While the amount of funding TxDOT has to work with may not be its fault, HOW it spends its money IS their responsibility. And squandering it on $7 million dollar ad campaigns in an attempt to force-feed the public privatized toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, shows just how reckless and irresponsible TxDOT has become. Same with its billion dollar accounting error, spending 70% of the stimulus money on toll roads (a HUGE DOUBLE TAX), and lobbying for a waterway/tour boat project in the Woodlands as “congestion mitigation” for Hwy 45…(your tax dollars at work).
TxDOT needs a TOTAL house cleaning…starting with Ted Houghton, Mr. “I’m the most arrogant commissioner of the most arrogant state agency in the state of Texas”. The fact that the agency itself cannot see ANY wrongdoing in its actions of late (the audit says TxDOT thinks the criticism will fade once the public understands how right it is), shows that the current crop is beyond repair.
_____________________________________________________________
Link to article here.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The TxDOT management audit
posted by paulburka at 2:45 PM
Texas Monthly Blog
The consultant’s report, released yesterday, is now available online. Here are a couple of its salient observations:
TxDOT funding situation
At present, State Highway Fund revenues are not as stable as in previous years, nor are they continuing to increase at the same pace as in the past. In addition, from 2005 through 2007, TxDOT used a combination of State Highway Fund revenues and bond funding for operations and capital investments. During this period their expenditures for these areas outpaced revenues, resulting in TxDOT using approximately $700 million of reserves to pay for operating and project expenses during this period. This resulted in two issues.
First, when TxDOT bumped up spending through the use of bond funding, baseline expectations for TxDOT spending levels in any given year were raised both inside and outside the organization, even though that approach was not sustainable and represented a marked deviation from historical spending levels. Second, TxDOT incurred a significant debt service burden associated with the bonds it issued – and that servicing reduces the availability of General Revenue and Fund 6 dollars for TxDOT to use for operations and new projects. [In other words, the bondholders had to be paid from the funds--general revenue and Fund 6--that were being used to pay for the projects.] The end effect is that TxDOT’s available budget (for maintenance, new projects, etc.) is effectively lower than it would have been before the bond funding was issued. At the same time, maintenance requirements are increasing as a result of having increased the size of the highway system (every new road brought into the system must be maintained).
* * * *
My comments:
In other words, the Legislature acted in a fiscally irresponsible manner when it issued several billion dollars in bonds to pay for road projects. By going into debt to build roads, TxDOT ended up with less money for new roads than if it had just used gasoline tax money. This is what happens when lawmakers spurn the pay-as-you-go principle. This is not fiscal conservatism. This is spending beyond your means. You can’t blame TxDOT. The blame belongs with the Legislature and in particular the leadership at the time, Dewhurst and Craddick. And with the voters, who approved the bonds. (I am proud to say that I voted against them.) I have said this before and I will say it again: the responsible thing to do was to raise the gasoline “user fee.” It has its deficiencies as a revenue-raiser, most notably that that the “fee” is levied on a per-gallon basis, and greater fuel efficiency means that fewer gallons of gasoline are being consumed. Even so, it is the logical source of more dollars for transportation.
One of the points that the “Management and Organizational Review” (MOR) makes is that the culture of TxDOT is often counterproductive:
The challenge
Conversations with TxDOT’s senior leaders reveal a deep-seated belief that TxDOT is doing all the right things and that criticisms leveled against the organization will decline when TxDOT is better able to demonstrate to people how right the organization is. While this belief might be understandable – in context of the organization’s culture and people’s individual commitments to the work they are doing – it is counter to meaningful self-examination and redirection of the organization. This does not mean that leaders in the organization are not initiating change. Rather, it means that the way change is undertaken and the nature of the changes undertaken are driven out of the long-standing viewpoints and operating models. Meaningful adjustment in TxDOT cannot occur without leaders who understand and accept that the organization’s performance and management is not meeting expectations. TxDOT requires leaders who truly believe that the world has changed and that TxDOT also must change (emphasis added). The leadership also must conceptualize what that future organization should look like and should do, and must successfully motivate staff to go that direction. Furthermore, the leadership needs to bring management discipline to the organization in ways that may go counter to the existing culture and to their own perceptions of their roles and value in the organization.
Meaningful adjustment in TxDOT cannot occur without leaders who understand and accept that the organization’s performance and management is not meeting expectations. TxDOT requires leaders
who truly believe that the world has changed and that TxDOT also must change (emphasis added). The leadership also must conceptualize what that future organization should look like and should do, and must successfully motivate staff to go that direction. Furthermore, the leadership needs to bring management discipline to the organization in ways that may go counter to the existing culture and to their own perceptions of their roles and value in the organization.
