Category: General

Citigroup spends bailout money to buy debt-ridden toll roads

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Link to article here.

Bailed-Out Bank Goes on Toll Road Buying Binge
Bailed out Citigroup fund spends $10 billion buying 44 foreign toll roads.
The Newspaper.com
December 1, 2008

Citi toll roadJust one week after receiving a pledge of $306 billion in support from US taxpayers, Citigroup announced the intended $10 billion acquisition of a debt-laden Spanish toll road group. Citi Infrastructure Partners will hand over $3.6 billion in cash and assume $6.3 billion in debt from Sacyr Vallehermoso, the parent company of the Intinere Infraestructuras toll road group. Itinere operates 32 toll roads in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Portugal and Spain and Ireland. Another twelve concessions are under construction. Sacyr today issued a statement to Spanish investors noting that the company succeeded in offloading 37 percent of its total debt to the US firm.

“With this transaction, the group reaps the value that Itinere accumulated for its mature concession assets and strengthens its financial situation by considerably reducing its indebtedness,” the statement explained.

On November 23, the US Treasury announced that it had invested $20 billion in US taxpayer funds in Citigroup in addition to “protection against the possibility of unusually large losses” on $306 billion in bad debt the company had acquired primarily in commercial and residential real estate markets. Armed with the new taxpayer capital, Citigroup believes its purchase of the toll roads will hold long-term value. In the immediate term, Citigroup will sell off Itinere’s stakes in five Spanish and Chilean toll roads to Spanish tolling giant Abertis, allowing that company to assume full ownership of its tolling assets. The deal is valued at $786 million.

Other analysts, including Fitch Ratings, view tolling as a risky investment as toll road volumes have plummeted in response to the recent spikes in gasoline prices and the global economic slowdown. In August, Fitch issued a warning that its outlook on tolling had changed to “negative,” reflecting a dim view of the creditworthiness of the long-term transactions. In October, Citigroup and Abertis gave up on their joint bid to collect tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The consortium spent millions bankrolling a slick public relations campaign that ultimately failed to sway public opinion on the wisdom of the 75-year proposal.

TxDOT public relations, lobbying arm questioned

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Link to article here. Read the damaging evidence TURF’s lawsuit to stop TxDOT’s illegal lobbying and ad campaign to promote toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor uncovered here.

TxDOT spends $10.5 million to inform public
Key legislator takes issue with how agency’s money is spent
By PEGGY FIKAC
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Nov. 30, 2008

AUSTIN — When state lawmakers expressed surprise at the size of the Texas Department of Transportation’s government relations and public affairs operation, they didn’t know the half of it.

The heft of TxDOT’s Government and Public Affairs division, which is budgeted for 63 people and nearly $6.5 million a year, raised eyebrows earlier this year after concerns the agency had promoted issues such as toll roads and the ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor network despite opposition from the public and a number of lawmakers.

It turns out the GPA division is only part of the agency’s public-information picture. Sixty-seven more people do public information or media relations for TxDOT, including those working at the agency’s district office.

TxDOT said it couldn’t tally how much is budgeted for such duties outside of GPA, saying most, if not all, the staffers also perform other tasks. Their salaries alone amount to $4 million a year, according to figures released in response to a public information request from the Houston Chronicle.

That means $10.5 million is spent annually on government and public affairs by TxDOT, largely excluding staffers who promote tourism and travel.

“So, $10.5 million to communicate as poorly as we have communicated is probably not acceptable,” said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, a member of the Sunset Advisory Commission, which is considering possible changes at TxDOT and had a hearing earlier this year that included a look at GPA’s size.

Kolkhorst, who pushed a moratorium on privately operated toll roads in 2007, has taken issue with TxDOT’s approach. TxDOT’s commission is appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, who has championed toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor, and the agency has been accused of too actively following suit.

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said agency efforts have been within the parameters of the law.

A huge response to town hall meetings and to a solicitation of comments on the Trans-Texas Corridor shows the effectiveness of its efforts, Lippincott said.

