The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session
MDOT Chief of Staff Jeff Ely

(Paul) Welcome into another edition of The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session, presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I’m MDOT’s Public Affairs Deputy Director Paul Katool, and, as always, I’m joined by co-host Will Craft, who is the Public Affairs Director.

Today’s episode is being recorded on March 9. We like to note that. The session moves pretty fast. And, uh, Will, we are truly sprinting towards the finish line of the 2023 legislative session.

(Will) Got it wide open. That’s right.

(Paul) “Wide open” is Will’s buzz word there. During today’s episode we’re going to be joined by a new guest, MDOT’s Chief of Staff Jeff Ely, a man who does a lot behind the scenes to, uh, make the agency go. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us today.

(Jeff Ely) Thank you for having me.

(Will) Jeff’s done a lot. He’s a stalwart, as you just mentioned. He’s been here for a while, so occupying that Chief of Staff role, a little bit newer than a lot of the other things you’ve done. So, you got into that in 2022, right?

(Jeff Ely) 2022. That’s correct.

(Will) So, we’re gonna learn a little bit about you for the folks in the districts office that may not know or even outside, right? Chief of Staff handles a lot of important stuff. So, we got Jeff on today. Uh, what kind of work were you doing before moving into that Chief of Staff role?

(Jeff Ely) Well, I’ll start from the beginning. I started in the planning division, uh, eventually moved up to the director of the planning division and served there for six years. In 2018, I was offered the position of Assistant Chief for Preconstruction. MDOT has three assistant chief roles: Preconstruction, Operations, Field Operations.

While I was in the preconstruction role, we had one of our three retired, so there was a period where we consolidated the work between two of us. It got pretty crazy for a while, but eventually we brought on a third and reshuffled all the roles. And then I moved out of the preconstruction role into operations. So, I’ve been in two of the three roles. And, um, then in February of 2022, I became Chief of Staff. And my claim to fame is I am the longest serving Chief of Staff. My predecessor was in the role for about six months and before that, you know, it didn’t exist.

(Will) That’s right.

(Paul) There you go. Jeff, can you tell us a little more about that role? What do, kind of, do day to day?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. A day - ya know it.

(Will) What do you not do?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. What do I not do? There’s not a, there’s no two days that are ever the same. You know, a lot of days I come in with plans and good intentions, and it goes in a totally different direction from what I expected. But you know, my main goal is to serve the staff, to make sure that the staff has the resources that they need to serve the traveling public. Um, beyond that, you know, I support the Executive Director in whatever, you know, he has going on at the time.
Um, but really, it’s, you know, some matters are technical in nature. Some matters are, you know, more personal - just bouncing ideas off of each other. It’s been exciting. It’s exciting every day. You never know what’s going to happen.

(Will) Sure. And I appreciate the dynamic that you and Brad have. You know, he’s often said having you in that role was so critical and beneficial because he’s not the engineer, right? He’s a decision maker and a great leader. He’s awesome for the agency, but he really, I think, values having your engineering experience and expertise on a lot of things. So, I think that dynamic between you guys works really good, right?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. Absolutely. You know, it was a little intimidating at first when you’re the Chief of Staff for the Chief of Staff of the governor, two U. S. senators and, you know, another state agency. But, um, yeah, the dynamic is really good there, and I think that it’s effective in helping the department. I hope it is.

(Will) Oh, I would agree.

(Paul) Absolutely. So, we want to give you an opportunity as the Chief of Staff to kind of sell working at MDOT. You know, we just had Engineers Week, but you know, if you’re interested in any kind of career, we have a lot of different kinds of things here so, sell the agency. Sell MDOT for us, Jeff.

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. I’ll tell you. You know, 21 years ago I didn’t envision myself working for the state or, you know, working for MDOT. Um, and then, you know, it’s just how the Lord led me here, and, um, things just progress naturally, you know? Um, it’s certainly been exciting. Uh, you know, there’s always something new, a new project to work on, something very unique. You get to work with a lot of great people. You, internally, you know, you hear a lot about the MDOT family. And I’m telling you, you don’t really realize that dynamic until you’ve been, you’ve been here and been a part of it.

