On July 31, 2007, in a little noticed procedural move, El Paso Mayor John Cook, with the approval of City Council, removed city Rep. Eddie Holguin from the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

It was but one of the many moves being made as the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority ramps up -- pun intended -- and the players involved in transportation planning, funding and implementation in the region adjust to a new regime.

The CRRMA, as it is known, has been meeting weekly, sometimes twice a week, and is well along in creating the financial footing it needs to begin a first project. In recent meetings, it has authorized the chairman of the board to execute contracts for financial advisor, bond counsel and an interlocal agreement with the Central Texas RMA for various services. [ctrma] The chair also was granted authority to negotiate with three underwriters, and the board will consider his report soon.

The underwriters could be used to sell bonds for the Inner Loop project, the $300-million plus highway that will link Biggs Army Airfield and new housing at Fort Bliss, and the El Paso Airport, with U.S. 54 via Fred Wilson to the east, and to Loop 375 as it stretches north from Montana to the west.

The Inner Loop connects and opens vast tracts of Airport land for industrial development, strengthens the connection to the border, and provides a quick exit from El Paso via Loop 375.

Putting that project on a fast track is considered key for the development of Fort Bliss and the El Paso Airport's industrial and intermodal capabilities. It also could do something else very important.

It could fund the CRRMA.

The CRRMA exists as a board, with people who show up to meetings and make decisions. It exists as an administrative entity with help from the city of El Paso, which provides a meeting place, offices and some staff, including an assistant city attorney. But it has no funding for other key professional staff, such as a director and engineers. [crrma]

If the CRRMA sells the bonds for the Inner Loop project, it could get a percentage of the sale price, providing it with start-up funds. In addition, officials of the CRRMA have said, the entity can sell bonds at no interest, as opposed to the Inner Loop contractor, J.D. Abrams, which originally was going to sell the bonds for the project itself. To make this happen would take a deal between the CRRMA and Abrams, as well as approval from the state and federal governments.

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All this presupposes that the CRRMA is a legal entity, which according to its supporters it is. For all practical purposes, thus far, it is, since it meets, is entering into contracts, and is laying the groundwork to sell bonds, thus creating a web of obligations which would be a difficult, if not impossible, to untangle.

The question as to its legality stems mostly from the objections of state Rep. Joe Pickett, who has made a mission out of opposing the CRRMA. Pickett points to two things to bolster his contention that the CRRMA is embarking on a path unsupported by anything other than the exercise of power on the part of those who support the concept of the new transportation player in El Paso.

One is the actual meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission in which the commission approved formation of the CRRMA. That was in August 2006. Correction posted Aug. 21, 2007: The meeting took place June 29, 2006 In a lengthy discussion, during which El Paso local elected officials lined up on either side -- County Judge Anthony Cobos and city Rep. Holguin, for example, opposed, while Mayor Cook and state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh supported -- the TTC approved the CRRMA, but apparently with caveats.

One, that the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization, a body made up of regional elected officials and top-level staff that evaluates and makes recommendations upon transportation projects involving state and federal funds in El Paso, first approve of the creation of the CRRMA. Two, that the MPO approve of the CRRMA's first project. [transcript]

Commissioner Ric Williamson, in making the motion to approve the RMA, said this: "I think the resolution of this belongs at home, not here. I think that if we defer this, it will be back here and it will always be back here, it will never stop. I think the only way to stop it is to approve the RMA and to look the mayor in the eye and say, We will not put your project on our agenda ever until the MPO approves your RMA. I think that places it back home where it belongs."

Responded Pickett: "There's no going back, it's not going to ever not go away after this, and you're just going to wear down the MPO or the individual members until they approve. It won't matter after that. As far as most people are concerned, all they're going to hear is the RMA was created, so the effect is the same."

Then, said Cook: "As I understand it, you're asking that we get the MPO to agree to support the RMA … that you would not approve any project that's in our petition until such time as I come back to you with the consensus."

That position is restated in a letter from Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, to Pickett. [link]

But all that might be moot. The Minute Order, the actual document that states the official position of the Texas Transportation Commission, does not mention MPO approval of the CRMMA's existence. [minute order]

"I know poor Joe Pickett continues to throw rocks," said TTC Commissioner Ted Houghton, from El Paso. "But the RMA is up and running and it's working on projects and we’ll see where it goes from here.

"We set policy through the Minute Order. The Minute Order is the document we go by. … There’s nothing in the legal statutes that says an RMA needs to be approved by an MPO. We’ve moved on. We’re going to build roads and transportation assets and some people will stay behind and say the sky is falling. There are a lot of good things happening."

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The CRRMA is a unique and powerful transportation agency, described as a "mini-TxDOT."

It can plan, implement and maintain road projects, which means it can move faster than currently possible with the system of MPO and TexDOT.

One controversial aspect of a Regional Mobility Authority is a method it can use to fund itself -- tolls. Another, more general critique, is the creation of a vastly powerful unelected body that has among its powers that of eminent domain.

However, because of its abilities to design, build and maintain transportation projects -- not just roads, but also potentially mass transit, bridges and ancillary items, such as relocating rail lines -- the CRRMA is being touted as a significant step forward for El Paso to grow, as a community and as an economic unit.

Not just El Paso, actually, because a significant part of the CRRMA's powers includes the ability to work with New Mexico and Mexico on projects of a regional nature. In fact, the CRRMA can build and own projects in Mexico and New Mexico, a significant new power unique to the CRRMA.

For example, the Northeast Bypass, which would include about seven miles of roadway in New Mexico and allow truck traffic to move around El Paso, instead of going through the narrow Downtown corridor or the treacherous stretch of Interstate 10 approaching Sunland Park.

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Back to the replacement of Holguin on the MPO. In his place, Mayor John Cook appointed city Rep. Susie Byrd. In terms of whether or not the MPO has any say in the existence of the CCRMA, it could be a way of hedging bets, of moving the vote closer to an affirmative if it ever gets to that point. Cook is straightforward about his reasons for replacing Holguin, stating that it makes sense to have a supporter of the CRRMA on the MPO, and someone who has shown the predilection to support policies that weigh the risks of taking a chance, and decide the risk of going for it is better than the risk of doing nothing.

"There was no big fanfare to it. I explained to him (Holguin) why, and he graciously accepted. … I figured when you have a team called the city of El Paso and (the team) takes official positions on stuff you have to support it," said Cook, who also was reappointed as chairman of the MPO, instead of rotating the chair as has been the case traditionally. County Commissioner Miguel Teran had been in line to be chairman. "You can voice your opposition, which he did at City Council, but once the decision is made you sort of have to live with it, not fly to Austin and go before the Texas Transportation Commission and tell them you’re against it, and as a result of that the feeling in Austin was, well, the community is divided on this thing."

Said Pickett: "The mayor is lining up to have a block of votes on the MPO, so it kind of defeats the purpose of having a regional planning group if it’s going to be controlled by the city."

Meanwhile, the big picture is clear: A major new player has emerged in transportation, one of the key policy arenas for the region, involving potentially billions of dollars worth of projects and the land value those projects enhance.

It's happening in large ways -- with the potential sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds for a project that is imminent -- and in small ways, with a consent agenda item and a replacement appointment to the MPO, which finds itself sharing the table with another player.