He said issues such as toll roads make up only part of TxDOT’s public information operation, which also works to inform people on such things as routes to take when hurricanes are imminent.

“We touch just about everybody in this state that gets in a car or gets on a bus or a train,” he said, “and that requires a lot of interaction.”

Outgoing House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, said

TxDOT handles complex issues that require communication and public hearings.

Lippincott noted that the amount spent on the GPA division and other public information efforts amounts to a tiny fraction — 0.125 percent, or just over one-tenth of 1 percent of TxDOT’s nearly $8.4 billion annual budget.

He noted TxDOT is in a hiring “chill” affecting the GPA division, which currently has 54 positions filled.

The total is, however, larger than what the other five largest state agencies in Texas calculate they spend under the label of government and public affairs.

The one that comes closest is the Department of State Health Services, with 30 people in its consumer, external affairs and Web office, with a combined budget of $2.54 million. That’s 0.09 percent of the agency’s total annual budget of nearly $2.8 billion.

Among others:

•The Texas Education Agency has 17 people in communications, governmental relations, media services and Web services, budgeted at $1.3 million. The total is nearly 0.005 percent of the $26.3 billion in funds that flow through the agency.
•The Health and Human Services Commission has 21 people in communications and external relations offices, budgeted at nearly $1.6 million — 0.0099 percent of its $16 billion annual budget. That total doesn’t include $2.35 million for advertising work related to two public information campaigns.
•The Department of Aging and Disability Services has 21 people in communications and government relations, with a $1.15 million tab for overhead and salaries nearly 0.019 percent of its total budget of nearly $6.2 billion annually.
•The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has 18 people in government and public affairs, budgeted at $769,717. That’s nearly 0.027 percent of its total budget of nearly $2.9 billion.
But Krusee said that comparing TxDOT to another agency is “not apples-to-apples.”

“They have a different mission, and it’s a far more complex process which requires communication with the public at a level of pervasiveness and complexity probably unmatched elsewhere in state government,” Krusee said.

Kolkhorst said, “The No. 1 thing that the Sunset report talked about was that this agency had lost the trust of the people.

“And how do you lose trust? You lose trust by actions and words, and I’m very disappointed that we’re spending $10.5 million, more than we’ve ever spent, and the trust could not be at a lower level than it is today.”

TxDOT employee FIRED over 281 fraudulent study

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Link to article here. Read more detail about TxDOT’s illegal actions here.

Firing, reprimands follow tainted study for 281 tollway

By Patrick Driscoll – Express-News

11/26/2008
Two months after a lawsuit revealed a conflict of interest that spoiled yet another environmental study for the U.S. 281 tollway, the Texas Department of Transportation has responded by firing a biologist and disciplining other staffers.

A recent internal audit said TxDOT biologist Valerie Collins, based in San Antonio, was involved with several contract jobs being done for the U.S. 281 study by a consulting company her husband works for.

Her supervisor, Transportation Planning Director Judith Friesenhahn, and other TxDOT employees knew about the relationship, the audit says.

“District staff attempted to implement controls to mitigate a conflict,” TxDOT’s San Antonio manager, Mario Medina, said in a memo Friday to agency Director Amadeo Saenz. “But the controls were insufficient and in some instances were circumvented by” Collins.

TxDOT fired Collins on Nov. 13, more than seven weeks after the in-house probe started, Medina said. Other employees were put on probation or reassigned and will undergo extra training on the agency’s conflict of interest policy.

Also, TxDOT is reviewing other projects involving the firm Collins’ husband works for, SWCA Environmental Consultants, to see if there might be other conflicts. That report is due next month.

Collins, her husband and SWCA officials didn’t return phone calls.

Flubbing the environmental study put the 8-mile U.S. 281 tollway behind at least three more years, and doing another will cost an estimated $8 million. A bruised TxDOT, under pressure from lawsuits, has now let two federal clearances on the project slip away since 2006.

“Incidents like this one … are an affront to the thousands of TxDOT employees who strive conscientiously every day to be good stewards of the state’s resources,” Saenz said in a statement.

