Normally if voters wanted to derail TxDOT’s plans to widen the freeway through downtown El Paso, they could complain to their state delegation. After all, the State Legislature controls TxDOT’s purse strings. When the delegation talks, TxDOT listens.
However, in July, Texas State Representative Lina Ortega announced that she would not seek reelection in the next voting cycle. Her decision means that she’s a lame duck politician, and District 77 effectively has no voice at the State Capitol.
Downtown El Paso is in District 77.
And ni modo. In a Zoom meeting with the Community First Coalition back in September of 2021, Representative Ortega made it clear that she would not oppose widening the freeway.
So what’s a concerned citizen to do?
A concerned citizen could contact State Senator C
Despite the Public Interest Research Group’s decrying TxDOT’s traffic forecasts, saying
According to TxDOT, peak afternoon traffic on the highway of around 200,000 vehicles per day in 2018 will increase by 50% over the next two decades, rising to 300,000 by 2042. However, traffic data from 2003 to 2019 show that annual average daily traffic volume (AADT) on this stretch of highway over this period has remained almost exactly constant.
Obviously if our state delegation thinks that the stretch of freeway in downtown is El Paso’s biggest traffic jam, they’ve been spending too much time in Austin and not enough time in El Paso.
And TxDOT’s numbers don’t take into account the effect of the development of the Borderland Expressway, the bypass highway linking Loop 375 to Interstate 10 in New Mexico. The Borderland Expressway was touted as a way to relieve congestion on Interstate 10. I guess TxDOT’s left hand doesn’t know what TxDOT’s right hand is doing, and expanding the freeway in downtown El Paso is obviously some left hand work.
And make no mistake, just because the stretch of I-10 slated for lane expansion downtown is in District 77, major road construction on the freeway will inconvenience all El Pasoans, for years.
Perhaps concerned El Pasoans could reach out to Rep. Joe Moody, the senior member of El Paso’s state legislative delegation. As the former Speaker Pro Tem for the state’s House of Representatives, Mr. Moody is well connected, and he could influence TxDOT’s ill-advised and unjustifiable plan to widen the freeway.
But I’m sure that Mr. Moody is solidly behind TxDOT’s machinations.
Rep. Moody’s day job is Senior Counsel at WestStar Bank. The Chairman of the Board and CEO of WestStar Bank Holding Company, Inc. and Executive Chairman of WestStar Bank, is Frederick “Rick” Francis. Mr. Francis is also the Chairman of the Board of the Paso del Norte Community Foundation, the organization behind the push to build a deck park over the expanded freeway.
What do you suppose Mr. Moody’s job is over there at WestStar Bank?
On September 16, 2019, ElPasoTimes.com reported
Moody’s job is a new position at the bank, and part of its leadership team. WestStar also has a general counsel, who coordinates legal-related issues for the bank.
Moody “will assist with the managing of complex issues and regulatory compliance that come with a financial institution of our size,” bank officials said in a statement.
When asked if the new job creates possible conflicts of interest, Moody emailed a copy of a provision in the Texas House rules requiring House members to disclose “personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending before the House,” and then not vote on those items.
Emailing a copy of a provision in the Texas House rules, instead of answering the question, is a real lawyerly thing to do. I imagine that having Mr. Moody on the leadership team of WestStar Bank is really convenient for the oligarchs behind WestStar Bank, especially if the leadership team wants a deck park over the freeway.
[Here’s the Board of Directors for WestStar Bank.
And here’s Board of Directors for the Paso del Norte Community Foundation.]
Pity poor El Paso. So far from Austin, and so close to the oligarchs.
Almost too painfully true to read again. Even seceding from Texas, a long-time wish, wouldn’t change this….
A six-figure job in Westar Tower is how the Downtown Mafial awards its political friends for services rendered. They took care of Wilson and Carmen A-C post city employment and what do you think all those mayoral candidates muuddying the water in the next election are going to do as they term out? Not everybody can win.