Director immortalized on patients' dimes

Despite budget cuts and cost overruns at a state mental hospital in Butner, hospital Director Patsy Christian found money to have her portrait made.

The oil painting was done by a subordinate and paid for with $250 that was intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

Christian ordered the portrait for delivery shortly before the planned November 2007 opening of the hospital, which is intended as the centerpiece of an ambitious reform. But a fire, concerns over design flaws that endanger patient safety and the failure to hire enough qualified staff have kept Central Regional empty.

The portrait was paid for using the money collected from vending machines at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. State law says the money from vending machines should be used for recreational activities for patients. Christian, 60, oversees Umstead and Dix, which are scheduled to be closed next month.

Christian, whose annual salary is $119,759, declined requests for an interview.

Calls to the artist, J. Lee Harris, a nurse supervisor at Umstead were not returned.

In a statement attributed to Harris and released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the artist said the painting was a gift to the people of North Carolina and that the payment she received barely covered the cost of materials.

"Her unconventional beauty, her sense of humor and her blinding intelligence are engraved in my mind," Harris said of her boss. "I knew that with my skill and desire, I would create a painting to be enjoyed by many and become engaged with this historic moment."