ATLANTA --- State transportation commissioner Gena Evans survived yet another controversy about her personal life Thursday as the state Department of Transportation board decided to keep her on the job.

Board members took no action on Ms. Evans after a two-hour closed-door session to handle legal and personnel issues.

The first woman to lead the DOT has come under fire in recent weeks for alleged conflicts of interest and tawdry e-mails unearthed by media organizations and self-proclaimed ethics watchdog George Anderson.

Although the gathering was technically a committee meeting, only one member of the full board did not participate.

Most of the allegations have centered on romantic relationships between Ms. Evans and co-workers or state contractors when she worked at the Georgia Building Authority and the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission.

"I think there was pretty much a consensus that those things happened a number of years ago (and) it wasn't under the jurisdiction of the DOT," said board Chairman Bill Kuhlke, who spoke briefly with reporters after the meeting.

Mr. Kuhlke said the board's concerns included off-color language Ms. Evans used in e-mails with at least one boyfriend and the appearance that "maybe at times she didn't tell the exact truth" in some television interviews during the controversy.

Ms. Evans appeared to contradict herself when asked about her involvement in one state project during a pair of interviews with Atlanta television station WAGA.

"That is a concern," Mr. Kuhlke said. "But with what she's been going through for the last three weeks, sometimes you say things you wish you didn't say."

He said he believed Ms. Evans still had the support of a majority of the board and that members considered the matter closed.

This is the second time in seven months that board members have decided to keep Ms. Evans despite questions about the intersection of her private relationships and public duties.

In April, then-board Chairman Mike Evans resigned to pursue a romantic relationship with the commissioner, then Gena Abraham.

The board voted to retain Gena Evans, and she and Mike Evans were married in September.

Reach Brandon Larrabee at (678) 977-3709 or brandon.larrabee@morris.com.