Honkin' Mad

North Texas Tollway Authority director walks away with year's pay

Ousted North Texas Tollway Authority executive director Jorge Figueredo, who abruptly resigned earlier this month, will be paid a year's salary unless he finds another job during that time, tollway board chairman Paul Wageman said.

Several news agencies are now reporting that the agreed amount is in the neighborhood of $260,000 and $266,000 a year.

In an interview last week with the Star-Telegram, Wageman insisted that Figueredo's departure was voluntary. Even so, he said, the board agreed behind closed doors to pay Figueredo his salary for up to a year, as spelled out in termination terms of his contract.

The NTTA posted a press release at 5 p.m. Dec. 5 announcing Figueredo's immediate departure.

Later, several sources said there was a split among the nine-member NTTA board about Figueredo's performance, with Wageman being among those who felt Figueredo had not lived up to expectations. Wageman declined to comment.

Figueredo lived in an apartment in the North Texas area during his stay -- a little more than a year --but his wife did not relocate and stayed behind in Florida, Wageman said.

State officials are watching with interest as the Plano-based tollway authority goes through yet another leadership change -- it's fourth in about five years. State laws enacted in 2007 give the tollway authority primacy -- or first dibs -- over toll projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

But after paying a $3.2 billion concession fee for the rights to develop Texas 121 in Denton and Collin counties, the agency has encountered tough times in part because of the global credit crisis.

The tollway authority is the lead agency in the development of Southwest Parkway and Chisholm Trail, a proposed 28-mile toll road from downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne.

North Texas can't keep Texas 121 toll road money for itself

The attorney general's office rules against Dallas-Fort Worth

The cost of fixing Texas traffic is mindboggling

AUSTIN -- Texans will need to spend a mind-boggling $14.2 billion a year through 2030 to keep up with the state's growing traffic needs and fix miles of aging highways and bridges, according to a report released Wednesday.

That amount would be more than double the $6 billion a year the Texas Department of Transportation is appropriated.

The report by the transportation department's 2030 Committee, a panel of experts that spent six months researching the needs of highways, bridges, rail lines and ports, is sure to draw fire during the next legislative session that begins in January. Lawmakers have said they want to tear down and rebuild the administration of the oft-criticized transportation department -- and one of the common accusations is that the department's leaders manipulate statistics to get what they need from the Legislature.

But this time, the report was conducted by "an esteemed panel of experts," Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman Deirdre Delisi said. When asked Wednesday morning if she was worried that lawmakers simply wouldn't believe the numbingly high numbers in the report, Delisi said:

"To quote Popeye, 'They are what they are.' ... The needs are real," she said. Delisi was appointed chairwoman in April and within a month assembled the outside panel of business leaders to provide an objective assessment of the state's needs.

Details of the report are being presented today to the transportation commission during a workshop in Austin. The main presenter is Michael Walton, a civil engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Also serving on the panel is Roger Nober, executive vice president at Fort Worth-based BNSF.

Researchers from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research assisted in the six months of work.

The panel surveyed the needs of each urban and metro area in the state, using resources such as the recently updated Mobility 2030 plan in Dallas-Fort Worth, and concluded that $313 billion would need to be spent from 2009-2030 to prevent congestion from getting worse. That amount would include:

• $89 billion to repair and maintain existing roads.
• $36 billion to repair and replace structurally deficient bridges.
• $171 billion to build and expand roads, mostly in metro areas, to prevent growth-related congestion from getting worse.
• $17 billion to improve safety on rural roads, and connect rural producers to markets.

Although some recent studies suggest that people are driving less, especially in an era of higher gas prices, the panel accepted data from metropolitan planners, including the North Central Texas Council of Governments, that projects the number of vehicle miles traveled in Texas will continue to increase dramatically through 2030.

"Texas will grow by seven to 17 million people during that time," Walton said Wednesday.

The report will be posted online later this afternoon at on TxDot's home page.

Check back to Honkin' Mad! for more on this topic later today.

2030 Committee Members

Ken Allen, San Antonio H-E-B	David M. Laney, Dallas Law Office of David M. Laney, PC
Ruben Bonilla, Corpus Christi Port of Corpus Christi Commission	David Marcus, El Paso Marcus, Fairall, Bristol + Co.,LLP
Jon Cannon, Dallas FedEx Kinko's	Drayton McLane, Jr., Temple McLane Group
Drew Crutcher, Odessa Landgraf, Crutcher & Associates, Inc.	Roger Nober, Fort Worth Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation
Judge Ed Emmett, Houston Harris County Commissioners Court	Gary Thomas, Dallas Dallas Area Rapid Transit
Tom Johnson, Austin Associated General Contractors of Texas	C. Michael Walton, Austin The University of Texas at Austin

Latest Texas toll road backlash: Lawmakers say they want a transportation czar

 

In the latest toll road backlash, lawmakers say they want to fire Texas Department of Transportation leaders and replace them with a single transportation czar.

