Department of Transportation Commissioner Ralph J. Carpenter, 55, is retiring after 30 years of service in the state, effective Jan. 1. Gov. M. Jodi Rell has asked former commissioner Emil H. Frankel to serve on an interim basis while she conducts a national search for a DOT commissioner.
This will be the third time Rell will seek an individual to head the often criticized state transportation department.
Following Carpenter’s retirement from the state, where he earned a salary of $150,380, he will join Aetna in Hartford as assistant head to its special investigations unit. An Aetna spokesperson said Carpenter will start the post Jan. 14.
“Ralph has very ably begun the dramatic reform process that I have instituted at DOT,” Rell said. “Our national search for a new commissioner will be focused on finding the right person to continue these changes and spur the agency to new success.”
Carpenter became DOT commissioner on Aug. 4, 2006 after serving as lieutenant colonel in the Department of Public Safety and as the head of the motor vehicle department. He replaced former commissioner Stephen E. Korta II, who served from April 1, 2004. Korta had stepped in when James F. Byrnes Jr., commissioner from March 2003 to April 2004, retired.
Extensive Search
Emil H. Frankel will most likely take over in January after Carpenter’s formal last day, according to a spokesman from the DOT. The search for a permanent successor may take from several months to a year or more.
“Carpenter came to the agency at a time when it was reeling from significant issues, the most important being the botched repairs of I-84 in Waterbury,” said DOT Director of Communications Judd Everhart. “All of that happened before he even got here, but he was stuck with trying to clean it up. He has been very successful in securing the insurance money from the contractors to make the repairs.”
“The most important legacy is the tone he set here,” Everhart added. “He is regarded as a genuine leader with the highest ethical standards. He did what he could to get the department back on track and moving in the right direction. He won a great deal of respect with the 3,200 employees that work here every day.”
Rell credits Carpenter with starting reforms at the DOT through the Commission on Reform of the DOT, which was formed over the past year. Some changes include reorganizing and consolidating fiscal and administrative functions of the department into a Bureau of Administrative and Financial Services, new oversight and inspection procedures for highway construction projects, moving the inspection cycle of bridges in Connecticut back to two years, and new policies concerning the employment of agency employee family members on transportation projects.
The commission will release its report and recommendations next week.
“The national search for a new commissioner and the release of the commission’s report next week is an opportunity for a fresh start all the way around,” the governor said.
An AP report was included in this story
