs can’t help but applaud the Caltrain officials who built secret apartments inside stations
    “If they can build an apartment in Burlingame for $42,000, put them in charge of the state.”
    Their alleged criminal activity — or ingenuity as some see it — has been met with admiration online from a few folks, especially housing advocates who say that so-called “transit-oriented development” like this is exactly what the Bay needs more of.
    “If this isn’t a case for building more housing next to transit then I don’t know what is,” wrote one user on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
    Some on social media had to admit: living in a historic train station like Burlingame, which was built in 1894 and designated a historic landmark in California, sounded appealing.
    Marc Joffe, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said it could be worthwhile to consider converting some Caltrain stations — which sit on valuable real estate at the middle of town — into more housing. Legally, of course.
    https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/30/crime-or-peak-urbanism-yimbys-cant-help-but-applaud-the-caltrain-officials-who-built-secret-apartments-inside-stations/?utm_email=945A740F8485348253E6F395EF&lctg=945A740F8485348253E6F395EF&active=yesD&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.mercurynews.com%2f2024%2f03%2f30%2fcrime-or-peak-urbanism-yimbys-cant-help-but-applaud-the-caltrain-officials-who-built-secret-apartments-inside-stations%2f&utm_campaign=bang-mult-nl-morning-report-nl&utm_content=manual

  7. Man Up Burlingame

    Paloma Ave. That’s sheet genius. Jennifer should get right on it.

  8. Jennifer Pfaff

    The shameful part is that the transportation “heads” seem to bounce from one agency to the next, sometimes (often?) after having “retired” from another agency position. Nobody ever comes in to clean house. How many CEOs has HSR had by now? They just ride “the train to nowhere” until they get something ($$$) nice out of it, and move on to the next.

  9. HMB

    Given that in the past stations usually had quarters for the stationmaster, one could see this as things coming full circle! Nevertheless, these guys shouldn’t have been using public funds and helping themselves to a “housing allowance.” Maybe these apartments can now be rented out as Airbnbs. Between their convenient locations and appeal to railroad buffs, these units could be a nice little revenue stream for the transit agency.

  10. Phinancier

    Al Capone boasted, “They can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money.” He found that wasn’t true in 1931 when he was sentenced to prison for tax evasion.
    After they ring these two guys up for misuse of public funds they can go after them for unreported rental assistance earnings.

  11. Cathryn Baylock

    Trust me, HMB, you wouldn’t want to live in Burlingame’s train station ( unless you like being wakened every half hour by earthquake like rumbles and hourly thru horns from freight trains). If this article had been posted on April Fool’s day, I would have thought it farcical! This goes under the category: “crazy but true”!

  12. Joe

    Here is a great example of how shoddy reporting can cause confused thinking in the general populace. If the SF Comicle or the Merc had bothered to ask any questions of locals beyond the press release about the arrests, they would know that Navarro didn’t “build an apartment”–since it has had an apartment since 1894. The $42K scam was probably a light, unpermitted, perhaps not-to-code touch up. Is that what we want? Not Lerman’s fault, just collateral egg on his face.
    Here’s the LTTE to the Comicle
    Regarding “Ex-Caltrain pair accused of building themselves homes inside stations with public funds” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, March 28): Caltrain executive Joseph Navarro should not be charged for building a secret apartment for $42,000 at a Caltrain station. Instead, he should be required to build 10,000 more apartments at the same cost.
    The fact that he was able to build an apartment with a bathroom and kitchen for this price in the Bay Area is an absolute miracle that needs to be repeated.
    David Lerman, Berkeley

  13. Joe

    This story just keeps getting better and better. From the DJ
    A former Caltrain executive charged with embezzlement for allegedly remodeling sections of the Burlingame and Millbrae train stations as private residences was rejected from the county’s Private Defender Program for financial ineligibility, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
    But the presiding judge determined Navarro did not meet financial eligibility requirements to use the program, namely that he could afford a lawyer for the charges against him, Wagstaffe said. Navarro was granted a month to find a privately-hired attorney.
    ——————–
    I seem to recall the number $300K on compensation being thrown around.

  14. Joe

    The story goes on per the Merc:
    REDWOOD CITY — A former deputy director and a one-time contractor for Caltrain are headed toward trial on charges that they diverted taxpayer dollars to build themselves secret mini-apartments inside two Peninsula train stations that they reportedly used as crash pads before they were discovered.
    Joseph Vincent Navarro, 67, and Seth Andrew Worden, 62, appeared in a San Mateo County courtroom Monday, where they waived preliminary hearings for felony counts of misusing public funds.
    Navarro and Worden were formally held to answer to the charges by Judge Sean Dabel. They were ordered to return to court Sept. 10 for a second arraignment.
    Andrew Vandeveld, an attorney representing Navarro, told this news organization that waiving the hearing “was a strategic decision as we move toward trial.”
    “We’re going to defend the case aggressively,” Vandeveld said. “We believe that Mr. Navarro did nothing wrong, that the DA has overstated the case, and we feel (Navarro) acted within the scope of his responsibilities.”
    ———————–
    This should be good……

  15. Jennifer Pfaff

    This same article reports that the spaces have been returned to office usage. That isn’t helpful. ‘Still no word from anyone (and believe me, I’ve tried) on damages sustained to the interior of the historic station (original bathroom and kitchen??) A call to Wagstaff’s office was completely useless; I was told they are not “an Office of Record”, to go to the police dept. or whoever lodged the original complaint. Guys, does this sound right? Caltrain officials are completely mum, as is the covenant holder in the South Bay. I sure hope that somebody took photos of the place, both before, and after.

