Want voters to approve a $1 billion light rail line in next year’s regional transportation referendum? Todd Long had better say it’s OK.
Think a road proposal is a boondoggle and ought to be struck from metro Atlanta’s list of projects? Todd Long can single-handedly quash it.
You might think the power to shape the region’s all-important transportation project list resides with a legislative leader or agency head. Instead, an unelected bureaucrat is the initial gatekeeper for the $8 billion referendum that many say will shape metro Atlanta’s future for decades to come.
Who is this guy?
Long is the state’s director of planning for transportation, a post that reports to the governor. Those who have worked with the affable engineer say Georgians are in good hands — although no one has a motive to criticize him now, as he is holding his pen over the list of projects they hope to see go before voters next year.
In the summer of 2012, the 10-county Atlanta region will vote on the transportation project list, and a 1 percent sales tax to fund it. Counties, cities and towns have suggested more than $20 billion worth of projects, but the tax is likely to raise only about $8 billion, so the list must be cut.
That’s where Long comes in. The law gives him the power to pare down (or beef up) the wish list of projects submitted by local governments — within guidelines set by regional officials.
The ultimate decision is up to a roundtable of elected officials who will pick the final regional project list voters will consider in the all-or-nothing referendum. Considering that its success or failure hinges on support from suburbanites and city-dwellers with different priorities, much depends on Long’s skill as a transportation engineer to ensure solid projects make the list — and as a politician to ensure all parties feel heard.
Does Long feel powerful?
“Of course I do not,” Long, a 44-year-old Gwinnett County resident and career bureaucrat, said in one of a series of interviews while rushing between meetings.
Harold Bost, a former Fayette County commissioner who is organizing tea party opposition to the referendum, said his reaction to Long’s position of influence “wouldn’t do to print.”
Even though Long is making an initial cut, and the final list will be chosen by the regional leaders, “I just don’t believe in letting any one person or any group of a few folks have this much control,” Bost said.
Leaders pick from his picks
Transportation projects are some of the most valuable pork in politics, so the law that created the referendum established a group of 21 mayors and county commissioners from across the region to choose the project list. They will start negotiating in June and draft a list by August. They approve the final list in October.
But before then — this month — that law requires that Long create the pool of projects from which those officials can take their picks.
The law says only that Long will “use” the local governments’ suggestions in creating the pool, and he intends to add other projects. As the Oct. 15 deadline nears, if the elected officials want to add anything new, the law says such changes shall be chosen from Long’s list.
Each of the state’s 12 regions is going through the same process as metro Atlanta, and Long is managing them all.
Long’s philosophy seems to be to dig into the details, cite the rules for the referendum and work like mad to get buy-in from leaders.
But that won’t mean much if the general public isn’t on board, and at least one group is concerned about whether Long and regional leaders will pay equal attention to ordinary residents as opposed to special interests.
“The real key of our concern really has to do with how folks will be given opportunities to be engaged in the process, other than a short amount of time in the mornings before meetings,” said Nathaniel Smith, founder of the new group Partnership for Southern Equity.
The Atlanta Regional Commission invites people to take a survey on the referendum website, www.atlantaregionalround table.com.
Long’s position was created as a way to shift power from the state Transportation Board to the governor. Then-Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed Long as the first person to the post, and Gov. Nathan Deal kept him on.
Most transportation observers say the complicated law works now chiefly because Long and other DOT officials have determined to make it work. Long, who supervises a staff of three dozen people at the state Department of Transportation, hopes that may be part of his legacy.
The son, brother, nephew and husband of engineers, Long got bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia Tech. For his master’s thesis, he wrote about attempts to stifle cut-through traffic in Roswell neighborhoods.
He went right to work at the Georgia DOT and rose through the ranks. There, he oversaw road signs for park-and-ride lots for the 1996 Olympic Games.
“That was a huge moment in my career,” he said. “It allowed me to work with a lot of people on something that was very high profile. There was a lot of pressure to deliver.”
From his earliest personnel reviews at DOT to interviews with politicians and policymakers who know him now, his personal skills get praise.
“He’s a consensus builder,” said Bucky Johnson, mayor of Norcross and chairman of the “roundtable” that will choose the final project list.
“He manages the minefield very well and with some joviality,” said Rep. Pat Gardner, D-Atlanta. “I believe he’s gone beyond being an engineer. I’m hopeful he’s got some vision and gone beyond the how-do-you-do-it.”
Marginal projects weighed
Gardner called a meeting last year for her constituents who were upset at news that the DOT was seriously exploring a highway tunnel under Atlanta neighborhoods.
The air was tense with hostility from transit-friendly residents toward leaders from the traditionally road-focused DOT. At least once audience members interrupted Long with shouts. By the end, many were calmed, if still skeptical.
Long notes the law dictates that the DOT’s gas tax funds must pay only for roads and bridges. While critics said he suggested ground rules for the metro Atlanta referendum that favored roads over mass transit, the roundtable itself approved such rules that would allow a road-heavy list — or a majority-transit list.
While Long is a suburban highway commuter — he takes I-85 to get from home in Lilburn to work in Midtown — he says he will honor desires for mass transit in forming the wish list. But he will be guided by whether a project can be delivered within the 10-year span of the tax.
That and other ground rules were set by the region to determine what projects were eligible for the referendum. For example, some pedestrian trails have been submitted that are for recreation, not transportation, and he will cut those, Long said. Projects must give value for the dollar, come from approved plans or studies, and improve regional mobility.
He still is weighing just how far to go with cutting marginal projects, though he told the DOT board in April that there were “a lot of projects” that did not meet the criteria and that he would cut.
“At some point you’ve got to make the call of do I put it on there and let the roundtable duke it out? Or do I help the roundtable and cut it off early?” he said that week.
Long also has the power to add projects that he thinks the region should consider. He has said those include express bus service and probably optional toll lane projects. He is being lobbied — “some phone calls but not anything too much.”
Sally Flocks, president of the pedestrian advocacy group PEDS, believes he has a higher opinion of toll lanes than the public is going to have.
Still, even Flocks praised Long as “a really good transportation professional,” and Johnson said he expected no surprises. Then again, Long knows, none of them has seen his final list, which he intends to finish by June 1.
“I might not be too popular come June,” Long said.
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