[B]ERLIN — Deputy Transportation Secretary Sue Minter will assume the agency’s top job in January, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Tuesday.
Minter has held the deputy secretary position since 2011 and served as Shumlin’s Irene Recovery Officer after Tropical Storm Irene devastated 500 miles of Vermont state and local highways.
“It’s been an era of challenge and recovery, of extraordinary investment and also of progress,” Minter said.
She will replace Secretary Brian Searles, who retires Dec. 31. Searles has led Shumlin’s Agency of Transportation since 2011, and previously held that post in the Dean administration. Shumlin made the announcement at a news conference held at the AOT garage on U.S. 302 in Berlin.
During Searles’ tenure, the state has made a historic investment in bridges, roads and rail systems and has helped to repair and replace the state’s decaying infrastructure, Minter said.
“Moving forward, we are going to build on this progress. We are not going to let our transportation system go back into disrepair,” said Minter, a former state representative from Waterbury.
The state increased its investment in transportation over the past six years — its $680 million budget makes AOT the second-largest in state government — but inaction at the federal level continues to create uncertainty.
“The question for us really is what is going to happen in Congress,” Minter said.
Federal lawmakers passed another stop-gap transportation funding bill in August, which expires in May. Minter said she believes this will be the year Congress attempts to find a long-term solution for transportation funding, and pledged to add her voice to a national call for action.
Minter serves on a White House climate change preparedness task force, and took a strong stand on the issue Tuesday.
“We learned many lessons from Irene that we cannot forget,” she said. “We know what the scientists tell us, that our changing climate will continue to bring more frequent and severe storms.”
Many of the recommendations in a recent report from the task force draw on lessons Vermont shared from Irene, she said, including that infrastructure wrecked by weather events should be replaced with the most resilient, not the most affordable, option.
“We are also helping Vermonters reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them more options to ride buses, trains, ride their bikes or take a walk,” Minter said.
Shumlin thanked Searles for his service and for agreeing to delay his retirement in order to remain at agency’s helm through the governor’s second term.
“About a year ago, Brian came to see me and he had a resignation letter in his pocket,” Shumlin said. “It’s the only time I haven’t accepted a letter from my secretary. I told him that he had another year of work to do, and I begged him to stay. He rose to the occasion, and to this day I’ve never read his letter.”
Searles, who worked for 45 years in the public sector, thanked his staff for their work building and maintaining the state’s transportation system, often in difficult conditions and under trying circumstances.
The governor also announced that Chris Cole will be Minter’s deputy. Cole is director of policy and planning at AOT, a position he’s held since 2011. He was general manager of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority for a decade prior to his tenure at AOT.
