TxDOT hires spin doctors to sell Trans Texas Corridor at Town Hall Meetings

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Terri Hall

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is quite proud of itself for what it calls an unprecedented “public outreach” effort for the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project. What it calls “outreach” is clearly a propaganda campaign using public relations firms and political strategists to “sell” the public on a privatized, tolled trade corridor from Laredo to Texarkana. TxDOT requested proposals from two private consortiums, Cintra and Zachry, of course, who will not only build, but also buy the rights to control one of our country’s trade routes.

In documents uncovered through TURF’s lawsuit against TxDOT for using taxpayer money to promote toll roads and the TTC and for illegally lobbying elected officials, TxDOT’s response to the overwhelming opposition to the TTC 35 project is to hire a PR agency to convince the public foreign-controlled toll roads are a brilliant idea. TTC 69 plans to convert existing highways into privately controlled toll roads, making Texas taxpayers pay twice for the same stretch of road.

TxDOT plans to hold a series of Town Hall Meetings ahead of the official LEGAL public hearings for TTC 69 in order to butter-up an unsuspecting public or to divert critics AWAY from registering their opposition on the official LEGAL record at the public hearings to follow. In most cases, you’re doing good to get folks to attend a single government meeting much less two within two weeks, so TxDOT is enticing people to attend the Town Hall Meetings over the hearings by saying people can get their questions answered at the Town Halls.

So it should be no surprise that it’s the Town Hall Meetings that will be run by spin doctors and PR firms, hardly a “public information” forum. TxDOT documents show the purpose of the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign and these Town Hall Meetings is to win public approval for their controversial projects.

The people of Texas struck fear into the hearts of the Texas Legislature forcing it to pass a private toll moratorium. What’s clear is that the Legislature didn’t stop this train wreck nor did it rein-in this out-of-control agency that is now misusing taxpayer to promote its own agenda. 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. Instead of defending the taxpayers, Attorney General Greg Abbott is defending TxDOT’s actions in court. And where is the Travis County District Attorney’s office? Have we no law enforcement in Texas?

There’s BIG MONEY on the table and the road lobby, bond investors, and global corporations wanting to ship their cheap (lead-laden, poisoned) goods into the U.S. isn’t about to let a little thing like democracy or public dissent get between them and their billions. Far worse is our government complicit in these deeds that are more responsive to lobbyists than the public who pays the bills. Unless the courts or Legislature steps in, the taxpayers will not only be victims of illegal bullying by their own government, but also left holding the bag for generations to come. Is there no justice?

State to study TxDOT’s illegal use of taxpayer money to push toll roads

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to post here.

State Affairs to study TxDOT ad campaign
Houston Chronicle
By Janet Elliot
November 29, 2007

Texas Department of Transportation officials may need running shoes to keep up with all the interim committee probes.

Yesterday, Speaker Craddick assigned House Appropriations to analyze the agency’s finances going back five years. Today, he told State Affairs to “study the issue of using state funds to advertise government programs and services to discern if taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately.” He also wants the committee to consider legislation that will ensure that dollars are spent to benefit, not coerce, the public.

TxDOT has been under fire for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign on toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. The agency has defended the $7 million to $9 million that it’s spending on the Keep Texas Moving campaign as responding to demands from lawmakers and the public for more information.

The agency can expect tough questioning from the vice chairman of State Affairs, Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney. He asked Craddick for a formal examination of how state agencies spend media and advertising dollars.

“I appreciate Speaker Craddick’s decision to accept my request for an interim charge study to examine the issue of using state funds to advertise government programs and services to discern if taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately,” Paxton said in an email today. “While it may be appropriate, at times, for government agencies to educate citizens through public service announcements, I maintain that government should not ever spend the money raised from taxpayers to lobby the public.”

_________________________________

Lawmakers to study TxDOT toll road ads
Janet Elliott
12/02/2007
Express-News
Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A multimillion-dollar ad campaign on toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor will be under scrutiny next year by lawmakers who want to know whether the effort is designed to benefit or coerce the public.
The issue was added to a list of topics that the House State Affairs Committee will study leading up to the 2009 legislative session. Speaker Tom Craddick made the assignments last week.

In making the lengthy “interim charges,” Craddick focused on some controversial bills that failed to pass during this year’s session. They include outlawing so-called “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants and requiring voters to show photo IDs.

The Texas Department of Transportation, which is spending $7 million to $9 million on the Keep Texas Moving advertising efforts, also will have to answer to the Appropriations Committee about its current financial condition.