Toll critics, who suspect the agency’s problems are more widespread, have called for a housecleaning.

“It’s been obvious to us from day one that TxDOT was willing to do and say anything to get a toll road on U.S. 281,” said Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. “I don’t think one biologist should take the fall. It should be management that pays the price.”

Hall lately has pointed to a copy of an alleged e-mail, received by mail from an anonymous source, as an example that shows TxDOT predetermined the outcome of the U.S. 281 study. Such a fix would violate federal regulations.

But a separate TxDOT audit cast doubt on the authenticity of the e-mail, which on its face implies Friesenhahn told Collins that a “finding of no significant impact,” known as a FONSI, is wanted to avoid a more detailed “environmental impact statement,” or EIS.

The alleged e-mail says:

“pls do whatever you need and make sure this handled .. based on the emails i have seen so far we have a problem. We have been directed to get a FONSI and get this project on its way .. nothing else will work per David . something like this could send us into an eis per (scratched out)”

TxDOT investigators couldn’t find proof that the e-mail ever existed, says the audit, which was released late last week along with the audit covering Collins’ conflict of interest. The e-mail also included a tag line that records show Friesenhahn hadn’t started using until several months later.

“The department is seeking to hire an independent forensic specialist in an attempt to validate the existence of the e-mail,” the audit concluded.

TxDOT discovered the conflict involving Collins and her husband while gathering documents in response to a lawsuit filed in February by TURF and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas. The groups challenged the FONSI from the U.S. 281 environmental study.

After coming across e-mails that raised suspicions, TxDOT ordered the audit Sept. 22.

On Oct. 1, citing possible contract irregularities, the agency asked the Federal Highway Administration to pull the U.S. 281 environmental approval. Two days later, Collins and Friesenhahn were placed on administrative leave.

While with TxDOT, Collins wasn’t allowed to choose consultants, negotiate fees or approve payments, but that wasn’t enough to avoid conflicts, according to the audit. E-mails show she worked with SWCA and reviewed three jobs that her husband also worked on.

Collins corresponded often with SWCA, sometimes copying her husband or communicating directly with him, the report says.

She once asked that time and money be added to a work authorization, and another time offered to work with her husband to meet a deadline.

Friesenhahn said she knew about the wife and husband connection but had assumed Collins’ husband didn’t work on the U.S. 281 project, the audit says. However, it adds, an e-mail the husband sent to Friesenhahn indicates otherwise.

Senators make plea for more transportation taxes

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Texas Transportation at a crossroads
By Senators John Carona and Kirk Watson
Express-News
November 30, 2008

Texas highways were once the pride of the state — and justifiably so. Our extensive infrastructure allowed generations of farmers and ranchers to feed the state and the world, and it turned our cities into economic powerhouses. Our transportation networks allowed generations of Texans to charge into a prosperous future without having to catch up with the present.But for a generation, the state has approached old and new transportation challenges in a very different way. We have struggled simply to keep up with our needs. This has left Texas at a critical intersection, and the choices that the Legislature makes over the next several months will determine both how we live in the short term and what opportunities our children will inherit.

Texas now faces a transportation crisis. We spend more and more of our lives in traffic instead of with our families. We seldom, if ever, see major roads built without tollbooths. And the rail lines and highway lane miles we know we need are being scaled back or scrapped in the face of a hopeless inability to pay for them.

It is only becoming harder to address these needs. The costs of concrete, steel and other basic road building materials have risen by 60 percent over the last five years. However, the state motor fuels tax— our primary source of transportation funding — has been frozen at 20 cents per gallon since 1991. The disparity has left the state facing 21st century challenges with a 20th century tool.

In January, the 81st Texas Legislature will begin weighing opportunities to make a meaningful investment in transportation. Here are alternatives that we believe the state must explore:

•End Transportation Funding Diversions: The State Highway Fund has long provided money for the Department of Public Safety and other priorities. We must focus this money on roads and other transportation projects.

