Category: General

Schwarzenegger ousts appointee for objecting to PPP toll road

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Link to article here.

These Republican Governors have one playbook…rip-off the taxpayers to benefit their cronies. Mitch Daniels (Indiana), Arnold Schwarzenegger (California), and Rick Perry (Texas) are the three muskateers of taxpayer abuse, all the while Perry is running a re-election campaign contrasting Texas to financially bankrupt California. Perry conveniently overlooks his own similarities to Schwarzenegger in pushing risky public private partnership (PPP) toll road schemes that sell-off public highways to foreign toll operators. Throw in Pennsylvania’s Democrat Governor, Ed Rendell, and it demonstrates PPPs and toll roads provide a bi-partisan, equal opportunity fleecing.

Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to oust transportation commission appointee
The governor withdrew his reappointment after the businessman objected to the administration’s plan for a public-private partnership for freeway construction. But state senators saved his post.
By Patrick McGreevy and Evan Halper
September 2, 2009
Los Angeles Times

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week tried to yank one of his appointees from a state board after the man balked at an administration-backed proposal he considered too risky for taxpayers. But lawmakers, in an end run, kept the San Francisco businessman on the panel.

The appointee to the California Transportation Commission, James Ghielmetti, objected to an administration plan to accelerate the expansion of private companies’ role in freeway construction. He advocated giving regulators more time to assess the potential effects of such a move.

Schwarzenegger, who has aggressively pushed public-private partnerships, then withdrew Ghielmetti’s reappointment to the commission.

But Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) agreed with Ghielmetti. Within hours, he and other senators voted Ghielmetti back onto the panel as their own appointee. In an interview, Ghielmetti said the governor’s chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, was behind the withdrawal.

“She saw this as a chance to get rid of me,” Ghielmetti said.

Ghielmetti said Kennedy accused him of conspiring with Democrats in the Legislature to change the administration’s plan, something he denies.

Administration officials declined to discuss Ghielmetti’s interactions with Kennedy. “The governor is looking for strong advocates for public-private partnerships to get jobs online as quickly as possible,” said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.

He said the administration looks forward to appointing “individuals who share the governor’s commitment to rebuilding the state’s infrastructure and creating jobs.”

The owner and chief executive officer of Signature Properties, a Northern California land development and home-building firm, Ghielmetti said the guidelines for public-private partnerships should include detailed provisions for every possibility, including terms for repayment of money from private firms in the event of default, lease terms and other protections.

He complained that Kennedy and Dale Bonner, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, pressured him to adopt a more “loosey-goosey” approach even though the commission is independent from the administration.

“I felt we were being told what the guidelines should be,” he said. “It’s inappropriate.”

Ghielmetti is the latest Schwarzenegger appointee to be jettisoned after straying from the administration’s agenda. Last year, the governor dropped his brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, and fellow action hero Clint Eastwood from the state parks panel after their opposition helped derail plans for a toll road through San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County. Schwarzenegger supported the project.

In 2007, the chairman of the state Air Resources Board, Robert F. Sawyer, said he was fired by Schwarzenegger for pushing for anti-pollution measures beyond what the governor’s office wanted. Also in 2007, R. Judd Hanna quit the Fish and Game Commission at the administration’s request after Republican lawmakers urged his ouster because he had sought to ban lead bullets in condor territory.

Tolling Exec pulls $10,000 bonus in down economy

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While the average Texan is thankful to have a paycheck, even if it’s a shrinking one, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA) has been living large getting across the board 5% pay increases (FY 2008-2009, with another 5% budgeted for merit increases that were never paid out), and the Executive Director, Terry Brechtel, raking in an additional $10,000 performance bonus, paid to her in June. Performance bonus? Perhaps they mean her performance as a master in obfuscating and misleading the public on its toll plans? (Watch it on You Tube here).

Considering the Bexar County Commissioners were grilling county agencies at Commissioners Court Tuesday over 2% pay hikes in this down economy, it begs the question why a county-appointed tolling authority, the ARMA, is getting off scot-free without a whisper of scrutiny or without challenge to such lavish luxuries when so many in the community are economically hurting.

Considering the ARMA has NOTHING to show for itself, not one road open to traffic after five years in existence, their proposed 5% “merit” increases (budgeted in FY 2008-2009, but were never actually paid out) certainly wouldn’t square with actual performance. Even its 5% cost of living pay increase (FY 2008-2009) is more than most Texans will see in their paychecks this year or next.

In fact, a dozen citizens asked the county commissioner to dissolve the ARMA altogether Tuesday. Three commissioners have already floated the idea of closing the ARMA earlier this year. Yet at today’s ARMA Board meeting, the Board approved the $1.2 million in salaries for the small staff. Though next year’s salaries will not increase, out of eight employees, only two make less than $100,000 a year. Considering the median household income in San Antonio is only $36,000, it shows just how out of step this agency is with the plight of the ordinary citizens it’s anxious to tax to get to work.

