DOT board member, lobbyist for bond firm, resigns

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Posted 7:46AM on Tuesday, July 23, 2002

ATLANTA - H. Boyd Pettit III, an attorney and lobbyist who represents an investment banking firm that sold bonds for transportation projects, has resigned his seat on the state Department of Transportation board. Pettit, 49, of Cartersville, represented the 7th Congressional District on the board. He submitted his resignation Monday to Gov. Roy Barnes and Transportation Commissioner Tom Coleman, citing family and professional responsibilities. "More and more of my time is being required by my private interests right now, and it's hard to balance," said Pettit, who was elected to the DOT board in 2000. Board members receive no salary but get compensation on board meeting days for travel and other expenses. Pettit said he has always been careful about abstaining from board votes on which a conflict of interest might have occurred between his private business interests and his public duties. He represents Knox Wall, an investment banking firm that made $45,000 from selling bonds issued last year by the State Road and Tollway Authority to pay for DOT projects. Knox Wall also was being considered for participation in the tollway authority's upcoming $822 million bond issue. The firm also was part of a team bidding to finance and build the proposed $2.2 billion, 59-mile Northern Arc north of Atlanta. Pettit said he never discussed Knox Wall with tollway authority officials. Dealing with questions about his business interests and the Northern Arc "continues to do nothing but take more and more of my time away from my family and other responsibilities," Pettit said. Coleman called Pettit's resignation "a great loss to not only the department, but to his congressional district and to the state of Georgia." Board chairman William G. Hasty Sr. blamed the news media for Pettit's decision. "It is unfortunate that the ethics of such a good man were questioned by the Atlanta media, especially when he is on record since the beginning of his service on the state transportation board for having abstained from voting on several occasions when he felt there might be a conflict of interest," Hasty said. On July 5, the governor suspended state work on the Northern Arc plans until after his proposed package of ethics reforms have been considered by the General Assembly next year. Barnes said ethics questions were interfering with more substantive debate over the merits of the proposed highway. Edmund Wall, Knox Wall's managing partner, resigned earlier this month from the Atlanta Regional Commission. Wall also withdrew his name from consideration for work with the tollway authority and resigned from his Northern Arc bid team. "I never intended for an action on my part to call into question Boyd's reputation and integrity as a public servant," Wall wrote in his letter resigning from the bid team. Pettit's replacement on the transportation board will be selected by majority vote of the state legislators in the 7th Congressional District.