Leadership change coming for state roads panel

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Despite fierce and unrelenting criticism, S. Lee Kling says he has much to be proud of looking back on his tenure on the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission.

Improved fiscal oversight at the Department of Transportation and legislative approval of $2.25 billion in bonds to speed up construction of some needed road projects are among the items Kling, the commission chairman, touts as accomplishments.

But as he prepares to step down from MoDOT's governing body, Kling says the most important task toward securing a positive future for the state's transportation system remains. Department officials have long claimed that MoDOT needs at least $1 billion a year in additional money to fix and expand the state highway system.

"The major thing left to do is for the Legislature and the governor, Democrats and Republicans to come together and find a common consensus on new funding or this state is going to be set back," Kling said.

Kling detractors

But detractors say that Kling's leadership has resulted in a litany of broken promises and an erosion of public trust for MoDOT that has made winning legislative and popular support for additional revenue all but impossible.

The Missouri Farm Bureau has been a leading critic of the commission in general and Kling in particular.

"There is no secret to the fact that we have stated consistently that there needs to be new leadership at the highways commission," said Estil Fretwell, a Farm Bureau lobbyist. "Unfortunately the current leadership, in our opinion, has taken us back quite a few years."

State Sen. Morris Westfall, R-Halfway, was a key player this year as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee in blocking a massive proposed tax package for transportation. He often cited Kling as one of the reasons for his opposition.

"I think the commission has done a very poor job, and it appears to be as a result of his leadership," Westfall said.

15-year road plan

Kling's six-year term on the commission, which included serving as chairman for the last three years, ends Saturday. However, in keeping with standard practice, he will continue to serve until Gov. Bob Holden names a replacement.

Jerry Nachtigal, Holden's spokesman, said the governor is in the process of considering nominees and will name his choice soon.

Much of the animosity toward Kling and the commission stems from the 1998 decision to abandon MoDOT's much-heralded 15-year transportation improvement plan as the financial blueprint for new road construction. The commission concluded the plan, used to sell lawmakers on a 6-cent-per-gallon fuel tax hike in 1992, had been financially flawed from the outset.

Kling says there has been a misconception perpetuated that projects in that plan aren't being built.

"About 98 percent of the programs we've done were 15-year plan projects," Kling said. "It's not that we have not done them. It's just that if you don't have sufficient funding, you can't complete them" as quickly as originally promised.

Kling says the commission has implemented steps to better manage the resources MoDOT does have, including appointing a chief financial officer and conducting both internal and external audits of the department's finances.

"Doing that has put in a lot more financial controls than were ever there before," Kling said.

Rural-urban issue

It's not that MoDOT spends money on bad projects, Westfall says, but that it fails to prioritize based on needs.

Under the 15-year plan, 59 percent of spending was to go for rural projects with 41 percent earmarked for urban projects, primarily because rural areas have more miles of highways. The funding ratio moved closer to an even split under Kling, a St. Louisan.

"He has tried to take that to a 50-50 arrangement and that was not the commitment that was made," Westfall said.

Kling, a major fund raiser for Democratic candidates and causes, helped shift highway funds to urban areas because they are the state's primary sources of Democratic votes, Westfall said.

Kling, who advocated a 54-46 split favoring rural projects under the department's current five-year construction plan, says highway funding shouldn't be a rural-urban issue.

"I think if they would find enough money so that everyone got something, this problem would not be there," Kling said. "It's when you don't have enough money that everyone clamors for more, and rightfully so."

But Fretwell says the commission's decisions have fractured Missouri into regional camps.

"It is only in recent years with the leadership of this commission that this parochial, provincial way of looking at things has developed," Fretwell said.

In addition to Kling, the term of Democratic Commissioner William E. Gladden of Houston also ends Saturday. The term of Republican Commissioner Edward D. Douglas of Chillicothe is up Dec. 1.

That will give Holden, a Democrat, the opportunity to shape the six-member commission's future by naming half its members in the span of less than two months.

Because the commission must be evenly divided between the two parties, Holden must appoint Democrats to replace Kling and Gladden and a Republican to succeed Douglas.

Fretwell says Farm Bureau is hopeful the governor's choices will provide the leadership needed to turn the commission around.

"This is a very significant and important time, because this will signal whether the state is going to start moving forward again and recapture some of that lost public confidence," Fretwell said.

Though the new commissioners will begin serving immediately upon their selection, the appointments will be subject to Senate approval when the General Assembly convenes in January.

Westfall says the GOP-controlled Senate will closely review Holden's choices.

"We want to make sure whoever we get gives us a reason to restore credibility to the commission," Westfall said.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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