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I read with great interest Advocate reporter Sonny Long’s article yesterday about TxDOT jobs. In spite of the demands that TxDOT be more open and honest with the public (taxpayers), they continue to be deliberately evasive.
Bryan Ellis (district public information officer) implies that the so-called regionalization will only have a minor impact and nothing initially. Then why are some current employees telling people that they have been told that their job will be gone? I have heard that it will be between 20 and 25 employees cut. Some of them should have been out the door long ago, but for the good hard-working ones, I’m sure the impact on them and their families will be significant.
Ellis also states that the district’s engineers will be mostly unaffected. I don’t understand why no engineering jobs are being cut. TxDOT is crying all the time now that they don’t have money to fund projects. If there’s no money to fund projects, then what are all these engineers working on?
Amadeo Saenz (TxDOT executive director) states that reorganization will save an estimated $35 million. That’s real nice, but he still can’t explain how TxDOT lost $1-plus billion. When my husband and I attended the Sunset Advisory Committee public hearing in Austin, several members of the committee clearly said that someone should be fired for what TxDOT terms an “accounting error.” Saenz admitted that no one had been fired, and, in fact, the person over that area had actually been promoted after this was discovered. Now they are desperately trying to take some action to make it look like they are taking care of business. The truth is this is just another lame scheme to protect the elite engineers and the heck with everyone else. I hope the Sunset Committee makes some good recommendations and finds a way to halt this madness. They should start at the top by getting rid of Saenz and work their way down.
Amy Jirkovsky
Sweet Home