While a big decision is currently before the voters of Missouri in the next week, there is a decision before the MODOT commissioners that is perhaps more impactful than anything on a relatively boring Missouri general election calendar: The choice of a new Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Whenever it is time to select a new director it’s a big decision, but due to a recent court ruling that gives greater autonomy to MODOT in how they spend their dedicated funds, and less oversight by the General Assembly, this might be the biggest hire since Hungerbeeler was fired after the failed 15 Year Plan.
I think the general consensus is that the department is in good shape, and in my mind, former Director Patrick McKenna along with the commission deserves their share of the credit for that. However, no one mistook Patrick for a game show host.
The new director is going to have to continue the competence in the department and find a way to work with the legislature even though they have greater autonomy.
You might wonder why it’s so important to hire someone with the relationships in the Capitol when they have just won greater autonomy.
Fair point, well my white trash intuition can come up with a couple reasons.
First, if you look at the Governor’s plan to redo a couple hundred Missouri bridges. That money did not come through MODOT’s system funding, it came through appropriations from the General Assembly.
I-70 reconstruction, a great win for the state and a great vote of confidence in MODOT, right? Well yes, but again that project would be impossible without large appropriations from the legislature.
One could only hope that the commission has an applicant who was familiar with those appropriations, the circumstances around securing them, and the people in the process that can keep them coming.
Secondly, you need someone who knows how to fight to make transportation a priority in the state. Someone who can keep the peace between the people’s elected representatives in the legislature, Missouri’s road construction community, and the public.
It’s important because while MODOT has more budgetary autonomy if they are not careful you will see that win wiped away. It’s really easy to change Missouri’s constitution, and we have seen in the past that MODOT can become very very unpopular very very quickly.
Without someone who understands all three legs to this stool you could see a revolt against this new autonomy, and MODOT doesn’t have deer season to bail them out with the public like Conservation does.
Ideally, the commission could find someone who is not from the I-70 corridor. There are going to be endless ribbon cuttings associated with the I-70 reconstruction, and nothing gets a Southern Missourian fired up more than the feeling that he is being slighted by the big cities. Folks in southern Missouri will say its the 15-Year Plan all over again.
Someone who isn’t from the I-70 corridor would be better placed to assuage those concerns. Specifically, someone from the I-44 corridor would be perfectly suited to manage all the influences that are brought to bear in our incredibly complex state.
Further, it’s common sense that MODOT needs to hire a Missourian. Often we as Missourians fall to the temptation to hire someone who isn’t from here as though they are smarter or better than the homegrown Missourians who have applied.
Look no further than the dumpster fire over at the Department of Insurance to see how hiring someone specifically because they weren’t from Missouri can lead to wrecking a department.
It’s too much to ask, but imagine if the commission could find an applicant who was familiar with the current appropriations they are administering, and knew how to secure future appropriations, was respected in the construction community, had relationships at the capitol, and was from the I-44 corridor?
I’m sure that the perfect applicant isn’t out there, and they have already done their interviews, but making the right hire by the commission, just as the voters making the right decisions next Tuesday would be the perfect way to build on their current momentum.
However, making the wrong decisions, either by the voters or in this case by the commission likely only results with intense scrutiny, doors being closed inside the capitol, discord, and a loss of that momentum that was so hard to build.
Check last week’s This Week in Missouri Politics where we discussed this decision with Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe, and Sunday on #TWMP we will have a Phelps County battle royale with Jack Cardetti and David Steelman making their pre-election predictions.
Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.
