Politics + Media = extra $$.

The new state mental hospital needed more than a regular old director.

That's why the state Department of Health and Human Services had to hire J. Michael Hennike as a contractor to run Central Regional Hospital in Butner, it explained in its contract, Lynn Bonner reports.

DHHS hired him under a contract with the UNC-Chapel Hill medical school's psychiatry department for $185,012.

"CRH is in the middle of merging operations between John Umstead Hospital and Dorothea Dix Hospital and the process is highly political and involves the media," the contract's "problem statement" says. "A seasoned manager with vast experience is needed."

Hiring Hennike as a contractor allowed DHHS to pay him about $70,000 more than the going rate for hospital directors.

Although DHHS announced Hennike started Jan. 1, DHHS said he's actually been running the place since Nov. 1. That's when his contract started.

Mark Van Sciver, a DHHS spokesman said Mike Lancaster, the interim director who made way for Hennike, was the "titular head" for a while. Hennike is expected to run Central Regional for two years, according to the contract.

Hennike, who ran the Murdock Center in Butner for years, suspended his state pension payments Dec. 1, according to the state treasurer's office.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the salary. 

Gov. Mike Easley's administration is still having trouble turning over copies of the e-mails of its officials.

On June 27, The News & Observer filed a request with state Department of Health and Human Services for copies of e-mails since May 1 from six officials pertaining to the opening of Central Regional Hospital, the state's new mental hospital in Butner, reports Michael Biesecker.

It took 12 days, until July 8, for the department's public information staff to forward the request for e-mails to the six employees. DHHS public information staffer Mark Van Sciver instructed the six officials to gather the relevant e-mails and respond by July 23.

The first patients are scheduled to move into the hospital on or around July 21.

DHHS public affairs director Tom Lawrence said his office was not trying to delay the records request until after the opening and said those who had the e-mails were busy.

"We have a hospital to open," Lawrence said July 9.

Read more after the jump.

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Patsy Christian has gone from a gilded frame to a golden parachute.

Christian resigned her position last week as director of a new state mental hospital in Butner following N&O reports about a portrait of herself she commissioned with money intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

But the embattled administrator will remain on the state payroll at more than 95 percent of her former salary.

In a new position created just for her, Christian will work for the state hospital system "to improve overall quality management in the area of nurse training across the system and compliance with regulatory requirements," according to spokesman Mark Van Sciver of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The department has not yet responded to a request for Christian's written job description.

Her new annual salary will be $114,056, down from the $119,759 she earned as hospital director.

An SBI investigation of the $572 payment Christian approved for the portrait, which was painted by a state nurse who is a subordinate, is ongoing.