Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT: Road project selection process questioned

Legislators vow to exert more control over spending priorities

CARSON CITY -- Members of the Legislative Commission vowed Tuesday to exert more control over how the state Transportation Department selects highway construction projects and spends money.

Legislators said a new audit shows the department does not have a defined policy for ranking the highway projects it intends to build. They also complained that legislators' views on road projects are ignored.

"We set the policies on how the money is spent," said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson. "It doesn't seem they follow that direction. We need to be more directly involved."

Perkins chairs the Legislative Commission, a group of 12 legislators who handle legislative business when the full Legislature is not in session. The Nevada Legislature meets for 120 days in odd-numbered years.

The criticism of the Transportation Department crossed regional lines. Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, also were critical of the Transportation Department.

Amodei contended highway departments in Oregon, Washington and California must follow procedures set in law to rank the road projects they will construct.

"How do we know we have a good process (in Nevada) if we don't know the process used?" he asked. "There is no documented process for us to see how they make decisions."

The complaints about the Transportation Department follow last week's release of a legislative audit that showed 30 road projects, constructed over the past three years at a combined cost of $1.7 billion, were selected without using a priority procedure.

The state Transportation Board determines which projects are built based on recommendations from the Transportation Department. Gov. Kenny Guinn heads the Transportation Board.

The governor last year vetoed a bill sponsored by Amodei that called for an immediate audit of the Transportation Department. The Legislative Commission, however, subsequently directed staff auditors to review the Transportation Department.

Perkins said the Legislature can exert more control over the agency through its control of state agency budgets. The Transportation Department must go before the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee for approval of its budget.

The Senate and Assembly transportation committees also wield power over the Transportation Department.

"The audit didn't show the money was wasted, but how do we know the right projects were selected?" Perkins said. "They go out and spend money the way they want and on things they want to spend it on."

After the meeting, Kent Cooper, assistant director of planning for the Transportation Department, said his agency needs to do a better job of documenting why projects are selected.

But he added that the Transportation Department is an executive branch agency, and Guinn and the executive branch do not want the Legislature dictating what projects to complete.

"The Legislature does not have control over our agency," Cooper said. "They don't approve our annual list of projects."

He said if the department ranked projects on roadway use, no new highway construction projects would be built outside Clark County.

More than 220,000 vehicles use U.S. Highway 95 in Las Vegas each day, compared with 100,000 at the primary Interstate 80 interchange in Reno. At most, 40,000 cars a day travel through Carson City, and no more than 20,000 would use the long-delayed Carson City bypass highway each day, Cooper said.

"Folks up here think traffic is deplorable," added Cooper, noting more people drive on Tropicana Avenue than any freeway in Northern Nevada. "If they ever got in Las Vegas for 15 minutes, they would realize it isn't so bad up here."

Legislative Auditor Paul Townsend said his staff research found the Transportation Department picked road projects through "informal negotiations with local officials."

"Many people are comfortable with the process as it is now," he added.

"The Legislature isn't looking for a comfortable process; we are looking for an efficient process," Perkins replied.

But Cooper said federal law requires the Transportation Department to work with regional transportation officials in Clark and Washoe counties on construction priorities. Their priorities become the priorities of the Transportation Department, he said.