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On 8/20/99, I attended the my first meeting as an official member of the Citizens Corridor Committee at meeting number six, although I had attended most of the previous meetings. I stressed the need for the Biloxi Connector to be considered in the context of an overall county-wide transportation plan. In this light, I suggested that one-six lane connector, from the Woolmarket exit, was not going to solve the traffic problems of Biloxi or Harrison County. I proposed that two connectors rather than one from Woolmarket. One of the connectors would run from the north end of Oak Street, across the Bay to the St. Martin area and on then on to I 10 to serve Casino Row. This connector would also be an extension of Highway 15.
The City of Biloxi was preparing a loop area, for additional casinos, from Highway 90 north along Caillavet St.; to Bayview; then east along the Back Bay to Oak St.; then south back to 90. Such a route would have taken considerable traffic off of I 110 as well as the over-burdened I 10 to Highway 90 route in Ocean Springs. MDOT was spending a considerable amount of money to widen Highway 90 in Ocean Springs and there was considerable opposition because it was interfering with businesses in the process.
It was opined to the Committee that the Oak St., route and a route from Cedar Lake to Rodenberg utilizing existing roadways which could be done much cheaper and achieve better results than the MDOT H-Route, which required two bridges. However, the Committee wasn’t the least bit interested in these proposals. In addition, Paige Gutierrez and I repeatedly requested that Jeff Taylor be brought to the Committee for his insight. It never happened.
However, Taylor did run the traffic models on these routes. The model, Exhibit 3, reveals the traffic count on I 110 would be 92,800 vehicles a day, a number that would be unacceptable, in 2020. MDOT’s stated goal for a new connector was to reduce the unacceptable number on I 110 to an acceptable level of service (LOS). The model also shows the traffic counts on the other nearby main arteries.
Exhibit 4 has the Cedar Lake to Rodenberg route. It shows the impact on I 110 with the traffic count falling to 64,100. It also shows the impact on the other traffic arteries.
Exhibit 5 reveals that the LOS on I 110 would be 63,400 with both a Cedar Lake to Rodenberg and a Woolmarket to Popp’s Ferry Route. The addition of the Woolmarket route has little effect on I 110.
Exhibit 6 has only the Woolmarket (H route) and it plainly shows that this route would have minimal impact on I 110 reducing the traffic count reduced to only 82,200 on I 110, after a $300 million expenditure.
Exhibit 7 has the Oak St., route. The model shows that this route would have considerable impact on I 110 with the traffic count reduced to 58,900 vehicles per day on I 110.
Exhibit 8 has both the Cedar Lake to Rodenberg route and the Oak Street route. The traffic on I 110 is reduced to 34,000. As can be seen, these routes clearly yield the most beneficial results, significantly and favorably impacts the Ocean Springs area and the Biloxi-Ocean Springs Bridge.
I continued to bring up the two routes option and the need for a county-wide transportation plan in almost every meeting of the Citizens Corridor Committee thereafter. However, these options were never considered. The Committee had become a rubber stamp for MDOT. I used the model information to show that the H route was a bad choice, but no amount of information or facts had any impact on the Committee or MDOT. I wrote news articles and was invited to speak to various civic organizations where this information was presented. I wasn’t the only one promoting two roads in Biloxi rather than accept the MDOT H route.
A SUN HERALD article dated 8/29/00, titled, “County uncertain of MDOT plans,” bylined, “Board to study options to ‘superhighway,” said, in part:
Fearful that an expensive north-south “superhighway” planned by the state may never be built, Harrison County plans to study the costs of building two smaller thoroughfares in Biloxi…
The Harrison County Board of Supervisors on Monday unanimously passed a proposal by Supervisor Connie Rocko to hire Gulf Regional Planning Commission to perform a cost-benefit analysis of building two four-lane north-south roads in Biloxi. The roads would run along Oak Street and Cedar Lake Road paths on either side of the city that have long been considered by many to be logical for widening…
Supervisors suspect the two roads could be built for far cheaper than the more than $200 million MDOT estimates its planned high-rise connector through Biloxi would cost.
