Link to article below here.

A scathing Sunset Committee Report on TxDOT was released today (news story below) and it recommends a “legislative conservator” takeover the agency among other reforms.

There are 6 problem areas identified in the report, but here are the key recommendations that pertain to our concerns:

• Abolish the Texas Transportation Commission and replace it with an appointed Commissioner of Transportation.
• Establish a Transportation Legislative Oversight Committee to provide necessary oversight of the Department and the state’s transportation system.
• Require the Transportation Legislative Oversight Committee to review and comment on TxDOT’s research program, including individual research projects and activities.
• The Sunset Commission should recommend that the Legislature directly fund the Texas Transportation Institute to conduct transportation research previously contracted through TxDOT.
• Continue TxDOT for four years (instead of 12).
• Require TxDOT to develop and implement a public involvement policy that guides and encourages more meaningful public involvement efforts agency-wide.
• Require TxDOT to develop standard procedures for documenting complaints and for tracking and analyzing complaint data.
• TxDOT should provide central coordination of the Department’s major marketing campaigns.

The big holes? We asked for the 5 member Transportation Commission APPOINTED by the Governor to be replaced with a single ELECTED commissioner, and while the Sunset Committee staff recommended abolishing the Commission and replacing it with a single commissioner, they still would have that position APPOINTED by the Governor (giving us the same mess we have now)! The difference is the Commissioner would be re-appointed and come before the Senate for confirmation every 2 years instead of every 4.

Hole #2 – “TxDOT should provide central coordination of the Department’s major marketing campaigns.” What??! TURF is suing the State to STOP TxDOT’s “marketing” propaganda campaign, the last thing we need is to centralize illegal activity! We also don’t need “public education” campaigns like “Don’t Mess With Texas” anti-litter program or its “Click it or Ticket” campaign when we’re supposedly “out of money” for basic highway needs. This is wasteful, useless spending and the Committee staff should have called for an end to it. It’s their job to eliminate waste. Well, this is prime fodder for the chopping block. It enriches marketing and PR firms, not provide transportation for taxpayers.

Hole #3 – There are no specific public involvement recommendations that would force TxDOT to do what the public asks them to, particularly in regards to toll projects and the Trans Texas Corridor. Simply taking public testimony and then ignoring it is what has caused a massive taxpayer revolt all over the state! We need some public involvement REQUIREMENTS that FORCE TxDOT to implement the alternative chosen by the public, not the one that makes the State the most tax revenue.

This is why we need YOU to come testify before the full Sunset Advisory Committee on July 15 in Austin to insist the Committee make any new commissioner directly accountable to the taxpayers at the ballot box so we don’t end up with the same problems we have now.

TxDOT labeled ‘out of control’
By Peggy Fikac
Express-News Austin Bureau
06/03/2008
AUSTIN — Saying big changes are needed to restore trust in the Texas Department of Transportation, the Sunset Advisory Commission staff is recommending a revamp of TxDOT’s governing board, project planning and its dealings with lawmakers and the public.

The Sunset staff report to be released today — and shared with the San Antonio Express-News by a source close to the process — comes in the wake of controversy over planned public-private partnerships on toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor and questions concerning agency funding figures.

“The Sunset review of the Texas Department of Transportation occurred against a backdrop of distrust and frustration with the Department and the demand for more transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. Many expressed concerns that TxDOT was ‘out of control,’ advancing its own agenda against objections of both the Legislature and the public,” according to the report.

It says that “tweaking the status quo is simply not enough” to restore trust.

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said Monday, “The confidence of the Legislature and the public are very important to us. We still have work to do, but we are confident that our ongoing efforts to improve the transparency and accessibility of TxDOT are making a positive impact.”

Among changes, the staff is recommending replacing the five-member commission with a single commissioner, who would have a two-year term rather than the current six years. The shorter term would mean required Senate confirmation would occur more often, giving lawmakers more oversight.

