The package of legislation seeking to reorganize and restructure offices, positions and job duties and authorites at LADOTD was heard in House Transportation Committee last week. Both HB 528 and HB 556 were amended significantly, and HB 621 had a substitute bill, HB 640, filed in its place. All three bills were passed out of committee with little opposition. 

HB 528 seeks to reform the organizational structure of LADOTD, including duties, powers and responsibilities of employees. The bill most notably o removes the Chief Engineer as an officer of the department and effectively replaces the chief with the assistant secretary of the office of project delivery. There is also language in the legislation that looks to methodically transition many of the positions at LADOTD from classified to unclassified. 

HB 556 reforms operations at LADOTD, by merging the Office of Planning and the Office of Engineering under a new department named the Office of Project delivery. The bill also names the assistant secretary of project delivery as the leader of this department. As amended, the bill states that the chief engineer reports to the assistant secretary who does not need to be a licensed professional engineer. The bill further creates the Office of Transformation The bill also provides the Secretary with the authority to eliminate any position and transfer those responsibilities to the Louisiana Highway Construction Authority.

HB 640 creates the Louisiana Highway Construction Authority under the Office of the Governor and the Division of the Administration. The two bills above provide the secretary the authority to transfer duties assigned to offices within the department to LHCA that they believe can be handled in a more efficient and effective manner. 

HB 528 was dual referred to House Appropriations and will be heard in that committee Monday. Once the bill is moved out of House Appropriations, it will join its companions to be heard on the House Floor (next) Wednesday. We are currently working on a redline of these three bills that will identify some outstanding concerns we have with the latest versions. I am told that most of these are already being address with future amendments, but we still need to make our points clear.