The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' public affairs director, who was fired Tuesday, said that Gov. Mike Easley's press office instructed the chief spokesmen for executive branch agencies to destroy e-mail correspondence to his office.

"The governor's office, press office, to bypass the public records laws, they ask the second you e-mail them anything, to kill it, then kill it again out of your trash so it doesn't exist," said Debbie Crane. "That's what they tell all the public affairs people, that they don't want to create any public records."

Seth Effron, a spokesman for Easley, denied Crane's allegation.

"This office has never told anybody to destroy any public record," Effron said. He also said that Crane had been "dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate," and had hindered reporters from getting information from the department. He declined to elaborate.

Crane, a public information officer for 18 years, was fired amid the fallout from a News & Observer investigation of the state's mental-health system. Her contention, if true, shows a violation of the state's public records law, said Amanda Martin, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association and The News & Observer.

"Any public employee who has an e-mail account or a computer that contains information related to public business is duty bound to preserve that information and those documents under our state public records law," she said.

At The News & Observer's request, attorney Hugh Stevens wrote a letter late Tuesday to the governor's chief of staff, Franklin Freeman, demanding that Easley tell state employees and officials to "preserve all email messages and other communications sent or received by them in connection with the conduct of their public duties and responsibilities."

Crane said three different communications directors under Easley delivered the reminder routinely to top public information officers in closed meetings at the governor's office. Killing the messages quickly would make them harder to retrieve. She never saw the instructions in writing.

Crane said she did not kill e-mail messages because she thought doing so would violate the public records law.

Several public information officers representing state agencies said they had not been told to kill e-mail. Two produced copies of e-mail they had sent to the governor's office.

One public information officer said he routinely kills nearly all of his e-mail at the end of each day.

"I just don't keep them," said Ernie Seneca, chief spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. "I clean the system."

Seneca said he never uses e-mail to communicate with the governor's office, preferring to telephone or visit in person.

Keith Acree, a public information officer with the Department of Correction, also said he uses the phone. "It's the easiest way to do business, I guess," Acree said. "It's quicker to pick up the phone sometimes than write something."

He also provided e-mail he had sent to the governor's office.

N&O reporters have made numerous requests to the governor's office for e-mail and written correspondence on several controversial matters, only to be told there were few or no records available.

Advice to former chief

Crane said her dismissal revolved around the Easley administration's attempts to get Carmen Hooker Odom, the former health and human services secretary, to talk to The News & Observer about what the administration says was her opposition to the 2001 mental-health reforms.

Easley has argued that his administration and appointees fought the reforms, which cost taxpayers about $400 million in wasted money and degraded care for the mentally ill.

Crane said that the governor fired her despite attempts by DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton to find her another position.

Effron said that Crane was dismissed because she persuaded Hooker Odom to change her mind and not talk to The N&O. "She openly and covertly encouraged employees and former employees not to cooperate with the press," he said.

No evidence has surfaced to show that Hooker Odom opposed the bill, although Easley told reporters late last year -- and again Tuesday -- that she had vigorously opposed the legislation.

Crane said Hooker Odom contacted her in January to discuss talking to The N&O. Crane said she e-mailed her that, " 'These stories are going to be terrible. It's up to you. I wouldn't call them back.' "

Hooker Odom, who works for a nonprofit in New York City, did not return a call to her office Tuesday. She has not responded to numerous calls over the past two months.

Crane, 48, was paid $86,129 a year. Two top mental-health officials whose actions had come under fire were treated much better.

Mike Moseley, the former director of the mental health division was fired, Crane said, but will be allowed to work for several more months; he is paid $131,430 annually.

Seth P. Hunt Jr., the chief executive officer of Broughton Hospital in Morganton, was demoted in December after he failed to report four patient deaths to regulators, a violation of state law. Regulators cut off federal money to the hospital, which is costing state taxpayers about a million dollars a month. He also spent thousands of dollars to remodel his office with bulletproof glass and panic buttons. His current salary is $98,567.

In a tearful interview, Crane said her firing was unjust.

"You showed ... a huge amount of tax dollars wasted on silly services that didn't help anybody, and then you had people who died or got beaten up really badly, and the only person who is really being held accountable is me," Crane said. "And my only sin was helping you."

(Staff writers Ben Niolet and Pat Stith contributed to this report.)

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