Analysis by Walter C. Jones - Scandals need to be viewed in perspective

April 28, 2008

Every scandal needs to be viewed in perspective. When the transportation commissioner began a romance with the chairman of the Transportation Department board, it obviously wasn't the first time couples inside state government have become involved.

The last two governors' press secretaries, for example, dated then married state officials -- of the opposite political party, no less.

In another instance, Secretary of State Karen Handel estimates that 30 percent of the workers in her agency were related by blood or marriage when she took over last year. Her deputy secretary of state, Rob Simms, said the former human-resources director had a daughter on the staff. Brothers were division directors under a previous administration.

Handel imposed a policy prohibiting nepotism, though she hasn't fired anyone over it.

"Some of these things have just worked themselves out," Simms said.

Gov. Sonny Perdue's press secretary Heather Hedrick married Rep. Rob Teilhet, D-Smyrna, and then-Gov. Roy Barnes' press secretary Joselyn Butler married Public Service Commissioner Bobby Baker, R-Athens.

While those relationships may have had complications of their own, they were somewhat different from when Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham announced her romance with DOT Board Chairman Mike Evans. The day Evans resigned, he told his colleagues his feelings for her had not developed when he cast the deciding vote to hire her five months ago.

The week after his departure, the board deliberated three hours before deciding not to terminate her. Instead, it reprimanded her for not making the relationship public sooner.

Hers and Evans' action was good enough for one potential critic, Bill Bozarth, director of the Georgia Chapter of the government watchdog group Common Cause.

"I think it was handled in a way that was acceptable to me," he said. "... I don't see any reason for it to be considered any further."

If the Abraham-Evans affair didn't raise an ethical question, Handel's endorsement of Republican candidates has. Her office confirmed she has agreed to attend a campaign event for Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, despite calls that she should remain neutral as the state's top elections official.

Cowsert announced Friday that she's co-hosting two fundraising events for his re-election.

There are likely to be more revelations at the Transportation Department, too. A sexual-harassment complaint by two workers against the board's former-Vice Chairman Garland Pinholster may have led him to decline succeeding Evans as chairman. And Abraham has said she intends to root out staff indiscretions from pilfering gasoline to theft of customer credit-card numbers, drug use and viewing pornography on government computers.

Executives of companies that deal with the DOT gauge its individual professionalism higher than at transportation agencies in other states they work with. But that doesn't gloss over the fact the Georgia agency is over-committed by about $1 billion, though Abraham says that's not attributed to criminal behavior.

The Evans-Abraham affair is like an ink-blot test in that the way people view it depends on their perspective. For example, open-government advocates say it's a reason for making more of the agency's dealings available for public inspection online.

Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, wonders why no one has called for the DOT board to be disbanded as some have demanded of the board of Atlanta's Grady Hospital and the Clayton County School Board, which lost its accreditation. He notes the racial makeup of the boards could be an issue, mostly white on the DOT and mostly black on the other two.

And various factions see the DOT matter as an opportunity to take jabs at Perdue's politics, Abraham's crusading and the DOT's reliance on roads rather than mass transit.

That may be why scandals are so popular, but the public should view them in perspective.

Walter Jones is the bureau chief for the Morris News Service and has been covering state politics since 1998. He can be reached at walter.jones@morris.com or (404) 589-8424.