President Barack Obama's decision to make Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx the next U.S. transportation secretary is good news for North Carolina, former state Transportation Secretary Gene Conti said Sunday.

“Because he knows North Carolina, and he will be responsive to North Carolina’s needs,” said Conti, who served as an assistant U.S. transportation secretary during the Clinton administration and headed the state DOT under former Gov. Bev Perdue.

Foxx is expected to be named Monday to succeed Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Illinois congressman.

“Obviously he can’t just direct money willy-nilly to North Carolina, but I will tell you that Illinois fared very well under Secretary LaHood. I think North Carolina will have a sympathetic ear there. I think this is excellent news for North Carolina,” Conti said.

Conti praised Foxx for his work as Charlotte mayor to advance the city’s rail transit plan and to push for freight and passenger rail improvements and completion of Charlotte’s I-485 Outer Loop. When Conti chaired a national railroad policy committee meeting in Charlotte, Foxx “spoke very eloquently about rail, off the cuff, and he wowed the crowd about how important the rail connections would be for Charlotte. I think he is very capable.”

In one of his last public acts as state transportation secretary in the waning days of Gov. Bev Perdue's administration, Gene Conti went to Wilmington on Dec. 8 to preside over a bridge-naming ceremony in honor of Lanny Wilson, a Democratic Party fundraiser who was forced to resign from the state Board of Transportation in 2010 amid state and federal investigations that brought down Perdue's predecessor, former Gov. Mike Easley.

The bridge naming caused a political stir, drawing attacks from Republicans and sour feelings from some Wilmington area folks who believed Wilson did not deserve the honor.

In his remarks putting Wilson's name on the Martin Luther King. Jr. Boulevard bridge over North 23rd Street, Conti said called the bridge-naming "the highest honor N.C. DOT can bestow" and "a fitting tribute to a man who's done so much to improve transportation in this Cape Fear region," according to the Wilmington Star-News.

He didn't stop there, as the Star-News reported:

Conti said he was pleased to be naming a bridge for Wilson despite the controversy that surrounded his leaving office.

"I worked with Lanny for a long time," Conti said. "He's never taken money or done anything wrong, that I know of."

It's true that Wilson was never accused of taking money.  He was the man who gave the money. ... [MORE]

State DOT Secretary Gene Conti is mentioned in Governing Magazine's list of potential candidates to run the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“I’m very honored to be on the list of so many prominent transportation leaders,” Conti said Friday. “It’s a nice recognition of the work we’ve done in the last four years in North Carolina.”

Conti was en route to his home town, Pittsburgh, for the annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, where he will receive the group’s highest award this weekend. The Thomas H. McDonald Award recognizes a career of service in transportation and highway engineering.

He said the mention of his name for U.S. transportation secretary was “all speculation,” but he did not dismiss the possibility. ... [MORE]

Republican legislative leaders are in tune with the concerns of Democrat Gene Conti, who complained this week that he is underpaid as the state’s transportation secretary.

That’s why they amended the state budget this year to give North Carolina’s next governor new power to set salaries for non-elected state department heads.

“These agencies have gotten huge in terms of budget and responsibility,” said state Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary, one of the Senate’s chief budget-writers.  

Conti said he took a big pay cut in 2009 when he gave up a private-sector job to take charge of DOT, with its $4 billion budget and 12,000 employees. Stevens agreed with Conti that the statutory salary limit – $121,807 this year for the heads of DOT and seven other agencies – could make it hard for the state to attract the best administrators. ... [MORE]

New governors generally hire new transportation secretaries. So Gene Conti doesn’t have much reason to expect that Gov. Bev Perdue’s successor will ask him to continue running the state Department of Transportation.

And if Conti were to receive that invitation after the November election from an incoming Gov. Pat McCrory or Gov. Walter Dalton, he doesn’t know whether he would want to stay.

The job just doesn’t pay all that well, he says.

Conti and seven other non-elected agency heads receive the same salary, as set by the legislature in this year’s state budget: $121,807. That’s about $18,000 less than the governor’s pay.

