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Toll road agency is dinged again

If anything, the final audit report is even harsher than the earlier version.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published December 29, 2006

TAMPA - A state agency that released a report last month criticizing management at Hillsborough County's toll road agency issued a final verdict on Thursday that didn't stray far from its earlier opinion.

But the Florida Auditor General's Office did state, in stronger wording than before, that the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority has no legal power to pay its lobbyist and should terminate all contracts at once.

Unnamed in both reports, John Beck and three other lobbyists have been paid about $1.5-million since 2001. Beck became a central figure in a series of controversies and embarrassments involving allegations of impropriety at the agency that prompted the auditor general's probe.

The auditor general repeated the findings from a Nov. 29 preliminary report, including the observation that Beck and the others should never have been paid because the Expressway Authority doesn't have the power to pay lobbyists.

Thursday's final report sternly rejected the reasons given by the agency's interim general counsel, Rhea Law, for paying Beck and the others.

In a Dec. 15 response letter to the auditor general, Law said similar agencies paid lobbyists such as Beck. She did say that the agency would consider the auditor general's recommendation if a subsequent analysis concludes it would be cheaper to have a full-time employee lobby instead.

But the auditor general didn't accept Law's rationale. Just because other agencies have lobbyists, "does not excuse the authority's noncompliance," the latest report said.

And whether or not it's cheaper to hire a full-time staff member to lobby is irrelevant, the report stated.

"The point of our finding is not the cost effectiveness of outsourcing lobbying services; rather, that the authority is not authorized to contract for lobbying services," the report concluded.

Spokeswoman Honey Rand said the agency's board will consider how to adopt many of the final report's recommendations on Wednesday.

None of the 13 recommendations were changed from the ones the auditor general made in the Nov. 29 audit.

Rand said the board agrees with most of them, which includes a call for more complete personnel files, more frequent financial reporting, more precise written policies and procedures, and an analysis of costs associated with contracting out legal services and communications.

"We hope the final report will help move the authority forward in enhancing transportation in Tampa Bay," Rand said.

She wouldn't say how the board would resolve the disagreement on the lobbyists, adding only that the agency was conducting an analysis of lobbying costs that should be done by the end of January.

One other notable disagreement between the report and the agency is over administrative expenses.

The auditor general originally said that tolls paid for operations. Costs associated with operations should be reviewed carefully, for there were several expenses that could be wasteful.

Law replied that, when compared with other toll agencies, the Expressway Authority's costs were quite low.

In Thursday's final report, the auditor general responded to Law.

"The point of our finding ... was that the authority could improve its cost-efficiency in certain areas and should document the public purpose served in expending moneys," the report stated.

[Last modified December 29, 2006, 06:21:17]