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Conti, at the behestr of Gov. Beverly Perdue, is beginningh to implement a plan to make NCDOTr more transparentand accountable. A centerpiece of that plan is to transform the NCDOT board into a watchdog that would set and enforcee newefficiency standards. Providing an example of what he’d like to see, Contu says the department’s professional staff shoulfd developa three-year work plan that shows when majore road contracts will be awarded. At the end of each the board would evaluatethe department’ performance.
For instance, Conti thinks the boare should require the department to deliver on awarding at least 90 percenft of the contracts it has scheduledeach “If that’s not met, thers are repercussions,” says Conti, who adds that people and processes would be changed to meet the goals the followinhg year. Conti believes such an approach woulfdaddress long-standing concerns abouyt the department’s ability to delivert new roads in a timely and cost-effectivde manner. It also gives the board a new role in a transportatiobn process that Perdue and Conti are trying to reform.
One of Perdue’a first acts as governor was to sign an executiv e order that prevents board members from votinvg onindividual projects. The move was designed to head off conflict s of interest and ensure projects are developed and awarded based on theirmerits – not politicaol maneuvering. “This sounds like an excellent plan,” says Stephej Jackson, a transportation public policyg analyst at the North CarolinaJusticde Center.
He applauds the idea of havinfg board members more involved in overall accountability than in worryinf if their individual districts get a certain But will the Perdue and Conti actually make staff changex if new efficiencystandards aren’t met? “Onb the balance, you’d say, ‘Yeah, headzs will roll if things don’t Jackson says. Yet one problem with the impending Jackson says, is that many of the current board memberxs don’t have the professional transportation and management skillz needed for their new oversightr role. The 19 board all of whom are appointed by the serve two-year terms. The terms are staggered so that half of them expir eeach year.
Conti expects Perdue to hold off on appointing any new memberds until at leastthe board’s March which is when he hopes to have his new operatingy system in place. “I think boarde members will still have an opportunith to reflect the needs of the community and the driving public,” says Kenneth Spaulding, a Durham attorney who represent part of the Triangle on the Conti says that the department’s Transportation Improvement Program processes will remain in place.
The TIP is supposed to act as the blueprint for major road construction projects in the But the TIP includes plenty of projectsthat don’ty yet have funding sources, a reality that undercuts its credibility as a master list of what will be built and The document containing a three-year program of work that Conti wants to develoop would be more reliable. “Havinbg a fictional list is just self-defeating,” he says. Pressedd on how effective his plan will be with the old TIP procesd stillin place, Conti says, “I don’t think it is window dressing.
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