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Staff at the N.C. State Ethics Commission said Tuesday they could not comment on whether former DMV Commissioner George Tatum violated the law when he failed to disclose his personal stock investment in Law Enforcement Associates, a surveillance device company that sold equipment to DMV on a no-bid basis.

The state commission is forbidden by the 2006 law that created it from disclosing any information about enforcement action it might pursue or any complaints it has received.

That legislation was, of course, created by the same elected officials who might someday be called to account for ethical transgressions. Apparently, making the enforcement process open and transparent was not a top priority.

There's a famous philosophical conundrum that asks: "If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

That begs the question: If a watchdog can't bark, is it still a watchdog?

LOOP TROUBLE: Gov. Bev Perdue appears committed to moving forward with a special financing plan for finishing Charlotte's Interstate 485 despite questions raised by Treasurer Janet Cowell about the proposed funding mechanism. Backing away from the interstate now could be a minor disaster for Perdue, who because of the recession has already had to cancel plans to finish the job once before. (Charlotte Observer)

CHARTERS OWED: Public school leaders across the state, and especially in the Triangle, are recalculating their budgets to figure out how many millions they owe charter schools to comply with a state court ruling. (N&O)

NOT ON THEIR WATCH: The N.C. State Ethics Commission, finishing a review of its jurisdiction, has removed two boards from its oversight and is considering a third. (N&O)

Former state Auditor Les Merritt said the N.C. State Ethics Commission has failed to keep government clean.

In an opinion piece published in the Fayetteville Observer, Merritt writes that the commission has been silent as multiple investigations focus on former Gov. Mike Easley.

However, in nearly three years of existence, the commission has done little to tackle real ethics issues in our state. Not a single resolution of note has come as a result of any Ethics Commission investigation, even though several dozen complaints have been submitted or referred. For example, the media have reported that former Gov. Mike Easley allegedly failed to disclose a seemingly inappropriate relationship on his Statement of Economic Interest, but this went undetected (or perhaps unchallenged) by the Ethics Commission.

Meanwhile, a Board of Elections investigation continues into alleged campaign finance violations by Easley, as well as a federal grand jury investigation of how his wife obtained her position (and subsequent 80 percent raise) at North Carolina State University.

None of these issues appears to have been surfaced or investigated by the Ethics Commission.

The state auditor and the State Ethics Commission have ended a battle stemming from an investigation into the handling of then-Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's ethics files.

A state audit released today found that officials with the State Ethics Commission had not intentionally destroyed evidence in the matter, but did find that commission staff had not followed procedures in making the ethics statements available to the public, Dan Kane reports.

The case stems from a visit that Perdue's legal counsel, Will Polk, had made in October 2007, to review her ethics statements, which are an accounting of her financial interests. The statements are intended to help officials avoid conflicts of interest. Polk had been allowed to review the files behind closed doors. An aide, Amanda Thaxton, had noted in an electronic log that this was not the commission's policy; a staff email had told them not to let members of the public review ethics files without staff supervision.

Thaxton filed a complaint to the auditor's office, which then launched an investigation. She was later fired by the commission and has since filed a whistleblower's lawsuit that is pending in state court. The commission has denied that she was fired in retaliation. The audit did not address Thaxton's whistleblower claim. Copies of the log showed that her entry had been removed. But the auditor's report released today found that the change was made prior to the commission being notified of the auditor's investigation, so there was no evidence of tampering.

More after the jump.

The N.C. Ethics Commission is looking at whether it requires too much information on stock ownership.

Commissioners are wrapping up a legislatively mandated review of how well the two-year-old, updated version of the state ethics law has worked. On Friday they discussed whether the bar was too low in requiring state officials who must fill out a conflict of interests form to disclose any stock holdings worth $10,000 or more. Commissioners wondered aloud whether $100,000 was a more appropriate figure.

Executive Director Perry Newson agreed that most public officials shouldn't have to disclose stocks because nothing they do could affect the value. The commission's staff is going to research how other states handle the issue, and the commission could reccommend that the legislature raise the minimum.

