WOOD FLYING HIGH WITH HELP FROM THE GENEROSITY OF THE CAMERON COUNTY REGIONAL MOBILITY AUTHORITY

By Juan Montoya
Not only is the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority content to pay $75,000 each for its supervisor Pete Sepulveda and his assistant David Garcia for part-time work, but losing Democratic county judge candidate John Wood has found a comfortable honey hole there as well.

Sepulveda and Garcia also draw from four other funds in the county (actually five for Pete) aside from their CCRMA gig to earn obscene salaries (plus benefits) estimated at $220,000 and $180,000 respectively.

And although the board of directors at the CCRMA do not receive a salary, Wood has been able to cruise around the country at a record pace as past of  his duties there.

How much does John love you, the county motorist whose $10 surcharge on his vehicle registration pays for his jaunts? Let us count the ways...

For the first eight  months of 2011 since he has been a director appointed to the board by his buddy Ernie Hernandez, Wood has racked up a $10,680 bill for flights and lodging on 16 different trips to go to various places to represent the CCRMA. In terms of mileage (and frequent flyer points for John and Virginia?) he's racked up a total round-trip mileage of, 12,700 miles.

The majority of the trips were to Austin (11), twice to Houston, and once to San Antonio, El Paso and Washington, D.C. Offhand, there's nothing wrong with making trips to represent the interests of county residents with the big boys in Austin, but while most of us plan ahead to take advantage of the two-week advance prices ($199 round trip), John seems to schedule the trips to these meeting from one day to the next because the prices the CCRMA paid for the airfare range from $395 to $575, indicating that he wasn't especially careful about scheduling his meetings with frugality in mind.
"You can understand an emergency meeting now and then," said a CCRMA observer. "But consistently purchasing flights at these prices indicates that there's not much concern for the cost to taxpayers."
The most expensive airfare was on February 28 when the CCRMA paid $1,598 for his airfare there and back. The June 25 trip to El Paso had a price tag of $899.
When Gov. Rick Perry implemented the Regional Mobility Authorities in Texas, he stated that its  purpose was to "provide the area with an opportunity to significantly accelerate needed transportation projects and have a local entity in place that will make mobility decisions that will benefit the community, while enhancing the economic vitality and quality of life for the residents..."
The initial projects that were submitted with the RMA application to the Texas Transportation Commission were the West Loop project in Brownsville and the second causeway in the Port Isabel/South Padre Island area, the West rail Relocation, the North Rail Relocation, the FM 509, and SH550 (FM511) projects.
The CCRMA also touts its "authority to undertake projects related to highways, rail, air and seaport, as well as having the ability to undertake projects in Mexico..."

Perry appointed Harlingen's David Alex to serve as the presiding officer of the Board. The Governor’s Appointee must be a resident of Cameron County. The Commissioners Court of Cameron Countyappointed six (6) directors, two (2) with terms of six (6) years, two (2) with terms of four (4) years and two (2) with terms of two (2) years.

Under the CCRMA's bylaws, "directors shall serve without compensation, but will be reimbursed for their actual expenses of attending each meeting of the Board and for such other expenses as may be reasonably incurred in their carrying out the duties and function as set forth herein."

Like other RMAs, the CCRMA is a local, independent transportation agency that can finance, build, operate and maintain toll roads and other transportation projects. The Texas Legislature authorized the creation of RMAs in 2001 to provide a new, more flexible way to address local transportation needs and get projects developed more quickly than through traditional funding.

Individual counties can form an RMA, or multiple counties can come together to create a single RMA entity. They receive funding for initial project development from the sale of bonds. They may also seek a loan or grant from TxDOT.

In Cameron County, the CCRMA is funded by a $10 surcharge on vehicle registrations collected by the county tax assessor's department. Last year, these spendthrifts garnered $2.5 million from these income stream. This year they have budgeted the same amount. The CCRMA can issue bonds based on the future income from these funds. So far, the CCRMA has issued some $26 million in bonds under this method.

Apparently serving as a semi-autonomous body, the local CCRMA apparently sees nothing amiss with the largess shown to its supervisor and his assistant double dipping between them and the county, or the yen for Wood to travel in style on the county motorists' dime.