December 17, 2015 - TRA Newswire
(Austin) - James Bass, Chief Financial Officer of the Texas Department of Transportation is the newly named Executive Director. The announcement came out of a meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission and will be effective as of January 1, 2016. He replaces LtGen Joe Weber, USMC, (Ret) who was named ED in 2014 and is retiring at the end of the year.
Bass was in charge of the agency's Finance Division, Toll Operations Division, and Innovative Financing and Debt Management Office
According to his bio on the transportation department's website Bass began his TxDOT career in 1985 working summers in the Fort Worth District. He worked part-time as an engineering aide in the Austin District's South Travis/Hays County Area Office while earning his bachelor's degree in accounting at the University of Texas at Austin.
After graduation, Bass began full-time as an accounting clerk in the Finance Division's Revenue Accounting Section, and later was promoted to budget analyst in the Budget and Forecasting Section.
Since then, Bass has worked extensively on preparation of TxDOT's Legislative Appropriations Requests, Operating Budgets and Cash Forecasting System. He also works on the agency's public-private partnerships and corresponds with the Legislative Budget Board, State Auditor's Office and the Office of the Texas Comptroller.
Bass was selected as finance division director in November 1999, and became chief financial officer in 2005. He and his wife, Patty, have a son and a daughter.