Booth: More cuts needed at DelDOT

With controversy swirling around her, Delaware Department of Transportation Secretary Carolann Wicks announced her resignation Friday, Feb. 18, saying she is retiring after 28 years in the department. Her last day is March 18.

“This has been a difficult decision, but one that has been made with a clear conscience and the best interest of the department at heart,” Wicks said.

Republican legislators were pressuring Gov. Jack Markell to replace Wicks following a series of controversies, including questionable million-dollar land deals and delays involving the Indian River Inlet bridge project.

Markell said he would go outside the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) to fill the position.

Sen. Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, said he appreciated Wicks’ long service to the state, but he said it was time to make a change. “I hope the new person that comes in can put some reins on some people and realize that some people’s talent can be used elsewhere,” he said.

Booth said Wicks inherited some problems when she took the top position in 2006. “She had problems in DelDOT when she assumed office, and it was hard from an inside position to make changes,” Booth said. “I appreciate that the governor wants to go outside to fill the position.”

House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, said he saw Wicks the day before she made her surprise announcement. “You could see that she had enough; she had been beat up enough,” he said.

“It’s been a storm a long time coming; the public has been calling for accountability,” said Sen. George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach. “But you can’t cast all the blame on her. She is a good person, honest and a good engineer, but it’s such a huge job that sometimes you have to be a real hard person on the finance side.”

Bunting said lawmakers have been using the Transportation Trust Fund to balance budgets for years. “We all knew there would come a time of reckoning and it’s come,” he said. “Legislators have been dipping into the fund for operating money, and Wicks caught the end of it in hard economic times.”

Schwartzkopf said Wicks took the heat and didn’t blame others for some lingering problems she didn’t create. The project that started her downfall was the Indian River Inlet bridge, which was a project begun by her predecessor, Nathan Hayward, Schwartzkopf said. Even the controversial land deals were a process put into place before she took over as secretary.

“The tide turned against her, and it was too much to handle,” Schwartzkopf said. “We have a new governor and a new way of doing things, but that new way has not reached some levels within DelDOT. Business is being done the way it always has at the middle levels of DelDOT.”

Wicks joined DelDOT in 1982, out of college, as an entry-level engineer and worked her way to the top spot. As Delaware’s eighth secretary of transportation – and the first female – she headed the state’s largest agency with a $1 billion budget and 2,900 employees.

Wicks was sworn in as secretary Feb. 1, 2006, under Gov. Ruth Ann Minner after Hayward stepped down. Gov. Jack Markell retained Wicks as transportation secretary when he took office in 2009.

“My only regret is that I am leaving a great organization with the most hardworking, dedicated state employees,” she said.

Wicks said she plans to spend more time with her family.

Bunting said lawmakers, the public and DelDOT staff all want something positive to happen, but the deep financial hole the department is in will make it hard for that to occur. “And the public will not hear about any tax increases,” Bunting said.
Controversy shrouds transportation projects  
Over the past five years, controversy has followed Delaware Department of Transportation. Among the issues are the following:

• A 53-page report from the governor’s office was critical of the way Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) handled three land-reservation deals as part of the Route 113 project. DelDOT agreed to monthly payments to keep land available without proper appraisals or legal advice. The payouts have topped $2 million. In the wake of the investigation, one high-ranking DelDOT official retired and another was reassigned. In addition, DelDOT revamped the way it is conducting land deals.

• In October 2007, during a press conference, Secretary Carolann Wicks announced work had stopped on a multi-million dollar embankment project for the roads leading to the Indian River Inlet bridge.  Settlement issues forced DelDOT to remove most the embankments and change the bridge design. After a three-year investigation into the reasons for the settlement issues, DelDOT filed a $19.6 million lawsuit against the engineers. A report from independent investigators has yet to be released.

• In August 2010, Sussex County Council discussed a split from DelDOT to create its own transportation department. “There is a disconnect between land use and infrastructure funding,” said Councilman Vance Phillips, R-Laurel. “We were told the state would build roads where development would occur, and the state dropped the ball.”

• In May 2009, state transportation officials admitted proper permitting was not obtained for drainage work along Fowler Beach Road in Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. To help alleviate flooding problems, DelDOT crews dug ditches along both sides of the road, which they had to refill.

• The new Woodland Ferry, which is operated by DelDOT, has only been in service six of the 14 months since it was launched. Mechanical problems have plagued the Tina Fallon since it was commissioned into service.

• Financial woes continue to plague the department. DelDOT officials have predicted a budget shortfall of $210 million in three years and $360 million within 10 years. That comes on the heels of major cutbacks in the department’s capital transportation program.

• After more than a year of workshops, DelDOT abandoned plans for a Western Parkway as an alternative north-south route in the Cape Region. Public opposition to the plan was widespread. DelDOT has since broken the vacated project into three separate projects.