FM 1626: Hollywood, Ballywood, and mostly Bull

The public hearing held by TxDOT Tuesday night was simply a staged event to give Barton the opportunity of pumping up his Pct 2 road supporters, knowing that there would be no visible work on FM 1626 that voters could see by the primary in March

Jeff Barton

Note: According to county officials, the 1626 expansion, as currently planned, will cost federal, state gas and county taxpayers an estimated $100 million – with a lot of pork n' fat in the mix. Very unfortunate how it has all transpired, and a poor example of leadership from Pct. 2 Commish Jeff Barton, who has put himself on the hot seat and is now trying his best to wiggle free. As Mr. O'Dell has noted, the awards for political theater will be handed out in the primaries in March, when you can vote for your favorite actors.

Send your comments and news tips to online.editor@valleyspringcomm.net, to Mr. O'Dell at codell@austin.rr.com or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story

By Charles O'Dell
Contributing Editor

Billed by TxDOT as a Public Hearing concerning proposed improvements to FM 1626 from RM 967 in Hays County to Brodie Lane in Travis County, the Dec. 8 Tuesday night meeting turned out to be a not-so-disguised political rally that at times took on the look and feel of an old time religious revival with the Reverend Jeff Barton presiding.

“I want everyone in support of this project to stand up, raise your hands and say ‘Fix 1626.’” Up jumped about 250 of the estimated 325 in attendance and with hands raised above their heads, shouted, “Fix 1626.” Then, Reverend Barton asked everyone to sit down and to drink more of the strange looking kool aid called political theater. Barton’s supporters drank it up.

Whether you believed it was just a required TxDOT public hearing, a rally to push the FM 1626 road expansion project forward, or a subversion of the State election ethics laws by an undeclared Barton campaigning for county judge, you would be correct but still have missed the big picture.

Most of those attending the meeting had a predisposition to trust what elected officials say in public, and tunnel vision predicated on a daily desire to escape commuter rush hour traffic, making the political theater Tuesday night a grand and rewarding experience in shifting previous expectations and keeping false hope alive. But there is a lot more to this story.

Hays County was one of very few jurisdictions throughout all of Texas that bought into Gov. Perry’s Pass Through Financing for state roads, a trick that creates double taxation with local property taxes and encourages expensive over-designed roads. (You can thank Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley for that. He loves to boast that he personally invited the Pass Through sleight of hand to Hays County).

Our Hays County officials went even farther and agreed to work on federal highways funded with our local road bonds. What had been achieved through political theater financed with the public purse, was being undone by TxDOT excesses, changing public attitudes, and a global economic recession. Something had to be done.

The Right Reverend Barton promised road bond voters in 2008 that work would begin promptly on FM 1626, and when pressed for how long that would be, said within a year. Now thirteen months has turned into a minimum of two or three years at best.

All the political actors were at the TxDOT event Tuesday night at Elms Grove Elementary, including current TxDOT Austin District Engineer, Carlos Lopez, P.E.. Lopez smiled and waved when introduced. Even Lopez’s predecessor, Bob Daigh, came in for praise. Daigh retired from TxDOT last year and Williamson County immediately created a job for Daigh at the same salary he was paid at TxDOT.

Williamson County is where Mike Weaver’s Prime Strategies had helped to engineer a half billion dollars in road bonds before Hays County hired Weaver as its “transportation consultant,” and paid him tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. Prime Strategies came in for its share of praise for guidance in getting the over-designed FM 1626 included as a TxDOT Pass Through project.

There was a bevy of public officials in attendance, many running for reelection. Included were commissioners Barton and Conley, District Attorney Sherri Tibbe, an aide from Rep. Patrick Rose’s office who Barton asked to read the names of about sixty high profile individuals who had written letters to TxDOT supporting the 1626 project, Senator Wentworth’s Chief of Staff, Joe Morris, County Judge Liz Sumter, Mike Gonzales who recently resigned as mayor of Kyle to run for Barton’s Pct 2 commissioner position, and many other public officials who had previously run for office, who have recently announced their candidacy, or who are expected to announce in early January 2010 to avoid the “resign and run” law.

