RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley called on state legislators Tuesday to give his administration more authority to fix the state's troubled mental health system.

Though he said he was not attempting to lay blame for the problems, the governor repeatedly pointed to the General Assembly and local mental health agencies as those primarily responsible for bungling the 2001 reform plan. Easley again contended that his administration "vigorously" opposed the plan from the start -- a version of history that does not square with the written record or the statements of the bill's primary sponsor.

Implemented by the Easley administration over the past six years, the reforms dismantled an established system of county-run mental health offices and sought to pay businesses to do the work. It also sought to reduce the size of the state's four psychiatric hospitals in favor of more treatment in the community.

"We had our concerns about the reform of 2001," Easley, a Democrat, said Tuesday. "We believed that it was a privatization that went too far too quickly. ... Essentially, what you have is privatization with no accountability. What we've seen is what we were afraid we were going to see."

The governor called a rare news conference two days after the completion of a five-part series in The News & Observer about the state's misadventure into mental health reform.

The newspaper's investigation showed how the state wasted more than $400 million in public money while providing fewer critical services to patients than before the reform was launched. It chronicled widespread abuse of patients in state mental hospitals and highlighted 82 avoidable deaths in those facilities. It also showed that state officials made it easy for private companies to get into the mental health business and collectively charge hundreds of millions to taxpayers.

Easley's administration set the reimbursement rates and wrote the rules. After the rules are approved by federal authorities, however, they are difficult to change.

'Now is a good time'

Easley said the issue of mental health was now in the spotlight.

"I'm surprised these stories didn't run a year ago," Easley said. "And, since they did run, I think legislators' attention is focused on this. Now is a good time for us to ask for these reforms. I think most of them over there don't know what really goes on in mental health."

The governor said Dempsey Benton, whom he appointed to head the state Department of Health and Human Services, is the right man to wield that increased power.

Easley said Benton needs more authority to stop payments to private companies taking advantage of taxpayers. The law affords those firms a lengthy appeals process.

"There's going to be no more babysitting and taking children to the movies for $61 an hour, or taking kids to the pools for $61 an hour," Easley said. "Some providers are abusing the appeals process currently under the law. They hire expensive lawyers, they hold press conferences about how they declare their innocence. They're stalling so they can continue to get paid."

Easley said he will also push for the authority to directly appoint the boards that run the state's 25 regional mental health agencies, known as Local Management Entities. Currently, county commissioners make those appointments. Benton also needs the authority to "fire" local management groups that perform poorly or consolidate them, the governor said.

"The problem is the LMEs do not report to the state," Easley said. "Nor are they accountable to the patients. ... We need dramatic change and we need it quickly, hopefully in this short session."

The governor made passing reference to the 82 deaths, but said he would seek a law that requires all deaths in state mental facilities be reported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for review.

"There's no excuse for not having mandatory reporting of deaths in our facilities," Easley said. "Secretary Benton has started a policy that requires they mandatorily be reported. I believe that ought to be enacted into law."

Rewind to 2001

Easley repeated his contention Tuesday that former DHHS Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom, who resigned last summer to take a job as head of a health policy think tank, fought the passage of the 2001 reform package. That legislation came after several state studies and a U.S. Supreme Court decision all pointed toward changes that would treat more of the mentally ill in the community.

"Our administration, that secretary, we all vigorously opposed it because it was just too broad, not enough accountability," Easley said. "Now, that said, the focus of the department today, and my focus, is where do we go going forward. I don't want to get into a big debate about who was for and who was against anything."

In fact, Hooker Odom wrote the cover letter for the 2001 reform plan and cited Easley's leadership as inspiration.

"I made the commitment to you to make mental health ... one of my highest priorities," Hooker Odom wrote in the letter, which was addressed to all North Carolinians. "I began that commitment by developing, in collaboration with the North Carolina Legislature, a state plan for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services. I am presenting to you with pride and enthusiasm, 'The State Plan 2001: A Blueprint for Change.' "

In an opinion article contributed to The News & Observer that year, Hooker Odom wrote: "Reform has been attempted many times, but this effort is going to succeed because the time is right."

Efforts to reach Hooker Odom failed Tuesday.

The primary legislative sponsor of the reform bill, Rep. Verla Insko, said Tuesday that Hooker Odom expressed no concerns to her about the plan.

"She was not vigorously opposed to it," said Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat. "I don't remember her ever speaking to me before it passed."

The legislator said no one from the governor's office ever talked to her about the bill, either. Insko said a DHHS representative met with legislators to discuss two or three details in the proposal that the department wanted changed, but no one with the Easley administration objected to the entire proposal.

"The department didn't oppose it," Insko said Tuesday.

Easley said Tuesday that Insko's memory is faulty.

"I can see where Rep. Insko could be distracted with other issues," Easley said. "Keep in mind, this this passed in October, right after September 11. ... People were distracted with other significant issues."

A push for oversight

Asked whether he accepted any responsibility for the failure of mental health reform, Easley said that perhaps DHHS could have provided more oversight.

"But I still have to come back and say this is not a manageable situation," Easley said. "So everybody can accept responsibility. We can sit up here blame anybody you want to blame. ... This will not work if the secretary does not get some managing tools so he can supervise these people who are getting billions of dollars of taxpayers' money, then the problem will continue because there's no way to hold anybody accountable."

(Staff writer Lynn Bonner contributed to this report.)