Three legislative audits criticize state spending: Road project control is lacking

Thursday, Dec. 12, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Transportation Department spends hundreds of millions of dollars building roads, but legislative auditors say there is no way to determine if the projects selected are the most worthy.

Auditors Richard Neil and Timothy Brown said Wednesday that no written documents or evaluations exist that would indicate the department chooses the right jobs.

As a result, the public and elected officials have no way to evaluate why one project was selected over another, the auditors said.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said the department offers no system for the public to judge the effectiveness of a construction job.

"How do we know you are making the right decision?" he asked Stephens.

Transportation Department Director Tom Stephens said the construction projects are "not arbitrarily chosen without making evaluations."

He pointed out that the audit does not suggest that any of the projects done were not worthy.

But he agreed there should be more documentation and communication from the department detailing the selection process.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, suggested that road repairs on the Strip take precedence over projects in other areas of Clark County.

"I see a lot of work on the Strip but beyond that I see ruts and dips (elsewhere) that are not being taken care of," Neal said.

Stephens responded by detailing a number of Clark County jobs outside the area of the Strip, and said that 80 percent of the state's new construction money goes to Southern Nevada.

But, he added, "the gold mine in Nevada is the Strip," and so easing traffic congestion on Las Vegas Boulevard should remain a top priority.

Transportation planners around the country, however, commonly prioritize roadway projects based more on public safety and traffic flow objectives rather than on profit incentives.

Some Southern Nevada officials and motorists have regularly questioned the state's process for setting priorities. Rapid growth in outlying suburbs of Las Vegas and surrounding cities has led to major traffic congestion and worn out roads in many areas, particularly along routes used by commuters.

For Cindy Nunn, a Las Vegas resident since 1962, traffic congestion and the perception that officials are incapable or unwilling to solve the problem is a real sore point. And, she added, she knows many other Southern Nevadans who feel the same way she does.

"It's the same old thing you hear from everybody," said Nunn, an escrow officer with Land America/Lawyers Title.

Ray Burke has been with the North Las Vegas Public Works Department for 16 years and came from a similar job in Chicago, said he hears those kinds of complaints all the time.

"When you're in a developing area, you're always playing catch up," Burke, NLV assistant transportation director, said. "I'm used to playing catchup."

And, Burke said, legislators were right when they said that growing areas of the valley, such as North Las Vegas, need more money for roads.

"We're growing as much as the Strip is," Burke said.

Stephens said one reason roads that serve the Strip sometimes get more attention is the resorts in the area have kicked in money for projects such as Frank Sinatra Drive, which will run along Interstate 15 in back of the Strip resorts from Russell to Flamingo Roads.

The state made a commitment in 1996 to allocate $20 million to the $100 million project and Clark County and several gaming companies will pay the remainder of the cost, he said.

Nunn had a suggestion for transportation officials: City and county transportation officials should cooperate and communicate to make sure the projects that will have the most benefit are done at the right time and in the best way.

"Why not get the different departments together?" she said. "If the different departments would get together and talk to one another, maybe they could work it out."

While in Las Vegas this morning, Stephens said he didn't think the auditors "appreciated the process of consultation with local officials that NDOT uses when they select local capacity projects."

Stephens and Jacob Snow, the Regional Transportation Commission general manager, said the RTC is the primary agency in the selection of projects that receive state and federal funding.

Snow said this morning that he had not yet read the audit but he defended the existing process.

"I think Tom Stephens has done a good job in shifting resources to Southern Nevada," Snow said.

The audit said that local officials, such as transportation officials in Clark and Washoe counties, generally are familiar with the drafting of construction plans, but that they do not fully understand the department's process for setting priorities.

After local officials submit project proposals to the state, they have no knowledge of how the projects rank in importance or how they are analyzed, the audit said.

Assemblyman Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said politics often play a role in the selection of the projects at the city and county level.

Stephens said the state department officials visit each county once a year to explain their recommendation process and to give local officials a chance to suggest changes.

The audit also said the department has failed to do little long-term financial planning. Neil said there is no apparent funding source for a $150 million job involving U.S. 95 in the northwest part of the state, or for a $135 million job involving the next phase of the Carson City freeway.

"By not estimating total revenues, the department cannot provide reasonable assurance that projects listed in the 10-year plan will have funding," the audit said. "This can lead to unreasonable expectations of report users."