Member of the Texas Sunset Commission today recommended 'radical' changes in the administration of the Texas Department of Transportation, including placing the troubled and controversial agency into a four year legislative 'receivership' and abolishing the Texas Transportation Commission, which runs TexDOT, and appointment of a Transportation Commissioner who would be answerable to the Legislature, 1200 WOAI news reports.

  But Sunset Commission member Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) suggested going one step further.

  "What I am hearing form the public is that they are wanting to see an elected commissioner," she said to loud applause from the TexDOT opponents  who packed the hearing room in Austin.

  "Yes, we ought to look at leaving it like it is, that's an option, but I also think we should seriously look at having an elected commissioner," she said.

  The Texas Transportation Commission members are currently appointed by the Governor, and there have been allegations that members appointed to the Commission are required to follow Governor Perry's policies, especially when it concerns the controversial issue of toll roads.

  Sunset Commission member Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving) echoed McClendon's proposal for an elected Transportation Commissioner.

  "I think this would send a bold statement to the agency too, to show that they need to rebuild the trust of the people," Harper-Brown said.

   Members of the Commission repeatedly blasted TexDOT fro it's lack of 'transparency and accountability.'

  Another proposal, also floated by McClendon, was to remove all responsibilities for vehicle registration, titles, and other vehicle matters from TexDOT and to create a separate agency, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.

  "Infrastructure maintenance, engineering, and construction would remain TexDOT in order to improve it's efficiency," she said.

  Texas had a Department of Motor Vehicles until the early 1990s, when it was abolished and combined wit the old Texas Highway Department to create the new Texas Department of Transportation.

  The proposals will be compiled by the Commission and presented to the legislature later this year for action in the session which begins in January.

  Much of the opposition to TexDOT and the calls for an elected commissioner stem from outrage over aggressive toll road construction plans throughout the state, including the US 281 North project in north Bexar County, and the Trans Texas Corridor.