Derek Barrs’s days as a Flagler County School Board member may be numbered.
Barrs’s confirmation hearing to be Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is scheduled for 10 a.m. July 16 before the full Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, with Maria Cantwell, the Washington Democrat, as ranking member.
“I look forward to the opportunity to appear in front of the U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee,” Barrs said this morning. “If confirmed I look forward to working with them and the many other stakeholders to advance highway safety.” Barrs learned of the scheduling during the last School Board workshop Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Barrs, 52, to the school board seat on Oct. 31. President Trump nominated Barrs for the safety administration post on March 11. Barrs, the Associate Vice President of HNTB Corporation, for many years rose through the ranks of the Florida Highway Patrol’s Office of Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, leading it from 2017 to 2020, when he retired from the agency. It isn’t clear why the confirmation hearing wasn’t scheduled sooner.
Barrs ran for a school board seat in last November’s election, losing to Janie Ruddy by fewer than 300 votes. He was soon appointed to the board the seat was vacated by Sally Hunt, who resigned after serving less than two years of her term, fomenting significant tumult on the board for those months. Barrs brought immediate calm, a renewed sense of seriousness and some working unity to the board. His departure may put that again in jeopardy.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, established in 2000, is responsible for reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. For example, the safety administration had been working on a proposed rule to proposed to require speed-limiting devices on heavy vehicles. The administration and the Transportation Department withdrew that proposal last month, saying “the proposed rulemaking lacked a sufficiently clear and compelling safety justification. A new pilot program will also allow truck drivers more flexibility in how they divide their sleep hours between hours of driving.
The agency Barrs would oversee employs more than 1,000 people in 50 states, though that number is now in question as the Supreme Court this week gave the president a free hand to fire federal employees en masse.
If he is confirmed, which appears likely, Barrs’s departure will require another gubernatorial appointment to the school board seat, with a year and four months left in that term before the 2026 election. Barrs, a Flagler Beach resident, has said he will maintain his property locally regardless.
