In an e-mail sent Friday to all Division of Motor Vehicles employees, Commissioner Mike Robertson defended the agency's decision to follow the state's public records law and release the list of state workers Verizon Business says it provided meals and gifts.

The list, released to the media following a records request from The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, contained the names of nearly three dozen DMV employees. Most of those named are still working at the agency in high-ranking, managerial positions.

Robinson stressed that the document was not released "to harm or embarrass anyone" and that being on the list in itself did not prove any wrongdoing. The named employees would "have an opportunity to speak to the allegations," Robertson wrote.

Considering that some individual DMV employees were listed as dining on Verizon's tab on dozens of occasions at some very fine restaurants, Dome is betting there will be some very interesting explanations forthcoming.

An electronic copy of the Verizon list is available for download from Dome under "Hot Documents."

A copy of the e-mail is provided after the jump:

   Comments (5)

Nearly three dozen employees at the state Division of Motor Vehicles, many who directly oversaw the agency’s $51.5 million computing contract with Verizon Business, appear to have accepted steak dinners, hockey tickets and other gifts from the company.

On some occasions, Verizon says it provided such catered meals as barbecue and deli plates to DMV employees at the agency’s Raleigh headquarters. Most of the time, the company’s sales staff and the state employees dined out, often at such pricey Triangle eateries as The Chop House, The Angus Barn and 42nd Street Oyster Bar.

Verizon provided DMV with a list last month containing the names of 62 people it says it bought things for. Of those, at least 37 are current or former state employees, while nine were consultants and private contractors working for the state. Other names on the list appear to be the spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends of the state employees.

The list was released by DMV Tuesday, following a public records request from The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer. Dozens of employees whose names appear on the list are still on the job.

The State Bureau of Investigation is currently probing whether Verizon employees or state officials broke the law, including whether those accepting the meals and gifts then made decisions that helped the company.

DMV Commissioner Mike Robertson said Tuesday that the SBI investigation is likely to take weeks, if not longer. After that, DMV will conduct an internal investigation to determine whether personnel action is warranted.

"The fact that an employee’s name is on the list does not indicate wrongdoing," said Robertson, adding that investigators would need to confirm the meals indicated in Verizon’s records actually took place.

With a payment of $55,000, the state of North Carolina has settled a lawsuit over why Wayne Hurder was fired last October as deputy commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Top officials at DMV and the state Department of Transportation originally said Hurder had exerted improper influence in several DMV hirings, Bruce Siceloff reports.

DOT released documents suggesting that Hurder had shaped some personnel decisions to favor job candidates backed by a Greene County political patronage boss, Eddie Carroll Thomas.

Hurder contended in his lawsuit that he was fired for refusing to make improper personnel moves favored by his boss, Bill Gore, who was then the DMV commissioner. The Office of State Personnel later found there was no basis for Hurder's allegations against Gore.

Now Hurder has dropped his lawsuit after DMV agreed in late April to pay him $55,000 and to change his personnel files to indicate that he had resigned. He says the state paid him because it feared he would prevail when the case came before a state hearing officer.

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

The House passed a bill to allow habitual drunk drivers to get their licenses restored if they had a clean record after 10 years.

State Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Robeson County Democrat, said he filed House Bill 1185 to help people who "screwed up their life early" if they can show they have reformed.

Currently, North Carolinians convicted of being habitual drunk drivers have their licenses revoked for life.

The bill would allow people to petition to get their licenses restored after a decade if they had not had a drinking- or driving-related offenses since. It would allow the state Division of Motor Vehicles to put conditions on their license.

"This is something to allow a person who has had a real problem to straighten their lives out and hopefully find themselves on the straight and narrow," he said.

Rep. Edgar Starnes, a Caldwell County Republican, said the bill sends the "wrong message."

"Drunk driving is still a serious problem," he said. "This statute was enacted beccause we have to recognize that there are some people in this state who have no business with a license. A driving license is a privilege."

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

New records filed with the Division of Motor Vehicles shed light on what transpired in late March as the News & Observer began asking questions about two cars the Easley family had been driving but did not own.

One vehicle was a Honda Accord driven by Mary Easley, but owned by a Rick Hendrick dealership in Charlotte.

The other was a GMC Yukon driven by Mike Easley Jr., but owned by the dealership of Robert F. Bleecker in Red Springs.

The newspaper first posed questions in detail to Hendrick on March 25 and to the Easleys and Bleecker on March 26, Andy Curliss reports.

   Comments (5)

Rosa Gill will also seek former state Sen. Vernon Malone's seat.

The Wake County board of education member said she will be among the candidates speaking at a forum Saturday sponsored by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, Keung Hui reports.

Other announced candidates include Marlowe W. Foster, a lobbyist with Pfizer; and Bernard Allen II, the son of a former state representative.

Other rumored candidates include Alexander Killens, former director of the state's Division of Motor Vehicles; and state Rep. Dan Blue, a former House speaker.

The association will make a recommendation to the Wake County Democratic Party, which will name Malone's replacement on May 6.

Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency today as a winter storm dumped nearly a half-foot of snow across the state, more in some spots, shuttering schools and turning roads into slushy skid zones.

The order enables Perdue to deploy additional resources to help the state cope with the storm. The state’s emergency operations center in Raleigh was activated this morning to aid local governments, reports Mark Johnson.

“The storm’s largest impact this morning is primarily to North Carolina’s roads,” Perdue said in a prepared statement, “and I urge citizens who do not have to drive to stay at home today.”

The N.C. Highway Patrol reported dozens of accidents, particularly in the Triangle and Triad areas. Additional troopers were called in today. Many highways are partly covered in snow, and secondary roads are covered, officials warned.

The N.C. Department of Transportation trucks dumped tons of salt on roads that were sprayed with anti-icing solution the night before.

“Our preparations are working,” Perdue said, “but motorists need to do their part, too.”

Snowfall began before dawn, and as the powder piled up, government meetings were cancelled and stores closed. Division of Motor Vehicles offices planned a 2 p.m. closing and, on Wednesday, a 10 a.m. opening.

The Office of State Personnel found that there is no basis to allegations that former Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Bill Gore used favoritism in hiring.

The claims were made by Gore's former second-in-command, Wayne Hurder. Hurder was fired in November after an internal DMV investigation found that he had allowed a Greene County patronage boss, Eddie Carroll Thomas, to have longstanding and widespread influence over personnel matters within the Driver and Vehicle Services section.

Hurder claimed in a suit filed shortly after his termination that Gore had violated personnel procedures in seeking to help two people get DMV positions, reports Dan Kane. One is the son of a former neighbor of Gore's who won a summer internship; the other was a temporary DMV employee who sought a fulltime job.

An investigation by the state personnel office found that Hurder came up with the idea of the summer internship and set it in motion, and did not raise objections about it at the time. Another person who had no connection to Gore was selected for a second internship.

As for the temporary employee, the investigation found that Gore expressed an interest in hiring him fulltime because he had fixed some equipment that others responsible for the repair had failed to fix. But the investigation found that Gore did not get involved in the hiring process as the temporary employee applied for two jobs, one of which he won.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (1)