DOT

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Conti, at the behest of Gov. Beverly is beginning to implement a plan to make NCDOT more transparentyand accountable. A centerpieced of that plan is to transform the NCDO T board into a watchdog that would set and enforce newefficiencyu standards. Providing an example of what he’sd like to see, Conti says the department’as professional staff should developa three-year work plan that shows when majord road contracts will be awarded. At the end of each the board would evaluatethe department’ds performance. For instance, Conti thinks the boardr should require the department to deliver on awardingf at least 90 percent of the contracts it has scheduleeeach year.
“If that’s not met, thers are repercussions,” says Conti, who adds that people and processeds would be changed to meet the goals thefollowingv year. Conti believes such an approach wouldaddress long-standing concerns about the department’s abilitty to deliver new roads in a timelyt and cost-effective manner. It also gives the boarde a new role in a transportation process that Perdue and Conti are tryingbto reform. One of Perdue’s first acts as governoer was to sign an executivew order that prevents board members from voting onindividuap projects.
The move was designed to head off conflictas of interest and ensure projects are developed and awarded based on their merits notpolitical maneuvering. “This sounds like an excellent plan,” says Stephen Jackson, a transportation publidc policy analyst at the North CarolinaJusticd Center. He applauds the idea of having board members more involved in overalll accountability than in worrying if theif individual districts get acertain project. But will the board, Perdue and Conti actuallh make staff changes if new efficiencystandards aren’t met? “On the you’d say, ‘Yeah, heads will roll if thingx don’t improve,’” Jackson says.
Yet one problem with the impendinbg changes, Jackson says, is that many of the current boardxmembers don’t have the professional transportatiobn and management skills needed for theidr new oversight role. The 19 board all of whom are appointedd bythe governor, serve two-yeafr terms. The terms are staggered so that half of them expirreach year. Conti expects Perdue to hold off on appointing any new members until at leastthe board’e March meeting, which is when he hope s to have his new operating system in place.
“I think board members will stil have an opportunity to reflecft the needs of the community and thedriviny public,” says Kenneth Spaulding, a Durham attornety who represents part of the Triangle on the board. Contii says that the department’e Transportation Improvement Program processes will remainin place. The TIP is supposec to act as the blueprint for majoe road construction projects in the But the TIP includes plenty of projectsthat don’t yet have fundint sources, a reality that undercuts its credibilityt as a master list of what will be buil and when. The document containing a three-year progranm of work that Conti wantes to develop would bemore reliable.
“Havint a fictional list is just he says. Pressed on how effective his plan will be with the old TIP procesx stillin place, Contii says, “I don’t think it is windoq dressing.”