So, you know, I think every young EIT for a period, goes through a period, where they work for MDOT, and they look, you know, “Is this really where I need to be?” And, of course, I went through that, um, and, and, you know, uh, came out the other end with an offer. And after really thinking through what what I had here and what was available on the other side, you know, I just, I didn’t want to leave here, and I’m glad that I didn’t.

So, I’ve been with MDOT for 21 years. Of course, you know, people get to a certain point in their career where they start counting down the days or looking at what retirement looks like or, you know, “How long do I need to be..?” You know, and I have never run the numbers. I have no interest in running the number, and I’ll be here as long as, you know, as long as it works out for in the best interest of the agency because, you know, it’s just a great place to be.

(Paul) No doubt. The MDOT family is real for sure.

(Will) Yeah. If I’m not mistaken, you, uh, there’s maybe a couple of the assistant chiefs you were in school with, as well.

(Jeff Ely) Um, yeah. So, two of them are a little ahead of me, and, uh, one of them is well behind me.

(Will) Okay.

(Jeff Ely) Um, but you know, that’s the other thing about MDOT, is, you know, you, as you go through engineering school, you get really close with the folks you’re in school with. And, um, you’re studying together, you’re, you know, you’re just doing life together. And then, when you come to MDOT, you know, um, you’re a lot of those people, you know, you end up crossing paths - whether it’s working at the agency here or, you know, some of them are internal, you know, we still, uh, stay connected, you know, through work. So, yeah. It’s, it’s really neat.

(Will) Yeah. My point, I guess, I should have been at the context there. My point to that was that, you know, it may be more so than other places - you grow together, right?

(Jeff Ely) That’s right.

(Will) You end up being here for, for such a period of time, and, and that family feeling is very real. Um, I’ll attest to that, only having been here since 2018 and only now, having been in a new division for about a week.

(Paul) Yeah.

(Will) Yeah. Everything about MDOT is very much family feeling - want to have a great place, you know, to come to work and enjoy. It’ll never be, as we’ve said, before, uh, going to work’s probably not going to be the same as a week in Mexico, a vacation, sure. But you don’t want to hate your life, you know, you don’t, you don’t want to, uh, dread coming to work. And I’ve never found that experience, uh, or have never seen that in my time here, uh, so…

(Paul) Can vouch for that, as well, for sure. Uh, Jeff, you you deal with some important things. Funding is a very important thing. Uh, it feels like a million years ago, but it wasn’t too long ago, the governor kind of rolled out an announcement: $1.3 billion shovel-ready capacity kind of list. Can you kind of break that down for us? Uh, what all goes into that?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. So, that proposal, I mean, it got us all really excited because, uh, you know, we’ve we’ve dealt with a flat budget for a really long time. Last year the legislature provided some additional resources to do more paving, to do some capacity projects. When I say capacity, you know, it’s a new alignment to a road or adding two lanes to four lanes - something like that. Um, and so, having that momentum going, and the governor coming out with his proposal, that, that was a heavy lift. It would have gotten a lot accomplished, or could get a lot accomplished.

Of course, you know, last year we dealt with a lot of inflation and things like that, which, you know, the the price of milk isn’t what the price of milk was, 20… Eggs, I mean, you know. Um, so, you know, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s really exciting to see that the projects that he was proposing came straight out of of MDOT’s Three-Year Plan. Uh, and to me, that shows some collaboration, uh, between MDOT, the legislature, and the, uh, and the governor’s office. You know, there, everybody’s working towards the same, same goal. When they’re pulling, when they’re looking at projects that that are planned, and, you know, we’re not looking at something that is a new concept.

That, that’s a really big deal to us because it, it does take a long time to get a new project going. So, being able to pull from existing projects and, and implement what we were able to start, you know, last year with, with, through the legislative funding, uh, uh, is, is, uh, has the potential to be really big.

