Beshear cabinet shakeup: Jim Gray steps down from transportation cabinet & more
Gov. Andy Beshear announced a handful of big changes to leadership in his administration Tuesday.
Beshear named three new cabinet heads and announced the departure of Jim Gray from his post as secretary of the powerful Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, according to a release from the governor’s office.
Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman, who has been in that role since Beshear took office, replaces Gray at KYTC. Meanwhile, Energy and Environment Cabinet deputy Secretary John Lyons will move up to replace Goodman.
Gray, 72, who served as Lexington mayor for two terms and ran for U.S. House and Senate, is not leaving public service. The release stated Gray has a new part-time role as special advisor to the Governor on transportation. He led KYTC for more than six years.
A new Public Protection Cabinet secretary was also named. Deputy secretary DJ Wasson moves into the top role in that agency, replacing Ray Perry, who, like Gray, will move closer to Beshear’s immediate orbit. Perry is now deputy secretary of Beshear’s executive cabinet under Executive Cabinet Secretary John Hicks. A longtime state government employee, Perry led the Public Protection Cabinet for nearly five years.
A spokesperson for the governor said the personnel changes were effective Tuesday.
“Jim helped us see through major projects like the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project and finalizing the Mountain Parkway while also delivering safer roads and bridges across Kentucky and supporting preparations for, response to and recovery from some of the state’s worst natural disasters. I am grateful he will continue to make an impact through this next well-deserved role,” Beshear said in the release.
Goodman kicked off her career at KYTC as a cartographer, according to the relsase. She was later a staff attorney at the Kentucky Public Service Commission and served as general counsel to KTYC and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.
