Ralph Wehner’s third anniversary as executive director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority came and went a few weeks ago.
But no one lit any candles at the tollway’s Downers Grove headquarters, where officials know there’s a long road ahead before they win full public confidence.
“It’s not easy to overcome, but we’re working on it,” said Wehner of what he described as “an image problem” for the agency, which critics see as a free-spending rogue bureaucracy.
Robert L. Hickman, Wehner’s predecessor, will be sentenced this month for his part in a $190,000 “fee” conspiracy involving the sale of tollway property.
Meanwhile, there have been audits, legislative hearings, a flurry of tollway reform legislation and two defeats in the courts.
One legal setback last January blocked plans to extend the North-South Tollway into Will County. The second last week could bring the tollway’s budget under the scrutiny of its foes in the General Assembly, a move that could have wide-ranging consequences.
Wehner, 62, a career civil engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation, stepped into the hornet’s nest in 1994. He was only the second transportation professional to be appointed to run the 44-year-old tollway agency.
Four of his last five predecessors were campaign fundraisers for Illinois governors, a position that put them in direct contact with the road-building industry’s deepest pockets.
Wehner’s reputation at IDOT was as a strong and honest–though sometimes heavy-handed–manager who reportedly once monitored late-arriving employees with a pair of binoculars trained on IDOT’s parking lot. It’s a story he neither confirms nor denies.
He came to the tollway with the promise of reform and, to an extent, has delivered.
New land-acquisition guidelines have been put in place. Contracts must be approved by the tollway’s board. The executive director has been barred from paying more than $50,000 above the approved appraisal price for any land.
Under Hickman, one land deal closed for twice the land’s appraised value.
Prospective tollway contractors must disclose the names of anyone paid to lobby for them. They also are now required to disclose any former tollway official or employee who works for or owns stock in the company.
Former tollway employees or officers are now barred from doing business with the agency for a year after they leave.
Free tollway passes for board members and others with no pressing public need for the passes have been dropped, as have “supplemental” pensions, the free cafeteria at tollway headquarters, $30,000 Christmas parties and personal use of the authority’s helicopter.
Lastly, a chief internal auditor was hired to report directly to the chairman and the board–not the executive director.
Meanwhile, Wehner and board Chairman Julian D’Esposito Jr. have hired consultants to improve efficiency at the agency, map a strategic plan and better the tollway’s battered image.
But critics, who credit tollway lobbyists for helping stall reform legislation in Springfield, would have gone much further.
They would have required legislative approval of the authority’s budget, created an agency inspector general and required the authority to spend its $300 million to $400 million budget surplus before issuing new bonds.
All of those recommendations, however, could become reality if last week’s court ruling requiring the tollway to win budget approval from the legislature stands.
The tollway now is “rewarded for spending money in the wrong way–the more they spend, the slower they pay off their debts,” said Mike Truppa of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, one of the agency’s most vocal critics.
As long as there’s outstanding debt to be paid, a key reason remains for the authority’s existence: It must continue collecting tolls to pay off the debt.
Still, Wehner gets good marks from Springfield.
“I see strong improvements,” said state Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst). “He’s streamlined operations (and) gotten very good audits from the auditor general, and we’ve seen very little in the way of charges of impropriety.”
Even tollway critics give him his due.
“Director Wehner has instituted some key improvements,” said state Rep. Jeffrey Schoenberg (D-Evanston), a supporter of some of the stalled reform legislation. “But, ultimately, one person alone can’t erase decades of letting the good times roll.”
Wehner says he can do little about some of the more institutional criticisms of the tollway authority, which is seen by its critics as a self-perpetuating empire that must continue growing to survive.
Last week’s court ruling has the potential to make significant changes, though. A Cook County judge ruled that the tollway had violated the 1970 Illinois Constitution because it never had submitted its budget to the legislature and the governor for approval, as all other state agencies must do.
Lawyers who filed the suit are expected to seek an injunction Tuesday that would block any spending by the tollway until the matter is resolved.
Wehner readily acknowledges the “self-perpetuating empire” criticism, but says the legislature is responsible.
“The legislature said, `Because you can assist IDOT in building these roads that we need, we are going to let you take them over,’ ‘ he said. “We’re just another funding mechanism for building the infrastructure needed in the Chicago metro area. Where is the state going to get $900 million to pay off bonds?”