(Will) For sure. And I just piggyback off that right onto our next one. Um, you know, we got the governor’s office out there, out front, making the announcement, and, like you said, the $1.3 billion package rolling out. A little bit different looks, uh, as far as what the legislature’s packaged up to this point. You know, we’re still, by no means, through the process. Things could totally be different in two weeks, or we could rock this baby as it looks right now all the way through. Could change. But what about the legislative package that we’ve been looking at this past week?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. So, the Senate came out with a proposal that was, um, $480 million for those capacity projects, um, in addition to that $100 million for the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Program, which that, if you’re not familiar with that, it’s had a huge impact on the state and a lot of local bridges. We’ve been able to get a lot accomplished through that, and then, $40 million in, in federal matching funds, which supplements what came out through the federal government a few years ago.

As that moved into the House, it grew a little bit. You still have the $100 million for Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Program, the $40 million in match. They add, they increased the $480 million to $650 million. So, obviously we can get more accomplished, uh, with additional funds there.

And then there’s, uh, in there, and the House’s proposal. There’s $10 million for the multimodal program. So, we currently have a - MDOT invests $10 million into transit - aeronautics, rails, ports, and waterways - uh, every year, and this will supplement that. So, you’re essentially doubling that, that program. And that actually, uh, the House’s version passed through the Senate today and has gone to conference. So, we’re real optimistic that, that, you know, we’ll, we’ll all come out very well.

(Will) Hot off the press, folks. Right there. Right out of committee today.

(Paul) No doubt. Lots of it’s really good to hear, that transportation is the forefront of the conversation over there across the street. No doubt. Uh, let’s shift a little bit. It’s a big election year in Mississippi, and, uh, with elections come campaign signs, and there’s an MDOT element to that. Can you kind of talk to us about the, you know, the safety and kind of litter elements of campaign signs?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. Absolutely. So, there’s, there’s state laws that, that, uh, restrict how we, you know, where certain objects can go within the right-of-way, and the commission does have a policy on campaign signs. Uh, but, just to kind of hit the high points, is, you know, no signs on the interstate. And, of course, we see those, you, you know, that happens. We don’t want anything that’s gonna be a safety hazard. So, if it’s in an intersection, and it blocks site distance for somebody who’s trying to cross through an intersection or make a turn that, that’s dangerous, we, you know, it don’t need to be there.

Um, and then the other thing is, uh, if, you know, summertime is coming, and we’ll be mowing, and you don’t want anything that’s going to interfere with maintenance. So, so what we do is, if, if they’re not in compliance with, uh, with the policy, we will remove the signs, and we’ll take them to an MDOT location nearby, so that they can come get them if they choose to, and we’ll hold them for a period of time. But, to be honest with you, you know, our, our workforce has, has shrunk from somewhere around 3,000 plus employees and, to about 2,500.

And a lot of that is in our maintenance area, so we do our best to, um, I guess, carry out the policy, but, you know, we’re not going to get every sign. We’re not going to actively go out and take down a sign that doesn’t need to be taken down. Uh, if, you know, somebody’s got one that’s in, what they would see, in their front yard, and they mow their yard to the to the road, that’s not, you know, much of a priority for us because, you know... Uh, now if they’re in our right-of-way and somewhere that we we mow that, you know, you don’t want to chop it up.

(Will) That’s right.

(Jeff Ely) That becomes litter so…

(Will) That’s exactly right. Well, what you just said, literally a little bit on my own, uh, soapbox here, but, you know, I’ve put out lots of campaign signs in, in my short lifetime already. I’ve worked on plenty of campaigns, and, um, you know, I’ve, I’ve found, in my experience, it wasn’t really ever that difficult to find out where you could or could not put signs and that they would be safe and they’re fine. Maybe it's gotten harder. I don’t know.

