In Breakthrough Roles, Three Women Are Political Power Players

Politics

February 26, 2008

  

All the signs are there.  Sweetheart conversation candies welcome shoppers with adages – Be Mine, True Love, and more recently, Fax Me. Mail arrives baring the “Love Stamp.” Street corners showcase roses by the dozens.

   It’s February, the season set aside for courting. For a quick study on the topic, pull up a hard wooden bench at the Gold Dome, where special interests, legislators and other public officials exercise the art of persuasion with savoir-faire.  Rather than romantic dinners by candlelight, public officials are wooed to the nearby Freight Depot for a wild hog supper, a seafood fest, among others – all with the intent of softening minds and hearts for a specific cause. When the wooing is complete, the evidence may lie in legislation altering the course of public policy or an appropriation directed home to the district.
 
 This year, three women leading high-profile efforts will be mixing it up at the Capitol. None is a newcomer to state government. In fact, each has a track record of success during her public sector tenure. Yet, this year the stakes are higher, the visibility greater, and the courtship more complex.

Carol Couch, Director of the Environmental Protection Division

   Long before the headlines declaring Georgia’s unprecedented drought, Carol Couch was leading efforts to shore up the state’s precious resources, chief among them, water.
   For the past three years, she has chaired the Water Council, a committee of eight agency heads, two at-large appointees and four elected-officials from around the state. The Legislature created the council by statute with the explicit intent that members would draft a statewide water usage and management plan. Under Couch’s diligent leadership, the council met this directive in early January.
   The proposed plan would create regional councils responsible for balancing the water resources with the water needs of its communities. Reaching consensus on those boundaries was a Herculean effort in and of itself, particularly given deeply rooted concerns over metro Atlanta’s consumption habits versus those of rural Georgia. Couch’s efforts at fostering cooperation and coalescing diverse interests are lauded by citizens, business leaders and public officials across the state.

   In October 2003, Gov. Sonny Perdue and the board of the Department of Natural Resources appointed Couch to lead EPD, making her the first woman to hold the post. As director, she manages a staff of 850 charged with enforcing state and federal laws intended to protect, conserve and restore the state’s natural resources.
  The daughter of career soldier, Couch developed an affinity for nature while hunting and fishing with her father, who retired to Columbus. She learned her expertise working as a biologist and hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey. Couch has worked to tighten air quality standards for mercury emissions and to help metro Atlanta meet federal ozone standards. She also has expanded the Brownfield Program to allow for more redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites.

   Clearly, Couch’s immediate challenge as EPD director is to court lawmakers’ approval of the council’s water plan and secure at least some of the $36 million necessary to implement it. Long-term, however, she is committed to educating citizens about the complexities of Georgia’s environmental issues and instilling in them a “conservation ethic.”

Gena Abraham, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation

   If anyone knows what it means to ride out the storm, it is Gena Abraham. The commissioner with a no-nonsense reputation took the helm of the Department of Transportation after a highly publicized and rancorous selection process. Abraham sought the position with solid backing from Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Also vying for the job was state Rep. Vance Smith, the favorite of House Speaker Glenn Richardson and his leadership team.
   The decision over who would fill this coveted position came down to the 13-member DOT board, all elected and arguably beholden to the state senators and representatives who elected them. Eventually, Abraham emerged the victor by a single vote. 

   Abraham, the first female commissioner of DOT, oversees nearly 6,000 employees and a $2.1 billion dollar budget. Her immediate challenges are getting a handle on the 2,500 active road projects, addressing more than 1,500 open lawsuits against the department and making up the agency’s projected $7 billion budget shortfall. Abraham has tackled challenges of this sort before, bringing transparency and accountability to the process.
   In her previous job as state property officer, Abraham consolidated management of all property owned and leased by the state and oversaw all construction projects financed by the state. When she assumed leadership of the state’s financing and investment arm, 68 construction projects were under way. Half were behind schedule, and 33 percent of them were over budget. Today, 123 projects are under way; 97 percent of them are on schedule and essentially 100 percent of them are within budget.

   Given her experience, Abraham has no illusions about how difficult it will be to affect change within the behemoth of all agencies. She is anticipating the legal and statutory hurdles that often slow reform. She also recognizes the need to be inclusive, listening to input from a variety of stakeholders, whether they are public officials or private citizens. The challenge for Abraham will be the political dance – knowing when to lead, when to follow and when to add some fancy footwork.


Margaret DeFrancisco, President/CEO, Georgia Lottery Corp. 

   A kiosk at Hartsfield-Jackson, fun-filled travel packages, open auditions for a drawings announcer. The Georgia Lottery is raising its visibility and more important, it is boosting sales. President Margaret DeFrancisco announced record-breaking sales in 2007, which translates into record-breaking proceeds for education. Specifically, a percentage of lottery profits fund Georgia’s pre-eminent HOPE college scholarship program and its nationally acclaimed pre-k program. GLC sales last year surpassed $3.4 billion, with $853 million of that supporting education.

   The Georgia Legislature passed the Lottery for Education Act in 1992, creating the Georgia Lottery Corp. and generating a supplemental funding stream for education. Since then, the lottery has enhanced the state’s education coffers by $9.5 billion dollars, sending more than a million students to college with the HOPE scholarship and making pre-kindergarten available to more than 850,000 4-year-olds.

   DeFrancisco joined the Georgia Lottery in 2004, as its second president. She was selected by the GLC board of directors, which is appointed by the governor.  DeFrancisco was no stranger to public life or to the lottery business. She moved south from New York, where she directed the state lottery.  It should come as no surprise that under her leadership, the New York Lottery also achieved record profits, increasing sales by nearly $2 billion, and became the largest lottery in North America.

   Until recently, DeFrancisco had been energetically going about the business of replicating her success in Georgia with little interruption or interference. However, when some lawmakers learned recently that lottery executives, including DeFrancisco, had received healthy bonuses for their record-breaking performance, they determined additional oversight is needed. Subsequently, Sen. Mitch Seabaugh filed legislation giving lawmakers the authority to appoint members to the board and requiring legislative approval for employee bonuses. Others contend the lottery has been successful during its 15-year history and should be left alone.
   While no criticism has been leveled directly at DeFrancisco, the debate lingers under the Gold Dome. Meantime, DeFrancisco will do what she can to clear the air by educating the public about the lottery’s unique business model. What she has learned during her short time in Georgia is that this is an ongoing process of telling the story of her organization’s success, especially the how and the why.