Greed and the proverbial “gravy train” motivate the ARMA to continue its gratuitous spending, dishonesty, and intransigence in pushing toll roads on an angry public that rejects tolling existing freeways.

In yesterday’s Washington Times article about executive pay being out of step with main street America, Nell Minow of the Corporate Library, said “the continued big earnings and pay at bailed-out banks is feeding a sense of injustice and outrage among ordinary citizens who are feeling the brunt of the financial crisis. Pay that is out of whack with performance … is a symptom of bad corporate governance, bad economic judgment, but it’s also the disease.”

The same can be said of this government agency. They’ve adopted the worst of corporate America’s bail-out indulgences with government inefficiency and exploitation of the taxpayers who pay the bills.

Enough is enough! It’s high time the County Commissioners put a stop to such abuse and extravagance. Dissolve the ARMA, now!

For more info go to: www.281OverpassesNow.com and www.TexasTURF.org.

Sale of Texas roads to foreign entities dies

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In one of the best developments Texas taxpayers have had all year, the authority to enter into contracts that sell-off Texas freeways to foreign corporations, called Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDAs or PPPs), expired August 31. Spoiling the good news is the fact that about a dozen CDAs were removed from the moratorium placed on CDAs in 2007, so many are at risk of being signed despite the grassroots victory that KILLED CDAs during Rick Perry’s special session of the Texas Legislature in July.

CDAs would charge Texans extremely high tolls to access public roads. The published figures for toll rates on two such deals in Dallas-Ft.Worth are 75 cents PER MILE, totaling $13 daily or over $3,000 a year in new taxes to get to work. One of the most insidious provisions include non-compete clauses that forbid the state from expanding or building roads within a certain mile radius of the toll road as a means to guarantee congestion on the free routes. CDAs also guarantee the private toll operator profit (one proposed amendment by Senator Robert Nichols tried to guarantee they’d never lose money), and they authorize toll hikes for more than 50 years.

In other words, CDAs equal government-sanctioned monopolies and wreak of sweetheart deals and cronyism. The Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, held up several contracts during the 81st legislative session, only to move them along since. Perry fondly refers to CDAs a “innovative financing,” but they’re more aptly called taxpayer rip-offs.

CDAs are also the mechanism through which the Trans Texas Corridor will be built. Two such contracts have been signed, and a third has been awarded but still not signed. In March of 2005, Perry inked a deal with Cintra for the development rights to the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35, a super-sized toll road projected to be 1,200 feet wide, taking 146 acres of private farm and ranch land per mile of corridor for auto and truck lanes, commuter rail and freight rail lanes, telecommunications, and more. It’s been dubbed the biggest land grab and eminent domain project in U.S. history.

In March of 2008, Cintra snagged the CDA to build SH 130 segments 5 & 6, which is part of TTC-35. Cintra is a consistent player vying for many other Texas toll roads. ACS of Spain was awarded the development rights for TTC-69, but the CDA has yet to be signed. In fact last week, in spite of claims by Perry and lawmakers that the Trans Texas Corridor is “dead,” Perry-appointed Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes just asked TxDOT to accelerate the TTC-69 CDA through the Attorney General’s office in order to ink the deal as quickly as possible.

Attorney General Abbott has a fiduciary duty to Texas taxpayers to hold-up these remaining CDA contracts indefinitely. Perry and pro-toll lawmakers have promised to re-authorize CDAs in the next legislative session. It’s Texans’ job to ensure that NEVER happens.

Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 still alive and well

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Link to article here.

Looks like Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor is still alive and well to me…(see end of article). Also, looks like TxDOT can get FREEWAY improvements paid for when they set their minds to it. Note the many pots of money…

I-35 Strike Force Formation Discussed
August 31, 2009
Hillsboro Reporter

Staying on top of Interstate 35 construction projects through Central Texas is expected to be the major goal of a strike force that is being proposed by state-elected officials.

Representatives Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and Charles (Doc) Anderson, R-Waco, were in Hillsboro recently to meet with local business leaders and elected officials at the Hillsboro Area Chamber of Commerce.

While other transportation corridors have been discussed, the interstate was identified as the “absolute common corridor” for commerce across Texas.

Those in attendance learned the significance of Prop. 12, Prop. 14 and TIGER grants, when it comes to highway funding.
Among the Texas Department of Transportation officials on hand were John A. Barton, assistant executive director in charge of engineering operations; Coby Chase, director of the government and public-affairs division; Richard Skopik, Waco District engineer; and Tony Moran, area engineer.

According to Barton, an ongoing cooperative effort should accelerate the development of the Interstate 35 corridor.
The immediate goal is to have the interstate at least six lanes from San Antonio to the east-west split north of Hillsboro, and then to Dallas and Fort Worth.

That has been accomplished with the exception of TxDOT’s Waco District, which stretches from the Williamson County line in the south to the northern boundaries of Hill County.
But, Barton explained that could change in the coming years with the recent commitment of the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC).

The widening project from farm roads 310 to 1304 south of Hillsboro has now been funded and is scheduled to be let for bids in March of next year.

