When a state contracting process looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s reasonable to assume a duck is involved! The same is true when a nearly $10 billion state contract for a group of private companies, some foreign, to build and operate profitable toll roads for 50 years is awarded and soon thereafter the Chief of Staff for the Tennessee commissioner of Transportation involved in awarding the contract suddenly gets hired by the companies who won. Quack, quack!
Tennessee House Democratic leaders are (properly) calling on Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate the state’s Choice Lane Project contract bidding and awarding process after a potential conflict of interest was revealed between the Tennessee Department of Transportation and one of the companies that won the bid.
The controversial 26-mile, $9.2 billion Choice Lane project, stretching from I-24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro, is set to start construction next year. It created optional, paid toll lanes the state says drivers can use to bypass the heavy traffic that regularly snarls that stretch of existing interstate.
After TDOT revealed the coalition of six private companies that will work on the project, called DriveTN, the Tennessean reported that former TDOT Chief of Staff Steve Townsend left the state to work for Ferrovial-Cintra. That was one of the companies that submitted the winning bid, soon after Townsend joined them. Could just be amazing timing, or it could reflect a series of loud quacking.
“Everybody’s been scratching their head, like, what is this really about? Now we learn that there are people who worked in the Lee administration who also have a financial interest in these private tolling companies that received the winning bid,” said Democrat Rep. John Ray Clemmons. Clemmons wants an investigation and answers. So should Republicans. And taxpayers!
TDOT has issued a statement claiming everything is on the up and up. “Consistent with TDOT procurement requirements, the DriveTN team implemented screening procedures and communication protocols that prohibited Steve Townsend ’s engagement in, access to, or receipt of any information related to the I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes procurement. This disclosure was made to TDOT by DriveTN in accordance with the organizational conflict-of-interest provisions contained in the procurement documents. TDOT reviewed the disclosure and remains committed to ensuring the procurement is conducted in accordance with all applicable requirements, with appropriate safeguards in place to protect the integrity of the process.”
In that case, a thorough investigation, including some sworn testimony, should clear everything up. Right. Right???
Excuse us if we are a bit skeptical of the honesty of Tennessee officials involved in sweetheart corporate deals like giving $30 million to Starbucks that will supposedly be repaid in six months via a non-existent collection from “payroll taxes.” (By the way, we still don’t know the identity of the law firms and lobbying firms who stand a profit from the Starbucks deal or their connections to the Lee Administration or Team Blackburn.) https://tristardaily.com/blackburn-defends-state-starbucks-deal-because-tennessee-recoups-30-million-in-six-months/
And we do know that Senator/wannabe governor, Marsha Blackburn has received over $121,000 from AI data center proponents as she supports the development and construction of those centers in Tennessee, despite overwhelming opposition from voters. Independent candidate David Hatley is already airing a tv spot opposing those data centers as a way to distinguish himself from Blackburn.
WHAT THE FLOCK!?!? Likewise, Blackburn is at odds with the overwhelming and growing opposition to Flock Safety cameras by Tennessee voters, her opponents, and several Tennessee municipal leaders who are quickly removing the Flock surveillance cameras. The upcoming financial disclosures will reveal whether of not those connected to the Flock cameras, or the multiple lobbying firms they have retained, are donating or directing funds to her campaign.
