Cintra: Arrogant or Ignorant on Toll Rates?

Click here for the full video at WCNC.com

Well, now we know why officials wanted to keep the meetings this week with Cintra and NCDOT closed to the public.

On the most important question that has gone unanswered (what are the toll rates going to be for the HOT Lanes?), Cintra's project manager, Javier Tamargo, had this to say...

"WHO KNOWS?"

If that was the best they could do, one can see why they would not want it to be heard by John Q Public.

Here you have the representative of a company being handed a project as the sole bidder, a project worth over $600 million, sitting in front of the elected officials most closely responsible to the citizens that project will serve, and the answer is "who knows"?!?!?!

How can that be???

The answer to that question is one of two things - arrogance or ignorance.  Actually, the answer is probably both.

There's really no question that it's arrogant to think you can foist something like this onto the public without telling them how much they will have to pay to use it.

However, Mr Tamargo's answer may have also been a Freudian slip where he actually told the truth.  Maybe the contractor who will build the road truly is ignorant of how much they will charge in 20 years.  Their math is very fuzzy, and the company's recent troubles on other projects prove that to be the case.

Arrogance and ignorance is a very dangerous combination, and this unfolding tragedy is now reaching Shakespearean proportions.  For our government to let this project go forward under these circumstances after they have been given the public's trust may be the "most unkindest cut of all".