Agency leaders said in early November that a looming budget deficit — at least $1.8 billion by fiscal year 2012 — would force them to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from future road projects.

Craddick wants House budget writers to review transportation spending over the past five years, as well as examine alternative sources of revenue to sustain future transportation needs.

TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard welcomed the review, saying it is “an excellent opportunity to fully explore the health of transportation finance in Texas.”

State Affairs Vice Chairman Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, had asked Craddick, R-Midland, for the formal review of advertising spending by all state agencies.

“While it may be appropriate, at times, for government agencies to educate citizens through public service announcements, I maintain that government should not ever spend the money raised from taxpayers to lobby the public,” Paxton said Thursday.

Transportation officials have said the campaign is a response to demands from lawmakers and the public for more information about why privately financed toll roads are necessary to relieve congestion…”

State to study TxDOT's illegal use of taxpayer money to push toll roads

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to post here.

State Affairs to study TxDOT ad campaign
Houston Chronicle
By Janet Elliot
November 29, 2007

Texas Department of Transportation officials may need running shoes to keep up with all the interim committee probes.

_________________________________

Lawmakers to study TxDOT toll road ads
Janet Elliott
12/02/2007
Express-News
Austin Bureau

Craddick wants House budget writers to review transportation spending over the past five years, as well as examine alternative sources of revenue to sustain future transportation needs.

TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard welcomed the review, saying it is “an excellent opportunity to fully explore the health of transportation finance in Texas.”

State Affairs Vice Chairman Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, had asked Craddick, R-Midland, for the formal review of advertising spending by all state agencies.

TURF seeks injunction, alleges MPO a “front” for toll road builders, operating outside Constitution

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Terri Hall

See news coverage (more here.)

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MPO a “front” for toll road builders
TURF files injunction to stop MPO’s Dec 3 vote to approve toll rates

San Antonio, TX, Monday, November 19, 2007 – From the steps of the John Wood U.S. Federal District Court in Bexar County, TURF announced its motion seeking an injunction against the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO) for violating the citizens Constitutional rights (in the First and 14th amendments) and hijacking the Board to benefit road contractors.

“By filing this injunction today, we hope to put transportation decisions back in the hands of the people,” said Terri Hall, Founder/Director of the grassroots group TURF.

TURF is asking the court to intervene before December 3 where SAMPO is to vote to approve the financial terms (toll rates and rate increases) for the US 281 toll project as well as to shift yet more tax money to building toll lanes on EXISTING corridors, amounting to a TRIPLE TAX (once for what’s already there, a second for building the toll lanes, and a third toll tax).

TxDOT is keeping vital financial information on the 281 toll project SECRET ahead of the MPO’s vote to approve the financial terms. Board members are being asked to vote on information that has NOT been disclosed, including whether or not a non-compete agreement will prevent free roads surrounding the 281 toll lanes from being expanded.

MPO Board members State Representative David Leibowitz and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson submitted affidavits (see links below) to the court with ample evidence to prove the MPO has violated the First Amendment and 14th Amendment as it relates to citizens opposed to toll roads.

TURF attorney David Van Os described the actions of the MPO this way: “The self-serving business interests that will reap huge profits off toll roads are manipulating the processes of the MPO to stack the deck against those opposed to tolls. They’re keeping their voices from even being heard which violates their Constitutional rights.”

Adkisson, who has been prevented from representing his constituents’ opposition to toll roads by the MPO’s bullying tactics used Thomas Paine’s words to describe the corrupt practices at the MPO, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right.”

He went on to object to unelected members of the MPO serving on the Board which, in effect, dilutes the votes of elected officials. “Unelected members aren’t accountable at the ballot box,” said Adkisson.

The injunction seeks to halt all activity of the SAMPO Board until it’s reconfigured to have only elected officials with voting powers. TURF’s lawsuit against the SAMPO was originally filed on October 22 and TURF is now seeking an injunction as the next step in that lawsuit to force the unconstitutional composition of SAMPO to be re-configured to have only elected officials with voting powers.

SAMPO allocates tax dollars to transportation projects in Bexar County and approves toll rates and toll projects. The lawsuit alleges that the composition of the SAMPO Board is unconstitutional and Chairwoman Sheila McNeil has been a party to denying the First Amendment right of free speech to the constituents of elected MPO Board members like State Representative David Leibowitz by blocking an agenda item and any debate on an issue brought up at his request (see on YouTube here read about it in his affidavit, link below).

TURF recently scored a victory in STATE COURT in a different lawsuit against members of the Texas Transportation Department and Transportation Commission.

