Gov. Mike Easley said today that he did not violate public records law when he threw away a letter to him from Carmen Hooker Odom, former head of the state Department of Health and Human Services.
"Carmen sent me a handwritten personal note," he said. "It didn't have anything to do with public policy. It's not a public record, not something that I'm required to log and maintain. I read it and disposed of it."
Easley made his comments at a news conference devoted largely to the drought. In a 180-degree turn from the contentious news conference had held a week ago on mental health, Easley took follow up questions, responded to all questions and didn't try to run away, reports Lynn Bonner.
His administration has been under scrutiny for how it has responded to the failures of the state mental health system. Hooker Odom was in charge when problems related to a 2001 mental health reform plan mounted. She resigned her state job last year and in recent months has declined to be interviewed.
Easley said in an interview Sunday that Hooker Odom told him in her note why she didn't want to talk. But Easley said Tuesday her note did not "discuss anything of public consequence."
"It was never intended to be public," Easley said.
John Bussian, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association, said Hooker Odom's note was indisputably a public record.
"The legal status does not turn on whether somebody intended it to be public," he said. "If it did, then anybody could use that as a license to steal from the public what it is entitled to know."
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Re: Easley: Letter was not public record
If the Governor's note from the former Secretary is private and of a personal nature, because she is no longer Secretary, wouldn't the same rule apply to Debbie Crane's phone conversations with her? How can one person's coorespondance with a former employee be public record and public business and another one's not. Debbie probably went wrong by even telling the N&O she was going to help them get in touch with Carmen Hooker-Odom, she should have said "sorry guys - she doesn't work here any more - I can't help you." BUT, the Governor's office seems to be running the show anyway, so who knows if they ordered her to call Hooker-Odom. Regardless, the Governor needs to decide what the rules are and follow them, THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE.