Gov. Beverly Perdue has picked six new members for the state Board of Transportation. All but one of them, Durham lawyer Chuck Watts, gave money to Perdue's campaign last year.

The legislature’s Joint Transportation Oversight Committee received the names earlier this month, and the new members are expected to take their seats at the Aug. 6 meeting, reports Bruce Siceloff.

The new members, after the jump.

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D.M. "Mac" Campbell Jr. of Elizabethtown has resigned from the state Board of Transportation.

In a letter to Perdue, Campbell cited "the increased demands of my business as well as my desire to spend more time with my children and grandchildren," Bruce Siceloff reports.

Campbell, appointed by former Gov. Mike Easley, served on the board for eight years. He and family members contributed more than $26,000 to Perdue's Democratic primary opponent, Richard Moore, and they later gave money to Perdue's campaign. He represented Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett and Robeson counties.

His resignation comes a month after Durham lawyer Kenneth Spaulding said he would step down so he could give more time to his business interests. Doug Galyon of Greensboro, the board's longtime chairman, has said he is ready to leave the board as soon as Perdue finds a successor.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Beverly Perdue said she didn't know when the governor would name new board members.

Gov. Beverly Perdue opened the doors of the Executive Mansion to some of her political supporters last week.

Among the invitees was a former Board of Transportation member who had made Perdue's path to the state's top job a bit more arduous, reports Dan Kane.

Louis W. Sewell Jr., a Perdue fundraiser, resigned from the board last fall after The News & Observer reported that in two instances Sewell had advocated for road projects near businesses that he or his son co-owned. He said in both cases he was not trying to enhance his property, but remedy road problems that were affecting general traffic.

Days after the report (and just before Sewell resigned), Perdue was unclear about whether she would attend a fundraiser Sewell was throwing on her behalf in Jacksonville.

When asked if she would reappoint Sewell to the board, Perdue said, "Lord have mercy. I'm trying to win the governor's race."

Sewell cancelled the fundraiser and resigned from the transportation board shortly after that.

Perdue has since changed board operations so that members can not approve road building contracts.

David Kochman, Perdue's communications director, declined to identify all of the roughly 25 people who attended the meeting on March 30. But he confirmed that Sewell and Lanny Wilson of Wilmington, another Board of Transportation member, were there.

More after the jump.

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* Rep. Hugh Holliman expects his smoking ban bill to get its first hearing and healthy debate in the House Health Committee on Thursday.

* Republican legislators are urging their Democratic colleagues to back Gov. Beverly Perdue's request to take road projects from the Board of Transportation.

* Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate say that a bill to add a gay marriage ban to the constitution is going nowhere.

For possibly the first time ever, the state Board of Transportation will not take action at its monthly meeting Thursday on what has always been its bread-and-butter work: awarding highway contracts.

Instead, the board will agree to let Transportation Secretary Gene Conti decide which companies get each of the bridge and road jobs on this month’s agenda, reports Bruce Siceloff.

It’s the board’s first meeting since Gov. Beverly Perdue took office and decreed that transportation board members, who are political appointees from around the state, will get out of the business of awarding DOT contracts.

Conti said the new way of doing business will be worked out in time for the board’s next meeting, in March. Meanwhile, he’s taking responsibility for major contracts this month — but not for all of the board’s spending decisions. At least not yet.

Perdue’s lawyers, Conti and board members are working out the mechanics for this shift of power. The governor might have to seek legislation to make some of the changes legal.

“It’s a different way of doing things,” Conti said after explaining his plans to a board committee Wednesday. “We don’t want to jam things down people’s throats without talking to them, and making sure we’re doing it in a way that restores public confidence.”

More after the jump.

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Gov. Beverly Perdue has signed five executive orders and a campaign pledge.

In her first working day in office, Perdue issued six orders she says will make state government more efficient and ethical.

PUBLIC CAMPAIGNS: Establishes a governor's task force for the development of an endowment to fund positive gubernatorial campaigns.

REFORM DOT: Prohibits Board of Transportation members from voting on individual projects, or, if they vote, requires them to swear they have no financial interest.

OPEN BOOK: Directs the Office of State Budget and Management to develop and maintain a searchable and public Web site that shows state grants and contracts.

DROP-IN VISITS: Pledges to make regular, unannounced inspections of state facilities and conduct statistical performance reviews of state agencies.

BUDGET COMMISSION: Establishes a citizen oversight panel to ensure government programs are using tax dollars efectively and efficiently.

TOWN HALLS: Affirms governor's commitment to participate in at least four live town halls televised across the state and launches an "electric town hall."

Gov. Beverly Perdue plans to sign an order today that would strip most of the specific decision-making power from the N.C. Board of Transportation.

The idea is that Perdue wants the board to be less involved in specific decisions and to function more like a board of directors. State law has a different take.

The board has 19 members and 14 are appointed to represent a geographic region of the state. The state law is pretty clear about what those division representatives should do.

Division members shall direct their primary effort to developing transportation policy and addressing transportation problems in the region they represent. Division members shall regularly consult with and consider the views of local government units and Transportation Advisory Committees in the region they represent.

The law goes on to state:

Consultation of Board Members. – Each member of the Board of Transportation who is appointed to represent a transportation engineering division or who resides in a division shall be consulted before the Board makes a decision affecting that division.

The governor has sole authority to appoint transportation board members. Perdue has said that she expects board members to do what she says.

Gov. Mike Easley says it's his job to be nice, and Dome can prove it.

When N.C. Board of Transportation member Louis Sewell resigned in September after the N&O reported that he had worked to bring state dollars to two transportation projects near property he or his son co-owned, Easley chided Sewell in a statement to the press, Dan Kane reports.

"He should have recused himself at the Board level with these projects as he did at the local level," Easley said. "Otherwise he has been an active board member and provided good service to the state of North Carolina."

But his letter to Sewell — an Easley fundraiser from Jacksonville — makes no mention of any missteps.

"Thank you for notifying me of your resignation as a member of the Board of Transportation effective immediately," Easley wrote. "On behalf of the citizens of North Carolina, I want to extend our gratitude for your leadership to our great state.

"We are fortunate in North Carolina to have so many citizens who are willing to offer their time and talent in service to our state."

Local transit grants worth $25 million are still frozen.

State Department of Transportation officials will be asked at two public meetings today to explain what they're doing to reverse the Federal Transit Administration's decision to freeze grants in North Carolina it tentatively approved in September.

"Withholding funds is a tool FTA uses sparingly," the FTA said by e-mail. 

The FTA told state transportation departments in November of 2007 to prepare detailed management plans for how it would distribute the money and account for its spending. North Carolina is the only state whose funds are frozen because it failed to provide an acceptable plan.

In a Nov. 4 letter, the FTA said North Carolina was deficient in 12 of 21 areas.

State DOT officials are scheduled to discuss the FTA money today at meetings of the legislature's transportation oversight committee and the state Board of Transportation. (N&O)