Read TURF’s motion for preliminary injunction here.
Links to affidavits below:

State Representative David Leibowitz

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson

TURF Founder Terri Hall

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Despite law that forbids it, TxDOT still looking to give 1604 toll project to foreign companies

Posted on October 25, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here. The article mentions SB 792, the private toll moratorium bill that KILLED the 281/1604 private toll deal. But true to form, TxDOT is breaking the law and pursuing foreign control of 1604 toll lanes anyway. The article also notes that up to nearly $200 million in GAS TAXES may subsidize the toll lanes, making the tolling of these existing corridors a TRIPLE TAX (we’ve paid a tax for what’s already built, our tax money will be used to build the improvements, and then a lifetime TOLL TAX on top of that)!

Three to bid on U.S. 281 toll road project
10/24/2007
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out.The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It’s the fledging agency’s first project.

“Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here,” board member Bob Thompson said. “Maybe it’s even more important to see the confidence of these three large companies. It adds some credibility, it adds some stature to what we’re trying to do.”

The three teams include 29 construction, engineering and public affairs companies.

Fluor Enterprises Inc. of Irving and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc. of Atlanta lead the Cibolo Creek Infrastructure team. Both joined to develop the Texas 130 toll road east of Austin.

Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio and Texas Sterling Construction Co. of Houston lead the other teams.

Zachry joined with Cintra of Spain to produce a plan for Trans-Texas Corridor toll lanes and rail lines that would parallel Interstate 35, and in 2005 offered to build and lease a 47-mile toll network on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 in San Antonio.

But Cintra isn’t part of the group angling to add U.S. 281 toll lanes now.

A tolling bill from last spring’s legislative session busted plans for the San Antonio network by banning privatization of U.S. 281 toll lanes.

Now Texas Department of Transportation officials say they’re working with Cintra and Zachry, as well as the other international bidder, Macquarie of Australia, to see if privatizing Loop 1604 toll lanes would make financial sense without U.S. 281 in the package.

Mobility Authority officials, saying they want to keep toll rates “reasonable,” want to develop Loop 1604 toll lanes without leasing them and losing some of the profits.

On the U.S. 281 tollway, motorists would pay 17 cents a mile at the start, with fees rising 2.75 percent a year until 2017 and then 3 percent annually after that, under a plan the authority board approved Wednesday.

The toll lanes would go from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road or Comal County, depending on whether regional planners allocate $69 million or $112 million in state funds to subsidize the project. Another $80 million subsidy could be needed for five interchange connectors at Loop 1604.

“There isn’t surplus revenue in the case of 281,” authority Director Terry Brechtel said.

The latest estimates for the U.S. 281 tollway — in 2006 dollars — are $426 million for construction and $220 million for upkeep over 40 years.

On Monday, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom filed a lawsuit to challenge the makeup and procedures of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees federal transportation dollars and is set to approve U.S. 281 toll rates in December.

The lawsuit, which claims that discussion and debate are being shut down, seeks to remove nonelected officials from the planning board.

Toll road advocates call the lawsuit frivolous.

Lawsuit against MPO makes front page, top of the fold!

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here. FYI, the 281 lawsuit filed in federal court in December of 2005 required a new environmental study, but NOTHING prevents TxDOT from moving forward with the FREEway improvements to 281. It only stopped the TOLLWAY! The blame for any cost escalations rest solely on TxDOT and the politicians who enable them. We’ve done everything humanly possible to force TxDOT to revert back to the gas tax plan (like this MPO vote in January 2007) and get the fix installed years ago!

Tollway foes suing again
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
10/23/2007
With a U.S. 281 tollway plan racing toward the finish line, critics Monday filed yet another lawsuit they hope will slam on the brakes.

This time, they went to a federal court in San Antonio and reached back to the First and 14th amendments of the Constitution, which protect freedom of speech and provide equal protection under the law.

The lawsuit seeks to remove non-elected officials from the Metropolitan Planning Organization board and to ban Sheila McNeil, a city councilwoman who serves as chairwoman, from squelching some discussions on toll issues.

“The people of Texas are fed up with out-of-control, abusive government,” said Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. “This is taxation without representation.”

Planning organization Director Isidro Martinez said federal law dealing with local oversight of transportation funds calls for staff officials from major agencies as well as elected leaders to serve on such boards.

Eleven of the 19 members of the planning board have been elected to city councils, the Bexar County Commissioners Court and the Legislature.

“It’s just the way we’ve always done it,” he said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

McNeil said it’s disappointing that no one first tried to resolve differences with her.