  16. Joe

    There’s a little piece in yesterday’s DJ that notes:
    Former TransAmerica Services Inc. Station Manager Seth Worden pleaded no contest to misdemeanor embezzlement by a public officer for his participation in a scheme to renovate a train station for private use, Shin-Mee Chang, San Mateo County chief deputy district attorney, said.
    As part of his plea deal, Worden will testify against his co-defendant, Joe Navarro, former Caltrain deputy director of Operations, Chang said.
    After pleading no contest, Worden now owes $8,144 in restitution for using the same tactic to remodel a portion of the Millbrae train station into a private residence, Chang said.
    He faces up to five months in jail, she said.
    ——————-
    The cookie might be crumbling.

  17. Joe

    The wheels of justice move slowly right up until they don’t. It took more than a year to get this case into court, but once it went to the jury, it only took a couple of hours to get to guilty.
    The Merc email about the case going to the jury came in at 1:12pm yesterday and the email about the guilty finding landed at 5:17pm.
    From the Merc:
    Caltrain employee guilty of using public funds to build secret apartment in train station
    Joseph Navarro spent $38,000 on renovating the Burlingame station between 2019 and 2021
    REDWOOD CITY – A jury on Wednesday found a former Caltrain deputy director guilty of embezzling public funds to build a personal “crash pad” in a historic Burlingame train station, declining the defense’s argument that his supervisor had given him permission to put the funds toward renovating the apartment and residing there while working 80-hour weeks.
    Joseph Navarro faced one felony count of misappropriation of public funds for turning a section of the Burlingame train station into an apartment, complete with a bedroom, a gym and a living room, prosecutors said at the trial. After several days of testimony and closing arguments on Tuesday, the jury began its deliberations Wednesday morning and came to a consensus in the afternoon.
    The jury also found true that the charges were filed within the proper statute of limitations, which is three years of when the crime is discovered or should have been discovered. Defense lawyers had argued that the initial discovery should have meant the charges were filed too late.
    Deputy District Attorney Joseph Cannon argued that Navarro was in charge of the public funds redirected to build the apartment, and that invoices were purposely kept under a $3,000 threshold so that they did not need further approval. Had Navarro gotten permission to construct the apartment — spending some $38,000 on construction at the station between 2019 and 2021 — there would have been a proposal and a paper trail, he said.
    “Turning a historic train station into your personal crash pad is 100% a conflict of interest,” Cannon said. “That’s just common sense.”
    He also referenced the testimony of Navarro’s ex-girlfriend who stayed with him at the Burlingame station while recovering from a surgery — asking, “Who moves their girlfriend into their office if it’s a legitimate office?”
    Vandeveld argued that Navarro had authorization to spend the funds — another employee testified that in 2019, Navarro’s direct supervisor, Michelle Bouchard, had asked, “How is the apartment coming at Burlingame?”.
    While arguing over the statute of limitations, Vandeveld said that Caltrain did discover — or should have discovered — the apartment in 2019 because the invoices done for work at Burlingame were submitted, and the “invoices alone were enough to establish awareness for a reasonably diligent person.” He added that Navarro’s assistant had a key to the apartment sitting on her desk.
    ———————————–
    There’s more here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/04/30/caltrain-secret-apartment-station-trial-jury/
    but you have to love the “reasonably diligent person” poke. We have a diligence deficit in lots of public agencies and departments.

  18. Joe

    The first shoe has dropped:
    A former train station manager has been sentenced today (June 9) for helping a former Caltrain executive embezzle public funds and for building secret apartments in the Burlingame and Millbrae train stations, a prosecutor said.
    Seth Worden, 66, of Oceanside, was sentenced to a year of probation and two months in county jail. He also needs to pay $8,114.01 restitution to the railroad, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
    Worden, who was a station manager for TASI, the company contracted to run the train line, took a plea deal on Jan. 21, Wagstaffe said. As part of the deal, Worden testified against Joseph Vincent Navarro, 61, of Newtown, Penn., previously Caltrain’s deputy director of operations, on April 29.
    https://padailypost.com/2025/06/09/partner-in-caltrain-apartment-scam-sentenced/
    The second shoe comes tomorrow.

  19. Joe

    Navarro gets 120 days instead of 8 months.
    REDWOOD CITY – The former Caltrain deputy director who embezzled nearly $40,000 in public funds to build a “crash pad” in the historic Burlingame train station — complete with a gym and shower — was sentenced to 120 days in county jail.
    At the hearing Wednesday morning that brought the six-year saga to a conclusion, Joseph Vincent Navarro’s defense attorney Andrew Vandeveld said that Navarro felt remorseful for his actions and maintained his positive contributions to the transit agency.
    “He didn’t build this house so he could sleep on the job,” Vandeveld said at the hearing. “He built this house so he could do his job.”
    ——————-
    His lawyer is still sticking to the script. Oddly enough, there is no mention of monetary restitution for Navarro.

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