 

By GORDON DICKSON

gdickson@star-telegram.com

 

The czar, who would be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, would spend the next four years overhauling the agency, which has come under tremendous fire statewide for pursuing development of toll roads -- especially the Trans-Texas Corridor -- and misreporting $1.1 billion in funds that caused a year-long cash flow crisis and shut down many road projects.

"We are desperately trying to restore the trust of the people," said state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham.

The move to fire the five-member Texas Transportation Commission passed the sunset commission on Tuesday by a 7-5 vote. Lawmakers serving on the sunset commission said they would take their proposed overhaul of the transportation department to the state Legislature during the session that begins next month.

The new czar also would have the option of firing the transportation department's executive director, who traditionally has come from within the department's engineering ranks. The current executive director is Amadeo Saenz.

Among those opposing the creation of a czar position were state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, and state Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, who chairs the sunset commission. Isett said he was concerned that hiring a czar wouldn't address the key problem at the transportation department. "My problem is with the culture within this agency, and the way they manipulate their information," Isett said. Isett said taking away power from the current five-member commission "gives all the power to the bureaucrats."

The vote in favor of a transportation czar was one of more than a dozen major changes approved for the transportation department during a daylong sunset hearing in Austin. The sunset commission also agreed to:

• Remove the transportation department's responsibility for vehicle registration, and create a separate department of motor vehicles to handle duties related to the regulation of drivers. The new department would also handle overweight vehicle enforcement and auto theft prevention.

• Create a new legislative committee to work closely with the transportation czar and oversee the inner workings of the Texas Department of Transportation. The committee would ensure the desires of state lawmakers were being met.

• Hire a consulting firm to map out a way for the transportation department to overhaul its management, and win back the confidence of Texans.

 

Despite the sunset commission's recommendations, those who favor doing away with the five-member Texas Transportation Commission in favor of a single commissioner -- or czar -- face an uphill battle in the state Legislature. Many lawmakers -- including state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, and many others in the North Texas delegation -- would prefer that the transportation department be governed by a variety of commissioners from diverse backgrounds across the state.

 

It's unclear of the czar would still be required to hold public meetings. Traditionally, transportation commissioners have held monthly meetings in Austin and other cities, to give residents a forum for opposing projects. However, critics have long argued that many road deals are done behind the scenes, and the content of the commission meetings is mostly for show.

 

One of the commissioners, Bill Meadows of Fort Worth, has said he is open-minded about changes at the agency, even if his position is eliminated. Meadows was among the handful of transportation department leaders who attended more than seven hours of sunset commission testimony and deliberation on Tuesday.

 

Sunset hearing

• T

he Sunset Advisory Commission periodically reviews state agencies to ensure they are still necessary and functioning properly.

• In addition to the decisions made Tuesday regarding the Texas Department of Transportation, the sunset commission also deliberated on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Commission on Fire Protection and Commissions on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.

More www.sunset.state.tx.us

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Dallas-Fort Worth officials approve Rail North Texas commuter rail plan

The Regional Transportation Council on Thursday approved a compromise version of its Rail North Texas plan, with members saying they wanted to go to Austin in January with a united voice, to ask state lawmakers for permission to raise taxes for a region-wide commuter rail network.

The compromise gives existing transit agencies -- the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Denton County Transportation Authority -- a larger role in deciding what lobbyists hired by cities and counties in North Texas can and can't say about the Rail North Texas plan.

The measure passed with a 34-4 vote.

RTC has been working on Rail North Texas for nearly a year, after efforts in 2005 and 2007 to raise the state's 8.25 percent sales tax ceiling to pay for commuter rail failed in the state Legislature. This time, Rail North Texas focuses on alternatives to the sales tax. It would allow up to 12 Dallas-Fort Worth counties, including Tarrant County, to raise one or more taxes or fees from a menu picked by the Legislature.

The new taxes and feeds could include: higher vehicle registration fees, property taxes, gasoline taxes, driver license renewals or impact fees on new Texas residents.

The money would be used to build a regionwide commuter rail system, that would look similar to the Trinity Railway Express and criss-cross the Metroplex on more than 215 miles of railroad tracks by 2030.

More

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