Transportation Chairman Williamson dead at 55

Houston Chronicle ^ | Dec. 30, 2007 | By macjs

[PAR35]

DALLAS — Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson has died of an apparent heart attack, officials said Sunday. He was 55.

Williamson, a former Texas House member, died at his home in Weatherford on Saturday, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Chris Lippincott said.

[PAR35]

May be of interest to your TTC ping list.

[org.whodat]

Now the Saudis will need to get to work finding a replacement.

[evad]

Where Was The Beast?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Right next door.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

TxDOT chairman Williamson dies

By John Moritz, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

December 30, 2007

AUSTIN -- Ric Williamson, the former state lawmaker from Weatherford and Gov. Rick Perry's point man at the Texas Department of Transportation, died Saturday night of an apparent heart attack, a spokesman for the agency confirmed.

Williamson had suffered from heart trouble in recent years, but it did not diminish his role in overseeing one of the state's largest bureaucracies during a period of intense controversy over the implementation of a massive new system of toll roads in most of Texas' urban centers.

"Mr. Williamson has had a history of heart troubles over the past few years," said Chris Lippincott, a spokesman for the transportation department. "It was something he was living with."

Details of Williamson's death were sketchy early Sunday, but Lippincott said he believed the transportation chairman was spending the holiday season with his family in Weatherford.

Williamson was a conservative Democrat in 1984 when he first won a seat in the Texas House representing a largely rural district west of Fort Worth anchored by Weatherford. He came to the House at age 33 as Texas was reeling from a slump in the oil industry, which strained the state budget.

Along with a coalition of other conservative Democrats and many of the then-outnumbered Republicans in the Legislature, Williamson pushed for steep cuts in state spending in an effort to hold the line on new taxes.

It was during that period that he befriended Perry, another rookie lawmaker with similar West Texas roots and conservative Democratic leanings. Both would change their party affiliations to Republican as their careers advanced.

Perry was elected state agriculture commissioner in 1990 and lieutenant governor eight years later. In December 2000, he ascended to the Governor's Mansion when George W. Bush left Texas to assume the presidency.

Within a few months of taking office, Perry named Williamson to the transportation commission, and then made him chairman in January 2004.

Leading the commission, Williamson became one of the chief crusaders for Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor, designed to be a system of toll roads and free roads to break the chokehold of urban congestion.

The toll road aspect of the plan generated the most controversy, with critics denouncing the state's contract with a Spanish firm to build and operate the toll roads and what they called the massive usurping of private land needed for the new thoroughfares.

Williamson, Perry and others defended the project as the most cost-efficient way to handle the ever-increasing traffic volume in fast-growing Texas.

The governor's office was preparing a statement Sunday.

[evad]

yikes!!

[MrEdd]

Where is my tiny violin?

[anymouse]

Do you think Gov. Goodhair will take this a as a sign from above and reconsider the wisdom of TTC?

[deport]

Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Williamson dies

By Ben Wear | Sunday, December 30, 2007, 01:58 PM

Ric Williamson

Ric Williamson, the Texas Transportation Commission chairman and a take-no-prisoners advocate for his long-time friend Rick Perry’s toll road policy, has died.

Williamson, 55, who had been on the commission since 2001 and its chairman since January 2004, died of a heart attack, said state Sen. Mike Krusee, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. It was not clear today if Williamson died late Saturday night or early Sunday.

Williamson, a Weatherford resident, had served in the Texas House for 14 years, leaving in 1999. He and Perry, who served in the House during a good deal of Williamson’s time there, roomed together in an Austin apartment during several sessions.

“Anita and I are heartbroken at this sudden loss of a confidant, trusted advisor and close personal friend of ours for more than 20 years,” Perry said in a statement released by his office. “Ric’s passion to serve his beloved State of Texas was unmatched and his determination to help our state meets its future challenges was unparalleled. He will be missed beyond words. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Williamson family during this very difficult time.”

Williamson dominated discussion of Texas transportation policy for most of this decade, holding forth at commission meetings in a curiously ornate but still straight-forward style that sometimes infuriated opponents of the toll road policy. Williamson, in particular, was four-square behind granting private companies long-term leases to finance, build and operate publicly owned toll roads, an approach that he said would raise billions for other roads but that others feared gave away too much control of public assets.

Texas Monthly in a June article had called him “the most hated person in Texas, public enemy number one to a million or more people.” In that same article, Williamson told writer Paul Burka, “I’ve had two heart attacks, and I’m trying to avoid the third one, which the doctors tell me will be fatal.”

People could question Williamson’s policy stands and his approach - and plenty of Texas legislators did just that over the past year - but no one could question the horsepower of the intellect behind those policies.

“Ric was the smartest and most far-sighted person I’d ever seen in public life,” said Krusee. “I learned so much whenever I was around Ric, and I don’t just mean transportation policy.”

Transportation Department executive director Amadeo Saenz issued this statement this afternoon:

“Ric Williamson was a visionary. As a member and chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, he brought passion and focus to meeting many of the challenges facing Texas today and for generations to come. The entire TxDOT family will miss his dedication and his leadership.”

[basil]

One can only hope!

[OKIEDOC]

Holly cow time for a scheduled appointment with the wife.

[anymouse]

Wonder if AC-DC will be playing at the funeral? ;)

[MrEdd]

They got a sound alike band

[Clemenza]

Was he bi? A fan of Australian rock?

[anymouse]

Or maybe Sammy Hagar?

Rather ironic age to die for a transportation chairman.

[PAR35]

Do you think Gov. Goodhair will take this a as a sign ... and reconsider the wisdom of TTC?

More likely a warning. Rick and Ric haven't exactly been delivering for the foreigners. They let the people block their promised deal on 121, for example (although the citizens still got the short end of that deal, the project at least has a Texas operator.)

[txhurl]

Toll wars break nasty.

Here in Austin, they don't seem too full of commuters, but I don't get up all that early so ?

[PAR35]

Looks like the Rudy crowd had it dumped out of Front Page.