House keeps five-member Transportation Commission in vote to continue TxDOT

The Sunset Commission voted to install a commissioner appointed by the governor as part of a massive overhaul of management the commission said was necessary for the agency to be effective. However, the 7-5 vote spoke to the political sensitivity of disbanding the Transportation Commission.

Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, told KVUE-TV in Austin, he thinks the House erred in not giving Texans the opportunity to select a transportation commissioner.

“If people want transparency and accountability, they need to elect somebody that can tell them what roads are going to be built, when they’re going to be built, and how we’re going to pay for them,” Larson told the television reporter.

The state of Texas has over the past three years expended considerable money and human effort reporting on the deficiencies of TxDOT. A report commissioned by the Legislature with $2 million in tax money and done by consultant Grant Thornton called for a complete management reorganization and a reshaping of the mission of the agency.

From the Grant Thornton report came a focused plan for change recommended in January to the Transportation Commission by the Transportation Restructure Council. The council stopped short of recommending dissolving the commission that appointed it.

Restructure Council chairman Howard Wolf had expressed doubts that the Legislature had the political will to make the major changes called for in the reports.

Photo of construction cone by flickr user stupz, used via a Creative Commons license.