The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission got slapped around some for its amazingly bad web site and other continued weaknesses in outreach and congestion mitigation, but in the end the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration gave SEWRPC another four years to wreak havoc and destruction on the Milwaukee community.

The certification process, though, does not mean that SEWRPC is doing a good job. Far from it. The whole review process, in fact,  generally is considered fairly meaningless by metropolitan planning organizations like SEWRPC, according to the Government Accountability Office. Here it is, in gray and white, from the GAO’s September report, “Metroplitan Planning Organizations: Options Exist to Enhance Transportation Planning Capacity and Federal Oversight“:

Most MPOs we interviewed generally view the federal certification reviewsas pro forma in nature and place a greater value on informal assistance from the federal government. Officials in one state said that the most important oversight is the “give and take” between agencies on the various transportation plans they create. This informal interaction allows the oversight agencies to identify issues prior to the formal reviews. Likewise, many federal officials with whom we spoke view informal interactions— such as regular meetings, technical assistance, and review of air quality conformity analyses—as an important aspect of oversight. One FHWA division official we interviewed stated that the benefit of ongoing communication is that problems are identified as they arise and can be addressed well before the certification review or self certification is conducted.

Yup, the very people who are supposed to judge whether SEWRPC (and other MPOs) are doing a good job are the very people working closely with those same MPOs on a day-to-day basis and trying to ensure that problems within the MPOs do not become big enough to earn a mention in recertification reports. Some might call that type of cross-purpose relationship a conflict of interest, but FHWA and FTA do not. In SEWRPC’s case, FHWA official Dwight McComb participated on the federal review team even though he serves on many SEWRPC committees and so was basically reviewing his own work. Citizens Allied for Sane Highways (of which I am co-chair) asked FHWA early in the recertification process to remove McComb from the review team — the agency refused.

The certification process is designed to avoid conflict, GAO said:

“FTA and FHWA officials noted that the process is meant to be collaborative in nature. Therefore, a finding of  noncompliance is as much of a failure on the part of (US) DOT as the MPO, according to a DOT official.”

Fortunately for SEWRPC, according to the GAO, “The current process-oriented approach toward
certification generally focuses on procedural requirements as opposed to performance.” (Emphasis added)

And tough sanctions for doing a lousy job just haven’t happened. The GAO:

FTA and FHWA can withhold apportioned federal highway and transit funds if they determine an MPO is in noncompliance with federal requirements. However, FTA and FHWA officials were unaware of any instance in which an MPO was not certified due to noncompliance during the last 10 years….Because the federal certification is focused on compliance, not outcomes,it is difficult to determine whether federal oversight is improving transportation planning. GAO has previously recommended to DOT, as well as to Congress, that adopting performance measures and goals for
programs can aid in evaluating and measuring the success of the programs, which can lead to better decisions about transportation investments. The procedural focus of the federal certification, and the fact that, according to DOT officials’ knowledge, no MPO has failed to be certified as a result of a certification review also makes it difficult to use the certification results as a performance indicator for MPOs.

It seems almost miraculous, given the extraordinarily low standards set by the federal government in its MPO recertification review process, that SEWRPC got called to task on any issues at all. Heaven knows what a real review by an independent outside agency would reveal.