•Use Bond Funding Transparently: A year ago, Texans voted to dedicate $5 billion in tax-supported bonds to transportation projects. The Legislature should appropriate this money for its intended purpose and commit to using it with complete transparency and accountability.

•Support Regional Financing Tools: Other than toll roads and privatization schemes, the state has provided few options for cities, counties and other local jurisdictions to fund transportation. The Legislature should offer new voter-approved funding mechanisms for regions to plan and pay for roads, rail lines and other projects.

•Rewrite the Gas Tax: Texas’ primary source of transportation funding cannot provide for the state’s transportation needs. The Legislature must have a serious debate about restructuring the motor fuels tax to reflect the enormity of our tasks by indexing it to inflation.

•Explore New Alternatives: Texas must move past a 20th century model that relies so heavily on single-occupancy vehicles and work to create a truly comprehensive statewide system for moving people and freight. This should begin by funding the Rail Relocation Fund that voters overwhelmingly approved in 2005.

•Reform the Texas Department of Transportation: With its overt advocacy of privatization and occasional disregard for the Legislature, the Department has rightly incurred the wrath of Texans and their representatives. While we applaud the department’s recent efforts to be more transparent and accountable, the Legislature must fundamentally reform the agency so Texans are fully aware of its activities and never question its objectives.

These changes will not be easy, and they will confound the frequent promises of something for nothing. But they are necessary if we are to address the needs we see every day at rush hour — challenges that will only become greater. Our children must not be the first generation of Texans to inherit an inadequate transportation infrastructure with nowhere to grow.

Bridge for Ports to Plains Trans Texas Corridor approved, funded

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Ports to Plains is one of the identified Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) routes, and this Dumas bridge is a vital gateway to making it happen. So don’t believe it when politicians claim the Trans Texas Corridor is dead. How can it be when it barrels ahead all over the state unabated. Unless the Legislature revokes the law and repeals all policies allowing the TTC, it WILL continue.

$17M OK’d for Ports-to-Plains Dumas bridge
By Chris Ramirez
Amarillo Globe-News
11/12/08
DUMAS – A longtime plan to stretch a railroad overpass across U.S. Highway 87 in Dumas has finally been funded.

Ports-to-Plains in West Texas

  • Eagle Pass Relief Route (Loop 480; five projects): $94.46 million
  • San Angelo Relief Route (Loop 306): $20 million
  • Dumas Railway Overpass on U.S. Highway 87: $17.71 million
  • U.S. Highway 349 expansion in Midland County: $7.55 million
  • Total: $139.72 millionOn the Net:The Ports-to-Plains coalition is based in Lubbock.
  • www.portstoplains.com

    • The $17.71 million project was included in a $1.8 billion spending package approved last month by the Texas Transportation Commission for new construction statewide.The project is one of several pitched by backers of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, an ambitious concept that seeks to foster commercial trade from Texas to Canada. In all, $140 million will go to Ports-to-Plains projects.

    The overpass will relieve congestion that erupts in downtown Dumas when freight trains block First Street, which leads to the Monsanto agriculture manufacturing plant.

    Word of the funding was welcome news to police and fire officials, who have long warned about trains slowing their response to emergency calls.

    “If we have a 100-car train go through here … we have no access, none,” said Milton Pax, Moore County commissioner of Precinct 3.

    U.S. Highway 87 runs north-south through most of the central Texas Panhandle, but turns into a west-east road at First Street in Dumas. Getting to the Monsanto plant from the city means crossing a set of street-level railroad tracks about 1 mile from downtown.

    Dumas fire Chief Paul J. Jenkins warned of the dangers of the increase in train traffic and road blockage on First Street and at Farm-To-Market Road 722, another crossing, in an Aug. 20 letter. Going around could delay response, he wrote.

    Fire officials respond to 40-60 calls each year for service west of the city, records show.

    “When a train comes through here, we’re completely cut off from the western side of the county,” said Jeff Turner, chief executive of the Moore County Hospital District. “We could literally could have someone 25 feet away and couldn’t do anything about it until it passes.”

