By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-973430.mp3
Dallas, TX – Wednesday morning the North Texas Tollway Authority will consider whether to fire executive director Allen Clemson. After joining the NTTA two years ago Clemson sought to open the contract bidding process to new companies. Five "legacy" firms have had the lucrative road building contracts for decades and Clemson's changes apparently rankled some board members who want to consider his termination. This latest clash over NTTA operations follows attempts by state lawmakers to reign in the tolling authority as KERA's Shelley Kofler reports.
This year as state lawmakers headed to Austin the North Texas Tollway Authority had a bulls eye plastered on its windshield.
For starters, the NTTA had replaced manned toll booths with automatic cameras that photograph the cars. Drivers who hadn't bought electronic toll tags were sent bills in the mail. But Senator Jane Nelson of Flower Mound says some of the bills included fines that were astronomical. A Fort Worth woman told lawmakers she was charged $826 in fines for $23 worth of tolls.
Nelson: There were many people who were paying their bills who didn't get the bill. Then the fines started accumulating then they doubled and tripled. That's not right.
Nelson successfully passed legislation now awaiting the Governor's signature. It limits the NTTA to one $25 invoice for drivers who pay within 30 days, regardless of how many tolls they've accumulated. Drivers can be charged up to $225 on a second notice for multiple violations.
Nelson: We want people to their pay fines if they did not pay their fines, but we also want to bring some sanity to this.
Nelson also favored additional legislation that would have forced the NTTA to undergo a state audit, or have its operations publicly reviewed through what is known as the sunset process.
State Representative Rafael Anchia of Dallas filed legislation calling for a thorough review because, he says, the agency seemed to be secretive and in turmoil.
Anchia: Any organization that has five CEO's in five years and three general counsels in five years is an organization in crisis. I was concerned about their board leadership and I was also concerned about their legacy contracts that they hadn't put out for bid in a long, long time. And finally when they put them out for bid there was intense lobbying that occurred so the legacy contractors stayed in place.
The so-called legacy contracts are with five companies who've received millions of dollars in business from the NTTA over many decades. Anchia says it's hard to tell whether public money is being used on sweetheart deals that overpay the contractors with public money. That's why he wanted the review.
NTTA Board Chairman Victor Vandegriff says board members don't object to a review. They just believe it will be more useful if managed by local officials, which is what's happening. Vandegriff says Tarrant, Dallas, Denton and Collin County judges are in the midst of interviewing outside audit firms.
Vandergriff: I don't think we're hiding and I'm certainly supportive of a thorough review of NTTA. What the commissioners' courts did is they've acted quicker. Just as thorough a scrubbing of us will occur as would have occurred under sunset.
As for the legacy contracts and the possible firing of the executive director who tried to implement competitive bidding, Vandegriff says this.
Vandergriff: It's not that the board as a whole is not supportive of opening up the contracting or spreading the business out, but there are differences of opinion on the board about how that should be done.
The NTTA's possible firing of Executive Director Allen Clemson seems to have only heightened suspicions that surround NTTA operations.
Anchia says the outside audit wouldn't be happening if lawmakers hadn't taken aim. He says he'll be watching to make sure it's thorough.