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Fired former state Alcohol Law Enforcement Director John Ledford will run for sheriff of Madison County, the job he held for three terms before joining ALE.

Ledford confirmed his plans to the Asheville Citizen-Times.

“This last week I’ve had a number of persons in the county reach out to me,” Ledford told the newspaper. “We are announcing our intentsions to run for sheriff of Madison County for 2014.”

On Monday, the state Department of Public Safety released its reasons for terminating Ledford on April 10. It was because in December Ledford – in anticipation of losing his job when the new Republican administration took over in January – demoted himself to agent and took a vacant position in Asheville that he had transferred from Wilmington, and gave himself a salary of $65,887. The position was budgeted at $39,198.

Last year, Ledford told The News & Observer that he intended to finish his career in law enforcement after he left ALE. A state audit earlier in the year criticized him for driving his state car home to Asheville on weekends; but Ledford’s calendars indicated he was attending state meetings on those occasions.

The state Department of Public Safety on Monday disclosed it had "ethical and legal concerns" that prompted it to fire former Alcohol Law Enforcement Director John Ledford after he demoted himself to agent.

Ledford had no legal authority to transfer a vacant position in Wilmington to Asheville, where he is from, and then essentially assign himself to that spot at an "advanced competency" salary level far in excess of what the position pays, according to a letter to Ledford by DPS Commissioner Frank Perry.

The decision to stop appealing a series of rulings that have gone against the state has led to the reinstatement this week of Trooper Anthony E. Scott.

Scott’s actions weren’t so much the legal issue in the case as was the state’s decision to fire him after he appealed the State Highway Patrol’s decision to demote him, cut his pay and reassign him to Charlotte in December 2009. Reuben Young, who headed what was then the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, overruled a committee he had appointed to review the case and fired Scott.

Retired Rear Admiral Edward “Sonny'' Masso has been named the new chief operating officer for the Department of Public Safety.

Masso served 32 years in the Navy and Navy Reserve including assignments as commander of the Navy Personnel Command/ deputy chief of Navy Personnel; deputy commander, Naval Surface Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet, vice commander Naval Surface Forces Command; and assistant deputy chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education.)

More recently, Masso has served as a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C.

The head of the State Highway Patrol is stepping down, as expected with the new administration in state government.

Col. Michael Gilchrist, who has been the commander since October 2010, will retire effective Friday. His second in command, Lt. Col. Gary Bell, will serve as acting commander until a final choice is made.

Kieran Shanahan, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety, issued a statement Tuesday praising Bell’s qualifications for the job, noting he has risen through the ranks over the past 27 years.

Rep. Nelson Dollar’s wife has just landed a job high up in the state Department of Public Safety. Fortunately, Lorrie L. Dollar’s qualifications extend well beyond her marriage to the Republican budget-writer from Cary.

Lorrie Dollar was a chief deputy state auditor, a deputy commissioner with the N.C. Industrial Commission, staff attorney and later chief legal counsel for the state Department of Correction, and a staff attorney for the state Department of Human Resources.

She has been named chief deputy secretary of administration. She replaces Bennie Aiken, who worked extensively on the new merged public safety department. She’s a native of Virginia who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and received a law degree at N.C. Central University.

DPS Secretary Kieran Shanahan made the announcement in a news release Friday.