A post last week gave the wrong number of fines levied by the state Ethics Commission.

In a meeting Friday, commissioners fined 20 public officials who had failed to file public disclosure forms in a timely manner. We inadvertently left out six who were discussed after a lunch break.

All six were appointees who had turned their forms in late.

They are: John Allen of the Landscape Contractors Registration, Mark D. McGoldrick of the Housing Finance Agency Board, Quayle Neslen of the Southwestern Community College Trustees, George Rountree of the Southeastern N.C. Regional Economic Development Commission, Stuart Sherman of the School of the Arts and Mark D. Urban of the Governor's Advocacy Council for People with Disabilities.

In addition, 12 other appointees who filed late had their fines waived.

The original post has been updated to include all of the officials. 

Gov. Mike Easley will remove three public officials over ethics issues.

At a meeting Friday, the state Ethics Commission recommended the removal of the three officials for failure to file a financial disclosure form.

The commission removed two other officials, but it cannot remove appointees of the governor.

In an e-mail message to the N&O, a spokesman for the governor said that he would remove the three.

They are Buren Harrelson of the Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services Commission; Sadie Stanfield of the Human Relations Commission and Lon M. Culbertson of the Building Code Council.

The state Ethics Commission removed two public officials from office and recommended three others be removed in a meeting this morning.

The five appointees, plus nine others, were also fined $250 each for failure to turn in a financial disclosure form required under a state law that went into effect Jan. 1.

The board made some allowances for people who resigned from office promptly rather than turn in the forms, which are more extensive than in years past. But commissioners warned that they were only being lenient becaus the law is new.

"I'm not going to be inclined to do that next time," said commissioner Jane Finch.

Former state Sen. Jerry Blackmon, a new appointee on the commission, said he was leery of fining unpaid volunteers on local boards.

The board waived fines for six officials and ordered further investigation of one other.

A complete list of board decisions after the jump.

Correction: An earlier version of this post and its headline did not include actions taken on appointees who filed late. There were 20 fines levied.

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