The county commission held a transportation workshop recently, walking residents through the community’s most pressing transportation infrastructure needs. The agenda covered capital improvement planning, unprogrammed thoroughfare improvements, and an overview of current and alternative funding options.
For the first 25 slides, county staff led the presentation. At slide 26, however, a private firm’s branding appeared on screen. That section, titled “Balancing Needs and Forecasted Revenues,” had been outsourced to outside consultants hired to accomplish four tasks: identifying transportation needs some of which was drawn from the Trails Master Plan and the Bike/Ped Master Plan, comparing those needs against projected revenues, exploring new or updated funding sources, and assembling the findings into a functional work program.
This raises a fair question: why were taxpayers charged to hire a consultant for work that falls squarely within the basic responsibilities of government staff?…