Opinion Talk

By therealist

April 22, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this

The whole department should be shut down and outsourced!! At least we would have transparency on current projects and realistic planning models..

By James

April 22, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

1) Put them all out there slinging asphalt for a week.

2) Quit reporting on it and let them do their job.

3) Turn the whole thing over to private industry.

By dawgfan

April 22, 2008 11:15 AM | Link to this

Have our public officials just given up on showing any sense of professionalism or genuine concern about the condition of this state?

Has it reached the point where we just don’t care anymore so we waste our time and money on tabloid issues?

By Flower

April 22, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this

DOT = do it over twice

By yankee

April 22, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this

Come down to I85 south of Newnan. Explain to me why the two added lanes are two feet higher than the existing road. Whats it cost to make the other four lanes two feet higher.

By bubbatech02

April 22, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this

Is someone really suprised that this happened. I mean, what government agency actually gets high marks for efficiency? Although I am not a conservative, these issues are the very reason that I fear the government and am against building up the government size (i.e. healthcare, IRS, etc.). In the private sector, if a business pulled this crap, we as consumers buy from someone else. Unfortunately, because its the government, we are stuck with this pathetic monopoly headed by incompetent political appointees.

By Dusty

April 22, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this

How about letting Gena Abraham do her job and stay out of her private life? She is well qualified and could get business in order if given a chance.

Evans resigned, the ethical thing to do. What did you want him to do? Stick around and say he had nothing to do with Gena? He was honest. Seems like the rest of the board could not believe such a rare quality.

One other thing, I don’t believe Evans knew Gena Abraham until she applied for her job. In other words, he approved her qualifications and that was all he knew when she came to DOT. He did not bring his “girlfriend” to DOT.

By gafarmer

April 22, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this

Evans and Abraham appear to be class acts. Compared to some members of the legislature the DOT duo are diamonds.

By songbird

April 22, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this

Wow Dusty I actually agree with your comments for once. I work for a large corporation and plenty of people have met their spouse here. Once a relationship starts, one person has to do the right thing and move on. That’s the ethical thing to do. And, as you stated, that’s what Evans did.

By Ed

April 22, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this

The DOT Board has acted, it’s official, her personal life has been aired out in public enough, so let’s put all this behind us and move on. It is possible that Miss Abraham can still be an effective force for change within the DOT. Only time will tell. The bigger question is, will our news media leave this be and give her time to try and do the job she was hired to do, or will they continue to harp on this story until she gets a bellyful and says, I’m out of here”?

By AndOne

April 22, 2008 2:15 PM | Link to this

The should have a reality show called GA DOT’s Sex, Lies and Audio-tapes.

By AndOne

April 22, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this

The should have a reality show called GA DOT’s Sex, Lies and Audio-tapes.

By rojer

April 22, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this

Heres the thing… NO ONE quits a high level job for a “chance” at a relationship. These two had been together for a while and just now decided to announce their relationship (or more likely were forced to when someone else threatened to rat them out).

Reality is I could care less whether they are fu*king but lets not hold them out as ethical either. So long as they do their job, maybe we should leave them alone.

By IveBeenThereDoneThat

April 22, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this

As a former DOT employee who spent more than 10 years at the agency, the answer to what is wrong with the DOT is quite simple. A dedicated revenue stream (i.e our gas taxes that by law go straight to the DOT) coupled with a board that controls the agency and its heirarchy that is elected by politicians and is comprised primarily of former and aspiring politicians. The constant meddling of the governor doesn’t help. There is absolutely no reason politicians should be electing their former colleagues to manage the DOT.

In other instances, some board members are just plain not qualified. When I was there, one of the board members was a hamburger restaurant franchise owner/operator. A person with such obvious inadequate credentials has no business making transportation decisions that affect us all. The agency’s commissioner and its board should be transportation experts, not Casey Cagle’s, or Glenn Richardson’s or Sonny Perdue’s fishing partner. Until such time as politics are elimiated from the process, there will not be any significant change at the DOT. Gena Abraham is the governor’s lap dog; she knows it and the rest of Georgia knows it. She is not an agent of change; her strings are pulled by Perdue and his minions. Why can’t the agency be run by people who actually have transportation knowledge, urban planning backgrounds or experience in mass transit? The whole situation is sickening.

By catlady

April 22, 2008 3:10 PM | Link to this

What amazes me is that the same folks who were calling for Clinton’s head on a pike 10 years ago are the same “Godly, moral people” who are willing to give this a pass, along with a wink, wink, nod, nod. The same Governor who does not think we should be allowed to buy beer on Sunday sent his special go-fer to talk Ms. Abraham out of resigning.

Talk about convenient moral standards!

Why does one person resign, and that takes care of it? It takes two to tango.

By demwit

April 22, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

But hey, look on the bright side! Just image if it was the department of Universal Healthcare!!!

By citizen

April 22, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this

Why do our taxes pay for DOT employees? They haven’t done a good job in 50 years. We also pay full salary after retirement. Outsource them to a private company. Also do an audit from projects on the road all the way to the IT department. Then you will find the missing 1 billion dollars.

By mrmagu

April 22, 2008 4:31 PM | Link to this

I didn’t know we payed full salary for DOT employess after retirement. This is highway robbery. Private companies don’t pay full salary after retirement so why is it ok for the goverment. Outsource DOT to a private company. Also how many IT consultants are pay by the DOT? HMMM It is not hard to find the missing 1 billion dollars.

By Big Enest

April 22, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

I drive my 18 wheeler rig every day over Georgia Highways. There are constantly repainting the roads and not making any improvement. I also pay 4 dollars a gallon for diesel. My taxes are paying for IT consultants and full salary for retired employees. The man is sticking to everyone else outside the state government.

By Big Enest

April 22, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

I drive my 18 wheeler rig every day over Georgia Highways. They are constantly repainting the roads and not making any improvement. I also pay 4 dollars a gallon for diesel. My taxes are paying for IT consultants and full salary for retired employees. The man is sticking to everyone else outside the state government.

By Big Enest

April 22, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

I drive my 18 wheeler rig every day over Georgia Highways. They are constantly repainting the roads and not making any improvement. I also pay 4 dollars a gallon for diesel. My taxes are paying for IT consultants and full salary for retired employees. The man is sticking to everyone else outside the state government.

By Flibberdigibbit

April 22, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this

Since he’s enjoying one of Georgia’s highest retirement salaries, bring back Tom Moreland! He may have been a shrewd character, but he ran GDOT in the black and would never have tolerated the kind of petty BS that’s hamstrung the agency.

It may be obsolete, now, but most of what we now drive on in Atlanta’s freeways, came courtesy of his leadership over 2 decades ago.

By barelypaid

April 22, 2008 5:26 PM | Link to this

GDOT doesnt have anything to do with the cost of gas. Also, I’ll be dirt poor when I retire from GDOT with 2% of my pay times number of years so 25years = 50% of a small salary. The good olboy system still exist in Gena and her balls just got bigger. She was heartless to others in her “Hostile Takeover”.

By citizen

April 22, 2008 6:02 PM | Link to this

I have heard some people brag at six feet under that they will get 100 percent for their salary after retirement. I guess that was an old grandfather plan.

By catlady

April 22, 2008 6:28 PM | Link to this

Ah, well, don’t complain. Teachers have to work 30 years for retirement (at the same 2% you get). Anything less, and your retirement is docked 7% per year. So if you retire at 25 years, you lose 35%! (all this is if you are under a certain age; I think it is 62?)

By joe dirt

April 22, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this

The “1 Billion Dollar shortfall” is not a shortfall of GDOT’s control. You have to want to take the time to learn this to truly understand, otherwise keep bloviating as if you understand politics.

Okay try this equation = Tom Moreland lets Joe Frank Harris co-opt the term “Govenors’ Road Improvement Program” during his tenure. The reality is roads between “major” cities are widened. The prior nature of these roadways is rural two lane segments with 2000 cars per day. You have more cars travelling thru any turning lane in Marietta everday (keep that point handy). Truth is it spends money where you don’t need to. The GRIP program has lived on for years and morphed into, guess what, an “Economic Development System” project category. Every succeeding Govenor has touted some form of this ditty as the answer to the “2 Georgias” equation. What is that you ask? 146 Counties lie outside the Metro area and there are 13 Congressional Districts. Not surprisingly inequities have to be prevented. In fact your legislature says this is to occur every 5 years. GDOT is forced to balance the spending in the 13 Distrits so they widen roads that truly don’t need it, but it is for Economic Development of course so feel the pain.

Okay so the relevance of the shortfall is?? Sonny hijacked the GRIP/EDS programs and created his “Fast Forward” program. In case your memories are short, he pushed GDOT to develop and let 20 years worth of work in a period of 6 years. Now wait, how can you get that funding, oh yea, sell bonds. Guess what? Harold Linnenkhol and the staff at GDOT warned of the pitfalls other States experienced (Virginia who had to stop work and send Contractors home with projects unfinished…) So Sonny and friends marshalled on with a Cash-Flow process using various bond funding in place anyway.

Leaving you to digest these tidbits I imagine you will soon realize the truth in “power corrupts and absolute power pushes a new leader to cover the tracks of poor decisions”. You see the funding mechanism begot the funding shortfall. The charge to accellerate what was always an overpromised program begot the over-committed GDOT blunder.

Now for the real tease - follow the money that toll roads or other “creatively financed” privatized projects will generate, what banks will be involved and see that you are all being duped into seeing GDOT as so inept those avenues are the best to pursue.

GDOT’s foks may work for less, have a maximum retire ment of 60% of those lesser salaries, but they do what they are told or the GOBs under the dome and on the Board play hard ball. Don’t believe me? Ask Mike and Gena. While you’re at it, ask Linnenkhol if he in fact took the higher road and told some of ‘em he’d quit before he burdenend the taxpayers who paid for the roads once with more taxes, toll roads and more Gold Dome initiatives.

Don’t give up because it’s hard, dig deep!!

By PartyLine

April 22, 2008 7:08 PM | Link to this

If Sonny had been doing a good job, he would have lined up some cheap engineers, laborers, equipment, and raw materials while in China and rode that boat-load to port in Savannah. Our transportation problems would be fixed by now and everyone could have a lovefest.

By festus

April 22, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this

Give the Chairmanship to Larry Walker. He was a no-bull effective legislator who got things done cause he realized nobody gets EVERYTHING they want. I am embarrassed to be a republican as we get our chance to lead and are looking like children in the process. Right now, I am more interested in getting things done, the party be damned.

By KingofHiram

April 22, 2008 7:29 PM | Link to this

Well GDOT is a mess. So lets outsource to a private company. I drive from Hiram to Macon every day and the roads are constantly under construction. Also at least 3 or 4 navigator signs are always broken. A private company will fix the problem with out the political BS. My taxes are paying for retirement and IT consultants?, What a rip off.

By KingofHiram

April 22, 2008 7:29 PM | Link to this

Well GDOT is a mess. So lets outsource to a private company. I drive from Hiram to Macon every day and the roads are constantly under construction. Also at least 3 or 4 navigator signs are always broken. A private company will fix the problem without the political BS. My taxes are paying for retirement and IT consultants?, What a rip off.

By Joe Dirt

April 22, 2008 7:42 PM | Link to this

The “2 Georgias” remains the hurdle. Change or suspend the balancing requirement for a period of years, pump projects into metro and get out.

Another issue is land use/planning and zoning. No Engineer can anticiapte the insane rezoning developer muscle that renders otherwise reasonable transportation solutions worthless months after the ink dries on plans. Again GDOT gets tagged for not fixing corridors yet the Local governments are the ones who change the zoning to allow the huge trip generations interrupt traffic flow.

Not surprisingly Barnes, a Dem, sought to curb that with GRTA, but GRTA never really got the authority it was to have. Today GRTA is at best a Transit outfit due to strong-arming.

When we all wake up to Florida type turnpikes you can thank the new GOB influence Sonny and his troops put into place. Trust me, the “problems” of the DOT didn’t develop in a vacuumnor will the “change agent’s” solutions.

By dozer

April 22, 2008 7:49 PM | Link to this

Bring Moreland back? Surely you jest. He gets 86% of the GADOT design work without bidding ! He is part of the corruption.

By Joe Dirt

April 22, 2008 7:51 PM | Link to this

Tip of the day - GDOT is the most privatized government agency in GA. Their “workforce” does not build anything (a common misconception fostered by the media, e.g. “the DOT has a lane closed on I-85 between SR316 and Pleasant Hill”).

What you are seeing is the result of “low bid” contracting - also mandated by the legislature… (the outfit who bid less than everyone else, who from day one looks to cover the spread between he and the shloub who missed the chance to be unappreciated…

By Joe Dirt

April 22, 2008 8:44 PM | Link to this

Okay since it came up let’s address the Moreland contracts issue. Number of contracts notwithstanding, much less than 86% though and yes it was investigated, the man has a great business model.

First go into business with the former local head of the FHWA, Dan Altobelli, second hire recent, and the proper lingo is; “old plan retirees”, third bid against nationwide and startup firms for work where you seemingly were the most powerful head of a State agency ever with the credentials and skill sets to not require using your political weight.

Digging ever deeper, Moreland’s contracts tend to cost less and result in less re-design and resubmittals because of experience/familiarity levels. Yea, cost less due to that old, max 96% retirement plan.

See he pays no benefits, offers little or no retirement package and invests little into training.

Just trying to offer another side of a tired story. Did he once have more work than the others, yep. Did the Board step in and redirect some procesees, yep. Is this work selected soley on low-bid - no. Its a bit fuzzier so the extra scrutiny is a good thing for us taxpayers. Too bad the portrayl is always corruption.