Auditor-elect Beth Wood said she plans to keep on board Frank Perry, a former FBI man, who was investigations chief for departing auditor Les Merritt.

Perry, who previously led the FBI's Raleigh office, had a higher profile than most employees of the auditor's office. He was named in a lawsuit filed by the State Ethics Comimssion. The commission, which had a running jurisdictional feud with Merritt, claimed in its lawsuit that Merritt had a conflict of interest because Perry once worked for the ethics commission.

Merritt was investigating whether the commission gave preferential treatment to a staff member for then-Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Wood said in a recent interview that she met with several employees of the auditor's office and decided to give Perry a shot in her administration.

As an FBI agent for 22 years, Perry was involved in the public corruption investigations of former state Agriculture Commission Meg Scott Phipps and former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance. He retired in 2004.

Louis Sewell, the Jacksonville businessman who stepped down from the state Board of Transportation last week, told his hometown newspaper that his resignation puts an end to a State Ethics Commission probe his steering public money to two transportation projects near properties that he or his son co-owned.

The Jacksonville Daily News reported Friday that Sewell said "he has been assured the N.C. State Ethics Commission will not investigate his decisions while on the BOT now that he has resigned," Dan Kane reports.

Ethics commission officials could not be reached by the Daily News or Dome, and typically they do not comment on investigations.

But Walker Reagan, the legislative staff attorney who crafted the ethics law, said unless Sewell is the subject of a criminal investigation, there's no reason for the commission to be digging into a possible conflict of interest. That's because worst civil sanction that can be handed down to a public official who runs afoul of the ethics law is removal from that position.

"You can't do anything more than get him out of office, and he already is out of office," Reagan said.

The ethics law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2007, gives the commission up to a year after a public official leaves office to conduct a criminal investigation. But even there, Sewell's case might not apply because his public actions involving his personal property took place from 2004 to early 2006.

State Auditor Les Merritt offered the following response to criticism earlier Friday by Robert Farmer, chair of the state ethics commission:

"The public should be extremely disappointed in Mr. Farmer's unmeasured rhetoric targeting the Office of the State Auditor especially when the Office of State Personnel and the Office of State Budget discovered similar internal problems at the Ethics Commission. The facts are that the Ethics Commission staff has sued to block the State Auditor's investigation into the altering of public records, special treatment for high level government aides, and the potential retaliatory firing of a commission employee for exposing the possible cover-up. The Commission staff's disrespect for public transparency by suing to block an investigation and now Mr. Farmer's unmeasured rhetoric only feed the speculation by the public and the news media: What are they trying to hide?"

State Auditor Les Merritt says an ethics probe is being blocked.

On Thursday, he released an "interim report" accusing the State Ethics Commission of unlawfully blocking his staff's investigation into possible preferential treatment of Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue.

The report also backed findings by two other state agencies that found the commission lacked clear administrative policies and was strugling to perform its tasks.

Merritt, a Republican seeking re-election, said in a statement that his staff's report "paints a picture of potential destruction of evidence. I say 'potential' because the Commission is hiding facts from the public that may implicate or exonerate their past actions."

The investigation stems from a complaint from an office assistant who noted that a staffer for Perdue was allowed to review records alone in an office with the door closed. She was later fired after the N&O asked about the log. (N&O)

A former State Ethics Commission employee who was fired after raising concerns about possible preferential treatment to Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue filed a whistleblower lawsuit in state Superior Court today.

Amanda Thaxton, an office assistant, said the firing has hit her hard financially and she wants a judge to reinstate her immediately, Dan Kane reports. She said in the suit that she is also seeking an award of triple damages — as the state's whistleblower law allows — plus legal fees for being fired for reporting her concerns to the Office of the State Auditor and to the State Personnel Commission.

"This was this girl's first job out of college," said her lawyer, Michael C. Byrne of Raleigh. "She comes in from Elon University, gets a job from the state and then is abruptly fired for cooperating and engaging in protected activity. That's just not right."

Perry Newson, the commission's executive director, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He has said that Thaxton, 24, was not fired in retaliation.

More after the jump.