N.C. Department of Cultural Resources

Jones: Adams will join Perdue team

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:40:11 -0500

Rep. Alma Adams is in the running for a Perdue post.

The Greensboro Democrat's name has been raised several times for a possible appointment to the cabinet of Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

The most recent tip comes from the Greensboro News-Record's Inside Scoop column, which quotes Rep. Earl Jones, also a Greensboro Democrat.

"She probably will get offered a position by Perdue," Jones told the newspaper.

Adams had no comment, but she would be an interesting pick. During the Democratic primary, she cut a TV ad defending Perdue against charges of not opposing racism strongly enough by state Treasurer Richard Moore.

She also was one of the prominent critics of the diversity of Perdue's original transition team.

The News-Record notes N.C. Spin's claim that Adams is in the running for head of the state Department of Administration.

Update: Adams, an art professor, may also be considered for secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Previously: Names in the mix for Perdue's Cabinet

Evans on leave since May

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:55:13 -0500

Libba Evans hasn't worked since May.

The secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources took unpaid leave from her job to attend to personal business.

Still, she showed up at a Barack Obama rally in Greensboro in October.

The prolonged absence has led some Republicans to question why she hasn't resigned and whether her job is even necessary.

"Since we're facing tremendous budget problems and we have a secretary of cultural resources who hasn't been to work in six months and apparently wasn't missed, perhaps we could do away with that position," said Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican and deputy Republican Senate leader.

Evans, a former state Democratic Party chair, did not return messages left for her on three phone lines in North Carolina and Florida as well as an interview requested made through the department's attorney. (N&O)

Who serves in the governor's cabinet?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:13:23 -0500

Answer:

Ten appointees who run state departments.

The governor of North Carolina appoints people to run the state departments of Administration, Commerce, Correction, Crime Control and Public Safety, Cultural Resources, Environment and Natural Resources, Health and Human Services, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Revenue and Transportation.

Seven of Gov. Mike Easley's appointments were nicknamed the "Iron Cabinet" because many of them served from 2000 through 2008.

Brief:

Ten appointees who run state departments.

Auditor: Easley trips excessive

bniolet — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:53:49 -0400

State Auditor Les Merritt this morning said that state trips in which First Lady Mary Easley and others traveled to France, Russia and Estonia included "unreasonable and excessive expenses," including a taxpayer-funded $332 lunchtime caviar cocktail.

Taxpayers picked up hundreds of dollars in alcohol purchases, against state policy. They paid for ballet tickets, and an executive assistant to Easley billed the state $227 dollars for a linen jacket.

Merritt found that the trips to France and Russia were of questionable value to taxpayers. The audit was delayed 30 days because Merritt could not get an interview with Easley.

Easley and an assistant traveled to Paris and Compiegne, France, in May 2007. The trip was designed to celebrate a successful Monet exhibit in Raleigh that had already ended. Easley had no specific duties or obligations on the trip. One year later, a delegation of state cultural resources officials including Easley traveled to Tallin, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. In Russia, where room expenses averaged $955 a night per person, Easley and the others had one hour of official state business — a meeting with officials from the Hermitage Museum.

"Any direct benefit to the State related to the First lady's presence on the trips to France and Russia is difficult to identify," Merritt said. "For example in Russia, a simple one hour meeting with museum officials does not justify the taxpayers paying for a day-long tour of St. Petersburg plus a trip to the ballet."

An Easley spokesman said all expenses and planning arrangments were handled by the Department of Cultural Resources.

"The first lady was asked by Cultural Resources to attend and while there she did what she was asked to do by the department," said Seth Effron a spokesman for Gov. Easley. Effron declined to answer questions.

"The statement that I've given you is the statement I've given out."

A phone call to the acting head of the Cultural Resources Department was not immediately returned.

Merritt reviewed the trips after news reports in The News & Observer detailed expenses. Merritt received hotline tips that the trips were wasteful. Easley has declined requests to discuss the trips. Her husband, Gov. Mike Easley, has defended the trips, saying Europe is expensive and that just one big museum exhibit, will bring millions to the state.

Details of caviar and alcohol purchases after the jump.

