It's clear that in the middle of an employment dispute with its former executive director, members of the N.C. State Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners went to the legislature to get the rules changed.

The board successfully lobbied lawmakers to stick a sentence into an unrelated bill. The change would mean that the protections that Doug Van Essen was using to challenge his termination would no longer apply. In other words, if he wins his job back, he could get fired again without recourse.

What isn't as clear, is who led the charge for the board.

At a hearing over Van Essen's case, Board chairman Ray Mitchell Jr. said it was board member Rita Harris, a lobbyist for the Commerce Department and a licensed cosmetologist.

"Who on behalf of the board decided to approve presenting this amendment?" Van Essen's attorney, Faith Herndon, asked Mitchell at the hearing.

"I would say Rita Harris," Mitchell said.

Harris disagreed when reached by Dome.

"I don't know that I was the person who did that," said Harris. "I think Ray [Mitchell] was really in charge of doing that and I think he was at the meetings where that happened if I recall."

Harris hung up the phone in the middle of an interview, saying Mitchell needed to answer questions about the Van Essen case.

More after the jump.

   Comments (3)

Gov. Beverly Perdue's desk must look a little something like Dome's cluttered and paper-filled workstation.

The legislature wrapped up its session earlier this month leaving 108 bills for Perdue to sign into law. She has 30 days after the end of the session to sign the bills and as of Sunday, day 12, she has signed none, according to Gerry Cohen, the legislature's bill drafting director.

The bills cover a host of subjects: from licensing requirements for hair braiding, to a bill that would prohibit a sex offender from getting a license to drive a school bus to a bill banning a hallucinogenic herb. Cohen has posted a list of the bills on his Drafting Musings blog.

Perdue could sign the bills into law. She could veto them. If she doesn't act within 30 days, all the bills become law, according to Cohen because North Carolina has no pocket veto.

Update: Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Perdue, said the governor is reviewing the bills with her staff.

"We don't have a decision made on all of them yet as to whether she will sign them," Pearson said.

Perdue is likely to sign bills as they are reviewed, rather than all at once, so Dome's image of the governor running through a box of pens in a sign-a-thon isn't likely to come true. 

If there was any sign that the Senate was ready to go home, it was today's debate over House Bill 291, the Cosmetic Art Act.

First, Sen. Don East, a Republican from Pilot Mountain, took objection to the bill's conference report, which didn't include an amendment he added to the bill when it first came through the Senate. He complained that the chamber's leadership left him out of key negotiations.

"The leadership didn't even give me the courtesy of being on the conference committee," East said. "So you can stick this bill where the sun don't shine!" he said, slamming his microphone down on the table.

"You guys get upset about your hairdos," said Senate leader Marc Basnight, who was presiding over the chamber.

Sen. Tom Apodaca (above), in a moment of jest, asked that Basnight, for once, get upset about his hair cut.

"At least mine is real," Basnight replied. "All of you realize he had that implant done," suggesting that Apodaca had hair implants recently. He then added that Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, could probably use a similar procedure.

After a few minutes of laughter, Sen. Doug Berger (below) stood up to speak on the bill, prompting another barb from Basnight.

"What is it that Berger has on his head?" he asked the chamber.

The Senate to expects to pass a version of the bill today.