Um, but, with that being said, you know, if you’re out there, you’re putting signs out - campaigns especially - if you’re the one running for the office, you know, you’re wanting to do this. You want to get in this position to better your community, to better, you know, people’s lives around you. Well, pick your signs up afterwards, right? We don’t want to leave those things sitting out there in litter, and especially county roads going up in D’Lo and Mendenhall. I think there are still signs for people that ran for office 20 years ago, you know, nailed to trees and posts that you see just driving down the little roads. Um, so that, that was my soapbox on there. Just pick your signs back up, folks. Let’s keep it clean out there, and, uh, get it picked back up.

(Paul) Don’t trash Mississippi, right?

(Will) That’s right.

(Jeff Ely) That’s right.

(Paul) There we go. Just one more thing. Legislative hearing today on infrastructure roads and bridges. Can you tell us what kind of went down with that?

(Jeff Ely) Yeah. Absolutely. We had some good conversations this morning. Uh, and, you know uh, the way this hearing this morning worked was, uh, the Senate was invited to come and meet with the staff, or “We were invited to go and meet with the Senate,” I guess is what I should have said. Uh, and, and they, you know, came through in small groups, you know. So, we did a third, a third, a third. Um, and just had it, was an opportunity to sit down with senators and, and just, you know, just to talk and just to explain how MDOT’s funds were.

You know, MDOT’s a very complicated, uh, agency. Uh, our funding is even more complicated because you have federal requirements, you’ve got state requirements. Um, so, it was an opportunity to sit down, kind of from a high level, explain how our funding works. And, uh, I talked through any question that they had. And, uh, you know, we enjoyed the opportunity. We appreciated being able to do that. And we could, you know, tell that, you know, I think it was beneficial to them. And, you know, we, we walked away with, uh, some items on the to-do list, and we’ll follow up on those. But, it’s always a good opportunity to sit down with the folks across the street and, and make sure we’re hearing what, you know, what their needs are.

(Will) Yeah. Hey, coming from the Public Affairs folks, uh, Public Affairs folks down here, we love communication. So, anytime we’re over there communicating, I think it’s probably a good thing most of time anyway.

Um, all right. Let’s hit the big one. Uh, I know you’re all out there tuning into a transportation political podcast, here talking about food. So, here it comes. Mr. Ely, you spend a lot of time driving around, I don’t know, but, we all like to eat. So, I’m curious if you have a favorite, maybe a local Jackson metro place, to stop in, or, uh, maybe a hole in the wall, or somewhere when you’re traveling. And I know Starkville’s a hub for you, but, uh, is there a food favorite out there?

(Jeff Ely) You know, there is. Uh, and, uh, as much as I travel the state, I always go back home. I grew up on the coast. I grew up in northeast Jackson County, and, uh, you know, seafood was a big part of the diet until I moved up here, and things are a little different. But, um, Bozo’s Grocery in Pascagoula is one of my favorites. As a matter of fact, anytime I need crawfish, I’ll drive down there, because I checked today, it’s a $1.10 a pound of live crawfish. So, yeah. That’s my favorite.

(Will) That’s very fitting, as well.

(Paul) No doubt. Someone else mentioned that, I think. So, maybe… I’m not going to guess, but someone else has definitely mentioned that, mentioned the restaurant, on the, on the podcast.

(Will) Well, appropriate for the time of year, as well. Get some crawfish going.

(Jeff Ely) That’s right.

(Will) Get Jeff to host a crawfish boil now.

(Jeff Ely) We’ll do it.

(Paul) There you go. Jeff, thank you so much for coming in and speaking with us. Lots of great information behind the scenes of MDOT.

(Jeff Ely) Thank you. I appreciate it.

(Paul) Yes, sir. Alright, let’s just wrap things up. Thank you for our listeners tuning in to The Extra Mile podcast. Remember, you can watch and listen to episodes by visiting GoMDOT.com/theextramile. Follow us on social media. @MississippiDOT is the handle. We want to thank our producer Katey Hornsby, our editor Drew Hall. And remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.