    Also submitting letters were Monsanto, the Dumas Police Department and the local school district.

    Funding for the projects will come from bonds under Proposition 14, which voters supported in 2003.

    The debt will support development and construction projects through 2011, said Michael Reeves, president of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor coalition.

    The county may start taking bids on the project in December 2010, Pax said.

    © The Amarillo Globe-News Online

    Obama FOR congestion tolling, nationalized toll road bank

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    Link to article here.

    For those who breathed a sigh of relief thinking we were finally rid of George W. Bush’s pro-toll agenda, think again. Not only did Obama support the idea of a toll road bank in March, it’s now confirmed his administration wants to charge you a pain tax (from $9 for motorists up to $22 for trucks if he adopts the Manhattan congestion tolling proposal he supported) to enter major U.S. cities during rush hours. This congestion tax was overwhelmingly rejected by New York lawmakers. So in other words, when 99.9% of working people have to get to work, motorists will have to pay a tax to reach their place of employment. How is that an incentive to make a living? Some might choose to draw unemployment instead of pay such punitive taxation!

    Obama Transition Team Examines Congestion Tax
    UK congestion charge consultants report Obama transition team interested in tolling
    The Newspaper.com
    November 12, 2008

    Jack OpiolaBritish newspapers report that President-elect Barack Obama (D) may import congestion charging programs from the UK. Jack Opiola, a transportation principal for the firm Booz, Allen and Hamilton, was hired to design a program to tax drivers at least £5 (US $8) when entering the city of Manchester during peak hours. Opiola told the Manchester Evening News yesterday that the president-elect’s transition team approached him for additional details on the plan.

    “I was ‘noticed’ by key people in the Obama campaign and I have been providing input to his strategy team in Chicago, including information about Greater Manchester’s bid,” Opiola said.

    If approved in a referendum later this month, drivers entering an 80 square mile section of Manchester would be subject to the charge. The program would generate £120 million (US $180 million) in annual profit. A similar program in London cost drivers £268 million (US $408 million) and failed to provide promised reductions in congestion, according to Transport for London data (view report).

    Until now, Senator Obama has been circumspect when discussing his administration’s transportation plans. Previously, his most specific proposal was the creation of a $60 billion toll road bank (view details). In March, Obama endorsed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s idea to charge a $9 toll on cars and a $22 toll for trucks that enter downtown Manhattan during working hours.

    Hoping to fill the gap with specifics, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) last month submitted a detailed $544 billion transportation reauthorization proposal designed to encourage the new administration to shore up the domestic economy with heavy spending on infrastructure projects. The new programs would be paid for with massive new tax hikes, including a per-mile driving tax that would begin with “proof of concept” trials as early as 2010. The tax would initially be one cent per mile and generate $32.4 billion a year. An extra one cent per gallon in the federal gasoline tax would generate another $1.8 billion, and a national sales tax on cars of one percent would generate $7.6 billion.

    “With this historic election, AASHTO is optimistic that the new administration can help to foster the political will necessary to bridge the gap between today’s transportation needs and the transportation system we must build for tomorrow,” the group said in a statement.

    Source: Obama team study c-charge (Manchester Evening News (UK), 11/12/2008)

    QUID PRO QUO: Pro-toll Rodriguez gets expedited, non-toll FREEway project in his precinct

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    Link to WOAI-TV news story.

    After repeatedly voting to toll (also see here) existing freeways on the northside as a Board member of the San Antonio MPO (SAMPO), Bexar County Commissioner Chico Rodriguez is cashing in by getting an expedited, NON-TOLL, FREEway fix to 1604 (west) in his own district. Can you say quid pro quo? This is how TxDOT controls the majority of SAMPO, by quid pro quos and goodies for those who tow the TxDOT toll road line.

    Rodriguez’ most recent SAMPO vote was to move ahead in a hostile takeover of the Hill Country. He admitted prior to the vote that the purpose of engulfing the Hill Country into SAMPO was to get access to the Hill Country’s gas tax allocations in order to fund needed road projects in his precinct. Also, remember that Rodriguez denied he EVER voted for toll roads when his SAMPO votes were made known to his constituents prior to his last re-election campaign in March.

