DOT romance leads to marriage

Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham married former DOT board chairman Mike Evans over the weekend. Abraham took the name of her new husband, and now goes by Gena Evans. The couple wed at her vacation home on Lake Martin in Alabama.

Controversy was sparked earlier this year when word of their romance was revealed at a department board meeting in April. Because DOT policy prohibits intimate relationships within the chain of command, Mike Evans resigned his chairman post. The former Gena Abraham was reprimanded by the board for failing to report her relationship sooner.

The wedding Saturday was attended by about 50 family members and close friends. Governor Sonny Perdue also attended, and officiated the ceremony along with an Alabama circuit court judge.

A new chairman for the department of transportation

Georgia has a new chairman for the Department of Transportation.Steve Farrow of Dalton replaces Mike Evans.Evan resigned in April to pursue a relationship with DOT commissioner Gena Abraham.Farrow takes over as the DOT faces a shortfall of millions of dollars for transportation projects.

Evans' replacement on DOT board to be selected

State lawmakers out of the 9th Congressional District will get together this afternoon at the State Capitol to select a new member for the Department of Transportation board. The person elected will replace Mike Evans of Cumming, who resigned his post as chairman of the DOT when he revealed his personal relationship with DOT commissioner Gena Abraham. The 9th congressional district includes much of northeast Georgia.

DOT board reprimands Commissioner for romance

The state board of transportation took up the issue of Commissioner Gena
Abraham's future today. Over the last month, her friendship with then board
chair Mike Evans became romantic. Evans resigned last week. It's
against DOT rules for employees to be romantically involved with their
superiors.

Board member Dana Lemon called for Abraham's resignation. However,
fellow board member Larry Walker had another idea.

He wanted Abaraham to remain in her position, but receive a written reprimand for
not informing the board in a timely manner.
By a vote of 8-to-3, the board sided with Walker.

The board still has to decide exactly what the reprimand letter will
say.

In other DOT news. The board will need to choose a new chair. Vice chair Garland Pinholster,
who had stepped in for Evans, resigned amid allegations he sexually
harassed 2 DOT staffers.

DOT decides fate of commissioner's position

The Department of Transportation will meet today to discuss the fate of Commissioner Gena Abraham’s position. The full board will determine whether Abraham retains the credibility of carrying out her reforms in the office after she had an unethical relationship with the recently-resigned chairman Mike Evans.

After meeting with Abraham Governor Perdue said she should keep her job. Besides that he said you can’t control love. "There's no light switch in relationships that comes on that comes on one day. It's not like that. When you work with somebody, you develop a mutual respect that comes from admiration and then it develops into deeper feelings than that."

Perdue said that she’s resolved to carry through with her reforms for the DOT.

Most board members agree with her course of reform.

DOT board chair resigns over romance

State Transportation Board chairman Mike Evans says he will resign his post because of a growing personal relationship with department commissioner Gena Abraham.

Evans told the DOT board of his intentions Thursday. He has been with the agency for five years. Abraham has held her post for five months.

DOT policy forbids romantic relationships between members of the agency’s chain of command. Commissioner Abraham reports to the board, which Evans chairs.

The board plans to hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.

DOT employee out after false bridge reports

The state Department of Transportation says it will re-inspect 54 bridges that an employee says he and his partner filed inspection reports on, but never visited. That longtime employee of the department has now resigned his job. DOT chief Gena Abraham says David Simmons’ falsified reports began showing up last fall. The DOT says it has no reason to believe the bridges are unsafe, but will check to make sure. Simmons has been with the DOT for 29 years.

DOT to review all projects, toll roads

Georgia’s new Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham isn’t wasting any time getting her house in order. She’s taking aim at the state’s public-private toll road initiative. With her agency billions of dollars over budget and facing numerous lawsuits, state DOT commissioner says all bets are off for the agency’s pending construction projects as the agency reassesses its priorities. DOT spokesman David Spear says the agency must do a better job evaluating proposals from private groups seeking to invest in toll roads: “We’ve got to have the policy in place to address it in a comprehensive way as well as the personnel to help us do that.” The DOT plans to fully review all public-private toll road proposals, and recruit staff with the expertise needed to make more informed decisions. For now, that means multimillion dollar proposals for toll lanes on I-75, I-575 and others are on hold.

New state DOT commish details mass problems

Only eight days into her term as new commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Transportation, Gena Abraham has delivered a sobering assessment of where things stand. Abraham told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her new staff is unable to indicate how many projects the department has in the works or who’s overseeing projects. She also says over 15-hundred lawsuits are unresolved, and projects from the Governor’s Fast Forward program are 4.2 billion dollars over cost estimates.

Abraham had the support of Governor Sonny Perdue to replace Harold Linnenkohl as DOT commissioner. Abraham was chosen in a one-vote margin by the board over a candidate supported by House Speaker Glenn Richardson.