Late. Cindy O’Laughlin wants new direction at MoDOT – ‘no more of the same’

On November 30, 2024By Littum

State Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, is expressing displeasure after the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission (MHTC) unanimously selected Ed Hassinger to be the new director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

“We have bureaucrats running departments,” O’Laughlin told Missourinet. “Yes, they know me, the inside of the department, but what they don’t know is how do we measure the results of that department? What kind of money are we investing, because after all, it’s taxpayers’ money.”

Pending an official vote in January, Missouri’s next Senate President Pro Tem said she is looking for a new direction “not more of the same.” Hassinger said he wants to take MoDOT to the next level. But O’Laughlin countered that the department is ignoring the needs of Missourians.

“They have much closer ties to the federal government in some of the, you know, rules and regulations that they issue than they do in what the taxpaying citizens are looking for. When they start ignoring what I think has been on for a while, then it creates problems out here in our communities,” she said.

O’Laughlin questioned MHTC’s leadership for appointing Hassinger as its new director.

“The money that we take from the taxpayers and then invest in this department, what are the results that we get? Are those results things that the citizens want? What is the cost of that investment? How do we determine if we are achieving the goals that we have put us? I think it comes from good leadership,” she said.

Hassinger has been with MoDOT for the past 40 years. He told Missourinet his priorities are further investment in the department’s employees and worker and driver safety, as well as improving roadside aesthetics.