Special Report: Why El Paso lost millions in transportation money

The City of El Paso’s loss of some $40 million on fast-track transportation projects has been making headlines lately.

ABC-7 found a deeper flaw with the way local transportation dollars had been allocated.

Every local government in El Paso county depends on federal dollars to help fund transportation projects.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization receives federal funds for road projects, and prioritizes them.

More than 30 state and local officer holders and managers make up the MPO and compete for those federal dollars.

The MPO had this deficiency. For years, the MPO operated in a way that alarmed the Federal Highway Administration.

There were instances where agencies were applying for federal funds, the federal funds were being committed to them but then they weren’t starting the projects.

Michael Medina, executive director of the MPO, says federal dollars were awarded, but local governments didn’t always start those projects promptly.

“This is a continuous problem that we’ve had,” Medina said.

For example, the City of El Paso was awarded more than $10 million to redo Downtown streets.

The City applied for the money more than 10 years ago – and the feds committed the money in 2009, making it out of reach for other cities.

Yet, construction never started.

It kept on getting shuffled from fiscal year to fiscal year.

“It wasn’t ready to be submitted and it just got nudged along – oh we’ll get the environmental done next year,” Matthew McElroy, City Director of International Bridges, said.

After more than 10 years with no major progress from the City, the MPO moved the money to another transportation project in Clint.

“Ultimately if we don’t comply with those regulations or address the corrective actions, the federal government can cease allowing us to use federal aid and so our transportation projects stopped,” Medina said.

There’s no question that projects that weren’t ready were being submitted and if you look at which ones were being submitted were the ones that were being talked a lot by city council, McElroy said.

The City now says many projects were submitted because of pressure from City Council – even though environmental and historic reviews weren’t ready.

In the case of Downtown streets, the City didn’t even begin design and environmental review for the project until 2013 – almost five years after the money had been committed.

So, why did the MPO award the funds?

“The MPO was not complying with the federal requirements,” Medina said.

Until recently, the City had more influence on a powerful subcommittee than other governments.

They had five members allowing them to move City requests along. Now, they have two.

The biggest fix?

With County Commissioner Vince Perez as chairman, the MPO reformed its selection process to include an objective scoring system based on project readiness.

That translated into a rush of faulty applications submitted by the City.

“When enforcement started at the MPO, when new management came, that was no longer allowed and the City just didn’t adapt fast enough to that change,” McElroy said.

“This is not unique to the City,” Medina said. “There have been instances where we’ve had to reprogram those funds because they’re not meeting those milestones.”

Millions of dollars –and years– later, the MPO now tracks projects to ensure they’re done on time.

That Downtown street project mentioned earlier has now been pushed to 2017.