N.C. Cultural Resources Secretary Libba Evans reimbursed the state last week $465 for booze bills from the trip she took with North Carolina's first lady Mary Easley to Russia and Estonia earlier this year.

State auditors caught the expense while reviewing the trip as part of a report that has yet to be released. Chief Deputy Secretary Staci Meyer said she and her staff missed the alcoholic beverage purchases because they made mistakes in translating two restaurant bills that were in Russian, Dan Kane reports.

"I took it off of some bills but not those two," Meyer said. "I missed it, and [Evans] assumed I had taken it off."

Evans did not review her bills when she returned from the trip, Meyer said. The standard practice was to turn them over to staff, who would then determine what Evans should reimburse.

Evans, who is on unpaid leave from the department attending to a personal matter, wrote a check to cover the expenses when Meyer told her of the auditors' findings.

The trip was intended to foster a relationship with museum officials in those two countries that might lead to a sharing of exhibits. But that trip and another Easley took to France for similar purposes in 2007 have drawn criticism for the tens of thousands of dollars in expenses paid for by taxpayers.

Meyer said Evans had previously paid for $647 in wine and champagne the entourage drank at a Russian restaurant. That puts the total alcohol bill at more than $1,100.

Libba Evans, head of the state cultural agency, has been on unpaid leave since May 1 — which means she wasn't on the clock when she participated in a trip to Russia and Estonia.

Evans was a member of a five-person cultural exchange trip in May to Russia and Estonia that cost taxpayers more than $56,000. The delegation also included first lady Mary Easley.

Evans, the secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources, initiated the leave to take care of "personal business," said Staci Meyer, general counsel and chief deputy for the department.

"She initiated it and we discussed it and decided that was the appropriate thing to do as she dealt with some personal business," Meyer said.

Evans had already committed to participating in the trip and she was not paid as a state employee during the trip, Meyer said.

Meyer said she could not comment on the nature of Evans' personal business.

Evans salary when she went on leave is $117,142. The figure would increase upon her return because the legislature approved a pay raise.

Meyer has been running the department. She now makes $119,000.

Gov. Mike Easley has named his e-mail panel.

Easley announced today that the panel, which he has asked to review policies concerning the retention of e-mail messages under the state's public records law, will hold its first meeting Thursday morning.

Easley had previously announced that Franklin Freeman, one of his senior aides, will lead the panel and that Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC-CH, will serve on the panel.

Other panel members announced today:

Ned Cline, former managing editor of the Greensboro News & Record.

DeWitt F. "Mac" McCarley, the city attorney for Charlotte.

Staci Meyer, chief deputy secretary for the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

George Bakolia, the state's chief information officer.

Bryan Beatty, secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

David Lawrence, a professor at the UNC School of Government and an expert on public records laws, will serve as an advisor to the panel.

The first meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Council of State meeting room on the 5th floor of the Administration Building at 16 W. Jones Street in Raleigh. Easley said meetings of the panel will be open to the public.