The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) announced today that Tim Gatz, currently serving as the deputy director, will be the next executive director.
Gatz will begin his duties as executive director starting June 1. He has served as deputy director of ODOT since May 2013 and has more than 25 years of service with the agency.
“Deputy Director Gatz is an incredibly knowledgeable transportation official and the best candidate to lead the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority,” said Albert “Kell” Kelly, chairman of the OTA. “His work with ODOT has been invaluable, and we believe he will have a seamless transition to OTA’s current initiatives.”
Gatz began his career with ODOT in 1990 as a drafting technician and worked his way up within the agency. In 2000, he became division manager of the project management division, where he was instrumental in the development of ODOT’s Eight-Year Construction Work Plan.
“We feel Tim will be a great fit for the OTA,” said Gary Ridley, Oklahoma secretary of transportation. “He’s worked on many crucial programs at ODOT during his career, including major improvements to our state’s roads and bridges.”
In 2006, Gatz was promoted to director of ODOT’s capital programs and information management, leading the agency’s coordination with county governments to develop and deliver the County Improvements for Roads and Bridges program. The program provides dedicated funds for high-priority county transportation projects statewide.
“Selecting Tim as our next executive director puts OTA in a great position,” said Neal McCaleb, currently serving as OTA’s interim executive director. “He has the right expertise for the job, and he will have a strong organization around him.”
Gatz graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in landscape architecture and is a registered professional landscape architect. He and his wife, Sandy, live in El Reno, Okla. and have two children. OTA appointed Gatz as the new executive director during its monthly authority board meeting on May 24.
I’ve known Tim Gatz – and thought of him as a friend.
However – life in the culture of ODOT and the state’s “highways-only lobby” cannot but corrupt even good people.
Unlike Gary Ridley – Tim reportedly has a college degree, albeit in “Landscape Architecture.” Of course – anybody can learn new things. However — is his professional training, like that of Ridley, anywhere near as important as his simple willingness to push the citizens who’ve long paid his salary around?
In OTA – Gatz and Ridley apparently have “the perfect instrument” – the power of government without any of the accountability. As Ridley told me after ODOT quit seriously responding to the stated concerns of citizens opposed to the unnecessary, and as we now know for sure – untenably expensive – relocation of “The I-40 Crosstown” — “WELL, Tom — there WAS a time when we didn’t even have to ASK you what you thought!”
It’s time for OTA – an openly unaccountable, criminal enterprise – to be cast on the scrapheap of history. And time for guys like Mr. Gatz to go – if not to jail – then, at least, out into the competitive workplace where the citizenry he’s betrayed will have a choice as to whether to support and feed him.