Transportation Secretary Calls For ‘Culture Change’ In Department

Wisconsin lawmakers are calling for major changes to how the state Department of Transportation does its job.

Lawmakers held a hearing Tuesday on a tough transportation department audit that came out last month. The audit found the department underestimated costs of 16 ongoing major highway projects by about $3 billion and has failed to meet its own performance metrics in recent years. It also outlined deteriorating road conditions across the state.

“This is a very consequential audit that points out a number of problems in the agency,” said committee co-chair Rep. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay.

State Department of Transportation Secretary Dave Ross, who replaced former secretary Mark Gottlieb last month, said the department plans to implement every recommendation outlined in the audit.

“We need to change the culture at DOT, we need to become more performance-driven, we need to become more accurate,” Ross said.

The audit’s recommendations included alterations to project management practices, including changes to how the department calculates costs for work completed by state workers, rather than contractors. The audit also recommended the department maintain a database that tracks why and how much projects go over their estimated cost.

“I join you in your frustration,” Ross said to lawmakers.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, called for changes to department management.

“We can have all the audits in the world on this department, but today the snapshot is telling us there has to be a major reform in how this department is managed,” Darling said.

Darling also said she supports hiring an outside consultant to evaluate department practices.

Weighing the audit findings, some members of the state Legislative Audit Committee voiced concern about DOT’s 2017-2019 budget request.

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, who serves with Darling as the co-chair of the budget-writing committee, questioned whether the DOT’s underestimation of project costs could mean the department’s projected $1 billion shortfall is larger than estimated.

Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, argued the errors in project cost estimates should result in the department getting less money in its budget request.

“It’s not just that they’re estimating costs improperly, they are not even prioritizing projects properly,” Kapenga said. “Going and giving them more money would be absolutely the wrong thing to do at this point.”

At the hearing, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, outlined concerns with how the department determines funding levels for different parts of the state. She shared illustrations of dire conditions in her district, including a condemned bridge near a school and dilapidated roads.

“The concrete is so broken that there’s dandelions growing up in the cracks at the edges of the road, and DOT says they’re not going to do it,” Vinehout said. “I don’t know where to go with these projects.”

At the end of the hearing, lawmakers introduced legislation that would make some of the audit’s recommendations law, including adding the cost of inflation to project estimates and requiring the DOT to regularly report ongoing project costs to the Legislature.

The bills will receive another hearing before the committee before making their way to the state Senate or Assembly.