Houston toll leader Strech brought down by puritan zero charity policy - county audit finds no wrongdoing
Posted Mon, 2007-10-08 15:06
All
the fuss at the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) was back in
May. Mike Strech, tollroad director resigned after a confrontation with
his county government boss Art Storey over soliciting vendors for
support for an annual staff party. The implication was that he left under an
ethical cloud after a career almost as long as the tollroad system.
It should be news now that the audit conducted in the wake of Strech's resignation and released late last week showed no misappropriation, no illegality and no breach of rules.
Strech, as head of operations under director Wes Freise and after he succeeded Freise as director was one of the pioneers of new toll technology - along with engineer Bernie Koudelka, director during an interim period. HCTRA during Strech's term gained international toll industry recognition for the pathbreaking advances pioneered here. (see picture nearby of Strech receiving award on behalf of HCTRA in Cleveland 2005)
The Friese-Strech-Koudelka team managed the world's first conversion of an established tollroad system to open road
tolling (ORT), converting all nine mainline plazas to 2+2 lanes highway
speed electronic tolling in 1997 and 1998. Some ORT toll zones were
later widened to 3 lanes.
It's quite a story how they did it.
They did it experimentally, with no consultant studies, no announcements, no powerpoint presentations. It was innovation by stealth. They just quietly removed toll booths, curbs and repaved across multiple lanes, had Amtech/TransCore set up the multilane tracking in lane controllers, and installed portable jersey barrier or delineator posts to segregate approaches and departures from the toll zone.
It wasn't even formally highway speed tolling. They had small signs saying 45mph (72km/hr). If you asked they were described as "advisory speed" signs.
Strech said at the time they made no announcement because they weren't sure if it was going to work. They were feeling
their
way. No one else had done ORT at old mainline plazas like this and they
needed the flexibility to enforce a speed limit or quickly make other
modifications. If worst came to worst they were prepared to revert to
lane by lane tolling.
As it happened it all worked out. Few motorists noticed the speed signs. If they did they disregarded them. They were soon all running through at 65 to 75mph (105 to 121km/hr). Posted speed limit for the highway is 70mph (113km/hr). There weren't more than the normal safety issues so they quietly took away the advisory speed signs.
Two other major innovations successfully implemented under Strech were:
- America's first cashless/all-transponder tollroad in the Westpark Tollway
- mass introduction of sticker tags along with Fred Philipson as director of operations
Strech deserves to be remembered for his cool management of these advances over the past decade which benefitted
millions of motorist trips, not for the petty little staff holiday
incident over which he departed. He has said he was wrong to have
ignored Art Storey's opposition to the continuation of HCTRA
anniversary staff holidays whose expenses were defrayed by vendors.
They weren't just any vendors. Under the Strech rules those solicited for donations were vendors who had been paid $100k or more for work in the previous year and only those who had won contracts in competitive bidding. This was apparently to make sure those with smaller negotiated contracts or sales didn't think they could win favors with gifts. Strech himself didn't solicit any contributions. He had a committee who organized the event and they did the soliciting, according to the audit report.
Until
Oct 2005 donors or sponsors of the holiday made contributions directly
to H&H Ranch which put on the party, and any balance not spent
remained as a deposit for the next year's event. In 2006 it got more
formal. The committee named itself the Toll Road Authority Celebration
Committee (TRACC). TRACC was then set up with a bank account with a mix
of vendor/sponsor donation checks and the balance of a benevolent fund
account HHH.
$53k was spent on a party for 900 employees and families (about 3,000 people?) at the sixth anniversary party in Sept 2006 at SplashTown, a waterslide theme park. Attendees got free admission for the day, a catered meal, and small gifts like T-shirts and mugs. Strech himself entered into a personal contract with SplashTown for the party.
Storey who is head of infrastructure in county government is formally executive-director of the tollroad, although it is only one of several departments reporting to him The day to day chief of the tollroad is the Director, Strech at the time.
In October 2006 Storey ordered a cancellation of a Christmas party, so Strech knew his boss in county government was likely to oppose the 2007 summer anniversary party. Given this chain of command he should have tried to talk Storey into allowing the party, or stopped the preparations. But beside Strech's accomplishments this was a tiny matter, though it came to dominate news of his departure.
Read the details here in the auditor's report if you want more.
But it's all off now.
Under a ruling by Storey there's now a blanket ban on seeking or receiving donations. He has sent out a guideline to vendors: "never make a monetary gift to any to any staff member or staff committee for any purpose." Non-monetary gifts are also completely ruled out too, we'd guess from the tone.
COMMENT: This seems to us petty and extreme, especially if the tollroad itself won't or can't support social activities out of its budget. You build corporate spirit, camaraderie, teamwork, and valuable personal relationships among staff by having some parties, outings, anniversaries and other get-togethers, and if vendors want to help in funding these without any quid pro quo then where's the harm?
Far too much attention is being paid to tut-tutting killjoys, not least in the media.
Some tiny minded reporter in Pittsburgh apparently went up to the Mayor at a ballgame, he says, and demanded to know if he paid for a hot dog he was eating. Time such nitwits were told: "So what?"
TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-08
All
the fuss at the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) was back in
May. Mike Strech, tollroad director resigned after a confrontation with
his county government boss Art Storey over soliciting vendors for
support for an annual staff party. The implication was that he left under an
ethical cloud after a career almost as long as the tollroad system.It should be news now that the audit conducted in the wake of Strech's resignation and released late last week showed no misappropriation, no illegality and no breach of rules.
Strech, as head of operations under director Wes Freise and after he succeeded Freise as director was one of the pioneers of new toll technology - along with engineer Bernie Koudelka, director during an interim period. HCTRA during Strech's term gained international toll industry recognition for the pathbreaking advances pioneered here. (see picture nearby of Strech receiving award on behalf of HCTRA in Cleveland 2005)
The Friese-Strech-Koudelka team managed the world's first conversion of an established tollroad system to open road
tolling (ORT), converting all nine mainline plazas to 2+2 lanes highway
speed electronic tolling in 1997 and 1998. Some ORT toll zones were
later widened to 3 lanes. It's quite a story how they did it.
They did it experimentally, with no consultant studies, no announcements, no powerpoint presentations. It was innovation by stealth. They just quietly removed toll booths, curbs and repaved across multiple lanes, had Amtech/TransCore set up the multilane tracking in lane controllers, and installed portable jersey barrier or delineator posts to segregate approaches and departures from the toll zone.
It wasn't even formally highway speed tolling. They had small signs saying 45mph (72km/hr). If you asked they were described as "advisory speed" signs.
Strech said at the time they made no announcement because they weren't sure if it was going to work. They were feeling
their
way. No one else had done ORT at old mainline plazas like this and they
needed the flexibility to enforce a speed limit or quickly make other
modifications. If worst came to worst they were prepared to revert to
lane by lane tolling. As it happened it all worked out. Few motorists noticed the speed signs. If they did they disregarded them. They were soon all running through at 65 to 75mph (105 to 121km/hr). Posted speed limit for the highway is 70mph (113km/hr). There weren't more than the normal safety issues so they quietly took away the advisory speed signs.
Two other major innovations successfully implemented under Strech were:
- America's first cashless/all-transponder tollroad in the Westpark Tollway
- mass introduction of sticker tags along with Fred Philipson as director of operations
Strech deserves to be remembered for his cool management of these advances over the past decade which benefitted
millions of motorist trips, not for the petty little staff holiday
incident over which he departed. He has said he was wrong to have
ignored Art Storey's opposition to the continuation of HCTRA
anniversary staff holidays whose expenses were defrayed by vendors.They weren't just any vendors. Under the Strech rules those solicited for donations were vendors who had been paid $100k or more for work in the previous year and only those who had won contracts in competitive bidding. This was apparently to make sure those with smaller negotiated contracts or sales didn't think they could win favors with gifts. Strech himself didn't solicit any contributions. He had a committee who organized the event and they did the soliciting, according to the audit report.
Until
Oct 2005 donors or sponsors of the holiday made contributions directly
to H&H Ranch which put on the party, and any balance not spent
remained as a deposit for the next year's event. In 2006 it got more
formal. The committee named itself the Toll Road Authority Celebration
Committee (TRACC). TRACC was then set up with a bank account with a mix
of vendor/sponsor donation checks and the balance of a benevolent fund
account HHH. $53k was spent on a party for 900 employees and families (about 3,000 people?) at the sixth anniversary party in Sept 2006 at SplashTown, a waterslide theme park. Attendees got free admission for the day, a catered meal, and small gifts like T-shirts and mugs. Strech himself entered into a personal contract with SplashTown for the party.
Storey who is head of infrastructure in county government is formally executive-director of the tollroad, although it is only one of several departments reporting to him The day to day chief of the tollroad is the Director, Strech at the time.
In October 2006 Storey ordered a cancellation of a Christmas party, so Strech knew his boss in county government was likely to oppose the 2007 summer anniversary party. Given this chain of command he should have tried to talk Storey into allowing the party, or stopped the preparations. But beside Strech's accomplishments this was a tiny matter, though it came to dominate news of his departure.
Read the details here in the auditor's report if you want more.
But it's all off now.
Under a ruling by Storey there's now a blanket ban on seeking or receiving donations. He has sent out a guideline to vendors: "never make a monetary gift to any to any staff member or staff committee for any purpose." Non-monetary gifts are also completely ruled out too, we'd guess from the tone.
COMMENT: This seems to us petty and extreme, especially if the tollroad itself won't or can't support social activities out of its budget. You build corporate spirit, camaraderie, teamwork, and valuable personal relationships among staff by having some parties, outings, anniversaries and other get-togethers, and if vendors want to help in funding these without any quid pro quo then where's the harm?
Far too much attention is being paid to tut-tutting killjoys, not least in the media.
Some tiny minded reporter in Pittsburgh apparently went up to the Mayor at a ballgame, he says, and demanded to know if he paid for a hot dog he was eating. Time such nitwits were told: "So what?"
TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-08
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