Engineer as a deputy commissioner

To better manage its necessary obligations, a change could be made near the top of the Transportation Department chain of command.

Sponsored by Rep. Terry Morrow (DFL-St. Peter), HF3090 would require that a person appointed to be a deputy commissioner must be a licensed professional engineer.

The bill was approved March 17 by the House Finance Committee and sent to the House floor. A companion bill, SF2925, sponsored by Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury), awaits action by the full Senate.

Current law allows for the commissioner to “establish four positions in the unclassified service at the deputy and assistant commissioner, assistant to the commissioner or personal secretary levels.” The bill calls for the new position to remain as an unclassified position, and still leaves room for three others. No more than two of the positions could be at the deputy commissioner level.

“We believe it makes sense because MnDOT is, at its core, an engineering organization. All of the other functions necessary are in support of that technical mission,” said Tom Eggum, a senior consultant at TKDA, a consulting engineering, architecture and planning firm.

Eleven states require their transportation commissioner be an engineer.

Morrow said the goal is not to change the commissioner role, but to ensure that a top engineer is in MnDOT’s upper echelon.

“I can assure you that under our current system the deputy commissioner consults regularly, daily with the engineers who head the engineering divisions at MnDOT,” said Betsy Parker, the department’s government affairs director, told the House Transportation Finance Committee Feb. 26. “We have not felt internally any particular lack in terms of having the engineering guidance that we need. The engineers who head the divisions have been in MnDOT for a long time, and are very competent to provide the advice to both the commissioner and the deputy.”