From the Raleigh News & Observer (10/22/08): Three years of scandals and the imprisonment of three former or current legislators have soiled North Carolina's capital. Now the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor are promising to hose it down.
Three years of scandals and the imprisonment of three former or currentlegislators have soiled North Carolina’s capital. Now the Democraticand Republican candidates for governor are promising to hose it down.
Lt.Gov. Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory propose a largedose of transparency, including making themselves, their e-mail andtheir schedules more readily available.
Reforming the capital –yes, “change” — has turned into as potent a campaign issue in thegovernor’s race as in the presidential campaign. Embarrassments andscandals, ranging from the mental health system’s failures to conflictssurrounding a lottery commissioner’s connections to a lottery company,have both candidates pledging changes that will give the public abetter view of how government operates.
McCrory, a Republican,routinely derides a “culture of corruption” and secrecy in Raleigh.Perdue, a Democrat, is bashing the sitting governor from her own party,Mike Easley. His public appearances are infrequent and details of hisschedule are scant.
“As governor, unlike Mike Easley, I’m goingto be accessible,” Perdue said in a recent interview. “I’m going to beon site. I’m going to be out there with people, because that’s mypersonality.”
Perdue spelled out eight “change orders” she wouldimpose immediately after taking office, and at least six directlyaffect access to her or the availability of details about how stategovernment runs.
McCrory outlined plans to make campaignfundraising data available more quickly and conflicts of interestdeclared more publicly. On Tuesday, he proposed creating special stategrand juries to investigate political crime, emphasizing that federalprosecutors pursued the recent string of corrupt state officials.
“Wemust clean up our own state government,” McCrory said in a preparedstatement, “and not continue to depend on federal courts to do ourwork.”
Both candidates have promised weekly news conferences,access to their e-mail messages, detailed copies of their schedules anda policy that all administration e-mail is a public record andshouldn’t be destroyed.
Secrecy spawned scandal
Thecandidates’ shots at Easley partly grew out of controversies lastspring in the state’s mental health system. Easley initially avoidedtaking questions about expensive and deadly shortcomings in the state’seffort to reform mental health care. Easley later said he threw away aletter from Carmen Hooker Odom, who was secretary of the Department ofHealth and Human Services when the reforms passed.
Then, The News& Observer reported that at least some administration officials hadbeen instructed to destroy e-mail. The newspaper, along with TheCharlotte Observer and eight other news organizations, sued Easley’sadministration over the e-mail destruction.
The dispute over e-mail was only the latest problem in state government:
*Former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black, last year, and formerRepublican House member Michael Decker, in 2006, both pleaded guilty topublic corruption charges for taking payoffs.
* Former lotterycommissioner Kevin Geddings was convicted on fraud charges in 2006related to his role in creating a state lottery.
* State Rep.Thomas Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, was convicted this year on fraudand obstruction of justice charges in connection with campaign financeviolations.
These scandals, with the mental health debacle andthe resignation of state Board of Transportation members over conflictsof interest, have eroded public trust, said Bob Phillips, executivedirector of the watchdog group Common Cause North Carolina.
“It contributes to the cynicism the public has,” Phillips said. “It’s important there be a change.”
Pointing to their records
McCroryand Perdue say they have been accessible in their current offices.McCrory points out that The Charlotte Observer has routinely cullede-mail to and from his city account for several years. Some messages,though, are copied to a private e-mail account that is not publiclyavailable. Amy Auth, McCrory’s spokeswoman, said city staff willsometimes send e-mail to McCrory’s personal account when he is at home.
Perduesaid her office has a good record of complying with public recordsrequests. As a senator, though, she was one of the co-chairs of theappropriations committee, a group that routinely changed or introducednew elements in the budget during closed-door sessions. In her currentcampaign, Perdue has proposed an overhaul of the budget process torequire lawmakers to vote up or down on major proposals with noopportunity to change them.
The importance of governmenttransparency has grown for two reasons, said Connie Book, director ofthe Sunshine Center at Elon University, which advocates for opengovernment.
First, news outlets are shrinking and less able toplay watchdog over government operations. Secondly, the economic crisisand related mismanagement have underscored the importance of the publicknowing how government entities operate, said Book.
“Transparencyin decision making,” Book said, “is more important in tough times whereevery dollar counts — showing how money is spent, how taxes arecollected, that our government is working on behalf of the people.”