NC’s transportation secretary is leaving, as Gov. Cooper names a replacement

Jim Trogdon, who has led the N.C. Department of Transportation through several crises in recent years and has worked to prepare North Carolina for changes in transportation technology, will retire at the end of February, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday.

Trogdon has “plans to return to the private sector,” Cooper said in a news release, without elaborating.

Eric Boyette will replace Trogdon at the helm of the N.C. Department of Transportation, the governor said in the press release. Boyette is secretary of the Department of Information Technology.

Cooper promoted Tracy Doaks, in turn, to lead the information technology agency.

“Eric Boyette and Tracy Doaks have served our state with distinction throughout their careers, and I am pleased that they will continue working on behalf of all North Carolinians,” Cooper said in the release. “I thank Secretary Trogdon for his service to North Carolina and the Department of Transportation.”

Trogdon told Cooper of his intent to retire in a one-page letter dated Jan. 28. In it, he highlighted some of NCDOT’s accomplishments in the last three years, including reducing the amount of time it takes to begin construction on major highway projects, such as the widening of Interstate 40 in Johnston County and the completion of N.C. 540 across southern Wake County.

“This must continue to be a priority for one of the top growth states in our nation,” Trogdon wrote. “This allowed us to deliver projects that have been waiting for decades.”

Trogdon led NCDOT through Matthew, Florence

The decision to leave NCDOT was Trogdon’s, according to Steve Abbott, a department spokesman. Abbott said Trogdon was not available to speak to the press on Tuesday, but did release a written statement, saying he would work closely with Boyette on a transition.

Trogdon joined NCDOT as an engineer in 1985. He also served in the N.C. National Guard and retired as deputy adjutant general in 2016, just before Cooper named him secretary of transportation in January 2017.

His tenure at the top came at a tumultuous time for the department. Two major hurricanes, Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018, washed out numerous roads in Eastern North Carolina, forcing the state to spend hundreds of millions on cleanup and repairs. At the same time, a Supreme Court decision in 2016 nullifying the Map Act, a state law that allowed NCDOT to reserve land for future highways without buying it, has led to settlements with property owners that cost hundreds of millions more.

Meanwhile, Trogdon led the agency in an effort to pay down a cash balance at the direction of the General Assembly by increasing the pace of construction projects. That accelerated spending, combined with the added expenses resulting from the storms and the Map Act, caused NCDOT to run short on money last year, resulting in cutbacks and delays in engineering work on some 900 planned construction projects.

A consultant’s report into NCDOT spending, released in September, found a lack of communication between NCDOT financial staff and division managers responsible for construction that might have identified overspending. Based in part on that criticism, State Treasurer Dale Folwell called on Cooper to fire Trogdon in late October.

On Tuesday, Folwell said his position was “never personal.”

“It was, however, about the need for change at the top of an organization that has lost its financial way,” he said in a written statement. “On behalf of taxpayers, DOT employees and contractors, we look forward to working with Mr. Boyette to bring DOT out of the multi-billion-dollar ditch that it has dug over the last 16 months.”

Cooper shrugged off Folwell’s suggestion that he fire Trogdon, expressing confidence in his appointee. On Tuesday, House Speaker Tim Moore also praised Trogdon.

“Secretary Trogdon demonstrated impeccable leadership for North Carolina throughout a series of devastating natural disasters, rapid population growth, and unforeseen challenges facing our state’s transportation infrastructure,” Moore said in a written statement. “Secretary Trogdon has always kept the best interests of our people at heart and earned bipartisan admiration for his commitment to realizing North Carolina’s exceptional potential. His forward thinking on mobility — integrating roads, rail, ports, and aviation — will benefit North Carolina’s connectivity for years to come.”

State Senate leader Phil Berger also commended Trogdon, saying in a written statement, “I’ve always had a positive, productive relationship with Secretary Trogdon, and I’m sad to see him go.”

Cooper is a Democrat; Folwell, Moore and Berger are Republicans.

Lawmakers scrutinize NCDOT finances

The General Assembly approved a bill last fall that provided $200 million to help NCDOT through its financial crisis and create a fund the department can draw upon after future natural disasters. The bill also included several steps to increase NCDOT’s financial transparency and accountability to legislators, including a fresh audit and regular reports to the public and lawmakers.

Earlier last year, state budget writers took issue with thousands of pay raises NCDOT handed out to much of its work force. Nearly 5,300 employees received double-digit pay increases, with some higher than 60%, after NCDOT won a provision in the 2018 state budget that gave the department the flexibility to use a portion of its funding to address below-market salaries.

But state budget writers said the NCDOT misinterpreted how much money they were making available: 2% of payroll expenses instead of 2% of NCDOT’s total allocation. That meant NCDOT thought it could spend $152 million over two years instead of $35 million. By the time state lawmakers caught on to the discrepancy, NCDOT had already committed $55 million in pay increases.

State lawmakers chose not to rescind the raises, as NCDOT agreed not to take further pay increases without consulting them. Last week, Abbott, the NCDOT spokesman, said a similar effort to evaluate pay for Division of Motor Vehicles employees was on hold, because most of those employees are supposed to move to a new headquarters in Rocky Mount this year.

Abbott said as a result of the move, “DMV is evaluating its existing technology and internal processes as part of a modernization effort to make the division more efficient in the new upgraded facility. That is expected to mean changes in positions and their responsibilities and duties, possibly in many areas.”

Drones, rideshare and electric vehicles

Trogdon speaks often about how the state needed to prepare for coming changes in transportation technology, such as autonomous vehicles and the growing prevalence of rideshare and electric cars and trucks. He was instrumental in the creation of the N.C. FIRST Commission, which is examining how the state will pay for roads and other transportation projects in the future as income from taxes on gasoline and the sale and registration of cars and trucks declines.

Trogdon also organized two annual summits that brought hundreds of people to Raleigh to talk and learn about future trends in transportation. The featured speaker at this year’s event last month was Tony Seba, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who heads a think tank called RethinkX and predicts that by 2030 nearly all of the road miles traveled in the U.S. will be provided by electric, on-demand autonomous vehicles owned by fleets.

As part of the summit, the Chinese company EHang staged North America’s first public demonstration flight of a pilotless air taxi, a two-seat drone called the EH 216. The flight drew dozens of state officials, including Cooper and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is challenging Cooper for governor.

“Autonomous connected vehicles of any type are where transportation is headed,” Trogdon said just before the 600-pound drone took off. “We want to bring these kinds of opportunities to make sure that we’re economically competitive.”

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