“Whoever’s filing a lawsuit has not come to me and asked me to reconsider or do anything,” she said. “It’s a waste of court time.”

Board member David Leibowitz, a state representative, said McNeil has repeatedly blocked consideration of a resolution that would advise the Texas Department of Transportation to stop spending up to $9 million to promote toll roads.

McNeil put the resolution on last month’s agenda but, she said, pulled it after reading it. She said an unwritten policy lets the chairwoman set the agendas.

“It got inadvertently put on the agenda,” she told the board last month. “It is not a matter for this MPO. We’re a planning organization. We don’t tell other organizations or entities how to spend their money.”

The maneuver was just the latest to spark the lawsuit, Hall said. Others include a split vote in July to push aside a toll critic and install McNeil as chairwoman, and a sudden policy change in May to try to keep a toll advocate on the board despite leaving elected office.

San Antonio has four council members on the board, more than any other entity. The city also has two staff officials who serve, and they typically vote with their bosses.

“We’ve done everything in our power to exert the political pressure to change this unconstitutional board,” Hall said. “But when a powerful unelected voting bloc is allowed to persist unchecked, we have no choice but go to court.”

The lawsuit’s lead attorney, David Van Os, who last year ran as the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, said he’ll ask for a hearing before the planning board meets Dec. 3.

In December, the board plans to set U.S. 281 toll rates and shift more public money to subsidize the toll road, from $69 million allocated now to $112 million. With the extra funds, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority could build 8 miles of tollway instead of 4.

The mobility authority hopes to start construction next summer and open the toll road in 2012, with express lanes running from Loop 1604 to either Marshall Road or Comal County. Toll rates might start at 17 cents a mile for cars and rise 2.75 percent a year through 2017 and then 3 percent annually.

But that’s if the project doesn’t get shoved into a legal ditch. A 2005 lawsuit filed in a state district court forced more environmental study, which stopped work for more than two years. Construction costs have since gone up by a third.

TURF sues SAMPO for unconstitutional composition & actions

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Terri Hall

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: David Van Os, Attorney at Law representing TURF, (210) 821-1700

View press conference on You Tube here.

TURF to sue transportation board for equal protection

MPO Board composition violates First and 14th Amendments to U.S. Constitution

San Antonio, TX, Monday, October 22, 2007 – In what could change the way toll roads are decided and approved in Bexar County, TURF filed a NEW lawsuit in FEDERAL COURT to put the power over transportation decisions back in the hands of the PEOPLE. TURF recently scored a victory in STATE COURT in a different lawsuit (read it here) against members of the Texas Transportation Department and Transportation Commission.

A lawsuit has been brought against the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO) Transportation Policy Board that allocates tax dollars to transportation projects and approves toll rates and toll projects and San Antonio Councilwoman and MPO Chair Sheila McNeil. The lawsuit alleges that the composition of the SAMPO Board is unconstitutional and Chairwoman McNeil has been a party to denying the First Amendment right of free speech to the constituents of elected MPO Board members like State Representative David Leibowitz by blocking an agenda item and any debate on an issue brought up at his request. This novel lawsuit cuts to the heart of how toll roads are approved.

It’s based upon the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 28 U.S.C. §1331, and 28 U.S.C. §§1343(3) and (4). The section of the post-Civil War civil rights enactments codified as 42 U.S.C. §1983 provides the Plaintiff’s enabling cause of action. A faction of governmental officials with the help of unelected board members have shut citizens and voters who oppose toll roads out of equal participation in the political process. The case will also argue that actions like Chairwoman McNeil’s removal of an agenda item asking for the funds TxDOT is spending on the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign be returned to building roads.

By way of recent example, in a SAMPO Transportation Policy Board meeting of September 24, 2007, Defendant McNeil, using the badge of authority of Chairmanship of the Board, arbitrarily removed from the meeting agenda a motion by State Representative and MPO Board member David Leibowitz calling for SAMPO to object to certain expenditures of public money by TXDOT promoting toll roads, which expenditures Representative Leibowitz believed to be inappropriate.

Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, removed Representative Leibowitz’s motion from the meeting agenda even though Representative Leibowitz had properly and legitimately placed it on the meeting agenda and SAMPO had included it in the public posting of the agenda pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, refused to permit Representative Leibowitz to present his motion because of her disfavor of his attempt to provide a voice for his constituents who oppose turning free public highways into toll roads.

TURF will be asking for both a temporary and permanent injunction to suspend ALL activities of the MPO until the case is decided and the Board’s composition is changed to reflect proper Constitutional representation allowing equal protection under the law per the 14th Amendment.

