Eighteen months before the first pitch at SunTrust Park, and with more than $100 million in transportation infrastructure projects pending around the ballpark, Cobb transportation director Faye DiMassimo announced on Monday her plans to resign effective Nov. 20.
DiMassimo, who makes $146,500 a year, has been with the county since January 2010. She made the announcement in a Monday letter to commissioners and county manager David Hankerson. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the letter through an open records request.
She is leaving for the city of Atlanta, to become administrator of the city’s infrastructure bond program. It is unclear what her new salary will be. She did not respond to questions from the AJC on Monday or Tuesday.
The five-paragraph letter recites a laundry list of accomplishments under her tenure.
“With so much accomplishment and plans poised for implementation, the timing was favorable to consider an extraordinary career opportunity in another public role,” DiMassimo’s letter says.
Commission Chairman Tim Lee said Hankerson will soon announce a procedure to find a new director. He expressed confidence that all the work around the new baseball stadium would be accomplished. He called DiMassimo “one of the best transportation minds in the state.”
“The transportation team is extremely talented and capable,” Lee said in a statement issued through his spokeswoman. “They are well prepared to usher the county through the next 18 months leading up to first pitch.”
The timing would seem to be problematic for the county.
Cobb is currently considering reinstating transit service seven days a week; it is currently in development of a pedestrian and stadium event management plans for around the stadium; it is working through a federal process that could lead to a $250 million grant for bus rapid transit; it will launch a new transit service around the Cumberland area next year; and it is trying to find funding to build a bridge over I-285 for pedestrians and the circulator buses.
More informaiton is available here.
Staff writer Katie Leslie contributed to this article.
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