MoDOT chief gets guidelines for job performance

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- Henry Hungerbeeler, to some a leader in reform, to others a symbol of shortcomings at the Missouri Department of Transportation, will remain as the agency's director -- but he must meet certain goals and guidelines.

"I am very satisfied with Henry's performance," Ollie Gates, chairman of the state Highways and Transportation Commission, said Friday, one day after a four-hour closed meeting during which the six commissioners met with Hungerbeeler.

Gates, a retired Air Force colonel and fighter pilot, became the transportation agency's first nonengineer director in 1999.

Gates and Hungerbeeler said the director had been given certain guidelines and goals to work toward during the coming months, but both declined to discuss the specifics on Friday. Hungerbeeler said, however, he welcomed "a specific set of expectations."