    So he lied to get re-elected and ran away from his toxic, controversial toll road votes to keep an angry public at bay until he could cash-in on TxDOT’s promised quid pro quo. Many of his constituents drive north for work and WILL be impacted by toll taxes (hence their opposition to tolls), yet he sold them and ALL the motorists who depend on 281, 1604, and the other proposed toll projects (on existing state highways) down a river.

    Big Plan to Get Traffic Moving in SA
    By Leila Walsh
    November 7, 2008
    WOAI-TV

    SAN ANTONIO – With toll roads on hold here, News 4 is breaking news about the biggest project planned to get traffic moving in one of the busiest parts of town.

    People who live near Potranco and Loop 1604 say they get stuck in traffic every day on the way to and from work. Now News 4 has uncovered a plan that could make life a whole lot easier for tens of thousands of people in that area.

    The county and TxDOT will meet next week to discuss the terms of a plan that would do two things: widen Potranco to four lanes from Loop 1604 to the county line and extend State Highway 211.

    “We need relief and relief is coming because we’re thinking ahead,” said Bexar County commissioner Chico Rodriguez.

    The project is not a toll road and it is not expected to involve a tax hike. If approved, work on the first phase could get started in just over a year.

    For a detailed look at the plan, click here. For a map of the area, click here.

    Politicians claim Trans Texas Corridor dead without any action proving it

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    Link to article here. During campaign season when politicians have to face the voters at the ballot box, two in particular, Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, are claiming the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) is dead to quell the people’s wrath against the deeply unpopular project. However, NO ACTION has been taken by either politician to actually stop it. No law has been changed, no legally binding changes have been made to TxDOT’s environmental documents submitted to the feds, no Transportation Commission Minute Orders rescinded, NOTHING has been changed or revoked to kill the TTC or give a basis for saying the TTC is dead. In fact, it continues to barrel ahead.

    Is Trans-Texas Corridor dead or only undead?
    By Fred Afflerbach
    Published October 31, 2008

    Put a fork in it. That’s what two Texas politicians recently said about the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.“Everybody in Austin knows it’s dead. Everybody across the state knows it’s dead. It’s just something to be talking about,” House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said at a debate in Midland on Oct. 19, according to a published report.

    But folks fighting the corridor here in Central Texas call it election season bluster.

    “Yes, they are still planning to do it,” said Mae Smith, Holland mayor. “That’s nothing but political talk. I don’t believe anything Mr. Craddick says, or any politician says prior to election.”

    Ms. Smith is also president of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-regional Planning Commission, a group of mayors and school board members who are working to stop the corridor by pushing environmental impact studies. The commission says expansion of Interstate 35 is a viable alternative.

    “We’re not denying there is a traffic problem. But keep it in the footprint of I-35 . . . and not destroy our prime farm land, school districts and towns,” Ms. Smith said.

    A spokeswoman for Craddick responded Thursday.

    “The House overwhelmingly voted to place a moratorium on the Trans-Texas Corridor because of various issues that were raised, such as property rights and toll roads. Currently, the House Transportation Committee, the House Appropriations Committee and the Sunset Advisory Commission, as well as the state auditor, have been investigating these matters. It is clear from what has come back from these committees that the Trans-Texas Corridor will be addressed once and for all in this next session of the Legislature.”

    And that worries folks like Ms. Smith. Once the election is over, the Legislature will go back to work pushing the corridor.

    Speaking from the Milam County seat of Cameron on Wednesday, State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan – not up for re-election until 2010 – said he agreed with Craddick’s statement.

    Copyright © 2008, Temple Daily Telegram

    Recall Diane Cibrian…toll road flip flopper will regret her vote!

