AUSTIN -- State Rep. Joe Pickett reignited a political storm with a measure he quietly added to a large transportation bill lawmakers approved Monday. His measure would allow the dissolution of the agency set up to finance and build roads in El Paso.

El Paso officials, who found out about the move as they campaigned for re-election and attended church last weekend, said they were surprised and disappointed at Pickett's second attempt in two years to eliminate the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority.

"I don't know why Representative Pickett would unilaterally make a decision affecting the entire city É without even telling me or consulting with me," said Mayor John Cook.

Under the measure Pickett added to the bill late Thursday, the city of El Paso would have the option to abolish the existing regional mobility authority and establish a municipal authority composed of the mayor and members of the City Council.

Pickett said the measure was an attempt to make the mobility authority more accountable to the public. Currently, the mayor and city council appoint members of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority and the governor appoints the chairman.

"Something I don't like in general is when elected officials aren't making policy decisions on big issues," he said.

The measure, he said, could have little or no impact on El Paso transportation projects because the city could choose not to change anything. Pickett said he did not consult with city leaders because his bill would simply give them the option to make changes but would not require it.

The mobility authority has been a point of dissension among politicians since discussion about its creation started in 2005.

Pickett and other opponents view the mobility authority as an extension of the Texas Department of Transportation with the goal of forcing communities to build toll roads.

Only with guidance from the El Paso Municipal Planning Organization, which Pickett leads, has the mobility authority been prevented from marching ahead with tolls in El Paso, Pickett said.

"We've been using their powers for good instead of evil," Pickett said.

None of the other El Paso legislators in the Texas House objected to the Pickett measure on Monday.

State Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, said the other local representatives typically defer to Pickett on such issues because he is the chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

"Most people think an elected body is going to be more cautious in tax increases or transparency in contracting," Chávez said.

But Cook said the move could affect the recently approved plan to spend $1 billion on El Paso transportation projects.

"It's definitely going to upset the apple cart," the mayor said.

Harold Hahn, chairman of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, says it is responsible for securing financing for 90 percent of the projects in the $1 billion plan.

Already, he says, the authority is working on the $300 million plan to create flyovers to join Interstate 10 and Loop 375. It is also responsible for funding the $260 million Spur 601 project.

Hahn said the mayor and City Council already have a full plate running the city. "I don't know how they would have time to add all this," Hahn said.

Ted Houghton, the El Paso appointee on the Texas Transportation Commission, said putting the City Council in charge of transportation projects would politicize funding of roads.

The measure also had the potential to derail the city's $1 billion transportation plan, he said, because if the city created a new mobility authority it would have to redo all the work to secure financing for projects.

The transportation bill with Pickett's measure passed the House on a vote of 138-6.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said he would work to ensure that Pickett's measure is stripped from the final version of the bill. Shapleigh and Pickett had a similar disagreement during the legislative session in 2007. Pickett tacked onto a transportation bill measures that Shapleigh said would eliminate El Paso's ability to create a mobility authority.

Their disagreement stalled a transportation bill that could have meant a special legislative session.

Pickett's measures were eventually removed from the bill, and the mobility authority began working later in 2007.

Shapleigh and supporters of the mobility authority say it has helped speed along projects the city otherwise would have waited years to finance.

"Why change what's been successful?" Shapleigh asked. "We're in the last 20 days (of the legislative session). We need strong regional leadership. We can't afford the divisions that we see if we want to be successful."