State DOT Board Gets New Member From Alpharetta

By ARIEL HART www.ajc.com

Seeking to resolve another episode of turmoil at the Georgia Department of Transportation, a group of legislators Thursday unanimously elected Brandon Beach to the state Transportation Board.

Beach, of Alpharetta, is president of the Greater North Fulton chamber of commerce and a member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Board.
Recent headlines:

He will resign from the GRTA board to take the DOT board seat.

Beach, 47, has been a restaurant owner and an Alpharetta city council member and was national sales manager for Quaker State Oil Co., which he left seven years ago.

He fills the seat of Garland Pinholster, who was the heir apparent to the board chairmanship until he resigned his vice chairmanship, and later his board seat, amid accusations of workplace sexual harassment. The department last week settled with the two accusers for a total of nearly $150,000.

Beach will serve parts of Cherokee, Cobb and Fulton counties. He represents the 6th Congressional district and was elected by state senators and representatives whose state districts fall within all or part of that district.

Beach said it is too early to say what his position on expanding passenger rail will be.
"There's a movement toward transit," in light of $4 gas, he said, but he added that "rail is expensive."
He spoke in favor of mixed-use developments where people don't have to travel so far between work, home and play."We can't continue to sprawl," he said.

Pinholster's departure followed the April resignation of DOT board chairman Mike Evans after Evans disclosed that he and DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham had become romantically involved.