The state's top transportation official, responsible for building and repairing highways and bridges across the state, has resigned under pressure from his board. Vance Smith, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, resigned effective Dec. 31 and will only serve in an advisory capacity until then.
The move followed a two-and-a-half-hour closed-door board meeting, and months of frustration from board members who feared critical personnel decisions were not being made as key posts at the top went unfilled. In addition, some felt that the department was not funding enough roadwork, and that money that could be paving roads and supporting Georgia contractors was not being spent.
"The contractors, they’re drying up," said board member Jay Shaw. "We need to be producing jobs."
Underlying issues about money and projects have traditionally stirred tensions between DOT staff and board members who get lobbied by interest groups. But even for Smith's supporters, who praised him for restoring morale at the department, the continuing lack of full-time staff in key department positions provided a clear target that was hard to defend.
Board Chairman Rudy Bowen said that the board felt it was time "to go in a different direction."
Last week Smith filled a crucial and long-expected vacancy, for the director of the department’s toll road program, with a top DOT official who was already doing double duty. That toll program director protects Georgia's interests across the negotiating table from the global contractors vying for jobs like the estimated $1 billion I-75/I-575 optional toll lane project.
"You’re going to have six months probably of really tough negotiations," as well as contracting with a developer on a downtown terminal, said Brandon Beach, the chairman of the board committee that oversees the program. "Those are two major infrastructure projects that are going to be full time for someone to handle."
For the time being, Chief Engineer Gerald Ross will continue to serve as the director of the toll program, also known as the P3 program. Until Wednesday Ross was serving as the deputy commissioner as well. Asked Wednesday if he could effectively perform as the P3 director as well as his other duties, Ross did not respond.
The new deputy commissioner, Keith Golden, was plucked from the ranks Wednesday by Smith at the behest of the board, and will also serve as acting commissioner while the board looks for a permanent replacement. The DOT Commissioner leads the department's 4,600 employees and oversees its $2 billion budget.
Names of possible candidates have been floated from the Legislature and even the DOT board, as well as outside staffers such as former Georgia Regional Transportation Authority director Steve Stancil.
Golden was the director of the department's permitting and operations division, overseeing traffic operations functions like road signs, mowing roadside grass and patching pavement holes.
Some staff expressed anger at Smith's ouster, calling him a man of integrity.
Shaw acknowledged that one issue for him with Smith was the recent case of a coastal road project where DOT staff had short-listed a small group of contractors eligible to bid that included no companies from Georgia. Shaw and other board members protested to Smith that Georgia companies should at least get a chance to submit bids, but Smith backed the staff decision.
In addition, there was the longstanding issue of how much money gets spent on contracts every month.
Bill Hammack, president of the state's largest road contractor, C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., said the entire highway construction industry was suffering from low amounts of roadwork. He said that in the "painful" last fiscal year the department had authorized about $1 billion worth of work but awarded only $660 million, as bids came in low or projects were withdrawn without the extra money being quickly recycled. DOT staff could not verify those figures late Wednesday but cited higher ones for a more recent period.
In addition to the leadership and money issues, board members have questioned Smith’s communications style. When he made the decision over the toll road program, most of the board members who oversee that program said they had not discussed the move with Smith or heard of it before they got an e-mail notification the day of the announcement.
Smith declined to respond to a reporter's questions, saying, "You know I never comment."
The board elected Smith, a 17-year Republican state representative from Pine Mountain, as DOT commissioner in June 2009.
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