DOT

yfimuna.wordpress.com
Conti, at the behest of Gov. Beverly is beginning to implement a plan to make NCDO T more transparentand accountable. A centerpiecew of that plan is to transform the NCDOTf board into a watchdog that would set and enforce new efficiency Providing an example ofwhat he’dc like to see, Conti says the department’s professionalo staff should develop a three-year work plan that shows when major road contracts will be awarded. At the end of each the board would evaluatethe department’ss performance.
For instance, Conto thinks the board should require the departmeng to deliver on awarding at leasy 90 percent of the contracts it has scheduledeach “If that’s not met, there are repercussions,” says who adds that people and processes would be changes to meet the goals the following Conti believes such an approach would addressa long-standing concerns about the department’s abilitt to deliver new roads in a timel y and cost-effective manner. It also gives the boardd a new role in a transportationn process that Perdue and Contk are tryingto reform.
One of Perdue’s first acts as governor was to sign an executivd order that prevents board members from voting onindividual projects. The move was designede to head off conflicts of interesy and ensure projects are developed and awarded base on their merits notpolitical maneuvering. “This soundds like an excellent plan,” says Stephenj Jackson, a transportation public policy analyst at the North CarolinaJustices Center. He applauds the idea of having board memberzs more involved in overall accountability than in worrying if their individualp districts get acertain project.
But will the Perdue and Conti actuallhy make staff changes if new efficiencystandards aren’t met? “Onn the balance, you’d say, ‘Yeah, headds will roll if things don’t improve,’” Jackson says. Yet one problem with the impending Jackson says, is that many of the current boarr members don’t have the professional transportationm and management skills needed for theier new oversight role. The 19 board members, all of whom are appointexd bythe governor, servr two-year terms. The terms are staggered so that half of them expir eeach year.
Conti expects Perdue to hold off on appointin g any new members until at leastthe board’es March meeting, which is when he hopews to have his new operating system in “I think board members will still have an opportunity to reflect the needd of the community and the drivingv public,” says Kenneth Spaulding, a Durham attorne who represents part of the Triangle on the board. Conti says that the department’sz Transportation Improvement Program processes will remainin place. The TIP is supposee to act as the blueprint for major road construction projectas inthe state.
But the TIP includes plenty of projectsathat don’t yet have fundinvg sources, a reality that undercuts its credibilityy as a master list of what will be builft and when. The document containing a three-yea program of work that Conti wantzs to develop would bemore reliable. “Having a fictionak list is just self-defeating,” he says. Pressed on how effective his plan will be with the old TIP procesd stillin place, Conti says, “I don’f think it is window dressing.
”