Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Where the Easley mess should lead us

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Staff

Jane Pinsky

Gov. Mike Easley’s court appearance on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving was too late; the penalty, a $1,000 fine, was too little; and the ultimate victim was the confidence of the citizenry of North Carolina. It was also pitiful – a former governor who could have left an admirable legacy has become the first governor of N.C. to be found guilty of a felony related to his work as governor.

The Easley “scandal” has been percolating for a number of years. Stories about Easley’s questionable actions began surfacing in the media in 2006, and several reporters pursued the story. But it was not until Gov. Bev Perdue took office in 2009 that the records about the former governor’s travel became public. It soon became clear that Gov. Easley had stretched the law if not broken it.

What he did most of all, however, was encourage North Carolinians to be cynical about the integrity of their state government. An Elon University poll earlier this year confirmed this sad reality. It showed that almost 70 percent of North Carolinians thought state government was corrupt.

So where do we go from here? At the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform, we believe the path is clear: We must take the spotlight that the investigation into Easley has shined on how things have been getting done in North Carolina and create clear, bright lines about how we expect government officials and state employees to behave. Here are a few ideas.

First, the state should require that anyone raising money for a statewide political campaign file a regular report with the state Board of Elections that specifies from whom they have solicited money and to what candidate or party it has gone.

Second, anyone serving on a major board or commission should only be able to make a contribution to a candidate. They should not be able to fundraise for that candidate.

Third, statewide campaigns should be required to report their fundraising results on a regular basis – no less often than once a week.

Fourth, anyone contracting with the state should not be able to make a campaign contribution to the campaign of the person approving, signing or overseeing his or her contract. 

Fifth, state employees should not be permitted to go immediately from working for the state to working for a business or industry that they have overseen or regulated while they were working for the state.

Sixth, members of the Council of State should be required to keep logs of all visitors and all phone calls. These records, along with a log of all of their emails, should be clearly delineated as public documents.

Seventh, logs of all travel on state airplanes and boats or in a state-owned car by elected officials should be reported quarterly except during elections, when they would be reported monthly.

Eighth, all travel by the governor and her/his family when they are accompanied by a state highway patrol trooper should be reported quarterly, except during an election, when they would be reported monthly.

Ninth, it should be required that all “earmarks” in the budget or other bills specifically identify the person who inserted it.

Tenth, lawmakers should immediately enact greater transparency in the operations of the General Assembly.

Last and far from least, lawmakers should heed voter demands and bring an end, once and for all, to partisan redistricting by establishing a nonpartisan commission.

Ultimately, nothing will absolutely stop someone who wants to commit a crime from committing it. But there’s also no doubt that more sunlight on the process will dissuade many from giving into temptation and at least slow down some others. In the process, it should also make our state government a little more open and honest, and maybe even make some lemonade out of the lemons Easley left behind.

Jane Pinsky is director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme