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Thursday, April 24, 2008
DOT chief’s stumble compromises her credibility
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gena Abraham was lucky to hold onto her job as head of the state Department of Transportation.
Undeservedly lucky, perhaps.
Today, she remains DOT commissioner not because she acted ethically or appropriately —- she did not —- but because for the moment, the governor and other powerful people in state government have too much invested in her to allow her to fail.
Furthermore, while the official line is that the state Board of Transportation has resolved this scandal with its 8-3 vote to reprimand Abraham, that’s wishful thinking. Abraham was brought in to reform the DOT, a job that would challenge almost anyone. And while her hiring was controversial, Gov. Sonny Perdue and others argued correctly that only a person with a strong reputation and impeccable leadership credentials would be able to demand change on the scale required to bring the DOT into the 21st century.
For Abraham, that stature has now been greatly, if not fatally, compromised, with repercussions that have yet to play out.
Thanks to some artful stage-managing, the initial announcement of a romance between Abraham and DOT Board Chairman Mike Evans seemed more sweet than scandalous. Neither was married, and the scenario they painted was of two people who had struggled to do the right thing.
“As our friendship developed, we realized that there was the possibility of something more than friendship,” said Evans, who as chairman had helped hire Abraham. And since “DOT policy does not permit relationships other than professional or friendship within the direct chain of command,” he said, he was resigning from his board position.
Unfortunately, that initial version of events —- that Abraham and Evans had played by the rules, with Evans stepping down voluntarily as soon as the two realized where their relationship was headed —- has not held up over time. It is now pretty clear that the relationship had become romantic and serious well before it became public, and that Evans and Abraham disclosed it only when events forced them to do so.
In a memo sent to DOT employees just a few weeks earlier —- when her relationship with Evans had already gone beyond the professional —- Abraham had stressed “the importance of establishing and maintaining the highest possible standard of professional behavior and ethics in our workplace.”
Those who failed to meet those standards, she warned, would be subject to “the full extent of the department’s disciplinary actions, including termination. …”
It’s pretty clear that under the tough line Abraham drew for her employees, the price of engaging in an undisclosed romantic relationship with your boss or subordinate would be dismissal. The fact that she herself has survived that kind of mistake will make it considerably harder to demand change in others.
Furthermore, that kind of relationship gets to the core of what has been wrong with the DOT. It is a place where relationships and politics and friendships have mattered more than professionalism, facts and getting the job done right. Abraham was brought in to change that, but her ability to do so is now suspect.
The scandal has also weakened Abraham in another, more subtle way. Under the state Constitution, the DOT commissioner answers to the DOT board, not to the governor. But it has been quite clear from the beginning that Abraham was installed in her position by Perdue over the protests of several board members. If Abraham was to become an effective commissioner over the long haul, her next challenge was to establish herself as a person of independent judgment and standing, not someone waiting to do the governor’s bidding.
Even before this scandal, she had shown no sign of trying to make that transition. Perdue made it clear that he pulled her strings, and Abraham seemed perfectly comfortable with that arrangement.
Now, with Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle riding in to rescue her job, that transition seems even more unlikely.
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Gas costs changing travel plans?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How much have you been paying to fill your tank? With gas prices nearing $4 a gallon, are you adjusting your travel plans for Memorial Day weekend or summer?
Are you rethinking vacations or weekend jaunts or flights because of rising fuel costs?
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What can be done about panhandling?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you live, work or study near MARTA’s Five Points station, you’re greeted by derelicts and hustlers every time you go out onto the street.
Working a few blocks from the station, I run a gantlet of panhandlers, street preachers, lunatics and “salesmen” just to get to a lunchtime eatery. Some visitors believe Atlanta has more bums than much bigger cities. Atlanta police have all but given up on arresting them.
Atlanta can do better. Other cities have somehow managed to craft laws that curb begging without running afoul of the US Constitution. If other cities can get a grip on this plague of panhandling, surely Atlanta can.
READ CYNTHIA TUCKER’S ENTIRE COLUMN
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