Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Governance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Florida Transportation Commission outlines role, performance reviews for FDOT oversight
Summary
The Florida Transportation Commission briefed the Senate Transportation Committee on its statutory oversight of the Florida Department of Transportation, describing its performance metrics, annual scorecards and authority to monitor tolling and transit agencies while noting it cannot direct individual projects.
TALLAHASSEE — Ralph Yoder, executive director of the Florida Transportation Commission, told the Senate Transportation Committee on Transportation that the commission conducts quarterly and annual reviews of the Florida Department of Transportation’s performance and of specified tolling and transit authorities to ensure fiscal stewardship and delivery of work programs.
The commission “is here to ensure the public accountability for the stewardship of the funding that is entrusted to the department,” Yoder said, describing the FTC’s role in producing performance scorecards and reports for the governor and the Legislature.
The FTC, Yoder said, was created by the Legislature in 1987 and now has nine governor-appointed members who serve four-year terms. Its statutorily assigned duties include an annual review of FDOT’s tentative five-year work program, quarterly and annual production and performance reviews, and annual performance reviews of designated tolling and transit authorities. The commission issues one-page scorecards and fuller annual reports intended to make department productivity and financial practices transparent.
Yoder described seven performance-measure areas the commission monitors and said the commission expanded oversight in 2007 to include expressway and certain transit authorities. The authorities the FTC monitors include the Florida Turnpike System, several regional expressway agencies and transit authorities such as the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the South Florida Regional Transit Authority.
Committee members asked about the commission’s role in project prioritization. Senator Tom Wright asked whether the FTC helps prioritize individual projects. Yoder answered that the commission is “prohibited statutorily from becoming involved in project by project,” adding that the commission deliberately stays at a high level rather than taking on day-to-day operations or specific project selections.
Yoder said the commission’s staff of three gathers data from FDOT and partner agencies to populate quarterly scorecards and an annual performance and production review that are distributed to legislative leadership and the governor. He said the commission also holds public meetings where agency CEOs explain measures that were not met and their corrective plans.
The presentation was followed by brief committee questions and closed with the committee thanking Yoder for the briefing. No formal committee action or vote was recorded during the FTC presentation.
