Citizens have been complaining for quite some time about the developer pork for roads in the proposed penny sales tax for transportation. In addition to rail, part of the proposed penny would go to bus rapid transit as well as non-transit projects ( like roads). Problem is some of the roads they came up with were already under developer agreements to be widened and yet the county was asking you to pay or maybe float a loan to those developers. That wasn't kosher.
Commissioner Kevin Beckner has asked county staff member Lucia Garsys several times to explain how those six DRI roads were chosen for the project list on the penny. DRI is short for a division of regional impact NIMBY translation: big ass subdivisions. So how did those roads supposed to be funded by developers get on the penny wish list in the first place? Well, it was Commissioner Ken Hagan's Transportation Task Force that came up with the projects to be added to the referendum question yet when questioned by Beckner, Ms. Garsys (who is the contact person on the TTF's website) seemed to try to shift the heat to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO ) during the county's workshop earlier this month. It seemed fishy that on that task force was the vice president of the very developer responsible for all six roads. It also seemed strange that a non developer but highly controversial road project being pushed by the Brandon Chamber showed up on that gravy train list. A little digging revealed that the Chair of the Brandon Chamber also sat on Ken Hagan's Transportation Task Force. Hmmmm.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2010.