OTA Board names new executive director
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Board unanimously promoted Deputy Director Joe Echelle to be the next OTA executive director at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.
The appointment came after an executive session to discuss the resignation of former OTA Executive Director Tim Gatz after an Attorney General’s opinion last week about a state prohibition on dual office holding. Gatz briefly addressed the Board Wednesday to thank them for their support during his nearly eight-year tenure at OTA. Gatz had been serving as the head of OTA, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and as Transportation Secretary in the Stitt administration. He stepped down from OTA and the cabinet.
Gatz was reappointed last week by Gov. Kevin Stitt to the position of Oklahoma Department of Transportation executive director.
“The recent Attorney General opinions that were rendered were surprising to OTA but they weren’t a shock to the transportation system. And the reason that they aren’t a shock is that we have had and will continue to have great leadership from the OTA executive staff and continued diligent support from the Board,” OTA Board Chairman John Jones said. “Tim Gatz was a wonderful and very successful leader of OTA throughout his tenure of approximately eight years. He and his team have successfully completed and accomplished many projects and made OTA better with each and every one. Without a doubt, he will be missed. But OTA has always been bigger than any one person. OTA is its executive staff, its various and meaningful departments and all of the dedicated employees that contribute to OTA’s success along with its Board governance.”
Attorney Gentner Drummond issued the opinion in response to a request from State Sen. Mary Boren (D-Norman). Boren told News 4 she was pleased with Drummond’s findings.
“It looks funny to have two large agencies, the ODOT and OTA, talking to each other through one person and one person is signing off on both sides of it,” Boren said. “My constituents were correct that what was happening was illegal and it shouldn’t have been happening.”
Boren’s Senate district includes a portion of the Norman area the OTA announced it planned to build several new turnpikes as part of its Access Oklahoma Plan—which Gatz oversaw in his role with the OTA.
The proposed turnpikes have received large opposition from people living near the routes. PikeOff says, the AG opinion does not mean it is done fighting to oppose the proposed turnpikes near Norman.
The Oklahoma of Department of Transportation commented on the transition in part stating,
ODOT and OTA will maintain day-to-day operations and continue to serve the public without
interruption. The agencies have a long history of working together and the same goal of
providing safe transportation infrastructure across Oklahoma. ODOT’s and OTA’s highway and
turnpike systems connect seamlessly for the benefit of the traveling public, and the two
agencies will continue to share agency resources when appropriate and as allowed by state
statute.The opinion confirms that all of Sec. Gatz’s decisions and actions during his tenure in these
roles were authorized and valid.The Oklahoma Department of Transportation
Joe Echelle has served as OTA deputy director since 2021. He started at OTA in 2016 as the director of construction and was promoted in 2018 to assistant executive director.
Echelle told the Board, “Thank you for putting a period at the end of a strange two weeks for me and our staff. … Never did I think that this was going to happen like this. … Thank you again for the opportunity and I will not let you down,.”
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