And it’s not chicken feed. But if you want to hire the best person to manage an agency with a $4 billion budget, Conti says, you ought to think about paying more. ... [MORE]

Mike Robertson says he’ll retire effective Oct. 1 as North Carolina’s motor vehicles commissioner, after three years in the job and a total of 43 years in law enforcement.

“This has been an enjoyable three years,” Robertson, 64, said. “I’ve got mixed emotions about leaving state government, but this will be my third retirement certificate.”

Before he took charge of DMV’s 1500 employees in March 2009, Robertson had worked as head of the Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement for five years, and for 22 years at the State Bureau of Investigation, where he oversaw electronic surveillance.  He also had stints as a state trooper and a deputy and police officer in New Hanover County.

He plans to launch a management consulting business mostly for private companies that do business with law enforcement and motor vehicle agencies.  He said he won’t solicit or accept clients before his retirement, and he won’t register as a lobbyist. ... [MORE]

Gene Conti almost missed his get-well call from an old boss, former President Bill Clinton.

The North Carolina transportation secretary has been away from the office, recuperating after surgery Dec. 20 at Duke Hospital. He was about to leave home Wednesday afternoon on an errand with his wife, Betsy, when the phone rang.

Don’t answer it, Betsy said. Let’s go.

Instead, she tapped her foot while her husband chatted with his caller for about five minutes. Yes, Gene said into the phone, my doctors have had me on a weight-loss program, too. I’m walking a treadmill, just like you did.

“Who was that?” Betsy asked when he finally hung up. ... [MORE]

DOT Secretary Gene Conti favors collecting tolls at several points up and down Interstate 95 as it passes through North Carolina to raise money for a long-delayed multi-billion-dollar overhaul of I-95.

State Sen. Larry Shaw of Fayetteville likes the idea of collecting tolls on I-95, too -- but not in his district.  Shaw prefers to see I-95 tolls only at the Virginia and South Carolina borders.

The busy stretch between Fayetteville and I-40 at Benson is likely to be first in line for widening I-95, repaving it and rebuilding the interchanges. 

In an e-mail to me today, Shaw said:

As you may know, I have been a proponent of tolls for over ten years.  I believe tolls are a necessary source of revenue for maintaining and repairing our state’s infrastructure. I understand there are suggestions to place tolls on I-95 in the 25 mile stretch between Fayetteville and Benson, NC.  I believe tolls should be placed at the state’s borders to capture interstate drivers instead of the local populace.

DOT is developing a plan to phase in the needed I-95 improvements, and probably to phase in a system of toll collections to pay for it.  Details are online at www.driving95.com. 

Virginia's governor is making plans to erect a tollbooth on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border, and North Carolina officials are talking seriously as well about collecting tolls to pay for a multi-billion-dollar overhaul of I-95 as it passes through eastern North Carolina (see Sunday's story with reader comments.)

Tolls only at the border are somehow more palatable to voters and in-state drivers, and that's what Senate leader Marc Basnight favors: tolls, but only at the Virginia border. 

But in interview remarks that didn't make Sunday's story, Gene Conti, the state DOT secretary, says Virginia's border-only approach would not raise enough revenue to pay for the I-95 fix.  North Carolina probably will have to have several toll collection points along the 182 miles of I-95, Conti said. ... [MORE]

For his contribution to Read Across America Day, Gene Conti selected a Dr. Seuss story that transportation wonks would call multi-modal.

"Green Eggs and Ham" stars a character called Sam-I-Am and includes references to several kinds of transportation. So that's what Conti, the state transportation secretary, read today to students at Washington GT Magnet Elementary School in downtown Raleigh.

At least in the press release version of the event, Conti inserted his own poetry, with a safety message, into Seuss's verse:

You can eat green eggs and ham on a boat, on a plane, or while riding a train.
But please refrain when you’re driving your car. Safety first – it’s who we are.

The National Education Association sponsors an annual reading day on the birthday of children's author Dr. Seuss, born 106 years ago today (he died in 1991).