Money for the project was allocated from Proposition 14 or Prop. 14 bonds that were funded during the July special session of the Legislature.

The proposed safety rest areas south of Hillsboro are not expected to be bid until toward the end of the widening project to assure service roads and ramps are in place, Barton said.

Where the exit ramps at Farm Road 1304 will be located has yet to be settled.

A rider that left the ramps unchanged was attached to the transportation bill, but it failed to be passed during the regular session.

The configuration approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) would move the southbound exit back to the north near the proposed rest area.

Skopik said that his staff is looking at plans that would move the ramp about 1,000 feet rather than the proposed 2,000 to 3,000 feet to the north.

“We have to educate the FHWA and get them to agree to the decision since it was approved in a public setting,” the district engineer said.

Voters approved $5 billion in general-revenue transportation bonds in 2007, but due to the economic downturn, only $2 billion were funded during the special session.

According to Representative Pitts, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, the state couldn’t afford the payments on the full $5 billion.

Of the $2 billion, half was placed in TxDOT’s Infrastructure Bank, which provides funds for local entities to borrow against for transportation-related projects.

The other $1 billion was made available to the TTC for projects of their choice.

Federal stimulus money has been allocated to reconstruct I-35 from just south of Salado into Temple. That work will be let in May.

The other state-funding source for projects includes Prop 12, which is known as the Texas Mobility Fund, which was created by voters in 2003.

According to Skopik, those bonds must be repaid with gas-tax or vehicle-registration revenue rather than general-fund revenue.

“But we’re about to use up the authorized spending from Prop 12,” the district engineer added. “It is projected by 2011 or 2012 TxDOT will have fully used that funding.”

TIGER is the latest funding acronym to surface in transportation circles.

Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants are the last subset of the federal-stimulus money, Skopik explained.

It makes $1.5 billion in competitive grants available nationwide for highway, rail and ports.
The amount each state can receive is $300 million, according to Chase.

“Interstate 35 is main street Texas, and there will be agonizing decisions on where the money will be spent.

“We will be working with our friends (Texas delegation) in Washington to make sure we get a fair shake,” Chase added.

The competitive grant process has a September 15 deadline, and the Waco District is seeking money to reconstruct the interstate from Bellmead to just south of West.

If that project is funded, it would just leave a stretch from south of West to north of Abbott and between Waco and Temple to be widened to six lanes.

A second commitment of Prop. 14 funds from the TTC in January puts the engineering of those remaining sections on the front burner.

According to Barton, the commission has provided the funds to have all sections in the Waco District and up I-35E ready when right-of-way and construction funds become available.
Skopik and his staff have until the end of 2011 to complete the engineering work.

A similar deadline has been given to the Dallas District office for I-35E from the Hill County line north to Dallas.
The roadway is currently six lanes from Dallas south to near Waxahachie.

The money has yet to be allocated for engineering on Interstate 35W to Fort Worth because “the demand is not quite there,” Barton said.

Hillsboro Mayor John Erwin, who serves on TxDOT’s I-35 segment committee, questioned what happens after the interstate is expanded to six lanes.

Barton said that he was “optimistic” that the end is near on getting the funding to widen the interstate to six lanes.

“We don’t need to wait, we need to talk today about what we will do after I-35 is expanded as much as possible,” the assistant executive director pointed out.

Chase pointed out, from a statewide perspective, widening I-35 to six lanes only keeps up with the congestion, it doesn’t relieve it.

Mayor Erwin said that he thought high-speed rail needed to be a major part of the solution.

Hillsboro has remained active in the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation, which has the Texas T-Bone plan to run high-speed rail from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio and “T” off at Killeen to go to Houston.

The results of an environmental impact study on the old Trans-Texas Corridor that passed through eastern Hill County remains in the pipeline.

A ruling on the study by the FHWA is expected by the end of the year.

Barton said that TxDOT had to follow through with the process, but there has been no decision on what to do with the study if it is approved.

The corridor system proposed by Governor Rick Perry fell by the wayside following political pressure from rural Texas residents.

Two cities to challenge San Antonio toll roads

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Link to article here.

You may remember we’ve been working with American Stewards of Liberty (formerly Stewards of the Range) on forming these subregional planning commissions all over the state, called 391 commissions. We refer to them as 391 commissions because that’s where the authority to form them comes from in the local government code. It forces federal, state, and local agencies to meet their legal requirement to “coordinate” with local governments. For instance, if one of these cities or counties says in its regional plan that no toll road can come through its jurisdiction (or in an area that impacts its residents), then these agencies (RMA/TxDOT) basically can’t do it.

Up until now, they’ve all been in rural cities and counties in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor (using it as a means to stop the TTC). Well, weeks ago, after two long years of work, the cities of Hollywood Park and Hill Country Village formed one. It is the first one formed in an urban area. Hollywood Park is right at 281/1604 (ideal to stop the tolling of both highways) and Hill Country Village is just south of Hollywood Park (on the west side of 281), still in the project area.