MDOT is apparently out of money, plus there is opposition to it plan for a high-rise highway above the ground, Rocko said. We have got to have something done to alleviate traffic. We need to look at smaller roads we might be able to actually get built on the ground instead of a superhighway.
The article went on to say:
But Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway fears a push for two smaller roads would just sidetrack Coast roadwork. “We will be lucky if we get anything built if we don’t stop second-guessing MDOT,” Holloway said. “If you start on two new roads now, it will be like starting over. Those will be years away, too, I don’t think these roads can be built at ground level. We don’t need two new railroad crossings in Biloxi. An elevated highway is not going to divide our city like some people fear…I’m frustrated with traffic, too, but we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”
The above Holloway statement says a whole lot. Number one, I think it explains why the Holloway appointed Citizens Corridor Committee refused to consider any other options, other than MDOT options, as was the original intention and was a “rubber stamp” for the MDOT plan.
I think it also explains why Holloway substituted the City Council resolution that endorsed the Cedar Lake exit for the connector in accordance with the sentiments of all of those Biloxians who turned out for meeting after meeting to express opposition to the MDOT plans for an elevated road rather than a ground level road as approved and funded by the legislature, for the ambiguous resolution sponsored by Holloway.
I think Holloway’s support also gave aid, comfort, and encouragement to a rogue state agency that has raped the citizens of Biloxi and Harrison County without a whimper from Mayor Holloway. (More on this later).
The Citizens Corridor Committee did not meet anymore after the 2/24/00 meeting until 7/26/01, at which time Paige Gutierrez again brought up the fact that the HCTC plan had never been given any consideration by the Committee. The MDOT representative was obviously taken back by the comment. He said the numbers do not work out for two roads. He then admitted they do not have any numbers, but stated that they had talked to people who had. Considering the information about the models previously discussed, it seems we have yet another disingenuous statement out of MDOT.
On 8/15/01, Mayor A.J. Holloway went to a meeting of the HCTC, according to the minutes, and made a motion to remove Oak Street from the transportation plan. Holloway’s motion carried. (See Exhibit 9)
On 8/22/01, the Citizens Corridor Committee had it’s 16th and final meeting. Each member spoke and voted. There were no choices except MDOT’s H-route proposal. Paige Gutierrez and I refused to vote and attached our own written response, to the Committee Report, in which, we set forth what had occurred in the Committee and the selection of the H-route as being tantamount to voting for no road because MDOT had no money for such an expensive road, which was a waste of money in any case. (Exhibit 10)
On 9/11/01, the Citizens Corridor Committee made its report to the Biloxi City Council.
I made a personal report to the city council. I prepared a booklet that revealed how MDOT had misled this community; how MDOT was under severe criticism by the legislature, and the PEER Committee; how MDOT had overspent, including all of the Gaming Road Program funds and didn’t have funds for any kind of road; that MDOT was untrustworthy as indicated by its own public record. I told them that acceptance of the MDOT plan was diametrically opposed to the desires of the community; that a vote for the MDOT plan was tantamount to a no-vote for a north-south route because MDOT had no funds for such a route.
However, the majority of the council chose to vote for the MDOT plan as follows:
Voting Yes: Jim Compton Eric Dickey David Fayard Mike Fitzpatrick
Voting No: Tom Wall George Lawrence
Tom Wall said of the vote: “They (Committee) were manhandled and used by MDOT representatives.” Wall pointed out that the committee had favored the route favored by Wayne Brown. He also said most people in Biloxi want a surface-level highway that would tie into Cedar Lake Road at I 10. There were simultaneous developments going out at the GRPC with Jeff Taylor.
Gulf Regional Planning Commission Fires Jeff Taylor-MDOT’s Role
Jeff Taylor had spent most of his career at the GRPC, even having done his internship there in 1977. Jeff was involved in a wide range of issues. Jeff was usually involved in almost everything to do with improvements in the county.
