Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Inaction on seven million dollars in road-improvement money pending from the Florida Department of Transportation was one of several self-described uncomfortable topics that Commissioner Betsy Barfield raised recently at the Jefferson County Commission meeting.
Barfield told the commission that she knew some people thought that she picked on them inordinately. She could not, however, in good conscience be aware of problems and not bring them up, she said.
Barfield said that she had received a call on the previous day from Dustin Castells at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), who handles the local program.
Castells, she said, had told her that the department had been waiting on four one-page resolutions from the commission to move forward on funding that his agency had awarded the county for road resurfacing projects.
Barfield said she had asked Castells if he had communicated with Clerk of Court Kirk Reams, County Coordinator Parrish Barwick and the county’s consultant engineer to get the problem resolved and he had responded, “absolutely.”
Castells, she said, had informed her that the communications with county staff had begun on Nov. 4, but the resolutions had yet to arrive.
Barfield said she was bringing the situation up because it wasn’t the first time that such had happened.
“I feel that things are falling through the cracks,” Barfield said. “I’m not putting blame on anybody, I’m putting blame on everybody. It is unacceptable that the Florida Department of Transportation wants to hand us seven million dollars for Lake Road, Casa Bianca, the Ashville Highway and the railroad bridge and we take two months – two months! – to answer them. I don’t understand it. And he calls me up, and in one day, the FDOT gets the resolutions.”
Barfield reminded the board that what she said was called an engineer’s error had caused the county a couple of years earlier to lose $1.5 million in funding for the resurfacing of the Waukeenah Highway, a project that she said was consequently far behind schedule. If this was the way that business was going to be conducted, she wanted a new engineer, she said.
“I feel that it’s up to our engineer to stay on top of things,” Barfield said. “And if we’re not getting action, if it takes two months to do a one-page resolution, I believe that that engineer or someone needs addressing.”
Barfield said she appreciated that the clerk of court and coordinator had jumped to get the resolution done once she had raised the issue. But two months was simply unacceptable, she said. She asked the board how it felt about hiring a new engineer for SCRAP and SCOP projects, referring to two of the FDOT’s more popular road-improvement funding programs.
“We can’t afford to keep moving in this direction,” Barfield said.
Barwick said he took part of the blame for the delay, as he hadn’t given the issue the urgency that it apparently warranted, given the present circumstances. But the fact was that he had a lot on his plate, he gave to understand.
Barfield said she understood. But the breakdown, she said, was that when the board signed resolutions, as it had with these four some months earlier, action had needed to be taken and it hadn’t.
“The fact is that the agency we have right now is not running efficiently and this is an example of it,” Barfield said.
She asked what the board thought the solution should be.
Barwick conceded upfront that his explanation didn’t address the current problem. But, he suggested, such situations shouldn’t occur anymore, now that Renee Long was on the county staff. Long, he said, was excellent at keeping things moving and ensuring that paperwork reached the appropriate agencies in a timely manner.
Barfield didn’t diminish from Long’s efficiency. But the problem, she said, was that if Long didn’t get the information, it still couldn’t move forward timely. It was simply sloppy work at present, he said.
The way that the matter was left, the board decided to reach out to the engineer and give him a chance to explain his side before taking action.