3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017
Legislators seek ways to make
ODOT more accountable
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Four former
chairmen of the Oregon Trans-
portation Commission said
Wednesday that the commis-
sion should regain authority
over the state transportation
director.
The suggestion was one
of a handful the former chair-
men gave as ways to enhance
accountability for Department
of Transportation projects and
contracts.
The chairmen were invited
to speak with a new subgroup
of the Legislature’s Joint Com-
mittee on Transportation Pres-
ervation and Modernization.
The committee is charged with
crafting a transportation pack-
age worth hundreds of millions
of dollars. Legislative leaders
hope to pass the package this
session.
About a month ago, the lead-
ers of the transportation pack-
age committee asked state Rep.
Andy Olson, R-Albany, to lead
a team of four other lawmakers
to come up with policy recom-
mendations for making ODOT
more accountable for the agen-
cy’s spending.
The group invited the former
commission chairmen Wednes-
day to gain insight on how to
improve accountability at the
department.
The meeting was initially
closed to the public, but Olson
allowed a reporter to attend
Wednesday. The committee’s
four other topic work groups
have held public meetings at the
Capitol since the beginning of
the session.
Olson said he initially closed
the meetings out of concern
that the public eye would dis-
courage frankness, but legisla-
tive leaders have committed to
keeping the process open and
transparent.
The Department of Trans-
portation has been criticized for
its history of projects that have
been overdue and over bud-
get. A recent $1 million man-
agement performance audit by
New York-based McKinsey &
Co. was intended to respond to
that criticism and show ODOT
is prepared to effectively man-
age an influx of new highway
funding.
Lack of accountability
The firm’s report, released
in January, portrayed an agency
lacking in dissent and account-
ability, wasting money and
needing greater oversight and
guidance.
Two weeks before that,
Transportation
Commission
Chairwoman Tammy Baney,
in a letter to Gov. Kate Brown,
complained the commission
needed more oversight of the
director.
“The director carries out
the administration of the day-
to-day operations,” Baney
said in a January phone inter-
view. “There isn’t a place for
us to have a voice in how that
is going.”
Baney requested that the
governor include the commis-
sion in the director’s perfor-
mance evaluation. She appar-
ently was unaware at the time
that Director Matt Garrett has
not had a performance evalu-
ation since his tenure began in
2005, according to Garrett’s
office.
Until 1999, the commis-
sion had authority to hire and
fire the director, and the direc-
tor reported to the commission.
After years of pressure by
Gov. John Kitzhaber, the Legis-
lature in 1999 took that author-
ity away and gave it to the gov-
ernor, former commission
chairman Stuart Foster told law-
makers Wednesday.
Minutes from the 1999 leg-
islative meetings on the bill give
no indication of the reason for
the change. In 2011, Kitzhaber,
then in his third term, comman-
deered control of the Depart-
ment of Education, becoming
the first governor in the nation
to assume the title of superin-
tendent of schools.
‘Huge mistake’
“I think it was a huge mis-
take,” Foster said of taking
away the Transportation Com-
mission’s oversight of the direc-
tor. Foster served as commis-
sion chair from 2003 to 2007.
Mike Hollern, who served
on the commission most
recently from 1987 to 1993,
compared the commission to a
board of a company.
“You are running the place,
and you are responsible to
the shareholders, and then all
of a sudden, someone else is
appointing the director,” Hol-
lern said.
Given that commissioners
are volunteers and they can’t
hire and fire the director, “I’m
not sure it’s worth the effort,”
Hollern said.
Foster said a conflict within
the commission is the gover-
nor’s appointment of commis-
sioners who also serve on the
commissions of counties or are
city employees.
He said it’s difficult for peo-
ple in those positions to be unbi-
ased when voting on projects
that could affect their regional
areas. He said the governor
should choose appointees with
“a statewide perspective.”
The former chairmen, which
also included Henry Hewitt
and Steve Corey, also recom-
mended tying increases to the
gas tax to the consumer price
index. Gas tax revenue pays for
road projects in Oregon.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
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interruptions “toxic.”
“The fact that I can’t sin-
glehandedly and immedi-
ately satisfy your demands
does not mean that we are
not listening to you.”
The American Civil Lib-
erties Union immediately
condemned the ordinance as
unconstitutional and protest-
ers tried to prevent the vote
by shouting down commis-
sioners as they were polled.
People in the cham-
ber held up posters with an
image of Wheeler’s head that
read “Gas the Peaceful, Let
the Poor Freeze.”
The poster is a dual refer-
ence to Portland’s vast num-
bers of homeless and anger
over how the Portland Police
Bureau handled almost daily
protests after President Don-
ald Trump’s inauguration.
In papers filed with the
City Council, ACLU-Ore-
gon’s legal director Mat dos
Santos said city officials have
the right to throw out disrup-
tive individuals on a case-
by-case basis, but banning a
person from future meetings
based on their current behav-
ior is unconstitutional.
W A NTED
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OPEN HOUSE
PER PLATE
PORTLAND — In
ultra-liberal Portland, where
protest is a way of life, the
new mayor is taking on the
sacrosanct.
Mayor Ted Wheeler and
the City Council unani-
mously approved an emer-
gency ordinance Wednesday
that would allow city leaders
to eject disruptive protesters
from meetings and ban them
from council chambers for
up to 60 days in some cases.
As they voted, commis-
sioners said months of pro-
tests by a small group of
people have shut down meet-
ings, disrupted government
business, caused stress to
city staff, undermined proj-
ects and prevented other res-
idents from appearing before
the council.
“I don’t know why you’ve
decided that your voices are
more important than anyone
else who comes to this cham-
ber to give testimony,” said
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly,
who was elected to the coun-
cil last fall and called the
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