Government to government challenges are FAR stronger than citizens to their government. We see what the government thinks about citizens…we’re just a loud “minority” or some other dismissive attitude. But they cannot ignore these two cities. Since they wouldn’t listen to us or two lawsuits, we changed our government so we could challenge them from within…

Cities partner to address 281/1604 together
By Christine Stanley
August 27, 2009
North Central News

Hill Country Village is joining forces with Hollywood Park to form a sub-regional planning commission that would tackle the U.S. 281/Loop 1604 interchange revamp — and any other state or federal project that may affect the two cities.Hollywood Park City Councilman Bob Sartor got the green light from his colleagues to start work on the commission last month. Hill Country Village council members approved the move Aug. 20.

State and federal law allows for at least two governing agencies — at the city or county level, or both — to form a sub-regional planning commission to promote the coordinated development of a particular region.

Such a commission can do that in a number of ways, including recommendations to higher governmental authorities on how to proceed with a particular project.

In this case, the sub-regional planning commission would focus on Alamo Regional Mobility Authority’s proposed $140 million plan for the 281/1604 interchange.

ARMA plans to build four elevated “direct connectors” between the two highways that would connect travelers on 281 north to the east and west sides of 1604, and two more connectors would take travelers from both sides of the loop to 281 south.

Construction could begin as early as next year.

ARMA is reaching out to Hollywood Park, Hill Country Village and surrounding cities through its own citizen advisory groups and public meetings, but Sartor reminded Hollywood Park residents last month that the agency has no legal obligation to meet with any community.

By law, ARMA would have to meet with the sub-regional planning commission and take any of its recommendations into consideration before making a final decision on the connector project.

Hollywood Park council members have expressed concern about negative impacts to their constituents during and after construction.

Hill Country Village Mayor Kirk Francis said he is worried about ARMA’s true intentions. He reminded his colleagues that ARMA was originally created by the state Legislature as a tolling authority.

“So I’m kind of curious why ARMA is hosting all these meetings that have to do with what’s supposed to be a TxDOT project,” Francis said Aug. 20.

ARMA has stressed on its Web site and in recent public meetings that the 281/1604 interchange will not be tolled.

Francis said the two cities will work out bylaws for the sub-regional planning commission during the next few weeks. It appears the commission will include Francis and Hollywood Park Mayor Richard McIlveen, a council member from each city and a resident designee appointed by each mayor.

“Right now, (ARMA) can tell us after the fact, they can invite us to meetings — that’s their form of communication,” Francis said.

He said the panel would also bring both cities closer in addressing health and safety issues of mutual interest.

Hill Country Village council members also approved a contract with Acadian Ambulance Service Aug. 20.

Francis was the tiebreaker in a vote to sever ties with San Antonio EMS last month. He broke a tie between council members Gabriel Durand-Hollis and Margaret Mayberry, who were in favor of sticking with San Antonio EMS, and Register and Elizabeth Worley, who wanted to switch to Acadian.

The ambulance provider would incorporate Hill Country Village into its coverage area for free, saving the city about $35,000 each year.

Hank Gilbert running for Governor

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Link to article here.

Hank has served on the Board of TURF for several years and has fought alongside us to STOP Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor, the sale of TX roads to Spain (CDAs), and the proliferation of toll roads. He is President of the Piney Woods Subregional Planning Commission formed to stop the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project, and Hank was instrumental in KILLING CDAs and protecting pension funds during the special session in July.

Gilbert announces Democratic bid for governor
By R.G. RATCLIFFE AUSTIN BUREAU
Aug. 26, 2009, 9:53PM

photo

AUSTIN — The second highest vote-getting Democrat from the 2006 elections, agriculture commissioner nominee Hank Gilbert, said Wednesday he plans to join the fight for his party’s gubernatorial nomination.

Gilbert, 49, a Tyler-area rancher, received 42 percent of the vote in his race against Republican Todd Staples for agriculture commissioner.

In the current governor’s race, Gilbert said he can bridge the gap between Democrats and moderate Republicans who are “disgusted” with incumbent Rick Perry’s service. Gilbert said he does not believe U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison can defeat Perry in the GOP primary.

Gilbert’s entry into the race became another potential stumbling block for Fort Worth businessman Tom Schieffer, who received endorsements Wednesday from some of the top state House Democratic leaders.

They included Reps. Garnet Coleman and Jessica Farrar of Houston, Jim Dunnam of Waco, and Pete Gallego of Alpine. The group said Schieffer will be able to govern the state by bringing Democrats and Republicans together.

Schieffer has been struggling to win over hard-core Democrats because he was business partners with former President George W. Bush and served in his administration as ambassador to Japan and Australia, where he had to defend the policy of indefinite detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Former party railroad commission nominee Mark Thompson also is in the race, and humorist Kinky Friedman is expected to join the fray.

Schieffer said he had hoped that Gilbert would run for agriculture commissioner again on a ticket with him.

