Fresh Loaf

The state Transportation Board this morning unanimously elected state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, as the new Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner. Once he resigns from the Gold Dome, Smith’s expected to move into GDOT offices on June 25th.

What exactly Smith’s duties will be is rather murky. Earlier this year, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue that restructured the transportation planning power structure. Whereas previously the DOT board called the shots, now most of the people-moving decision-making will be made by a planning director appointed by the governor. It wasn’t what Perdue originally wanted, but he signed the bill. The governor hasn’t named his planning director pick. (UPDATE: Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage reports just now that Perdue has named Todd Long, formerly or DOT and the Georgia Regional Transporation Authority, as planning director.)

Pettys also reports that there was some debate among boardmembers over how to interpret the governance reform bill, but that they’ve decided to hold off until all the pieces of the bureaucratic puzzle come together.

In a released statement, Smith says the state and DOT must work together to finally solve Georgia’s transportation woes. He adds that the deep-in-the-red department sorely needs new funding. During his time under the Gold Dome, Smith pushed for a statewide one-cent sales tax that would fund new roads, bridges and transit. Like all transportation funding proposals in the Legislature, it never passed.

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For someone who was recently given a pink slip, Gena Evans is chipper.

“If you can’t notice the smile on my face, the best day I’ve had at GDOT was Thursday,” the former Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner says, referring to her ousting last week from the state agency. “I’m very happy to be gone.”

And now that Evans no longer heads one of the state’s most powerful agencies — one that’s facing a drastic restructuring under a controversial plan pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue — she says she can be frank in her criticism of the department. She speaks lovingly of the employees but paints a grim portrait of a $2 billion agency that’s mired in politics.

Evans, who now earns a paycheck as executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority, sat down with CL at that agency’s downtown offices looking over the city skyline this afternoon. She talked about Perdue’s grand reorganization plan, the “systemic” problems at GDOT, her occasional thoughts about resigning, and Georgia’s overall transportation landscape. It ain’t pretty and it’s all after the jump.

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STILL GOING Dispute over Beltline tracks riles residents

After two hours of debating administrative minutiae, the Georgia Department of Transportation board nearly brought an end to the bitter dispute the state agency and Amtrak started with the City of Atlanta over Beltline tracks near Piedmont Park.

At the end of today’s board meeting, Boardmember David Doss of Rome — who it should be noted, hasn’t always been the biggest advocate for rail projects — asked the board to consider withdrawing its stay of abandonment of the “Decatur Belt,” a 4.2-mile segment of unused tracks which stretch from Ansley Park to DeKalb Avenue. Those tracks are a vital piece of the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to circle Atlanta’s core. Amtrak and GDOT say they want the tracks preserved for future commuter rail service into downtown Atlanta.

Doss said he proposed the same motion yesterday at an intermodal committee meeting.

“The idea of commuter rail or high-speed rail going through Piedmont Park makes little sense to me,” Doss told boardmembers. He said the two modes are not compatible with plans the city has already made for the property, which it purchased from Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason last year for more than $66 million.

Suddenly, a booming voice sounded from the ceiling. Boardmember Steve Farrow of Dalton, participating in the meeting via conference call, objected.

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