The unconstitutional MPO has blocked agenda items, voted against an independent review of toll plans that would bring accountability to the gross misuse of taxpayer money in these toll plans, voted against restoring the gas tax funded overpasses on 281 (281 in particular DOES NOT NEED TO BE TOLLED, what’s needed are overpasses and they’ve been paid for since 2003, the money is STILL there, they could do it tomorrow, but this un-Constitutional Board persists in preventing the simple solution that’s already paid for!

The MPO Board has also delayed votes, blocked the succession of the next Chair, and changed the bylaws to allow yet more illegal representation on the Board.

“The people of Texas are FED-UP with out-of-control abusive government. We’ve done everything in our power to exert the political pressure to change this unconstitutional Board, but when the deck is stacked and a powerful unelected voting block is allowed to persist unchecked, we have no choice but go to court to address our grievances. This is taxation without representation and we cannot and will not allow it to continue,” says Terri Hall, Founder and Director of TURF.

For a history of the efforts of the pro-toll faction blocking citizens from equal representation:
Click here and scroll to bottom for links to each action.

Chairwoman McNeil strips agenda item requested by State Representative David Leibowitz on expenditures for toll roads (click here.)

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TURF sues SAMPO for unconstitutional composition & actions

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Terri Hall

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: David Van Os, Attorney at Law representing TURF, (210) 821-1700

View press conference on You Tube here.

TURF to sue transportation board for equal protection

MPO Board composition violates First and 14th Amendments to U.S. Constitution

The MPO Board has also delayed votes, blocked the succession of the next Chair, and changed the bylaws to allow yet more illegal representation on the Board.

For a history of the efforts of the pro-toll faction blocking citizens from equal representation:
Click here and scroll to bottom for links to each action.

Chairwoman McNeil strips agenda item requested by State Representative David Leibowitz on expenditures for toll roads (click here.)

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See the Austin, Houston report on TURF’s win in court

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Terri Hall

See Austin TV story on You Tube here. See Houston Chronicle coverage below, too.

KXAN News 8 Story
Anti-toll road activist continues case against TxDOT
10/19/2007
By: News 8 Austin Staff

An anti-toll road activist won a three-month continuance in her lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation.

Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) now has some more time to develop her case against TxDOT, which claims that it uses public funding to promote toll roads.

TURF says TxDOT’s $9 million ”Keep Texas Moving” campaign amounts to illegal use of funds for political advertising.

“What TxDOT is doing goes way beyond anything than what the Texas Legislature intended. If the Legislature did intend that, then the legislation is unconstitutional,” attorney David van Os said.

TxDOT claims the campaign is informational and legal. They asked Judge Orlinda Naranjo to dismiss the case.

TURF says it has uncovered internal memos showing otherwise. They cite an Aug. 13 memo that TxDOT intends to spend public money to influence upcoming public hearings for the Trans-Texas Corridor.

”We want to be able to ask the people who wrote those memos what exactly they’re talking about when they say ‘we’re going to target this area to try to change people’s minds. We’re going to try to discredit the adversary.’ That’s political,” TURF attorney Charles Riley said.

TURF also wants to block transportation officials from lobbying Congress to allow more tolling.

A court date is set for January.
____________________________________
Houston & Texas News

Oct. 18, 2007
Group gets more time to build case against TxDOT

Link to story here.

AUSTIN — Activists targeting a Texas Department of Transportation toll-road campaign got some extra time to develop their case from a state judge Thursday.

The state attorney general’s office, representing TxDOT, wanted state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo of Travis County to dismiss the case, which seeks to stop state spending on the Keep Texas Moving campaign and on any toll-road lobbying efforts by the agency.

Keep Texas Moving is an effort by TxDOT to solve the state’s transportation issues.

Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, which brought the case, contends the campaign violates a state prohibition on state officers or employees using their authority for political purposes.

The state says it is acting legally, that Hall doesn’t have standing to bring the lawsuit, and that work is completed on the campaign’s current phase anyway, so the lawsuit is moot.

Naranjo agreed to a 90-day continuance sought by the group, which wants to gather more documents and possibly take depositions from officials, according to TURF lawyer Charles Riley. Former candidate for attorney general David Van Os also signed on to represent the group.

“This is a good day for Texas taxpayers,” Hall said.

In fighting a three-month delay, Assistant Attorney General Kristina W. Silcocks said, “State employees do not need to have this hanging over their head.”

See the Austin, Houston report on TURF's win in court