“Ten days ago, Hank Gilbert talked to me about being part of the team and running the ag race. His exact words to me were: ‘You need to cover me in the urban areas, and I’ll cover your back in the rural areas,’ ” Schieffer said.

Gilbert said he had told Schieffer that at a Democratic summit in Tyler, but he said he changed his mind and decided to run for governor after listening to Schieffer speak.

“The man is very intelligent,” Gilbert said. “But he just didn’t inspire me. I was looking for that spark.”

Divide & Conquer: the 281 nightmare continues

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First decode the jargon:

ARMA = Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA), a misleading name for tolling authority, whenever you hear “mobility” it’s code for tolling

MPO = Metropolitan Planning Organization is the local transportation planning board

NEPA = National Environmental Policy Act, federal law that guides environmental review for highway projects

__________________________________________________

The RMA can’t seem to tell the truth. At yesterday’s MPO meeting, Executive Director,Terry Brechtel, couldn’t even tell the Board how many toll lanes the agency is planning to build on 281. She’s either incompetent or intentionally hiding the truth. I believe it’s the later.

The point of the discussion was to get to the bottom of what happened to the $100 million in gas taxes dedicated to fix 281 (some became available in since 2003, the rest by 2006, documents showed it was still there through 2007) and how to move forward with an immediate solution. For the scoop on how a non-toll plan for overpasses and expansion on 281 was promised in public hearings in 2001 and funded with gas taxes since 2003, go to: www.281OverpassesNow.com.

Every project needs environmental clearance and funding. Sufficient funding, despite TxDOT’s best attempts at hiding and spending every cent available to fix 281, is still available. But yesterday, Clay Smith of TxDOT NEVER answered Rep. David Leibowitz’ direct question asking where the $100 million in gas taxes went. Brechtel also tried to claim the cost difference between the 20-lane toll road and 10-lane freeway plan was a mere $20 million.

TxDOT nor the RMA ever has to answer for its defiance, not as long as we have Rick Perry as governor and a sheepish legislature that’s too afraid to fix the big bad wolf. Guys like Commissioner Tommy Adkisson (new Chair of the MPO) and Rep. Leibowitz are in short supply in Austin. However, Bexar County Commissioners appoint the RMA Board and have floated the idea of dissolving it. Let’s insist they do.

The other hurdle in getting 281 fixed becomes the environmental clearance. The clearance for the toll road was pulled October 1, 2008. TxDOT royally botched the 281 toll road environmental study that was found to be rigged and fraudulent for which one employee was fired, two others “re-assigned,” and caused TxDOT to be banned from doing the new study (totally unprecedented).

The clearance was pulled for the toll road only. Federal law, NEPA, provides for a different course of action to advance in place of the toll road, particularly one that’s different in size, scope, and impacts. The original non-toll plan for 281 fits the bill, and yesterday we laid out how to get environmental clearance expedited for 281. It was abundantly obvious that TxDOT and the RMA continue to dismiss ANY other solution other than converting our existing FREEway into a tollway. Every non-toll scenario is shot down.

281-Schematic4.gif

Brechtel and sidekick Leroy Alloway blatantly misled the public in Sunday’s Express-News article stating that the footprint for the freeway plan and the toll road are identical when the RMA’s own web site (see inset photos) and even past Express-News reports show otherwise. The original freeway fix is 10 lanes and the toll road is up to 20 lanes wide. We don’t need a mega toll road to fix 281, we need overpasses and access roads.

281-Schematic3.gif

The toll road has detrimental impacts that the non-toll plan does not. There are significant negative economic impacts such as $2,000-$3,000 a year in new toll taxes and a higher cost of goods, indirect effects such as traffic diverting to neighborhood streets, environmental impacts due to continuous frontage roads that induce overdevelopment of the aquifer and a larger footprint creating greater impervious cover.

In addition, the criteria to determine what level of study is needed states controversy as a reason to do a full environmental impact statement. The toll roads are extremely controversial. The FHWA already required the RMA to do a full impact statement for the Bandera toll road for that reason.

Public meetings this week:
“Open House” means silence opposition
The RMA is hosting two public hearings this week, one tonight on the 281/1604 interchange at Harvest Fellowship off 1604 (just west of 281) at 5:30 PM, and a 281 “Scoping Meeting” Thursday at St. Mark’s Church off Thousand Oaks at 5:30 PM. The Open House techniques being utilized by the RMA for its public hearings do not comport with federal law, NEPA.

An open house format does not allow the public a chance to hear a formal presentation all at one time, with identical project information. The public has to read handouts, look at posters and project drawings spread around the room, and ask one-on-one questions of people from ARMA and the consulting firms in order to gain any understanding of the project. There is no official record of the questions and answers from the comments/concerns expressed in such one-on-ones. For a public hearing, there is a comment and response report where you can read the agency’s official response, but not with an open house.

TxDOT in recent years has begun to use the open house so that those opposed to a project don’t get to express their opposition during an open comment period at the end of a meeting where the audience hears these concerns and sometimes applauds and may cause some people to change their minds about a project. The open house format is a divide and conquer technique designed to silence those who may oppose the agency’s preferred alternative, which is always toll roads.

