The State Transportation Board fired Commissioner Gena Evans on Thursday, prompting an angry reaction from state leaders and speculation that the move will hasten the dismantling of the agency.
The board picked the agency’s chief engineer, Gerald Ross, as her interim replacement, making him the first black to head the massive department.
David Doss, the 11th District Representative for the board, said there had been growing sentiment on the board in recent months to make a change.
“I think it had become clear to the board that there was growing dissension about the lack of progress being made, and the majority felt it was finally time to make a change and go in a different direction,” Doss said. “It’s no secret that the board has been split for quite some
time on a lot of public votes. But on this issue, it seems that some members obviously changed their minds and voted for the termination.”
Doss said a search committee is being put together and will conduct a national search for a new commissioner. He said having a national search could last as long as four to six months.
But while Ross is interim commissioner, and when a new
person is selected, Doss said a new mandate has been made clear.
“I can assure you of this — we want to
start getting work out the door,” Doss said. “The president of the United States said just this week that we are in a profound economic recession, but we’ve shut down a lot of contract business in Georgia because we’re not getting things done in a timely manner.
“It’s been estimated that the loss of trans- portation construction in our state could lead to as many as 10,000 jobs lost,” he added. “We want to be about helping cities and counties in this state, and we feel it’s time to move in a new direction.”
Evans, the choice of Gov. Sonny Perdue, was the first woman commissioner and a lightning rod for controversy during her tenure.
Shortly after her appointment, she fell in love with the chairman of the board at the time, Mike Evans, prompting him to resign before they married. Months later, she apologized publicly after e-mails she wrote in a previous job came to light that gave the appearance she was flirting — sometimes in graphic terms — with old boy friends and favoring them with contracts.
She withstood each controversy and three attempts by various board members to remove her, but her luck ran out Thursday.
The board voted 8-1-1 to fire her, with one member, Robert Brown of Atlanta, abstaining and one, Rudy Bowen of Duluth, leaving the room before the vote. Another member, Bobby Parham of Milledgeville, was elected to the post but hasn’t taken his seat because he intends to serve out the rest of this legislative session as a member of the House of Representatives.
Evans left by a back exit and avoided reporters awaiting the board’s decision after a two-hour executive session.
Board Chairman Bill Kuhlke of Augusta voted against firing her but he said it wasn’t in her defense but rather because the timing is wrong.
The agency must begin spending $931 million in federal stimulus funds that begins arriving Monday, and it is under assault from Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson and other key legislators who want to replace it with a State Transportation Authority run by a board the three of them would select.
Kuhlke said the attitude of the board was that Evans had not done enough to get the agency building roads fast enough.
“The attitude of the board is we’re not moving as fast as we think we can and that we needed to make a change,” he said.
Perdue issued a statement on the board’s reasons.
“I believe they have fired a competent commissioner for no reason other than her commitment to put the needs of Georgia’s citizens ahead of board members’ personal agendas of spending taxpayer dollars on their individual projects,” the governor said.
And Cagle called reporters to his office and said the board’s action proves his argument that the agency is dysfunctional and needs replacement.
“Every single Georgian, along with every single legislator, ought to be more ignited now to see real reform and real action to resolve the transportation problem in this state,” Cagle said. “Nobody in this state can say our current system is working.”
Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer Jeff Gable and Morris News Service’s Walter C. Jones contributed to this report.