However, the commissioner still would be appointed by the governor, a concern for opponents of TxDOT’s policies.

That’s because the policies pushed by the Texas Transportation Commission are in sync with those of GOP Gov. Rick Perry, who named the commissioners. Opponents of those policies would prefer an elected commissioner or commissioners.

“The most important thing is that they’re elected positions,” said Sal Costello of TexasTollParty.com. “It gets right down to who’s accountable.”

“We wanted a single, elected commissioner who answers directly to the people of Texas … Having the governor’s paws on this department just has got to stop,” said Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. She added, however, that proposed changes constitute “a step in the right direction. I’m glad the committee seems to be hearing what the public outcry is.”

The staff also proposes increasing legislative oversight through a new House-Senate committee; making TxDOT’s transportation planning and project development more open and easily understood; enhancing chances for meaningful public involvement; improving TxDOT’s contract management; and reviewing the agency again in four years, rather than the usual 12, to ensure needed changes have been made.

Agencies are reviewed periodically by the Sunset commission to see if they should continue to exist and whether changes are needed. Changes proposed by the commission will be considered in 2009 by the Legislature.

Lawmakers on the commission said it’s clear that change is needed, although they’ll need to weigh input including staff recommendations.

Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said he wants to give new Texas Transportation Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi a chance to improve agency operations but that he likes the direction of Sunset staff proposals.

Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, said straightforward, public accountability is key.

“There is obviously a great amount of distrust between the Legislature and the agency, as well as the general public. Something obviously needs to be done — major — to change the way this agency is doing business,” she said.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Houston, TX, May 27, 2008 – A May 25 Houston Chronicle article reveals that while TxDOT ceased hiring OUTSIDE lobbyists, it hired Rebecca Reyes using taxpayer money to work in TxDOT’s Washington office. Reyes is the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso.

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott expressly stated she was hired because she has a background in “lobbying.” TURF filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for its taxpayer-funded political ad campaign to advocate toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor (in violation of Texas Government Code Chapter 556), and it found evidence TxDOT had also illegally hired registered lobbyists. Lippincott tried to spin it by claiming they stopped hiring outside lobbyists due to budget cuts.

“TxDOT has ceased hiring outside lobbyists in response to being caught red-handed in violation of the law, but now it’s obviously still engaging in lobbying members of Congress by bringing a former lobbyist in-house. Both the Texas Government Code (Chapter 556.004) and federal law prohibit a government agency from engaging in lobbying and using taxpayer money for a political purpose. TxDOT is just getting more sneaky in how they do it,” says an incredulous Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF).

“Where is the OUTRAGE from lawmakers and where is the Travis County District Attorney to put a stop to this illegal activity at taxpayer expense?” asks Hall.

The applicable federal law is found in the Hatch Act:

5 C.F.R. 151.121 – “a state or local officer or employee may not…directly or indirectly…command…a state or local officer or employee to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value to a political party, committee, organization, agency or person for a political purpose.”

What TxDOT calls “outreach” and “education” is, in reality, an advocacy and political ad campaign (www.KeepTexasMoving.com) using public relations firms and political strategists to “sell” the public on a privatized, toll roads, and this sales job includes members of Congress as evidenced in TxDOT’s Forward Momentum report asking them to relax federal legislation in order to buy back existing interstates in order to toll them.

Through TURF’s lawsuit, it uncovered detailed logs showing a concerted campaign to lobby politicians, particularly newly elected officials, which is a BIG no-no for a state agency that must remain apolitical. Alliance for I-69 Lobbyist Gary Bushell was hired by TxDOT to personally lobby more than two-dozen elected officials in the path of TTC-69 prior to the Town Hall meetings.

Houghton admits TxDOT violated the law!
At the packed Town Hall meeting in Hempstead last February, Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said he also personally met with every county judge in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 as he defended the necessity of TxDOT hiring lobbyists to lobby elected officials.

