resignation

Mike Snyder executive director of the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority says he's resigning effective March 7 next, his 65th birthday. His departure had been loudly called for by Teresa Jacobs, the mayor of Orlando and another board member. That meant at least two of the five person board were likely to vote for his ouster.

Paul Violette executive director (ED) of the Maine Turnpike for 24 years offered his resignation to the Authority board of directors this morning, and they accepted.

When Paul Violette's name comes up among toll industry people they're liable to say "Remember Madrid." And to recount an amazing Violette performance at the microphone at an IBTTA annual conference some years ago. It was an after-dinner speech. The people there, perhaps 250, just wanted to enjoy their dinner and the company at their table.

There are TV and radio news reports out of Portland Maine that the Turnpike's longtime CEO Paul Violette is resigning. Nothing is confirmed or official but the Turnpike board is meeting today, and they're scheduled to go into a closed "executive session" to discuss personnel matters.

One of the old giants of American physics Harold (Hal) Lewis, professor at Princeton, Berkeley, Bell Labs, and Uni Cal Santa Barbara has finally resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) after protracted efforts to get them to appoint a panel to reconsider alarmist pronouncements on global warming. He says the premier professional associations of American physicists has been corrupted by government grants and zealotry.

With the New Jersey Turnpike under heavy scrutiny from the new Christie administration the executive director and longtime finance chief Diane Scaccetti is resigning. She told transportation commissioner and Turnpike chairman James Simpson of her plans to leave in a letter dated April 6. The letter has not been released. A spokesman for the commissioner said the matter is being handled by the Governor's office.

A Philadelphia Inquirer report this morning quotes recently resigned Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission vice-chairman Timothy Carson as saying that after his second drunken driving (DUI) conviction in 2006 he spent five days in an alcohol treatment program in place of jail time.

Timothy Carson, vice-chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike has released a long resignation letter he's written to Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell in which he cites drunk driving incidents in 2003 and 2006 and his failure to report them as reasons for his leaving. No one was injured in either accident and Carson says he paid for the damage to his Turnpike-issued vehicle out of his own pocket.

Alan LeBovidge executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike has resigned, saying in a letter to Turnpike chairman and secretary of transportation James Aloisi that Turnpike policy is now being driven by politics and no longer is focussed on the financial crisis he was hired to address.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's resignation from IBTTA has been quietly acknowledged by the trade association by removing its name from the official membership list. (see nearby)

However there has been no comment by IBTTA, and no other acknowledgement of the departure of one of the oldest and longest standing members of the established industry trade association.