Williamson County commissioners made a third appointment Tuesday to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board after the sudden resignation of one of the agency's new members.

Commissioners approved appointing Cedar Park resident Mark Ayotte to the vacancy.

On Feb. 7, the county appointed two new members to the Mobility Authority board: John Miri from the Lower Colorado River Authority and Amy Ellsworth from Community Impact Newspaper. Miri submitted his resignation March 26 to county Commissioner Cynthia Long.

The resignation was the result of Williamson County doing additional research on the qualifications of members appointed to the Mobility Authority board, Long said.

“As we dug deeper, we realized he’s prohibited from serving per CTRMA’s enabling legislation,” she said.

The enabling legislation documents say board members cannot be employed by a city or county government entity, which Miri is not. However, the county later realized his employment at the LCRA—which delivers electricity and manages the region’s water supply—does prohibit him from serving as a Mobility Authority board member.

The Mobility Authority was created in 2002 by the state Legislature as an independent agency to implement multimodal transportation in Travis and Williamson counties. The agency built the Toll 183A and Hwy. 290 toll projects and is overseeing construction of the MoPac express lanes and US 183 South toll lanes.

Each county appoints three members to the board, and the governor appoints the chairperson. The last new board member, David Armbrust, was appointed in February 2012.

Ayotte worked at Dell Inc. for 15 years as a senior operations manager and has owned several businesses in the past decade, according to information from Williamson County. He is the board chairman for Cedar Park-based Reveal Resource Center, which is a nonprofit dedicated to providing food and clothes to families in need. Ayotte also serves on the Cedar Park 4A Economic Development board and the city’s Charter Review Committee.

“I think he’ll do a great job,” said Long, who recommended Ayotte for the position.

Additional reporting by Cody McCrary

Disclosure: Amy Ellsworth, general manager for Community Impact Newspaper's Round Rock-Pflugerville-Hutto edition, was appointed in February to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board of directors, serving a two-year term through Jan. 31, 2019.