For the link to the complete report, click HERE.
________________________________________________________________
Link to article here.
Major audit: TxDOT must change its 'singular, deeply entrenched culture'
3:52 PM Thu, May 27, 2010 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Michael Lindenberger/Reporter Bio | E-mail | News tips
The Texas Department of Transportation should significantly alter its leadership structure, reshuffle its executive ranks and reduce the role engineers play in leading the sprawling agency.
That's according to a new -- and at 628 pages, exhaustive -- audit of its management and structure by the accounting firm Grant Thornton. The audit, available in full here, was released Wednesday by the department after the accounting firm revealed its findings.
I am still working through the details, and there are a lot of them. But key recommendations from the audit focus strongly on the nature of the leadership of the department, which has been under fire in Austin and elsewhere for years, often because of resentment by lawmakers and others that see it as a tool of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign to add toll roads throughout Texas.
The audit notes that one of the most fundamental challenges faced by the department is an unsteady funding stream, and soaring costs associated with its monumental responsibilities. Texas cities are among the fastest-growing in America, and the state maintains more miles of highways than any other -- an expensive combination.
But the report also states that a lack of trust by lawmakers and members of the public has played a critical role in preventing the agency from getting higher appropriations. Some simply don't believe the agency needs what it says it needs. Others, the audit stated, say that until TxDOT wins that trust back, many stakeholders feel it shouldn't be given more money to spend -- even if it clearly needs it.
Other big recommendations urge TxDOT to:
Fundamentally change its culture.
TxDOT has a singular, deeply entrenched culture that reflects 93 years of service dedicated to providing top notch transportation infrastructure to the State of Texas. This culture, and the ways in which the organization is led and managed, are fundamental considerations in the MOR as they affect every aspect of TxDOT performance. The unifying thread through all the MOR observations and recommendations is the way in which leadership and management practices and cultural norms affect TxDOT behavior and efficacy. Changes in this area are the essential underpinning to achieving meaningful improvements in the areas of effectiveness, efficiency, communications and transparency.
Significantly change its leadership structure. It recommends that TxDOT create three executive positions that would answer to the executive director -- chief administration officer, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer. These jobs would be new -- even if, in the case of the CFO, they exist in some form today, and should not be automatically reserved for members of the executive now employed, the audit says.
Lessen its focus on engineering among its top leadership, and indeed throughout the agency. Currently, engineering expertise -- even a license -- seems to be the only coin of the realm that carries any value. That has meant putting engineers in non-engineering roles, just to keep them aboard, and making it harder for non-engineers "to be heard" no matter how strong their relevant, non-engineering expertise might be.
Make the aides to the five TxDOT commissioners who oversee the agency answer to the commissioners, not to the executive director. The report says that has created a conflict of interest. If the commissioners are to oversee the agency, they deserve unbiased and unfettered advice from their administrative assistants.
Divide the government relations staff and the communications staff. A few years ago, communications folks -- spokesman and others -- were merged under a new department led by Colby Chase, who had represented the department's interests in Washington previously. The report says that has helped lead to TxDOT's image as an overly political entity, and the staff of about 50 full-time workers should be divided once again.
Too little metrics, means it's hard to assess TxDOT's work. Is TxDOT doing good work? Efficiently? Who knows, says the audit.
Clearly TxDOT employees are accomplishing a great deal of work. However, in the absence of relevant metrics, performance reporting, management disciplines and controls - deployed across the organization - it isn't possible to determine whether work is being done effectively or efficiently.
There is much more in the audit, and I'm not yet through with it. A lot of the really hard stuff will deal with how centralized the agency's operations should be -- an issue sure to touch soft spots within TxDOT, given its long history of leaving much authority in the hands of its district engineers -- and how to better coordinate its statewide planning efforts.
Meanwhile, the issue is already political, of course. No surprise since even on its own organization chart, TxDOT lists the Governor at the top of its pyramid of power, over the five commissioners he has appointed to lead the agency.
Gubernatorial candidate Bill White attacked Gov. Rick Perry for having failed to develop a long-term transportation policy, and cited the audit as proof.
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, released a statement Wednesday night saying the report is more reason to remake the agency from the ground up.
"This report reveals very little that those of us who deal with TxDOT regularly didn't already know. When it comes to necessary reforms, there always seems to be a fight, probably because of the culture and leadership issues described in the report," Senator Watson said. "It's time to strip TxDOT back to the engine block and rebuild it as an agency that can effectively serve Texas in this century. My experience working with Chair (Deirdre) Delisi, and our conversations regarding these issues, lead me to believe she intends to begin this significant, essential process."
