The following was received by me from John Steadman and is reproduced here unedited...

Where is the Traffic Study for the Proposed I-10 Service Road?

A previous article on the blog titled “Commissioners Play Dirty Pool” notes that there is an agenda item requesting that the County Attorney make inquiries and consider actions against me because I submitted a request to Mr. Markert for a copy of the “Traffic Study” using University of South Alabama letterhead.  At the end of this post is a copy of an email message I sent to Commissioner Gruber in which I apologize for any misunderstanding that may have been caused by my use of USA letterhead in my email message to Mr. Markert.  While I regret that I used my normal letterhead, I certainly do not think the letter in any way implied that the University of South Alabama had any position on this project or was requesting the information.

I thank Mr. Walters, Mr. McConnell, and Mr. Traum for their defense of me and my efforts to obtain a copy of the traffic study.  The clearly threatening nature of the agenda item is disturbing and the support of others is appreciated.

But the real question all of us should consider is why this was done.  Regardless of whether the request had to do with my personal interest or that of the University of South Alabama, the study should be a public document and readily available.  I know several people who have made this request and none of them has received a copy of the study.  Instead, we all received some version of a reply stating that staff is “gathering the information requested” and will eventually provide it.  This leads me to question why it would take any significant amount of time to locate and transmit this information, which has repeatedly been used to justify the road.  While my request is recent, others occurred months ago.

The threatening response and the failure to provide any traffic study in a timely manner certainly make me question whether any traffic study actually exists that relates to the situation existing today, that is, without any plan for a hospital near Bass Pro.  If the traffic study has been done, why hasn’t it been produced?  If not, why is the Commission going forward with planning for the road?  These are reasonable questions and we deserve reasonable answers.

John Steadman

Message sent to Commissioner Gruber

Dear Mr. Gruber:

It was a pleasure to visit with you briefly this morning regarding the upcoming Baldwin County Commission meeting.  I have reviewed the letter I sent to Mr. Markert requesting a copy of the traffic study supporting construction of an I-10 service road.  I do not believe that I implied in any way that there is an official University of South Alabama position with reference to this project.  If Mr. Market infers this because I printed the letter using the same template on my computer that I use daily, then I apologize for failing to make it clear that this request is simply an Open Records Act request because of my interest in the road, not the University's interest.

 

I note agenda item HA3 is associated with this issue.  It is not possible for me to attend the meeting next Tuesday, as I will be at work.  However, if it is appropriate, I would appreciate it if you would convey this response to Mr. Markert and the other Commissioners.  I have copied Mr. Markert.  I also request that this message be read at the commission meeting so that it becomes a part of the record.

 

As a note to this issue, it is accurate to state that I am the Dean of Engineering at the University of South Alabama and I believe that it is appropriate to identify my occupation, just as others who address issues with the Commission identify that they own a business, are retired from some company, etc.  In the comments that I made to the Daphne City Council, I made it clear that I am an electrical engineer and checked on some of the issues with civil engineers before arriving at conclusions.  I live in Baldwin County, pay taxes in Baldwin County, and have an interest in the road.  Being the Dean of Engineering should not preclude having an opportunity to see the traffic study, which to my understanding is a public record, or to express concern about this project.

 

Regards,

 

John Steadman