Goodall's charter amendment would have helped his bosses

A Union County lawmaker who works for an alliance that promotes charter schools tried to raise the state’s limit on the number of charter schools Thursday on the Senate floor.

It’s a familiar issue for Sen. Eddie Goodall, a Weddington Republican. He co-founded a charter school in 1999 and has been pushing legislation to help them since he joined the Senate in 2005.

But in January, Goodall became president of the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which wants to increase the number of charter schools allowed in the state, among other goals.

Goodall raised eyebrows in the Senate chamber Thursday when he tried to run an amendment to an education and jobs bill that would lift the cap. Goodall’s proposals were shot down.

“I think everybody understood the point of my amendments,” Goodall said in an interview afterwards. “They were to suggest we shouldn’t have ceilings on quality schools, quality programs.

“What I’m doing is legislating what I would have been doing anyway,” Goodall said. “The presumption is since I’m employed by somebody else, I’m doing something different.”

Goodall, who is not seeking re-election, said he has no conflict of interest and has not violated any ethics rules, which state that lawmakers may not use their office for personal gain. Lawmakers are allowed to work on bills that could potentially benefit them if the benefit would apply to large segments of the population. Goodall declined to say how much he is paid.

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Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform, said she thought Goodall crossed a line.

“If you look at his job description on their website, he’s an advocate and he’s being paid by someone to influence education policy in this state,” said Pinsky, who had previously raised concerns with legislative leaders about Goodall’s ties to the group.

The legislature’s ethics enforcement process is mostly confidential, and those who run it do not talk about whether they are looking at specific lawmakers. Goodall said he’s not aware of any complaints against him.

Through a spokesman, Senate Leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, said, “I do not believe it is my place or appropriate for Senators to publicly weigh in at this time. There are processes in place to look into these kinds of concerns. From what I know of Senator Goodall, if he has made a mistake, it would have been an honest one."

Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and the chamber’s minority leader, said, “It’s something that I will have a conversation with Sen. Goodall about. I understand that there might be some people who have some concerns about it.”and I would like to have a conversation with Sen. Goodall about it.”

Goodall said his role as president has mostly focused on building the organization’s membership. After he leaves the Senate, state law would require a six-month “cooling off period” before he could lobby for the organization. Goodall, who sold his accounting C.P.A. practice in 2006, said the alliance was interested in him because of his interest and passion for charter schools.

He noted that in all his trying he has not been able to make significant changes to the state’s policy on charter schools.

“I don’t think our board was naive enough to think, ‘Oh, we can hire Eddie, he’s in the Senate and we can get so much more done,’” he said.