A federally funded program at UNC-Chapel Hill was supposed to help deployed soldiers of the National Guard and Army Reserves.

Instead, the Citizen Soldier Support Program has produced reams of paperwork but few concrete results, according to an internal review.

"The CSSP is vulnerable to the accusation that it spends too much money on administrative overhead and low-priority 'nice-to-do' actitivities and not enough time on activities directly relevant to its mission," read the review.

The program was created in 2004 when U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, inserted $10 million into the federal budget.

Since then, the program has spent $7.3 million. One-quarter of the money has gone to the university for overhead. Half of the eight full-time employees are paid more than $100,000 a year, including a deputy director who has been reimbursed $76,000 for food, travel and lodging when she commutes from her home in northern Virginia to North Carolina.

Price said the program is worthy of federal funding and that he still supports its goals.

"If these funds haven't been utilized in the most effective way, we need to correct it," he said. (N&O)

House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight highlighted their support Tuesday for a program that strengthens the relationship between National Guard members and their employers.

The two legislative leaders signed a resolution applauding the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Program, which helps smooth the friction with employers created when their employees are deployed. The two leaders have firsthand experience, since two House members and a member of the legislature's fiscal staff are all reservists.

Karlynn O'Shaughnessy serves as an analyst in the fiscal research division, and she is a brigadier general in the Army Reserves. Rep. Grier Martin, a Raleigh Democrat, is a major in the Army reserves, and Rep. Ric Killian, a Charlotte Republican, is a lieutenant colonel. All three attended Tuesday's event.

RALEIGH — Work began this morning on a $57 million new National Guard/emergency nerve center in West Raleigh, one of the most visible North Carolina projects funded by the federal stimulus package.

Gov. Beverly Perdue and Congressman David Price were among those who braved a light rain to to shovel the first dirt on the high tech project that will serve as headquarters for not only National Guard operations, but will serve as the center for the state’s response to hurricanes, tornados and other natural catastrophes.

The governor called it "a state of the art facility," Rob Christensen reports.

The project is being funded largely from the stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year that is designed to help jump start the economy. About $41 million of the cost comes from the stimulus legislation.

Price, a key House budget chairman who help obtain the money, said the project would result in the creation of 4,000 jobs.

More after the jump.

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Gov. Beverly Perdue said today that work will soon begin on a $56 million building in West Raleigh to house the National Guard, the Highway Patrol and the state Division of Emergency Management.

The project, which will be largely financed by federal stimulus money, would create up to 4,200 new jobs, Perdue said.

"This project is a big win for North Carolina," Perdue said in a statement. "It provides a state of the art facility that will better coordinate key state services and is ready to put people to work in much needed jobs."

Bidding on the project will begin next week and could start as early soon as early this summer. It could be finished in two years, Rob Christensen reports.

About $41.5 million in funding will become from the federal stimilus package. The remainder will come from general and highway trust funds that had been set aside for the project.

U.S. Rep. David Price, one of the House appropriation committee chairs, worked on helping getting funding on the project.

"Today's announcement comes at the end of a long and sometimes difficult process," Price said. "As the highest priority new construction project in the country for the National Guard, the Joint Force Headquarters is undisputedly deserving of this significant funding."

The new 237,000 square-foot facility will be located on an 18-acre site off of District Drive in Raleigh, near Wade Avenue.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has released more details of her inauguration.

Noted actor Andy Griffith will read a selection written by his wife, Cindi, at the 10:30 a.m. swearing-in ceremony Saturday.

Well-known Triangle-area alt-country singer Caitlin Cary will sing "America the Beautiful." Her band, Tres Chicas, is also performing at one of the inaugural balls.

The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by 12-year-old William Swart of Fuquay-Varina, whose father John is in the National Guard and is currently out of state training for deployment to Iraq.

The 440th Army National Guard Band will perform at the pre-inaugural concert at 10 a.m. in front of the state Office of Archives and History in Raleigh.

An advisory group is worried about the future of the state's military bases.

In a nine-page report for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, a group of retired military officials, state legislators and others argued that Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg and other bases face some hurdles.

The report notes that all of the bases are now located within cities, causing a potential for friction with local government. On a related note, it cautions that the area around the bases could be developed in ways that are "incompatible" with military uses, limiting their future expansion. 

"Only if the (U.S. Department of Defense) continues to perceive its North Carolina facilities as desirable will North Carolina continue to reap the benefits of economic development opportunities," the report says.

Participants were also interested in promoting existing military contracts among existing state businesses, getting community colleges and state universities more involved in military training and research, and replacing National Guard equipment damaged overseas.

A third major area of concern was qualify of life for members of the military.

The group said veterans hospitals need to work harder to meet the needs of female veterans, health care benefits should be available throughout the state and state taxes on military pensions should be lifted. 

As previously noted, the report called for a Cabinet secretary on military affairs.

Hampton Dellinger says the lieutenant governor can help bring National Guard troops home.

In a response to an attack by rival Pat Smathers over a recent ad, the candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor said that as the state's No. 2 official he could "use the power of the office" to speak up.

"Politics is known as the art of the possible, and strong statewide leadership most definitely can help bring our National Guard back home where it belongs," he wrote. 

Dellinger noted that legislators in at least nine states are considering legislation or referenda to bring Guardsmen home. He says he would work with the legislature to do the same.

"Personally, I think that being North Carolina’s #2 elected official gives the Lt. Governor not just the right but the responsibility to speak out for the North Carolinians who are currently fighting overseas in a needless war," he wrote.

Pat Smathers calls Hampton Dellinger's pledge to bring National Guard troops home "outrageous."

The candidate for lieutenant governor took aim at a recent ad by Dellinger, a rival for the Democratic nomination.

"Who's the only Democrat for lieutenant governor ... fighting to ... bring our National Guard home from Iraq?" a narrator asks in the ad.

In a comment on the Dome blog, Smathers says the ad is "pure pandering" and "nothing short of outrageous."

"As a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, I know the lieutenant governor has no power to deliver on that promise," he writes. "Even the governor can't bring our troops home. This sort of misleading rhetoric makes a mockery of our democratic system."

Gov. Mike Easley is getting behind the wheel of another racecar on Saturday.

At the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, he'll race a few laps around the track in Casey Mears' No. 25 car, which is co-sponsored by the National Guard.

As part of the stunt, Easley got pledges from private donors, including the N.C. Bankers Association and Progress Energy, for a National Guard assistance program:

"Their families feel their sacrifice and our National Guard Family Readiness Program helps out with such things as car repairs, late mortgage payments, or things that families with an unexpected drop in income would experience." (Italics ours.)

Given the governor's driving record, we wonder exactly whose car will need repair.

Gov. Mike Easley and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, both Democrats, are planning a joint press conference Monday morning to talk about their concerns about the readiness of the military and the National Guard as a result of the war in Iraq.

Easley has taken the lead within the National Governors Association on National Guard issues, while Leahy is co-chairman of the National Guard Caucus.