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    Link to article here. A recall or other method for removal from office is what tollers can expect. The citizens are tired of being ignored and trampled on by unresponsive, abusive government, and the politicians who stab voters in the back in favor of special interests. The taxpayers are in no mood for an extra tax for every mile we drive! For Diane Cibrian to claim she didn’t vote to toll existing freeways is a total falsehood, and it insults the intelligence of constituents who were there and witnessed her do it (video can be seen at www.RecallDiane.com). What are 281 and 1604 if not existing roads?

    SA Toll Party takes on Diane Cibrian
    By Tracy Idell Hamilton
    Express-News
    October 29, 2008

    A handful of residents in San Antonio’s District 8 joined SA Toll Party’s Terri Hall in front of Councilwoman Diane Cibrian’s district office Tuesday morning to announce the launch of their recall effort — even though their only chance to bounce her out of office would come right at the end of her term.Cibrian has gone back on her campaign promise to oppose toll roads, they say, and they point to a vote she made as a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization last December as proof.For her part, Cibrian says that vote was on a financing mechanism for toll roads, a vote she says came after getting more than 1,000 emails in support. She says she has always opposed tolling existing roadways and still does.

    While word of the recall has been around since late September, when Hall launched www.recalldiane.com, today’s press conference was the official beginning of the effort, she said.

    The group has an uphill battle if it wants to get the recall on the ballot. It must gather signatures from ten percent of District 8 voters who were eligible to vote in the last municipal election. That’s about 8,000 signatures.

    Hall said her group has “a few hundred” signatures so far, although she said she didn’t have an exact count. Later, she said there weren’t many signatures yet because the group has only block-walked twice, and most people are not home when they walk.

    The group has also launched a robo-call that lets listeners press one if they want to sign the petition. Hall said many have, but those signatures haven’t been rounded up yet. The big push, she said, will come on Election Day, as the group stakes out polling places across District 8 to gather signatures.

    Funding for the recall comes from the coffers of SA Toll Party, Hall said. She did not know how much had been raised in District 8. She said the recall has not cost much yet, “maybe a thousand dollars.”

    Criticized for not living in District 8 by Cibrian, (she lives in Comal County) Hall said the toll road issue affects everyone. Bill Pratt, who is also active in the recall, does live in the district, however, and said he used to be a big supporter of Cibrian.

    “She became a different person after she was elected,” he said. Not only does he feel “betrayed” by what he calls her changed stance on toll roads, Pratt said Cibrian is now “in the pocket” of developers, which could negatively affect the city’s efforts to keep Camp Bullis free of encroaching development.

    Pratt just met Hall for the first time Tuesday, and was so impressed with her energy that he called her “our other Sarah Palin.”

    Cibrian dismisses much of the group’s rhetoric. “I believe my constituents know how hard I work,” she said. “They see what we’re getting done in the district.” She also points out that the vote to include toll roads in the MPO’s community transportation plan came “years before I was on the council.”

    She also says Hall distorts her record on Camp Bullis, noting that she was the first council person to put a moratorium on development around Camp Bullis, created the joint-land use task force and moved forward a council resolution for a short term initiative to protect the property.

    She’s heard of the robo-calls, too. “I hear it’s so long people are hanging up before it’s over,” she said.

    Hall says her group is shooting to gather enough signatures to get the recall on the May 2009 ballot.

    Ironically, that’s also the end of Cibrian’s term, so technically, there would be nothing to recall her from. But if she’s serious about running for mayor, and the group does manage to get the recall on the ballot, she would have the historic distinction of being on the ballot in two places.

    But don’t hold your breath. A quick call to the City Clerk’s office found that it has received “several inquiries over the years” about recalling a council person, said Leticia Vacek, but no list of signatures has ever materialized.

    Watch ARMA lock-in toll road option BEFORE new 281 study even starts

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    View ARMA Board Member, Jim Reed, admit at the October 27 SAMPO meeting that they plan to be the lead environmental study agency since they have no reason to keep their doors open without their 281 toll slush fund. So to find a way to justify their existence at taxpayer expense, they’re seeking to rig the next round of environmental work for 281, 1604, and I-35 (which would clearly bias these projects in favor of toll roads) before a new study even begins! A clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).