Following-up on yesterday’s post about the county considering an unsolicited proposal to complete the Grand Parkway as a public-private partnership, here’s Bill Murphy’s latest reporting:
In other business, the court authorized employees to study an unsolicited offer for the county to enter a public-private partnership to build and operate the 197-mile Grand Parkway as a toll road.
County Judge Ed Emmett said he would like the county to control the road and have its profits benefit the region rather than the rest of the state.
Studying the plan put forward by Grand Parkway Constructors is prudent, but should not be taken as support for the concept, he said.
The Texas Department of Transportation has the final say over who builds and controls the Grand Parkway, the outermost ring around Houston. Grand Parkway Constructors’ principals are Williams Brothers Construction and Dannenbaum Engineering.
We already know where Judge Emmett stands on the Grand Parkway. How it gets done is another matter.
Charles Bacarrise, who will be running against Emmett in the Republican primary for county judge, has sent along his reaction to the “Grand Parkway Constructors” proposal:
NO public private partnerships needs to be used in our region when the Harris County Toll Road Authority is sitting on a $700 million-plus cash reserve, with over $360 million in annual revenue income — and that’s BEFORE the $60 million Emmett toll tax increase went into effect in September. Second, the project presents an obvious conflict of interest based on the parties involved. Engineer Jim Dannenbaum and Doug Pitcock, CEO of Williams Bros, are major contributors to every member of commissioners court. Now they come to this body and ask them to give them an annuity? If I were county judge, I would lead the fight to reject this outright.
The “Constructors” proposal does raise eyebrows.
