Joan Troy, who tangled with state wildlife commissioners when she was a state employee, lost her job last week due to budget cuts.

Troy, who worked 16 years for the state, including nine for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said she saw her RIF coming, because she had been marginalized at the office since the wildlife commissioners tried to fire her two years ago. 

"They wanted to bury me and make sure I had no contact with anyone," Troy said from her Raleigh home. "I was actually the only employee banned from attending commission meetings. I was expecting the RIF."

Gordon Myers, the commission's executive director, said there was no plan to oust Troy - that her's was one of 7.5 filled jobs the office had to eliminate because of a $4 million budget cut. In addition, 15 vacant positions were eliminated, he said. Division directors at the agency made the decisions, Myers said, and commissioners had no say in them. 

 In 2007, Troy's conflicts with commission members lead to the forced resignation of her boss, former executive director Dick Hamilton. 

Troy, whose job it was to propose and help implement the agency's rules, disagreed with commissioners on whether to ban boating within 100 feet of dams at nine lakes in the western part of the state. 

Commissioners failed in their attempts to fire her in 2007. Troy returned to the commission office, but she said her job description was rewritten. 

The turmoil at the Wildlife Resources Commission may be over.

Joan Troy, the embattled agency legal specialist whose attempted ouster in July by the commission led to the resignation of Executive Director Dick Hamilton, will now work in the Commission's Enforcement Division.

The announcement was made by Fred Harris, interim executive director, at the commissioners meeting Wednesday, Mike Zlotnicki reports.

"She is the person in that position. We don't envision a change," Harris said. "We came to the conclusion that the position is necessary, and we were able to define the duties and tasks that needed to be accomplished by that position, and when we looked at the sum total of all of all of that, everyone agreed that the Division of Law Enforcement would be the logical place to house that position."

Harris said Troy is well-qualified for the position.

Contacted at her home after the meeting, Troy said, "I believe the commission got better legal advice for the revision of my duties than they did for the attempt to abolish my job in July."

Troy said she is not entirely happy, despite retaining her job.

"I have a job, but Dick Hamilton does not, and he is one of the finest public servants I ever had the honor to serve with," she said.

Troy will report to her new job in about a week.

What started out as a reorganization meeting Monday for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission ended up as a subtraction when executive director Richard B. Hamilton abruptly quit.

Hamilton, a 37-year commission veteran who had served as executive director since September 2004, resigned effective immediately. The commission appointed Chief Deputy Director Fred Harris to serve as interim director, Mike Zlotnicki reports.

Commission legislative liaison Joan Troy, who worked closely with Hamilton, said commissioners’ resentment of her influence led to Hamilton's resignation.

"I'm perceived as wielding a lot of power in the commission," said Troy, 47, of Raleigh, who said she didn't fit in on the all-male body of 18 members.

"I'm a non-hunter, non-fisher, non-biologist, non-male. I was never going to be accepted no matter how hard I tried," said Troy, who added that the special meeting had been scheduled to oust her.

Hamilton and Commission Chairman Wes Seegars couldn't be reached.