Sam R. Hall: John Caldwell not making friends as MDOT commissioner
Jan. 28—That Northern District Transportation Commissioner John Caldwell doesn't always place nice with his fellow Mississippi Department of Transportation commission members and staff is not news.
Back in July, he held up $100 million in federal funding — including $32 million for north Mississippi. He said he had not had an opportunity to review all the proposals and needed more time to make a decision. The projects passed at the next meeting.
A few months later, at the end of a November commission meeting, Caldwell took a moment of personal privilege to send notice to the other two commissioners that he felt like his district had been shortchanged and that he was not going to allow that to happen again. He said it was his fault for not understanding the politics behind the decisions, but he would not be caught off guard going forward.
And there have been other tense moments, though not as marked or as public, with his fellow commissioners and some MDOT staff.
All of this led to Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Jenifer Branning, R-Philadelphia, to author Senate Bill 2561, which would change current state law to require only a simple majority of the three-member MDOT commission to approve projects. Currently, projects require unanimous support to move forward.
Branning won't say if the bill is in direct response to Caldwell, though the commissioner told the Daily Journal he felt certain it was. And it doesn't really bother him. He maintains that he's just doing his job and advocating for his district.
In a separate interview last month, Caldwell told me that his November rant was just his frustration getting the better of him. While he maintains that he could have handled it better, he said he stands by the substance of his message.
"The Northern District has 33 counties. The other (two) districts have less. We have the most people, the most road miles. We are not getting the most money, though," Caldwell told me in the interview.
He acknowledged that there are some pots of money where the commission has agreed to equally split funds among the three districts — bridge funds, lottery funds and money from the Transportation Alternative Program Fund.
"But even equal splits are not equal," Caldwell argued.
Of course, he does not mention that he was the one who recommended the equal split for the lottery funds. Nor does he mention that the Northern District has gotten more money than the other two districts for two of the last three fiscal years from 2020-2022.
There is also the fact that federal money comes with stipulations. The commission, in many ways, has little control over how that money is spent.
Finally, MDOT has done a tremendous job over the past several years of rating and ranking projects, moving them forward based on set, verifiable metrics — which Caldwell himself praises.
"We're making progress, so I don't want to be all negative," he told me.
And, to be fair, it must be frustrating to oversee the largest district with three growth areas where he says the funds don't go as far as in the other two districts because the projects usually cost more per mile — something he attributes to colder weather cutting down on workable days and a lack of competition among contractors to help keep costs down.
Nevertheless, here we are, with a bill that sets up a system where two extremely powerful people can control how the money is spent for the entire state — which could lead to some pretty horrendous unintended consequences. And it's all in direct response to Caldwell's actions and his clearly strained relationship with fellow commissioners and MDOT staff.
SAM R. HALL is executive editor of the Daily Journal. Contact him at sam.hall@djournal.com or follow @samrhall on Twitter.
