BRADENTON, Fla. - Central Florida's Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority selected state Rep. Steve Precourt, R-Orlando, to be its new executive director.
The authority board considered four finalists on Jan. 7, and chose Precourt, who is also an engineer and president of Precourt Solutions LLC, an Orlando-based transportation and infrastructure consulting firm.
If contract negotiations for the position are successful, Precourt must resign from the House, according to attorneys for the Legislature and Expressway Authority.
"I commit to maintaining the good reputation of the authority and vow to work hard to uphold the highest standards when serving the customers, the public, the stakeholders and all the many constituents of the authority," he said in a statement.
The OOCEA was established by the Legislature in 1963.
The agency is responsible for the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a 109-mile limited-access expressway system to serve the metropolitan Orlando area.
That could change during this year's legislative session, which begins March 4.
In pre-session committee meetings under way now, legislation is being reviewed in both chambers that would rename OOCEA to the Central Florida Expressway Authority.
If passed the bill would expand the number of counties under the new authority's purview to four from one to also include Seminole, Lake, and Osceola counties. The current five-member board would also expand to 11 members.
The OOCEA board has not taken a position on the proposed legislation but individual members have talked about the need for a new director because of it.
Precourt would not be allowed to lobby for or against the bill due to ethics rules prohibiting former lawmakers from lobbying their colleagues for two years after leaving office, though he could provide testimony to committees if asked.
He succeeds Max Crumit, who left the agency in September 2013. Precourt has worked on Expressway Authority projects during his time with the engineering firm Dyer, Riddle, Mills and Precourt, Inc.
The Orlando Expressway Authority has $2.6 billion of outstanding debt rated A by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, and A2 by Moody's Investors Service.
The authority has a $706 million capital improvement plan, and expects to be in the bond market in 2014.