At the RMA’s open house for the 281 superstreet, attendees were not even made aware that in order to have their comments appear on the official record, they had to go submit them to the stenographer. We had many folks tell us they didn’t even know a stenographer was present.

The open house format is not a proper format for public hearings and it must be stopped or it can and will be challenged.

Here’s what you can do…

1. Head straight to the stenographer to get your comments on the official record.
2. Express your concerns with the Open House format where dissemination of info is not uniform and citizens cannot benefit from hearing other attendees thoughts about potential impacts.
3. Specifically for the interchange meeting, ask to see the document you’re supposed to be commenting on. (they’re holding a public meeting for comments on a document we believe is not even completed yet, which is cart before the horse and another violation)

Divide & Conquer: the 281 nightmare continues

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First decode the jargon:

ARMA = Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA), a misleading name for tolling authority, whenever you hear “mobility” it’s code for tolling

MPO = Metropolitan Planning Organization is the local transportation planning board

NEPA = National Environmental Policy Act, federal law that guides environmental review for highway projects

__________________________________________________

The RMA can’t seem to tell the truth. At yesterday’s MPO meeting, Executive Director,Terry Brechtel, couldn’t even tell the Board how many toll lanes the agency is planning to build on 281. She’s either incompetent or intentionally hiding the truth. I believe it’s the later.

The point of the discussion was to get to the bottom of what happened to the $100 million in gas taxes dedicated to fix 281 (some became available in since 2003, the rest by 2006, documents showed it was still there through 2007) and how to move forward with an immediate solution. For the scoop on how a non-toll plan for overpasses and expansion on 281 was promised in public hearings in 2001 and funded with gas taxes since 2003, go to: www.281OverpassesNow.com.

Every project needs environmental clearance and funding. Sufficient funding, despite TxDOT’s best attempts at hiding and spending every cent available to fix 281, is still available. But yesterday, Clay Smith of TxDOT NEVER answered Rep. David Leibowitz’ direct question asking where the $100 million in gas taxes went. Brechtel also tried to claim the cost difference between the 20-lane toll road and 10-lane freeway plan was a mere $20 million.

TxDOT nor the RMA ever has to answer for its defiance, not as long as we have Rick Perry as governor and a sheepish legislature that’s too afraid to fix the big bad wolf. Guys like Commissioner Tommy Adkisson (new Chair of the MPO) and Rep. Leibowitz are in short supply in Austin. However, Bexar County Commissioners appoint the RMA Board and have floated the idea of dissolving it. Let’s insist they do.

The other hurdle in getting 281 fixed becomes the environmental clearance. The clearance for the toll road was pulled October 1, 2008. TxDOT royally botched the 281 toll road environmental study that was found to be rigged and fraudulent for which one employee was fired, two others “re-assigned,” and caused TxDOT to be banned from doing the new study (totally unprecedented).

The clearance was pulled for the toll road only. Federal law, NEPA, provides for a different course of action to advance in place of the toll road, particularly one that’s different in size, scope, and impacts. The original non-toll plan for 281 fits the bill, and yesterday we laid out how to get environmental clearance expedited for 281. It was abundantly obvious that TxDOT and the RMA continue to dismiss ANY other solution other than converting our existing FREEway into a tollway. Every non-toll scenario is shot down.

281-Schematic4.gif

Brechtel and sidekick Leroy Alloway blatantly misled the public in Sunday’s Express-News article stating that the footprint for the freeway plan and the toll road are identical when the RMA’s own web site (see inset photos) and even past Express-News reports show otherwise. The original freeway fix is 10 lanes and the toll road is up to 20 lanes wide. We don’t need a mega toll road to fix 281, we need overpasses and access roads.

281-Schematic3.gif

The toll road has detrimental impacts that the non-toll plan does not. There are significant negative economic impacts such as $2,000-$3,000 a year in new toll taxes and a higher cost of goods, indirect effects such as traffic diverting to neighborhood streets, environmental impacts due to continuous frontage roads that induce overdevelopment of the aquifer and a larger footprint creating greater impervious cover.

In addition, the criteria to determine what level of study is needed states controversy as a reason to do a full environmental impact statement. The toll roads are extremely controversial. The FHWA already required the RMA to do a full impact statement for the Bandera toll road for that reason.

Public meetings this week:
“Open House” means silence opposition
The RMA is hosting two public hearings this week, one tonight on the 281/1604 interchange at Harvest Fellowship off 1604 (just west of 281) at 5:30 PM, and a 281 “Scoping Meeting” Thursday at St. Mark’s Church off Thousand Oaks at 5:30 PM. The Open House techniques being utilized by the RMA for its public hearings do not comport with federal law, NEPA.