Not everyone was on the Barton bandwagon or sat by passively.

The public comment segment began with a parade of public officials being handed the microphone to express their support of this road project and to heap praise on the event organizers – Barton, Conley and others. When it came time for the “public” to speak, a TxDOT employee held the microphone like a tether for control. Finally, one public speaker asked the obvious question, “Why were the elected officials handed the microphone and we aren’t allowed to hold it?” TxDOT relented and speakers thereafter regained some dignity and control.

Before the TxDOT portion of the meeting began, I noticed a sign standing at the back of the room that read: “Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton, www.voteforBarton.com.”

I walked over to Barton and asked him if this was a political event and pointed out his sign. This was the same sign Barton had used as seen in the photo published in his family newspaper with “6 lanes coming” hand painted on the back. A bit flustered, Barton told me the sign wasn’t political and when I assured him it was he professed not to have brought it. To keep Barton out of trouble I walked over and turned his sign around to face the wall. Following a brief discussion across the room between Barton and some fellow, who then approached me to say that he had brought the Barton sign, not Barton.

The upshot of the public hearing was that it will be another 16 – 18 months of project review by federal agencies before construction can begin if the project is approved. The failed promise Barton made to voters during the 2008 road bond election was blamed on TxDOT, the feds, and Austin City Council who pointed out the proposed expanded 4 – 6 lane 1626 highway in Hays County would converge at the Travis County line into an existing two lane road that is not budgeted for expansion, and that the SH 45 link to MoPac is off the table. That was not a message Barton supporters wanted to hear.

It was suggested once again in public comment that a better plan would be to purchase the full right-of-way and then expand FM 1626 into a three lane road with strategic right turn lanes that research shows will facilitate 17,000 vehicles per day. TxDOT reported traffic on FM 1626 had increased from 12,800 vehicles per day in 2004, to 13,800 in 2008. If that rate of increase were to continue, a three lane FM 1626 would peak out about 2020, at which time the road could be easily widened within the existing ROW.

TxDOT projects 20,400 vpd in 2024. But that projection doesn’t take into consideration thousands of homes that won’t be built on the Dahlstrom Ranch where development rights have been purchased by Hays County, the City of Austin and others; or long-term economic recession recovery projections; the proposed commuter rail, and changing driving habits already reflected in reduced vehicular mileage data.

The public hearing held by TxDOT Tuesday night was simply a staged event to give Barton the opportunity of pumping up his Pct 2 road supporters, knowing that there would be no visible work on FM 1626 that voters could see by the primary in March. Barton’s Democrat Primary strategy depends on the voting demographics in the 2008 road bond election.

He must hold his Pct. 2 and Pct. 1 commuter voters with an FM 1626 rally, and compensate for his failed “Daniel’s gun law” with a proposal of using our Open Space and Parks bond money to purchase a track of land for concurrent use as Endangered Species Habitat Conservation and a shooting range. Barton knows U.S. Fish and Wildlife will never approve such an action but it gets him past the upcoming March primary election. That explains the pressure Barton is putting on the commissioners’ court appointed citizens parks advisory team (CPAT) to recommend such an action.

You can’t attend just one thinly veiled political meeting staged as a TxDOT public hearing and expect to recognize that you are being manipulated. There is always a bigger picture.

As co-founder of Hays Community Action Network (HaysCAN) in 2003, Mr. O’Dell strives to carry out the mission of ensuring open, accessible and accountable government. He is a long time and close observer of the workings of the Hays County Commissioners Court. He earned a degree in Agricultural Education and a Masters in Ag Economics at Texas Tech, and, later, a Ph.D. at The University of Maryland while employed as a Research Economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. Texas born and raised on a family farm, O’Dell is a Hays County Master Naturalist and board president of the Ethical Society of Austin.