All roads lead to …

Your pocket.  And your rights, or lack thereof.

Several interesting articles in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as of late.  Seems like they are finally starting to pay attention to what is going on with our roads.

First was the NTTA article by the FW Watchdog.

The NTTA is circulating a draft of its proposed bill for the 2013 Legislature. The Watchdog asked NTTA for a copy, but the authority declined. Instead, The Watchdog obtained a draft from another source.

I can exclusively report details of what may be seen by some as NTTA's leap above and beyond basic constitutional rights. Others, wanting violators to pay up, will see the proposed system as a way to offer violators a chance to tell their side of the story.

When I think of an NTTA-operated court, legendary Judge Roy Bean's courtroom in Langtry comes to mind: "Do you have anything to say before we find you guilty?"

The bill gives NTTA even more power than it already has. For instance, a guilty toll debtor must either pay the debt, fines and penalties or else satisfy "the authority in its sole discretion." That's pretty open-ended.

The Watchdog asks: Is the NTTA competent enough to create its own judiciary?

We all know the answer to that but Lieber gives you three examples.  Read them all, cause YOU could be next.

Another day, another NTTA...

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram it seems the NTTA doesn't want to conduct a national search to find a director.

WHY would they?  They run off those WHO don't believe in giving contracts to the same firms for as far back as anyone can remember.  And when you have those that will tow the line, no further search needed apparently.  Only "Yes" men need apply.

Carrigan arrived at the tollway authority in 2008. As assistant executive director of project delivery, he has guided the authority's engineering efforts on several major projects and has dealt with contractors and vendors. Before working at the authority, he worked briefly at HNTB Corp., the consultant that does much of the authority's engineering work.
Carrigan said he would be interested in serving as executive director."Basically, I'm there to serve the board in whatever way the board wants," he said after a recent board meeting in Plano.

Different Texas agency, same Texas corruption?

The North Texas Tollway Authority keeps making the "news".  WHY?

Because they've been through 5 guys in 5 years.  WHY did the latest head resign?  Because he was going to be fired.

WHY?  Because he thinks some of the million(s) of tax dollar relationships with some of the same companies since the 1950s are too cozy.  And maybe all those connections the board members have with the companies and politicians could be considered a conflict of interest. 

Hell, this is Texas...WHO are we kidding?

Is it time for the sunset of NTTA?

It ain't the only "Authority" that's overdue.

When it comes to Toll (Toal?) Roads and Rivers, it's all about WHO you know.


Some notes YOU can't afford to miss in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram articles this week.

The recommendations come after several potential conflicts surfaced involving individual board members, as well as the tollway authority’s institutional relationship with a handful of firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars per year to perform engineering, legal and other services.

Board chairman Kenneth Barr of Fort Worth disclosed that his brother is a lawyer with Locke Lord, a firm that does about $6.9 million a year in tollway authority legal work. Barr said he consulted with the tollway authority’s legal counsel, also a Locke Lord attorney, before accepting a board position in 2008 to ensure there was no ethical conflict.

The report said the tollway authority had “perceived and potentially real conflicts of interest” with HNTB, an engineering firm that is currently under contract for about $15 million a year in tollway work. When asked later what that meant, Alvarez & Marsal managing director Ron Orsini said the audit has uncovered a situation in which one HNTB consultant was approved to pay an invoice for another HNTB consultant – all with the tollway authority’s blessing.The report didn’t attempt to catalog how often the arrangement existed, or how long the practice had been in place, Orsini said.

Ethnicity has become an issue in recent months, when tollway staff disclosed that most of their contracts are awarded to firms governed by white males – although the report points out that the tollway authority is making progress in diversifying its contractors.

But the report also found that tollway staff publicly discussed winners of procurement contracts before the board had voted to approve the contracts.“Some board members did not trust the staff’s procurement process. It’s not clear when a procurement officially ends,” said Eric Noack, Alvarez & Marsal vice president.