North Texas Tollway Authority head under fire

The head of the North Texas Tollway Authority may lose his job because he wants the public body to rely less on outside firms, and the Dallas Morning News is coming to his defense in an editorial published Monday.

NTTA executive director Allen Clemson is scheduled for a performance review on June 15 before the authority’s nine-person board.

Some of those outside engineering, financial and law firms have enjoyed relationships with the NTTA dating back to the founding of its predecessor, the Texas Turnpike Authority, in 1953, and costing millions of dollars each year, the Morning News has reported.

State lawmakers from both parties have taken note:

State Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, picked up on that alarming trend and tried to subject the agency to a top-to-bottom review imposed by the Legislature. His bill got nowhere. Then Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, did an end-around last month and got the House to put a similar provision on a TxDOT-reform bill. House and Senate negotiators quietly yanked it out once they got wise to Laubenberg’s amendment.

The NTTA opposed Anchía’s plan. 

A few months ago, the agency reported that it had uncovered possible fraud among its IT employees and reported it to police.

Local officials are paying attention:

County judges from the four NTTA counties — Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant — are reviewing proposals from outside firms for an independent business audit of the agency.

The judges will forward the name of their preferred consultant to the NTTA board in coming weeks. The NTTA then would have to agree to pay for the audit before it could go forward.

Perhaps the NTTA could pay for the audit using some additional incoming revenue – a scheduled rate increase of 0.8 cents per mile will be instituted at toll stations beginning July 1.

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Contact Kevin Lee at 713-228-3733 or news@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of ‘pay toll’ sign by flickr user joeymanley, used via a Creative Commons license.