Panel will review MoDOT credibility, make suggestions

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission is setting up a panel of outsiders to scrutinize the Department of Transportation's credibility and reputation -- and recommend how to improve both.

The outside review announced Friday follows August's lopsided voter rejection of a proposed transportation tax increase and years of criticism of the department's stewardship of road-building funds.

Ollie Gates, the Kansas City barbecue restaurant magnate who chairs the six-member commission, said in an interview he wants an honest review and straightforward recommendations "to help us stay on course for credibility and accountability."

The commissioners are proposing names of panel members to Gates, who expects to appoint from eight to 12 individuals -- "all from outside of the department, and charged with telling us like it is," the chairman said.

Gates already has a few prospective panel members in mind, including Charles Kruse, president of Missouri Farm Bureau. The politically influential farm organization has been among the department's most vocal critics because of a shift in funding that gave urban areas a larger share.

"The goal of the whole thing is to make better roads in the state of Missouri," Gates said. "We should have a model highway system in the country."

Gates said he expects to appoint the panel within a few weeks and he wants recommendations from them by June.

The panel's establishment is being coordinated by Bill McKenna, a highway commissioner and former state senator from Barnhart.

McKenna agreed with Gates that views of department outsiders, "especially those who have a strong interest in a great transportation system will help us get this department back on track in the public's mind."

Gates and the department's director, Henry Hungerbeeler, said the agency has taken many steps in recent years to improve accountability to Missourians, including naming an inspector general and issuing an annual report on its finances and projects. But funding shortfalls -- and the defeat of Proposition A in August -- have left the agency struggling against eroded popularity.

Estil Fretwell, a spokesman for Missouri Farm Bureau, said he expected the organization "would certainly be willing to take part in any discussions as long as people come to the table with a fair attitude."

But he said Farm Bureau would not back away from its long-held contention there was a "systematic" effort during the 1990s to increase the urban share of highway money, especially in St. Louis, at the expense of rural road projects.

Fretwell said the Department of Transportation "took a major hit" to its credibility a few years ago when its governing commission decided to drop a 1992 road plan, financed by a 6-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax increase, as its financial blueprint for highway construction.