A 12-member Blue Ribbon Panel put together to help the State Department of Transportation enhance its accountability, credibility, and efficiency has met for the first time in Jefferson City. And, Jack Magruder, who heads the panel, admits it will be quite a task. Panel members spent most of this first session learning more about the Transportation Department and how MoDOT got such a bad image with the public. While acknowledging the mistakes of the past, such as the under-funded 1992 highway plan that left much of the public feeling the Transportation Department is not doing things promised, most of the panel members agreed the state needs to move on from that. The panel will meet at least once monthly from now until the end of August to try to figure out how to solve state transportation woes.
