BIKE: Comptroller issues scathing report, calls for CTRMA resignations

[Roger Baker]

 From Wed., the March 9 press release by Carole Keeton Strayhorn, which 
I attended:

[The CTRMA is effectively a group created by the Governor Perry and 
TxDOT to promote the toll roads that TxDOT wants built]

Her press conference focused on the various CTRMA members who stand to 
personally benefit, and the fact that the management has placed 
management oversight in the hands of private contractors.  The special 
interests conflicts are detailed by Strayhorn in her report. Her report 
reveals that one of CTRMA Chair Bob Tesch's major land holdings has 
gone up by over 600% since he was appointed to the CTRMA.

She gives a series of 27 recommendations for reform of the Texas RMA 
road planning process that could help restore the public confidence.

"I am deeply troubled by what I found in my review of the CTRMA. In 
order to build public confidence that is so necessary for the CTRMA and 
other RMA's to be successful, I am calling for the immediate 
resignation of chairman Bob Tesch and Board member Johanna Zmud. 
Chairman Tesch's personal holdings an Johanna Zmud's business interests 
should have prevented their appointments in the first place... 
Comptroller Strayhorn has repeatedly said "the redesignation as toll 
roads of roads already constructed, under construction or funded 
through traditional means such as the gasoline tax is double taxation."

Besides the press release, Strayhorn issued a longer report 84 page 
report titled "Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority: A need for a 
Higher Standard". This report details and documents the many conflicts 
of interest, loose management practices, favoritism, longstanding 
intertwined relationships, lax expenditure controls for entertainment, 
the $2 million spent on public relations campaigns on just one 11.6 
mile road project (US183A), etc.

Strayhorn added that as Comptroller, and after seeing all the insider 
influence and business conflicts surrounding the CTRMA's toll roads, 
she will review the performance of each of the new RMA's being 
established elsewhere in Texas.

  -- Roger