This action is in DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE LAW!

Texas Government Code:

§ 556.005. Employment of Lobbyist

(a) A state agency may not use appropriated money to employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist. Except for an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, a state agency may not use any money under its control to employ or contract with an individual who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist.

“TxDOT has now publicly admitted, on camera, that it has violated the LAW! Are government agencies under the rule of law or not? Who is going to step in and prosecute this rogue agency?” asks an outraged Hall.

TURF also discovered in a memo to TxDOT dated November 8, 2007, that Rodman & Co. marketing gurus drafted positive, pro-TTC quotes on behalf of elected officials in order to place them as positive quotes in press releases about the TTC-69 project.

Political Poll conducted on taxpayers’ dime
TxDOT also hired Governor Rick Perry’s political polling outfit, Bacelice & Associates, to conduct a poll that included asking one’s political party affiliation in its questions.

“What does a person’s political party have to do with a supposed ‘public information’ campaign? Nothing, it’s clear this ad campaign is about pushing a political agenda and brainwashing the public with pro-toll talking points like ‘tolls are better than gas taxes to fund roads.’ C’mon, this is politics run amok and an agency run amok. Who’s going to rein them in?” criticizes Hall.

TxDOT’s behavior demonstrates why there are laws prohibiting the government from using its power and OUR money against the taxpayer. The citizens have the deck stacked against them when their own government forcibly takes their money and uses it to clobber them.

Like TTC-35, TTC-69 plans to convert some existing highways into privately controlled toll roads, making Texas taxpayers pay twice for the same stretch of road as well as to force Texas landowners to give-up their farms and ranches for a massive new stretch of road in order to complete the entire Trans Texas Corridor project.

Read more about TURF’s lawsuit against TxDOT’s misuse of taxpayer money for an ad campaign advocating tolls and against its lobbying activities here.

Read TURF’s formal complaint against TxDOT’s illegal use of taxpayer money filed with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle here.

Link to article here.

This article demonstrates how both TxDOT and lawmakers ignore the law. Once again, TxDOT admits they’re lobbying, this time members of Congress specifically, and no one in the Legislature, Congress or law enforcement is doing a single thing about it! TxDOT leaves out the fact that they stopped hiring outside lobbyists because they got hauled into court by TURF to enforce the law prohibiting them from doing so. Read our press release laying out the laws TxDOT is breaking with impunity, despite our lawsuit!

TxDOT tries to bridge rifts with Texans in Congress

By BENNETT ROTH and STEWART POWELL

May 25, 2008

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Texas Department of Transportation, long viewed as hyperpartisan and arrogant by some members of the state’s congressional delegation, has been trying to soften its image by reaching out to lawmakers of both parties in the nation’s capital.

But while state transportation officials are having some success in easing the personal animus, they still face a stiff challenge in selling their policy agenda to the state’s elected officials in Washington.

Many Texans on the Potomac cringe at the agency’s embrace of toll roads, the controversies surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and TxDOT’s resistance to many of the highway earmarks they deliver to constituents.

“I think it’s a marriage that’s on the rocks,” said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “TxDOT has burned some bridges with the Texas delegation.”

The charm offensive comes as Congress begins work on the reauthorization of the massive transportation legislation that expires in 2009. The reauthorization effort will chart priorities for federal highway spending and for programs into the next decade.

Transportation officials in Texas, who have been warning of highway funding shortfalls, hope to increase their share of federal dollars, which amounted to $3.6 billion in 2006. But they also want the flexibility to tap other sources of revenue, such as toll roads and private leasing of highways.

TxDOT has a lot of animosity to overcome. Democrats hold a grudge against the agency for ignoring them during the years of GOP dominance in the House and for using state taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist linked to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

“They bought the Kool Aid and thought Republicans would be in the permanent majority,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, referring to the GOP lobbyists hired by TxDOT. “It is no secret they didn’t talk to Democrats.”