Update: Post now includes response from Easley spokesman.

Document(s):
trips_audit.pdf

Evans reimburses state for liquor

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:06:55 -0400

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.

Evans was on leave during Russia trip

bniolet — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:02:58 -0400

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.

Overseas trip or arts spending at home?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:33:51 -0400

Laura Leslie puts Mary Easley's trip into perspective.

The WUNC reporter writes on her blog Isaac Hunter's Tavern that the $109,000 spent by the first lady on trips to Estonia, Russia and France is a drop in the state budget's bucket.

But it would be worth a lot as arts spending.

Just for context's sake, here’s a few of the House’s proposed cuts to operational program budgets in the Dept of Cultural Resources - the agency that paid the $109K bill:
Basic Grants Program – loses $42K
Grassroots Arts Program- loses $29K
NC Symphony Society – loses $11K
Lost Colony – loses $2500
NC Shakespeare Festival – loses $2500
Quiz Bowl – loses $3000
CSS Neuse – loses $1500
Maritime Museum – loses $1500
Vagabond School of Drama – loses $465
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial – loses $500

Leslie notes that adds up to $94,000 worth of cuts to groups that employ North Carolina artists and cultural experts. Though some may get funding from other sources, she notes most will end up with a net loss from the cuts.

N&O sues Easley over e-mails

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:25:46 -0400

The N&O and nine other North Carolina news organizations sued Gov. Mike Easley Monday.

The lawsuit contends that Easley's administration systematically deleted, destroyed and concealed e-mail messages sent or received by the Governor's office in violation of public records law.

It also accuses the state Department of Cultural Resources of establishing an illegal policy permitting government workers to delete e-mail messages they decide are of "short-term value."

In addition, it accuses Easley himself of violating the law last month by discarding a handwritten note from Carmen Hooker Odom about her views of the failure of mental health reform.

Based on Easley's other public statements, the lawsuit contends that he has probably discarded additional public records.

"They are taking this step reluctantly after not getting any indication from Governor Easley that he is willing to admit that the law has been violated, or to fix the violations," said the lead attorney in the lawsuit, Hugh Stevens. (N&O)

Did rewrite story spark e-mail flap?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:56:41 -0400

Why might Gov. Mike Easley's office have been skittish about e-mail?

Over the weekend, notes were released that seem to indicate that Easley's staff were concerned about public records requests — including from blogs — related to e-mails to and from the governor's office and public information officers.

Dome checked our records, and it turns out that we made just such a request around that time for e-mails related to a history book on North Carolina governors that the press office helped edit.

Here's the sequence of events in 2007:

March 20: Jack Betts writes on "This Old State" blog that a chapter on Easley is "spread a little thick."

April 6: Dome requests any e-mails between the governor's office and the Department of Cultural Resources related to the book.

April 16: Under the Dome blog launches.

May 29: A public information officer writes about "more & more public records requests" for e-mails — including blogs — in notes during meeting with governor's press office.

June 16: Article published about governor's office's editing of the book.

The governor's press office was particularly upset about that story, calling Dome and Dome's direct editor to complain before it even ran.

Dellinger: E-mails should have been kept

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:47:05 -0400

Hampton Dellinger says that government e-mail should not be deleted automatically.

At a press conference outside the legislature today, the candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor said that an independent agency staffed by reporters and others should set the policy on the retention of public records.

E-mails have been a source of controversy lately, with Gov. Mike Easley taking heat for the fact that employees of the executive branch have deleted e-mails.

As a legal aide to Easley, Dellinger helped write the policy on the retention of those records. He said he consulted with "career officials" with the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources and Attorney General Roy Cooper's office when giving advice.

"I don't recall the specifics of what Cultural Resources and the attorney general's office presented to the governor's office and other agencies," he said. "As (a candidate for) lieutenant governor, my position is that records ought to be permanent and they ought to be public."

He said he did not know whether the deleted e-mails were a result of a poorly written policy or a poor implentation of the policy.

"I think the policy should have reflected — and I think it did reflect — a presumption towards permanence and having items be open," he said.

Dellinger on e-mails