Shorter Terms for Transpo Board Members?

Apparently last month's mutiny by DOT Board members is fueling more legislative proposals curtailing the governing organization's grip on the Transportation Department.
Read more--well not much more--at AJC Political Insider.

Transportation Board Comes Full Circle

Kiss any major federal transportation money goodbye until voters can decide on a constitutional change in November.
I have yet to hear what will probably be a brusque retelling of how this went down, but I'm sure it will be excellent.
From the AJC:

“I had never been over to the state capitol where I saw so much consistency in the disbelief of what the board did, and anger,” Transportation Board Chair Bill Kuhlke told his fellow board members.

No Parham quotes in this one.

DOT AccountingGate Keeps On Moving

AJC has the details from Thursday's state Senate Transportation Committee meeting in which senators railed on state Transportation Board members about the vote to go back to a form of accounting that would allow GDOT to begin multi-year federal transportation contracts without having the entire amount of money needed to pay for the project on hand when the project is let.
The thing that is getting me at this time is legislator's insistence that GDOT is right to be accounting that way, but anger that the board voted to actually go forward with it.
Per my discussion with transpo lobbyist Chuck Clay, this really is a race to get back in the federal highway/transpo money game.

"For the good of Georgia—not GDOT, the Governor or the legislature—please let these people sit down and get behind the effort [to resolve this issue]. Because once that [federal roads] money goes to Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, it cannot go back to Georgia. It is not simply sitting in an envelope in Washington with Georgia’s name written onto it."

As the AJC article states at the bottom--where they always put his quotes: "Board member Bobby Parham, who first raised the issue last month, said he did not plan to change his vote."

A Transportation Blunder?

Although you can't read the story without penetrating the paywall, you can see from Insider Advantage's homepage that Dick Pettys thinks the state Transportation Board's action to reinstate accrual accounting may be a sizable miscalculation.
Now I haven't read Pettys' story either, but some conversations I had last week (before the other shoe dropped on the state's mental health system issues) led me to the same perception.
I don't gather that many under the Gold Dome disagree with the desired outcome, but it is the way the Board is going about doing it.
Chuck Clay, a former state Senate minority leader and current lobbyist for one of Georgia's largest transportation contractors C.W. Matthews, said the state's leadership cannot delay in finding a way around this constitutional question because it wants to argue about why it happened in the first place.
"We cannot jeopardize this because we are getting into a dispute," he said. "For the good of Georgia—not GDOT, the Governor or the legislature—please let these people sit down and get behind the effort [to resolve this issue]. Because once that [federal roads] money goes to Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, it cannot go back to Georgia. It is not simply sitting in an envelope in Washington with Georgia’s name written onto it."
I had seen this earlier Friday, and Clay mentioned it when we talked. There is a Senate Resolution to place a referendum on the ballot to amend the state constitution to allow the practice of signing multi-year transportation contracts without having the entire cost of the project in the treasury at the time.
This seems like the best thing, but on an issue like this, I imagine it's going to take quite a get-out-the-vote effort for people to mash yes on this one.

Governor Reacts to DOT Board Accounting Changes

This story seems to be getting more complicated all the time. An auditor I talked to yesterday said that the change in accounting practices--from accrual to cash and back to accrual--should not be the main issue here as the two practices are really just different ways of looking at a budget and spending plan, and are commonly used interchangeably to give a more holistic view of an organization's financial well being.
Yes! That means I was wrong, I think?
But this clearly shows that the parties in Atlanta are circling the wagons and getting ready for a showdown.
From the Governor's Office:

Statement of Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding DOT Board Action on Accounting Methods
Thursday, January 28, 2010 Contact: Office of Communications 404-651-7774

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue issued the following statement today regarding actions by the DOT Board in defying the State Auditor and voting to change the department’s accounting methods:

“Today’s action by the DOT Board exhibits a clear defiance of state law and a frightening lack of concern for our state’s financial systems.

The state’s finance team, along with SRTA, identified an opportunity to refinance outstanding bonds for road projects and save DOT a total of $22 million in debt service, including $16 million in FY 2011. Given the uncertainty that has now been unnecessarily created by the Board, we cannot proceed with the refinancing at this time.

The Board is refusing to heed the sound advice of the State Auditor and the department’s own legal and financial staff. Previous Attorney General opinions also make it very clear that the department must follow the same accounting procedures as the rest of state government.

While I am incredibly frustrated that we are forced to pass up a substantial savings opportunity, I am more concerned that this Board continues to act irresponsibly and show such little regard for the state’s conservative fiscal management policies.”

