The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission gave Missouri Department of Transportation Director Henry Hungerbeeler a mostly positive job evaluation Thursday, The Kansas City Star reported.

The commission met during a closed session for Hungerbeeler's regular, six-month job performance review. After Gov. Bob Holden verbally chastised MoDOT in September - in part because of a roads tax proposal defeated in August - there was some speculation about whether the commission would vote whether to keep Hungerbeeler on the job.

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."

Ollie Gates, the chairman of the highway commission, told the newspaper the commissioners did not vote on whether to keep Hungerbeeler but rather expressed support for him by consensus.

"I don't think I would say he's doing a fabulous job, but we don't have fabulous funding," Gates said. "Under the circumstances, he's doing a good job."

The commission met Friday at the new Department of Transportation district headquarters in Lee's Summit to discuss how road funds are divided between rural and urban areas and the placement of a highway ramp in St. Louis.