An open house format does not allow the public a chance to hear a formal presentation all at one time, with identical project information. The public has to read handouts, look at posters and project drawings spread around the room, and ask one-on-one questions of people from ARMA and the consulting firms in order to gain any understanding of the project. There is no official record of the questions and answers from the comments/concerns expressed in such one-on-ones. For a public hearing, there is a comment and response report where you can read the agency’s official response, but not with an open house.

TxDOT in recent years has begun to use the open house so that those opposed to a project don’t get to express their opposition during an open comment period at the end of a meeting where the audience hears these concerns and sometimes applauds and may cause some people to change their minds about a project. The open house format is a divide and conquer technique designed to silence those who may oppose the agency’s preferred alternative, which is always toll roads.

At the RMA’s open house for the 281 superstreet, attendees were not even made aware that in order to have their comments appear on the official record, they had to go submit them to the stenographer. We had many folks tell us they didn’t even know a stenographer was present.

The open house format is not a proper format for public hearings and it must be stopped or it can and will be challenged.

Here’s what you can do…

1. Head straight to the stenographer to get your comments on the official record.
2. Express your concerns with the Open House format where dissemination of info is not uniform and citizens cannot benefit from hearing other attendees thoughts about potential impacts.
3. Specifically for the interchange meeting, ask to see the document you’re supposed to be commenting on. (they’re holding a public meeting for comments on a document we believe is not even completed yet, which is cart before the horse and another violation)

RMA open house on 281/1604 interchange a farce

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Link to article here.

See why the “open house” format is an affront to federal requirements for public involvement here.

Web Posted: 08/26/2009 12:00 CDT

Study on highway project disputed

By Josh Baugh – Express-News
The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority on Tuesday held its lone public meeting for plans to build four non-tolled direct connectors between U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 — a plan that’s expected to ease congestion in one of the city’s worst intersections.

But the RMA’s efforts to quickly move through a low-level environmental review came under fire from critics who’ve raised concerns about everything from environmental impact to the method in which the meeting was conducted.

The RMA will use federal stimulus money to pay for the $140 million project that will connect northbound U.S. 281 with eastbound and westbound Loop 1604 and connect eastbound and westbound 1604 to southbound 281. The northern side of the project can’t be built, RMA officials said, because the agency doesn’t have environmental clearance for work north of the loop.

Enrique Valdivia, president of Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, said his group advocates a more holistic approach. AGUA believes that the environmental review ought to include the Loop 1604 and U.S. 281 corridors as well.

“What we’ve been arguing all along is that any long-term solution needs to take in the entire area — not a piecemeal approach,” he said.

The RMA is conducting three separate environmental reviews on the two highways and the direct-connector project.

Valdivia said he’s concerned that constructing the direct connectors will predetermine the scope and plan of expanding Loop 1604 and U.S. 281.

His group, a co-plaintiff with Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, hasn’t ruled out reopening a federal lawsuit to ensure that the proper level of environmental review is done.

Stacey Benningfield, a consultant handling the RMA’s environmental review, said the level of review isn’t up to the RMA. Rather, it’s decided by the Federal Highway Administration. That agency has directed the RMA to do the lowest level of environmental review — a categorical exclusion — for the interchange project, Benningfield said.

Agency officials based that recommendation on other similar projects and what they knew about the RMA project, Benningfield said. The federal agency has the final say in approving the document and based on the review could require a higher-level study.

Tuesday’s meeting was a successful one, RMA officials said. RMA board members attended and helped answer specific questions from the public.

“This is an opportunity for the public to really get engaged,” RMA Executive Director Terry Brechtel said. “Look around. People are talking. They’re asking questions.”

The RMA hopes to hire a contractor by next spring to design and build the project.

RMA lies about size of 281 toll road

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Link to article here.

The RMA purposely misleads the public in this article. Read what happened when we shined the light on these falsehoods here. See the proof that shows the 281 toll road is twice the footprint of the FREEway plan at www.281OverpassesNow.com.

Web Posted: 08/23/2009

Agency ‘aggressive’ on U.S. 281 environmental review

By Josh Baugh – Express-News
By 2012, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority is hoping to have wrapped up the most extensive environmental review ever conducted on U.S. 281, the prerequisite to any long-term relief on the region’s most gridlocked stretch of highway.

The results of the federal “environmental impact statement,” or EIS, will dictate if and possibly how the U.S. 281 corridor from Loop 1604 to the Comal County line will be improved. No capacity can be added to U.S. 281 without first completing the EIS. It’s typically a five-year process, but the RMA hopes to complete it in three years.

“That is the bestthe best-case scenario in any circumstance,” said Terry Brechtel, executive director of the RMA. “We have decided to be aggressive and do some things to try to get this through. A lot of people and a lot of resources are trying to get it done.”

Improving U.S. 281 has been a controversial issue here for years because of the potential for toll roads, and it likely will continue to be as the RMA moves forward on its EIS.

Toll critic Terri Hall, the agency’s most outspoken opponent, has suggested that the cumbersome environmental review isn’t necessary — at least not anymore. Hall was part of a 2008 lawsuit that demanded that an EIS be conducted before any improvements were made to U.S. 281.

