Posted on Sun, Feb. 04, 2007

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Legislative mindset lies at the heart of DOT abuses

WITH TENS OF millions of dollars squandered on too-generous contracts, it might seem silly even to bring up the $60,000 that taxpayers have been billed in the last couple of years to provide private secretarial help for five members of the unelected, part-time state Transportation Commission.

But secretary-gate just might be the best illustration yet of the fundamental problem at the state’s most unaccountable agency — a problem that leading “reform” efforts would do nothing to correct.

Contrary to popular belief, most debate over restructuring government is not about taking power from the Legislature and giving it to the governor. It’s about whether to let the governor run the executive branch of government rather than continuing to fragment that authority among separately elected statewide officers and countless commissioners who, though mostly appointed by governors, operate as a law unto themselves.

The exception is the Transportation Department. Not only is the governing board appointed by the Legislature, but that board actually functions like a mini-legislature: The commissioners horse-trade support for pet projects, or divvy up chunks of tax money for each to have spent as he likes. And just like real legislators, they must tend to constituent requests and complaints — never mind that someone who is not elected and who cannot even be removed by the legislators who appoint him does not actually have any constituents.

That’s why these part-time commissioners took it upon themselves to hand-pick their own private secretaries to work in their own private offices — and pay their part-time secretaries far more than most real legislators are allowed to spend for such assistance.

That’s why members of a House panel that is crafting an overhaul proposal actually suggested turning these political patronage positions into full-time posts with $99,000 salaries. Fortunately, that idea was quickly rejected, but the panel still envisions retaining a legislatively appointed commission and giving its members $1,000 monthly expense accounts — just like real legislators get.

A bit of perspective is in order: The job of the legislative branch is to write the laws and decide where to spend money. It’s the job of the executive branch to carry out those laws. In those instances in which an executive agency has a governing board, the job of the board members is to employ a director to actually run the agency.

Some boards also act in a semi-judicial capacity, hearing appeals of agency decisions. Yet members of those boards manage to get by without expense accounts or salaries or their own private secretaries.

One legislator told The Greenville News that secretary-gate showed why the current transportation board should be dismissed and a new batch of commissioners appointed. That’s half right: It shows why board members should be dismissed — and the board abolished.

The Transportation Department needs to be run by a director who is directly accountable to the state’s chief executive, the governor. Anything less will simply sustain the putrid political culture that so obscenely violates the very principle of the separation of powers, and leads to the petty self-dealing, high-level favoritism and gross misuse of precious state resources that has long been a hallmark of our state’s highway agency.