The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission will meet Thursday, Dec. 5, in Kansas City to discuss how good a job Department of Transportation Director Henry Hungerbeeler is doing, The Kansas City Star reported.

Department officials acknowledged that during the closed session, at which the commissioners will likely conduct their regular, six-month review of Hungerbeeler, they could vote on whether to keep him on the job. Hungerbeeler could not be reached for comment Dec. 3.

However, Commissioner Jim Anderson of Springfield said he was not aware of any effort to fire Hungerbeeler, adding that the director had been meeting commissioners' goals.

The department came under fire - especially from rural lawmakers - in 1998, The Star said, when the highway commission abandoned a 15-year plan to be financed by the 6-cent fuel-tax increase lawmakers approved in 1992. Hungerbeeler joined the department the next year, charged with reforming it and restoring its credibility.

Sen. John Russell, a Lebanon Republican who serves on the transportation legislative oversight panel, said Hungerbeeler had shown strong leadership since coming aboard.

"Firing him would send the wrong message - that the governor is dabbling in" an independent department, Russell told The Star. "That puts the department right in the middle of politics."