Her aim is to take toll roads out of the mix.

The EIS will evaluate, among other things, potential environmental, social and economic impacts that the highway’s expansion could have on the corridor. The study is supposed to take in a lot of public input.

It’s the type of study that toll opponents and environmental activists sought in a 2008 lawsuit they filed against the Federal Highway Administration, the RMA and the Texas Department of Transportation. Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom sought an injunction blocking tolled highway expansion until an EIS was prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

The groups wanted an EIS conducted jointly on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604. But the RMA is conducting an EIS separately for each highway. AGUA President Enrique Valdivia said that in itself taints the EIS process because it signifies the RMA putting its mark on the process before any outcome is reached.

Clearance yanked

In 2007, the Federal Highway Administration had given environmental clearance to the project based on a lower-level study — an environmental assessment — but the federal agency pulled the OK in 2008 after TxDOT announced that it had discovered irregularities in how its San Antonio district had procured scientific services.

The highway administration then sent a letter to the RMA requiring that an EIS be prepared for any future federal transportation project in the U.S. 281 corridor.

Environmentalists and toll opponents point to their lawsuit as a victory in stopping the project.

But Hall — TURF’s founder and director, and a plaintiff in the 2008 lawsuit — says the cumbersome EIS process could be avoided if plans to toll the highway were jettisoned.

RMA officials say it’s clear that there’s no way around conducting an EIS before adding capacity to U.S. 281. The Federal Highway Administration has said as much in a letter requiring that the study be done before any federal money is spent on U.S. 281. But Hall contends that the yanked environmental clearance only applies to the plan to build toll roads. Based on Hall’s reading of the National Environmental Policy Act, a non-tolled plan could undergo an “environmental assessment,” or EA, which is a lower-level study.

“We would argue that if you look at NEPA, you could actually do an expedited EA, meaning even faster than a normal EA, which is pretty quick compared to an EIS. And one of the things it says there in NEPA is that you don’t have to have public hearings, even. That’s a very long process.”

Hall advocates for TxDOT’s “original plan,” which called for two additional main lanes, bringing the total on U.S. 281 to six, along with four lanes of frontage roads. All the lanes were to be built as non-tolled.

But Leroy Alloway, the RMA’s director of community relations, says the footprint has never changed from the “original plan.”

“If you look at the plan she’s talking about, which is overpasses and frontage roads, and you look at the 2005 plan, they’re identical,” he said. “You look at the 2007 plan, it’s still the same footprint. You’re still building the exact same thing. The only difference was the expressway lanes would have been tolled. The frontage roads would have stayed as frontage roads. … That footprint didn’t change.”

That’s why the EIS should move forward, he said.

Solution sought

Now nobody knows what will be built. That’s where the public comes in.

On Thursday, the RMA will hold the first of several public meetings to gather input on how to deal with gridlock in the U.S. 281 corridor. In technical terms, the RMA will determine “need and purpose” that will help guide the outcome of the study — what the “preferred alternative” could be.

Maybe it’s the “original plan,” or the six tolled lanes that currently appear in the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s fiscally restrained Transportation Improvement Plan. Maybe it’s passenger rail, bus rapid transit or high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.

Throughout the process, a residents advisory group — which includes seats for AGUA and both of Hall’s groups, TURF and the San Antonio Toll Party — will meet and offer input for the EIS.

For Hall, though, it’s all for naught.

“At the end of the day, we want to get the overpass and original expansion plan for U.S. 281 funded and fixed and move forward with an expedited EA, and this whole EIS thing will be moot,” she said. That is, without toll roads on the drawing board.

But RMA officials say the U.S. 281 corridor is now a “blank slate” and that the EIS will determine the best way to address congestion there. There are a couple caveats: The preferred plan doesn’t have to be the most environmentally friendly, and funding sources have to be identified.

The RMA’s Brechtel says tolls are on the table and will remain so until another funding source becomes available. There’s not enough money from the state or federal governments to build the estimated $450 million project.

Hall said TURF would push in the 2011 Legislature for an indexed gas tax increase that would cover the cost of constructing freeways.

There are other options, Brechtel says, adding that San Antonio and Bexar County could decide to create a public improvement district or use property taxes to fund the project. More stimulus money could become available. Or a local-option sales tax — shot down in the Legislature this year — could take the place of tolls.

“Federal law says to keep a project going through an environmental study process, you have to have a reasonable revenue source, and today that reasonable revenue source is tolls,” Brechtel said. “I’ve been explaining that to folks on the MPO so they understand how this works.”

Brechtel wouldn’t speculate on the possibility of shifting trends at the MPO, the local agency that oversees more than $200 million of federal transportation dollars. Its new chairman, County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, is a toll opponent and ally of Terri Hall.

Hall said she thinks the MPO could vote to rescind its approval of tolls, effectively deflating the RMA. If Brechtel’s concerned about that, she wouldn’t say.

A toll-road vote isn’t on Monday’s MPO agenda, she said, so she’s not worried about it “this month.”

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