Aubrey Layne speaking to reporters yesterday. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch
by James A. Bacon
In the year that he’s served as Secretary of Transportation, Aubrey J. Layne Jr. has been reluctant to blame any individual or group of individuals for the U.S. 460 toll road fiasco. But he abandoned that reticence yesterday during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee.
“All of the information was funneled through the secretary’s office, and they were clearly in charge,” Layne said, referring to the office of his predecessor Sean Connaughton. The McDonnell administration allowed “political and media” considerations to dominate its decision making when fast-tracking construction of the Interstate highway-quality connector between Petersburg and Suffolk, the Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes Layne as saying.
Layne was himself an avid supporter of the public-private partnership project, which then-Governor Bob McDonnell touted as economic development boon for Virginia ports and industrial development in Southeastern Virginia. But when when Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him as transportation secretary last year, Layne discovered that the state had spent $300 million on the project without obtaining wetlands permits from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and had little prospect of ever getting them. He promptly pulled the plug on the project.
A “Special Review of the U.S. Route 460 Corridor Improvements Project” ordered by Layne laid out in detail how the McDonnell administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) had ample warning of the USACE’s wetlands concerns but pushed them aside to get construction started on the project before McDonnell’s term ended.
But the Special Review studiously ignored the question of who drove the decision-making process and who made the decision to omit critical information in the formal presentation to the CTB when seeking the board’s approval for project financing. As I observed last April in “Feet-to-the-Fire Time for Layne, Kilpatrick,” there were three key individuals who could plausibly be held responsible — Transportation Secretary Connaughton, then-Virginia Highway Commissioner Greg Whirley, and then-Deputy Commissioner Charlie Kilpatrick, who actually delivered the presentation. Whirley retired and Connaughton moved on to become president of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, but Kilpatrick was elevated to Virginia Highway Commissioner.
The issue died in the media but members of the General Assembly apparently were in a mood for answers yesterday. Layne pointed to the “secretary’s office” without mentioning Connaughton by name. By omitting any mention of Kilpatrick, the implication is that he holds the highway commissioner blameless. (Connaughton did not respond to media queries.)
I harp on this matter while others ignore it not to flog Connaughton, whose current job has no bearing directly or indirectly on transportation policy, but to clear Kilpatrick. Back when I was actively covering transportation issues, I had the sense that Kilpatrick was widely liked and respected. But as the chief operations guy at VDOT at the time, he was neck deep in the U.S. 460 imbroglio. He was the one who delivered the misleading presentation to the CTB.
Now that Kilpatrick is Numero Uno, the public has the right to know: Did he have a hand in crafting U.S. 460 policy? Was he just carrying out orders? Did he privately express any reservations to Connaughton about fast-tracking the project? My hunch is that Kilpatrick was acting as the loyal trooper following direct orders when he omitted mention of the permitting issue in his CTB presentation. If I were a wagering man, I’d bet that he did express private concerns to his higher-ups. But don’t know either of those things for a fact. If I were a state legislator, I would want to know for a fact. The full truth needs to come out, if only to clear the cloud over Kilpatrick’s head.
