News-Record.com

Ah, the beach. A great place to go, relax, and feel that impending sense of doom as you figure reams of work is piling up on your virtual desk as the ocean sweeps your three-year-old off into the gulf stream, bound for parts unknown.

Anyway, now that the whole family is back – and all the sand is out of parts that shouldn’t be known – here are some of the things I’ve been negligent about:

• Apparently, this story I wrote a while ago on IMPAC ran. Prior post on the group here.
• North Carolina lottery chairman Charles Sanders has decided to step away from the lottery commission. He wrote in an e-mail this week:

  I am writing to tell you I am stepping down from the Commission as of my appointment expiration date of August 31, 2006. When I accepted Governor Easley’s invitation to join the Commission, I told him I would do it for one year. During this time together we as a Commission have brought a smoothly functioning lottery into being, directed by an outstanding leader in Tom Shaheen and his dedicated, energetic, and professional staff. I am proud of what we have been able to do. I am proud the funds generated by the lottery are adding to the existing commitment of North Carolina to the education of its students – a commitment the people of North Carolina must guard to insure that these funds are truly additive and not supplanting existing funds in the years ahead. And I am particularly proud to have served with each of you who reflect the best to be found in our citizenry, for each of you has brought expertise and common sense to the work of the Commission.

• (Update on this below). The state auditor checked out finances over at the General Assembly. He found some problems, like lax accounting for office supplies, which the GA folks basically said “Yup, we’ll get right on that.” He also pointed out that the Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore gave out larger than normal raises without much by way of paper work. The answer was sort of the same, just with a different inflection. (sarcasm)“Yup, we’ll get right on that.”(/sarcasm) Ok, what they really said was “The Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate are authorized by statute to approve expenditures for their respective chamber. The increases in question were properly approved. Your findings and recommendations will be forwarded to the Speaker and President Pro Tempore.”
• Gov. Easley was named to the National Governor’s Association Public Safety Taskforce. From the “Nothing like a prompt response” file, the press release announcing this starts: “On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, the National Governors Association (NGA) has announced the creation of a Public Safety Task Force in recognition of governors’ evolving role and responsibility in enhancing the safety of their states’ residents.” I feel safer already.
• Oh, and the House Republicans have set the tune that they’re all supposed to march in lock step for this fall's elections. (Remember, House Democrats sort of did the same thing before the legislative session.) Click here for the GOP release.

Alright, I’ve got to dig out my calendar and see what it is I’m supposed to be doing today. More later.

Update:
Re: the audit of state legislative salaries, Julie Robinson in the Speaker's office sent me this:

On Sept. 22, 2005, the Speaker and the President Pro Tempore requested that the State Auditor conduct a fiscal audit of the General Assembly. The audit released on Sept. 12, 2006 is the result of this request.

This request was made because an audit had not been conducted since the fiscal year ending June 30, 1999. In addition to this specific audit, the Speaker and President Pro Tempore have requested that in the future, audits be conducted no less than every two to three years.

The finding regarding House and Senate salary increases is not regarding salaries for the Speaker and Pro Tempore staff members. As the Auditor's review notes, the General Assembly Personnel Manual and state statute authorize the Pro Tempore and Speaker to address personnel issues within their respective chambers. This finding involves salary adjustments for House and Senate staff in general who had received raises in excess of 10%. There are currently 315 total House and Senate employees; the audit refers to 15 employees who had received raise above these amounts.

Six of the 15 employees received salary increases above 10% because their status changed from being interns to being hired as staff members after their internships ended. The remaining employees had seen increased workloads due to significant increases in legislative activity. For example, the number of bills filed in 2005-2006 was 50.2% greater than the number of bills introduced during the 2003-2004 legislative session (4,929 bills in 2005-2006 compared to 3,281 during 2003-2004). Salary adjustments for all 15 employees were made in writing, based on additional workload or position reclassifications, as is standard practice for all compensation adjustments.