During the time, that I was trying to get the Citizens Corridor Committee to invite Jeff to appear before the Committee, for his insight, and when I was using the computer models created at GRPC to show how erroneous the MDOT plans were, I didn’t know what kind of financial hook MDOT had in GRPC. Only10% of GRPC funding came from sources, such as counties, while 90% of GRPC’s funding was federal and state money funneled through MDOT, 20% from the state and 80% federal funds. However, I have known for many years that control of the purse strings is real power.
In June 2001, MDOT notified GRPC that it planned to audit GRPC and the audit began two days later. On 12/19/01, Taylor was put on administrative leave. A SUN HERALD news article dated 1/19/02, titled “Officials: Top planner unfairly targeted,” bylined, “Taylor on administrative leave during MDOT probe of finances,” revealed:
Officials from Harrison County vowed support this week for the Director of the Gulf Regional Planning Commission, Jeff Taylor, who has been placed on administrative leave amid questions about his agency’s fiancés.”
The article went on to say:
Coast leaders suspect the audit was intended to cast a cloud over Taylor, who has provided public information that people have used to criticize MDOT policies…
The audit turned up problems with the way GRPC was paying rent to the Gulf Regional Economic Development Commission, a private, nonprofit corporation that is an offshoot of GRPC and owns the agency’s office building in Gulfport.
The nonprofit agency was set up partly to serve as property owner because federal regulations do not allow GRPC to own property. Instead, GRPC rented its office space from the nonprofit agency.
The rent criticism, apparently, was the main complaint in the audit. No one was accused of embezzling, fraud, or otherwise enriching themselves.
A SUN HERALD dated 2/23/02, titled “MDOT will audit GRPC again,” bylined, “Commission may owe some money” revealed the following:
The second audit will look at financial records from 1996 to 2000 to see if the agency was using money it claimed as rent for purposes other than maintenance, renovations and upkeep of the building…
“I don’t think MDOT knows yet how that money, if any, will be repaid,” said Michel Bishop, chairwoman of the commission. They could either withhold $32,873 in federal and state transportation money to GRPC because of errors cited in the 2001 audit…
(Martin) Collier (Director of Planning for MDOT) said MDOT decided to conduct the first audit after the GRPC’s budget came up short and Taylor asked MDOT for more money in 2000…
Where was Mr. Collier when MDOT’s budget was found to be billions short just months before. My analysis, of the above, was that MDOT was subtly intimidating the GRPC Board of Directors, by intimating, that they might have to personally repay funds that were used to pay rent on the office space GRPC was using.
By letter dated February 15, 2002, from Jeff Taylor to the GRPC Board of Commissioners, Taylor said:
It is my understanding, that, Mr (MDOT official) invoked a sense of fear in the two GRPC Commissioners by incorrectly telling them”…the Audit revealed the operation of the GREDC was illegal and the management of GRPC has known this for years…and...have needlessly exposed the Commission to personal liability for the repayment of the misspent funds…”
I also understand other highly improper statements were made by (MDOT official) that could be even more serious “…the current director of GPRC was a loose cannon, and he could jeopardize current and future funding…”
A SUN HERALD news article dated 2/21/02, titled, “Commission fires director,” bylined; “Planning body cites bookkeeping problems.” The article stated, in part, that GRPC commission officials said, “they were concerned that Taylor wasn’t working with MDOT to correct problems cited in the audit, and that the agency was at risk of losing federal transportation dollars.”
Jeff Taylor served the public’s interest, by providing credible information, paid for with public funds, although the funds were channeled through MDOT, that embarrassed an arrogant MDOT, and, which refuted the wasteful, unwanted, MDOT plans for north/south connectors, with facts. I think, it is clear from the above progression of events that there was a plan to get rid of the HCTC plan and that the MDOT audit was a sham, which was used to intimidate the GRPC Commission into firing Taylor, by intimating that the Commission members could be forced to personally pay back funds, and intimating that future funding of MDOT would be in jeopardy.
After Taylor was fired and gone from GRPC, the whole audit affair disappeared as well, with no reported payback of any funds. I think this is proof that MDOT got what it wanted. This appears to be behavior indicative of a mafia family, not a government entity. 12 |
