Today is Minnesota Lt. Gov. and Department of Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau's 58th birthday, and the entire state sends its best wishes. We're reading interesting things about your department these days.
The Strib reports on the embarassment our state has become since the Governor shelved plans to call a special session to deal with the state's deadly bridge and road problem.
Molnau opposed calling a special session for transportation needs (oh heck, MPR reported that Molnau questions need for special session for flood relief) and so the costs of the I35 bridge collapse is sucking funds and personnel for other projects around the state, including the widening of Highway 14 from Mankato to New Ulm. MDOT's web page about the project notes:
What’s new?
Mn/DOT had hoped to complete work on the draft EIS by mid-2007, but key environmental staff that need to review this work have been redirected to work on the I-35W bridge replacement. At this time, we do not know when the review will be complete.
Why does this matter? Back in 2002, MPR reported on how many Southern Minnesotans believe Highway 14 to be the state's worst (and possibly deadliest) highway. But work with the legislature to make both highways and bridges safe? Guess ideology is more important.
Funny, though, how you've cut staff during your tenure, but didn't seem to be able to keep an eye on your department's head of emergency management. While you were junketing in China, she was off on yet another out-of-state trip, according to Friday's Strib article, MnDOT official's travel costs questioned. It reported:
The Minnesota Department of Transportation official in charge of emergency management is being investigated for suspected improprieties related to her work schedule and state-paid travel, sources familiar with the investigation said.
The official, Sonia Kay Morphew Pitt*, was on an East Coast business trip when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed on Aug. 1. She didn't return to the Twin Cities for another 10 days, MnDOT travel records show.
She came under internal investigation at the agency after colleagues complained about her absence, sources said.
A review of Pitt's travel records, employee expense reports and time sheets shows that she was a frequent out-of-state traveler. Three of the 11 business trips she booked for this year -- including the one she was on when the bridge collapsed -- included itineraries that aren't fully explained by the authorization forms she filled out to gain approval for leaving the state.
The details on that not-so-fiscally-conservative trip:
Travel records show that Pitt flew to Washington, D.C., on July 26 and then went on to Cambridge, Mass., on July 31 to attend an education program at Harvard University. The program was the second phase of training for government officials who are "responsible for preparedness, response, or recovery from terrorist events or natural disasters."
When the Harvard program ended on Aug. 3, Pitt returned to Washington and stayed there until Aug. 11, records show.
The request and authorization form for the trip didn't explain why she needed to be gone for 16 consecutive nights or what, precisely, she was doing in Washington. That time period did not include any vacation days.
Under "Date of Event," the request and authorization form said "July 30-August 4, 2007 plus group project work in DC." Under "Explain Benefits to MnDOT," Pitt gave a description of the Harvard course but made no mention of additional work in Washington.
On Pitt's employee expense report, she listed "training" as the reason for each weekday she was in Washington, getting paid her usual wage of $40.67 an hour, or at least $84,593 a year.
It's no wonder people are asking questions. The mayor of Edina recently express concerns about your tenure:
But two broader questions are as relevant and cannot be swept aside:
• Do we Minnesota voters have the collective financial fortitude to demand that all of our state elected leaders finally make the transportation commitments needed to keep us safe and competitive in the future? After two decades of falling behind, let's hope the vivid memory of a fallen bridge prompts our governor and Legislature to build a financial strategy that actually achieves the sound and wise transportation system that we and future generations need.
• Is it wise to have a statewide elected official, in this case the lieutenant governor, also in charge of running a state agency, in this case the transportation department? Should Carol Molnau be running MnDOT?
Under state law, the commissioners of departments operate within the executive branch as direct hires of the governor. While the governor is a commissioner's boss, commissioners are also charged with advocating for the best interests of citizens, as those interests relate to a particular agency. State law requires our transportation commissioner, for example, to develop, adopt, revise and monitor a statewide transportation plan in order to "provide safe transportation for users throughout the state" and "to provide funding for transportation that, at a minimum, preserves the transportation infrastructure."
But when a governor and lieutenant governor are politically aligned, and that lieutenant governor also runs MnDOT, such political kinship runs the risk of diminishing the commissioner's sworn role as a transportation advocate. Bluntly, does Tim Pawlenty have in his Cabinet a commissioner who will speak expertly and frankly about the transportation needs of the state? Does he have someone who will offer advice he may not want to hear about the sufficiency of revenues to effectively repair and expand our system of roads, bridges and transit?
The image etched in my mind is from last spring: the governor, flanked at a news conference by his hybrid lieutenant governor/MnDOT commissioner, with a flourish of his pen, vetoing a transportation bill that would have set Minnesota on a course to repair and expand its infrastructure. Only a minimal "lights on" budget was left. And the lieutenant governor just stood there, smiling.
That Grover Norquist-esque "shrinking government to drown it" philosophy--and the absence of a special session that follows it--isn't just a transportation problem, of course. There's also that problem of property tax relief and local government aid. The mayor of Owatonna tells the Strib:
The floods a few weeks after the bridge collapse sharpened the need for local government aid across the state.
"We just had the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, we just had the floods in southern Minnesota. You start looking at emergency responses, you look at ambulances, you look at fire, you look at police -- that just straps the heck out of those when you don't have those dollars available," said Owatonna Mayor Tom Kuntz, who is also president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities.
Heckova job, Carol.
*On most MDOT press releases, Pitt goes by "Sonia Pitt" for those who wish to look for more information about the frequent flier.
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