TxDOT ordered the audit early last year, as it was under the microscope of the Sunset Review Commission of the Legislature. It will be back under that same microscope in 2011, and in that sense the audit is its chance to get out from under the heavy boots of lawmakers before the latter insist on changes of their own.
Of course that will depend on how the agency responds to the challenging assessments contained within its covers. We'll know more about its approach June 8, at 9 a.m. at a specially called meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission.
Meanwhile, tell me what you think.
___________________________________________________________________________
Link to article here.
Report calls for sweeping changes at Texas Department of Transportation
Posted Friday, May. 28, 2010
By GORDON DICKSON
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Star-Telegram
AUSTIN -- Sweeping leadership changes must be made to restore public trust in the Texas Department of Transportation, which is perceived as a "dishonest" agency that would rather spin the truth than admit a mistake, a scathing report released this week concludes.
"A similarly significant concern in this area is the belief that TxDOT leaders are not honest about communicating their mistakes, leaving others to uncover and point out problems when they occur," said the report by Grant Thornton, a Chicago-based accounting and advisory firm. "Improving communications in these areas is another component of cultural change within TxDOT."
The 628-page document, presented to the five-member Texas Transportation Commission this week, was the result of a yearlong review of management practices that was requested by state lawmakers.
The report recommended that the 93-year-old agency take decisive steps to end a long history of hiring engineers for most leadership positions in the department. Instead, the report concluded, the agency should be more businesslike, with richer input from its human resources, information technology and other offices.
Observers for Grant Thornton interviewed scores of the Transportation Department's roughly 12,000 employees and gathered written survey results from more than half of them. They said nonengineers feel that their input is routinely ignored.
"Reorganizing to allow a greater role for nonengineers won't result in a place at the table unless the culture allows that," Susan Pentecost, a Grant Thornton principal, told commissioners.
Tricky transformation
Transportation Commission members say that they plan to act on many of the recommendations over several months and that some of the initial steps could be made at a special meeting June 8 in Austin.
But transforming the agency could be tricky.
Transportation commissioners have traditionally performed an oversight role, leaving the day-to-day decisions to the department's full-time staff. Carrying out the recommendations could present a conflict for the agency staff, which was the target of criticism in the report.
One idea is to appoint one or more intermediaries who would report only to the commission and could be assigned to carry out management changes, said Bill Meadows, a Transportation Commission member from Fort Worth.
Although commissioners expect to answer criticisms in the report for months to come, they appreciate the frank nature of its conclusions, he said.
"There's no reason to try to sugarcoat anything or make people feel better when you're trying to improve the department," Meadows said. "Our goal is to become the most efficient agency in the U.S., and it's got to be taken very seriously."
Highlights of the report
Senior officials don't see a need for change. They hold "deep-seated" beliefs that the agency is doing all the right things and that criticism will decline when the public understands how right it is.
"Meaningful adjustment in TxDOT cannot occur without leaders who understand and accept that the organization's performance and management is not meeting expectations," the report concludes. "TxDOT requires leaders who truly believe that the world has changed and that TxDOT must also change."
Managers and employees are uncomfortable providing negative feedback to one another because of close relationships.
Morale among employees is suffering for various reasons. There is a "noticeable divide" between workers in the field and those at Austin headquarters. Employees are also worn down by constant criticism of the agency.
Pentecost described one common sentiment among workers: "What I was doing that was successful is no longer viewed as successful, and I don't know what I did wrong."
Managers are stuck in a rut because most of them have spent the bulk of their careers there. They know only one way to operate: "the TxDOT way." Most of the engineers also come from Texas and, particularly, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.
Nonengineers such as those working in information technology don't feel that they have as much of a voice in decision-making as engineers.
"TxDOT should look at IT as an investment rather than a cost," Anna Danegger, director of state and local government for Grant Thornton, told the commission.
The agency's communications are scattered, and many people who do business with the department wonder why the equivalent of 50 full-time employees is needed in the government and public affairs office.
Recent efforts to reorganize many of the department's statewide functions into regions have confused employees and have not resulted in financial savings as executives have claimed.
The Transportation Department is good at designing and building projects but not planning.
"Plan processes are lengthy and confusing, and TxDOT doesn't always execute its plans as originally presented," Danegger said.
GORDON DICKSON, 817-390-7796
Like TURF
Follow TURF