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 When Will Our Leaders Ever Learn?
by Tom Campbell
August 27, 2009
North Carolina’s handling of former Governor Easley’s travel records appears to be the most badly bungled cover-up since Watergate.
When the News and Observer first reported that Easley’s travel records showed he had accepted free flights and favors from campaign contributions, they noted he neither reported the trips nor reimbursed expenses to the owners of the private planes. The story also stated that travel records for the year 2005 were missing. In the tradition of the State Highway Patrol, that organization announced they would conduct an internal investigation into the matter, putting Captain Alan Melvin, the officer who led Easley’s security detail, on administrative duty.
That might have been acceptable before Meg Scott Phipps, Frank Ballance, Jim Black, Thomas Wright and now Mike and Mary Easley disabused us of the long-held notion we were the “good government” state. This time the feds were also investigating and business as usual wasn’t good enough.
The Patrol recently announced that the investigation was concluded and Captain Melvin was being returned to duty. Even though Melvin had been seen by a reporter carrying a box to Mike Easley’s home, the report concluded that Melvin had not intended to remove or destroy the missing records. When asked to see the results of the investigation, reporters were told it was a personnel matter, besides officials didn’t want to interfere with the federal investigation.
This didn’t pass the smell test and the odor grew worse after The News and Observer interviewed the secretary responsible for maintaining the travel records, learning that Melvin had instructed her to make him a copy of all the travel records and, after doing so, to erase the files from the computer so as to free up computer storage space. There was no shortage of storage space, the secretary told the paper, adding she had informed Melvin of that fact. Reasonable people started wondering just what kind of investigation the Patrol had conducted. Did they fail to interview the secretary? How could they possibly conclude that Captain Melvin had not intended to remove or destroy the records? Within hours this story exploded into a furor to get the truth. Demands were made that the report be released to the public.
What resulted can be likened to the old cartoon where the character is frantically shouting, “Which way did they go? I’ve got to find them. I’m their leader.” Governor Perdue’s administration suddenly realized that at worst they might be complicit in a crime, while at best they appeared to be partners in a massive cover-up. The Crime Control Secretary, himself the former legal counsel to former governor Easley, demanded a new internal investigation, but it was readily apparent Governor Perdue’s administration had a crisis of confidence on its hands, finally forming a panel of distinguished citizens to investigate and make an independent report.
For us to have confidence in our government and public officials there must be a corresponding candor as well as reasonable access to and reporting of facts. Good government is open government and open government is more than just a slogan. We must know we can trust public officials, most especially our law enforcement officers. The facts will always come out and it serves everyone’s best interest for the facts to surface sooner rather than later. Public officials never seem to learn these lessons but we would all be better served if they would. |
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