DEL.ICIO.USVance Smith chosen to head state transportation department
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The state Transportation Board elected Vance Smith commissioner of the Department of Transportation on Thursday morning.
The board asked him to start as soon as possible — and no later than June 25. Smith will have to leave his seat in the Georgia General Assembly, where he chairs the House Transportation Committee.
The choice of Smith was expected for weeks. “I think it became evident that Vance was the right man at the right place,” said Larry Walker, who led the board’s search committee. Walker said earlier that Smith’s political abilities were sorely needed.
This spring, legislators and the governor dissatisfied with DOT made a new law that sapped the powers of the DOT board and commissioner for the first time in a generation. It shifted power to a new official to be appointed by the governor.
That did not dampen Smith’s enthusiasm Thursday. “It’s a great honor and a pleasure,” he said. He added that the department faced a “huge challenge.”
DOT’s budget is under severe pressure, and if it were not for the federal stimulus it would hardly be doing any roadwork at all.
No one is certain what Smith’s duties and powers will be under the new law. Since the commissioner’s position was created 46 years ago he or she has largely controlled the selection of projects for DOT’s entire budget, now $2 billion. That will no longer be the case.
He will apparently still oversee choosing projects for local grants. But few doubt that other officials will be able to assemble the rest of the projects without the commissioner’s help. He will also be in charge of making sure all projects get bid and built.
The choice was widely praised. “I think Vance will do a great job,” said Chick Krautler, director of the Atlanta Regional Commission. “He’s been a leader in the effort to get more funding for transportation and I assume he will continue in that.”
“I think he’ll go a long way toward healing some relationships,” said former DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl.
Linnenkohl left DOT in 2007 and was replaced by Gena Abraham (later Evans). Evans, supported by Gov. Sonny Perdue, defeated Smith by a one-vote margin. Her turbulent tenure ended in February when the board ousted her in an 8-to-2 vote, after Perdue proposed the bill to restructure DOT.
The board on Thursday also chose its leadership team, re-electing Bill Kuhlke to chair the board and making Gwinnett County developer Rudy Bowen his vice chairman. In that position Bowen replaces Larry Walker, who is leaving the board.
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