So much for Williamson’s “No Scandal” policy…
Former Executive Director of the Alamo RMA (our tolling authority) Tom Greibel has taken an executive position at a highway engineering firm, Pape-Dawson Engineers in Austin. Read about it in the Biz Journal. Haven’t we heard plenty about this problem in the national news lately thanks to Abramoff? See one sample article. The conflicts of interest abound with TxDOT, our tolling authorities (RMAs), and the highway lobby.
Recent examples of local toll road conflicts of interest…we have JoAnne Walsh leaving her post as Executive Director of the MPO Transportation Policy Board, that allocates federal gas tax dollars to local projects, to take a lucrative job at a highway engineering firm Parsons-Brinckerhoff (Read our blog about it; she is also an ex-TxDOT employee). Now we have Greibel leaving his public, taxpayer-funded post to take a high-priced private sector job with a company who will directly benefit from his RMA connections and former employment with TxDOT, particularly on these lucrative toll road projects.
Commissioner Tommy Adkisson hits it on the head. It’s what he calls “legalized corruption” and it needs to stop!