###

Parham Stirs the Pot

State Transportation Board member Bobby Parham showed up again in the AJC late last week. If you didn't catch that, you can check it out here. (The best part of the story, and the most illuminating, is found in the comments section.)
Parham also stopped by the Union-Recorder offices Monday to defend a State Transportation Board decision to reverse a former DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham (Evans)-era accounting change that he says has slowed the DOT's ability to keep Georgians at work building and maintaining the country's best state highway system.
Parham said the change, from a cash to an accrual method of accounting, would allow the DOT to borrow money to fund the state's portion of federally-backed road projects on the promise of the federal government making good on their end of the investment.
Evans, a perennial Perdue appointee, implemented the cash accounting procedure after a 2008 DOT audit accused a DOT treasurer of purposefully intending "to hide the true state of GDOT’s finances."
As the AJC and ATL Bizness Chronicle reports say above, the state Transportation Board has already passed a motion to move back to the accrual form of accounting in last week's meeting. But Parham said Trans Board Chair Bill Kuhlke called a special meeting for this Thursday, and he (Parham) thinks Kulhke will try to get the board to reconsider the motion, or at least postpone the change until the next fiscal year, which begins in July.
Board members are asking Attorney General Thurbert Baker to decide whether or not it is constitutional for DOT to use the accrual accounting.
Parham says there is more to this story, so watch it grow legs Friday.

Caught on Film

The candidate forums featuring candidates in the state House of Representatives and Milledgeville City Council District 1 races are up on the tube-type thing that shoots electronic letters everywhere.
You can check out the playlist of the state House forum here, and the playlist of the City Council District 1 forum here.

But in case you can't wait to link to those, I'll leave you with this:

Perdue announces Special Elections

The Governor finally issued the Writ of Elections to fill Parham's 141st District state House of Representatives seat.
No between 30 and 60 day period here. I guess this means the law really is that vague when it comes to special elections outside of the legislative session.
The election will happen November 3, along with municipal elections.

When is the Special Election?

Update: Bert Brantley from the Governor's press office responded to my inquiry and said that the governor's office is not yet ready to issue the writ of election because it is trying to determine to possibility of packaging the special election with some other election.
"Every local government is experiencing tough budget times and we certainly don't want to exacerbate that fact," he said.
And although that is certainly commendable--especially with estimates of the cost of a special election weighing in at about 125% to 150% percent of my annual pay (I'll let youse who are paying attention calculate those figures...and no, I'm not salaried.)--a close read of the law below almost certainly rules out the possibility of combining the election with the municipal elections to be held this November.


I'm wasting phone calls today attempting to get the governor's office to tell me whether they have issued a writ of elections for Bobby Parham's seat in the state House of Representatives.
Figuring that since Parham resigned his seat in the House on April 15, and according to Georgia Law, the governor has 10 days from the vacancy to issue the writ, the writ should be issued any day now.
Calls to the Secretary of State's office informed me that they have not received it yet. Assuming that it is 10 business days and not calendar days--and state government offices were closed yesterday for Confederate Memorial Day--I guess it should be issued by Thursday.
For those who care--and since I can't link you to my special elections story because it didn't make the Internet--here is a copy of the Georgia Law concerning special elections:

§ 21-2-544. Special election for General Assembly vacancy


Whenever a vacancy shall occur or exist in either house of the General Assembly during a session of the General Assembly or whenever such vacancy shall occur or exist at a time when the members of the General Assembly shall be required to meet, at any time previous to the next November election, the Governor shall issue, within ten days after the occurrence of such vacancy, or after the calling of an extraordinary session of the General Assembly during the existence of such vacancy, a writ of election to the Secretary of State for a special election to fill such vacancy, which election shall be held on the date named in the writ, which shall not be less than 30 nor more than 60 days after its issuance. Upon receiving the writ of election from the Governor, the Secretary of State shall then transmit the writ of election to the superintendent of each county involved and shall publish the call of the election. In all other cases any such special election to fill any such vacancy shall be held if the Governor issues his or her writ of election therefor. In such cases the writ of election shall be issued to the Secretary of State who shall transmit the writ of election to the superintendent of each county involved and shall publish the call of the election.

Givin' em Hell

Budget discussions with Department of Human Resources Commissioner B.J. Walker are going on in the new Capital as we speak.
State Rep. Bobby Parham, D-Milledgeville, told me yesterday that he was going to study up to be able to catch Walker on something. And this Lucid Idiocy post has his finger prints all over it.
Instantaneous update: Parham called while posting this and told me that he had in fact caused this little moment of mirth.
"Yeah, I was grinning like hell," he said. "I had her and she knew it. She fell for it like a fish on a hook."
After reviewing DHR's reorganization, Parham characterized it as simply "passing the buck."
"You can't just create another department without making preparations for taking care of the mentally ill," he said. "This is just passing the buck...someone has got to take care of mental health. We can't just throw them in jail and in prison and expect they'll get the care they need. Even if you could, the cost of doing it is way out of sight."