The Department of Transportation commissioner who is facing a written reprimand for her conduct will now guide the DOT board as it decides how to re-vamp department conduct and other policies.

The DOT board's administrative committee on Friday asked Commissioner Gena Abraham and her legal staff to survey board members on what policy issues they want addressed and then to recommend how to clarify or interpret those policy parts. Her staff may also hire outside consultants for the work.

Abraham said she had overseen policy changes many times in other organizations and her reprimand didn't affect this one.

"That's part of my job as commissioner," Abraham said. "I have to continue to do my job. And I'm going to continue to hold the employees accountable just as the board held me accountable. There's nothing going to be different there."

Board members voiced wide-ranging concerns about the confusing pile of DOT policies, like whether board members should follow the same rules as DOT employees, or what sorts of meals they can accept or pay for. Abraham pointed out that the whole department policy printout fills two four-inch-thick binders, making it unlikely that many people could even read, much less internalize, the whole thing.

Committee Chairman Rudy Bowen said that an audit of the department last year recommended clarifying DOT policies.

The board voted April 21 to reprimand Abraham for waiting too long to notify the full board of her personal relationship with Mike Evans, who was then the board's chairman. Evans resigned from the board.

DOT policy prohibits intimate relationships in a chain of command, and Abraham reports to the board. It says the employees who enter into such relationships have to notify "higher management" so one or both can be reassigned out of that chain of command. It doesn't specify a time frame.

After the reprimand vote, Abraham said she respected the authority of the board but added that she didn't see what she could have done differently, and she refused to say whether she thought the board was wrong to reprimand her.

Board member Larry Walker said the reprimand gave him no qualms about her role in clarifying DOT policy.

"I don't have concerns about any of that," Walker said. "I think it's over and done."

Bowen said he has confidence in Abraham as commissioner, and he emphasized that though Abraham can hire and fire the staff who will do the policy work or who may choose a consultant, "everybody will be working together."