Ric Williamson Falling

What happens when an appointed chair of a powerful agency, in control of the states infrastructure, has gone off the deep end? Not playing with a full deck. The lights are on but no body is home. Fruit Loops. Bonkers.

At the very least, Ric Williamson is out of control.

Can Rick Perry's hand picked TxDOT chair be impeached?

Here's what happened yesterday.

State Sen. John Carona, slipped into Krusee’s House Transportation committee hearing to once again try to schedule a meeting with TxDOT’s Ric Williamson, who was testifying. Apparently, Williamson has been refusing to meet with Carona, the chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security.

"I just wondered if I could ask you, Chairman Williamson, if you and I might meet sometime this week on important transportation issues," Carona said.

"You are a clever guy," Williamson said, which got some laughs. "But I have to be sure that I haven't worn out my welcome."

"Well, it will go a long way to the relationship if I can see you this week, at your convenience, this week, on some transportation issues," Carona said. "We might find we can have more in common on these issues than we realize, but we really can't achieve any of that unless we meet."

"I look forward to visiting with you," Williamson said.

"This week?" Carona asked.

"Yes sir."

"OK. All right, thank you." Carona said.

"Visiting with you about the appointment," Williamson added.

"Oh, you mean you can't commit?" Carona said, surprised.

"I'll call you," Williamson said.

"Can I expect sometime this week, an appointment?' Carona asked.

"I will call you," Williamson said.

This is where Carona laid in.

"Well, this highlights part of the problem right here," Carona said. "It is this kind of lack of commitment and artful dodging for something as basic as an appointment to meet with you that causes the hostility and the friction that exists right now."

Carona continued, "The fact that you would sit there and be so arrogant that you would not even commit to a meeting date when I'm telling you that over the next several days I'll be available at anytime that will work for you is very troubling," he said. "It certainly doesn't build the kind of relationship that I think any of us want to see."

To end the conversation Williamson said, "Thank you,"

"Sir, you're refusing to make a commitment with me this week?" said Carona, who was again surprised at the artful dodge.

"Uh, frankly senator, I'm speechless," Williamson said.

Williamson is an arrogant bully, who I now believe could have some mental problems.

The unstable Williamson claims he only has one boss, the Governor, when he is supposed to represent the people of Texas. To Williamson, Texans are just fools to be harvested of our roads and our land.

But, don’t take my word for it, here’s what others have said about Williamson:

"This Ric guy is a piece of work.
Full of off the wall projections and recommendations
and yet does not know what his own agency is already doing."
— Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw, 1/06

"TxDOT TRAMPLED ON US"
–Rep. Joe Pickett (El Paso), 7/06

“Not only is that double taxation,
it is taxation without representation"
Frisco Mayor Pro Temp Maher Maso, 1/06

"TxDOT leadership has begun to take on a very different
and mean spirited tone of late."
— Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkinsson, 1/07

“I've worked with TxDOT very well, but not since
Ric Williamson has been onboard the Commission and really
not since Rick Perry has been Governor because they don't
like input, they don't want comments that might be
constructive to this process.”
— Dallas County Commissioner, Kenneth Mayfield, 7/06

“Highway extortion” “Unreasonable”
State Sen. Jon Lindsay (Houston), 1/07

“local branches of government and the Legislature
are no longer part of the process.”
— Ft. Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, 7/06

"State transportation officials have pushed San Antonio
leaders, treated them rudely and ignored them."
— Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, 8/05

"It's unfortunate that one individual would act so childish,
to boycott a summit that is so important to this state simply
because of personal reasons."
— Rep. Linda Harper Brown, 8/05