Thawing relations

Lawmakers say the thaw in relations with state highway officials began last fall when the late Ric Williamson, the hard-charging and very partisan chairman of the state Transportation Commission, flew to Washington to make peace with the delegation after Democrats regained control of Congress. That effort continued after Williamson’s death in December.”There may be hard feelings about things that happened in the past, but we have significant challenges in the future,” said Deirdre Delisi, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to lead the five-member Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT and the state’s extensive highway and bridge system,

TxDOT also has taken action that appears to be aimed at placating Texas Democrats and acknowledging the party will likely remain in control of Congress for the near future.

In February, the agency quietly ended outside lobbying contracts, worth $117,692 a month, including one held by the Federalist Group, which is run by Drew Maloney, DeLay’s former chief of staff.

Democrats had been miffed at the contract in part because Maloney had contributed $15,500 to Republican congressional candidates — including $5,500 to DeLay — since 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Maloney also gave $750 to an opponent of Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, the top Texas Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The same month it canceled the outside contracts, the transportation agency hired Rebecca Reyes, the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, as one of its two staffers in its Washington office. Silvestre Reyes is an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, who named the Texan to head the House Intelligence Committee.

The moves, said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman, were not taken for political reasons. He said that the outside contracts were terminated because of budget cuts and that Rebecca Reyes was hired because she has a background in lobbying.

Silvestre Reyes defended the hiring of his daughter, saying she “went through the same rigorous hiring process as every other applicant who applies to work for the state of Texas.”

Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, said it was “probably true” that TxDOT had experienced problems adapting to the new Democratic congressional leadership.

“There has been an expression of interest in coming here and building relationships,” he said, “but I (still) haven’t seen that happen at this point.”

Lawmakers from both parties have a litany of grievances about the transportation agency’s approach to Congress.

Edwards complained that agency officials “have been instructed to blame Congress for the inability to improve highway projects.” In reality, he said, federal spending for highways in Texas has risen faster than state spending.

The friction with state highway officials came about, Poe said, “when TxDOT wanted to tell us what should be built in Texas. It doesn’t work that way.”

The Trans-Texas Corridor

Many lawmakers do not support plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, envisioned by Perry as a project stretching from Texarkana to Mexico that would be operated by a private consortium. The corridor would include toll lanes for cars and trucks; tracks for freight and passenger trains; and space for pipelines, power lines and communications.Landowners and local governments whose property would be affected by the project have angrily protested the routes in a series of town hall meetings.

“It is public enemy number one in my district,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.

Some lawmakers have signaled a willingness to meddle with plans for the corridor.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, has introduced a bill that would prohibit federal funding for the project. The proposal is backed by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, whose district runs from Austin to western Harris County and is a hotbed of opposition to the corridor.

As a pre-emptive move, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, inserted a provision in an appropriations bill that barred the state from putting tolls on existing highways for a year. The bill subsequently became law.

Texas’ other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who is up for re-election, said he doesn’t believe the corridor is a good idea.

“Obviously, we need more transportation infrastructure in Texas,” he said. “But I don’t think we need to plow up a bunch of new ground on private property across the state to get there.”

Earmarks criticized

Another area of dispute has been the willingness of lawmakers to insert earmarks — orders funding projects — into transportation bills.Lippincott said the earmarks, totaling $208 million for the state, often force the delay of other projects.

But some Democrats, such as Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, believe the earmarks are necessary to ensure a fair distribution of state highway funds.

“I’m going to support earmarks as long as I am here breathing,” Johnson said.

Ned Holmes, a transportation commissioner and Houston businessman, said he believes the rift between TxDOT and the Democrats can be repaired through better communication.

Although he is a Republican, Holmes said he has remained on good terms with congressional Democrats and noted that he contributed $2,000 to Edwards’ re-election campaign in March.

For years, Holmes said, “TxDOT was one of the most respected state agencies.

“I think it will be again.”