DelDOT Secretary And Red Clay School District Are The Featured Speakers At CLNCC's February Meeting, 6:45PM Monday Night In Bear

On Monday, Ferbruary 20, 2012, the Civic League for New Castle County will host Delaware Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt for a presentation on his plans for DelDOT moving forward. After Friday's front page News Journal report, this should be a rather informative event. Secretary Bhatt will speak from 7-8 PM.

Thereafter we will hear a presentation from the Red Clay School District committee on their referendum plans in the near future. [Also See: Rick Jensen Interviews Red Clay Officials On Referendum ].

This meeting will start at 6:45 PM, in the Paris Community Room, Delaware State Police Troop 2, 100 LaGrange Ave, Bear.

Finding DelDOT's missing pieces - (Sunday Op-Ed) What is it that we don't know about the Delaware Department of Transportation?

DelDOT records prompt inquiry - Forensics team will audit deals, ethics in push for reforms - Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt did not rule out the possibility of criminal misconduct.

The investigation was triggered by a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by The News Journal in recent months involving agency land deals and the involvement of political figures in certain highway projects that affect commercial interests. DelDOT officials were unable to document specifics of some land deals, Bhatt said. Records that would show what happened to payments to the agency for taxpayer-funded services and highway entrances also were missing, he said.

...Answers to the recent FOIA requests, Bhatt said, were complicated by DelDOT's paper-intensive and fragmented record-keeping system, and in some cases be inexplicably missing or never-recorded land agreements and roadway plans. As internal inquiries widened and top managers urged disclosure of problems, he said, employees came forward with other concerns, including some involving missing documents and checks from developers.

"The staff has come forward and talked about old checks that were not cashed, and have made assertions that checks may have disappeared," Bhatt said. "Whether that was because they were supposed to have been shredded or because a developer has moved on, it's hard for me to know." DelDOT has since ordered staffers to record and deposit all checks received by the agency within 24 hours of receipt.
In addition, the department plans to:

» Gather, secure and strictly control access to agency files and documents.» Retain outside engineers and planning consultants to examine key files for omissions or shortcomings.

» Work with Kent County to re-record complete site plans spanning a seven-year period after 2003, when the county stopped automatically documenting plans that left original property boundaries intact.

» Acquire a modern document recording and management system, an investment that could approach $1 million.

...The site plan problem was confined to Kent County, Bhatt said, but potentially left DelDOT unable to easily document agreements with developers involving such matters as land acquisition or land donation deals with developers, land easements and provisions for walkways and building line restrictions to protect driver views at intersections.

Check the CLNCC web site for more details.