Offices wrestle to clean up N.C.

Agencies disagree on ethics job

RALEIGH -- Two state agencies charged with cleaning up state government are fighting over who gets to hold the broom.

The N.C. State Ethics Commission, created in response to corruption scandals that sent powerful officials to prison, says it has the sole responsibility to enforce the state's ethics law.

State Auditor Les Merritt, who is elected, says the commission is prohibited by law from investigating anonymous complaints and that he has the right and duty to follow up on credible tips about problems in state government.

The debate has been quietly simmering since at least January. It boiled over Friday when the commission voted to ask the legislature to settle the dispute.

"We think the legislature gave it [the commission] the sole authority for implementing, interpreting, investigating and enforcing the ethics act," said Perry Newson, executive director of the commission, in an interview. "It's not the job of other agencies."

Merritt is investigating an anonymous tip to his office about a potential conflict of interest with an unidentified official, according to a letter to the commission by Timothy Hoegemeyer, general counsel in Merritt's office.

The letter was critical of an "informal advisory opinion" from the commission that stated only the commission can investigate certain potential conflicts. Newson said the opinion is not a public record under the state ethics law.

In fact, the law makes much of the commission's work secret. Allegations against officials are secret unless the commission decides there is probable cause for a more formal investigation. That's a key difference between the commission and the Auditor's Office. Merritt must disclose his findings to the public.

There are other differences between the agencies. The eight-member commission was created as a bipartisan group, with appointments split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Merritt is a Republican who is seeking re-election.

"We very carefully placed this responsibility with the ethics commission, so there was an independent body overseeing all this," said Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat who helped shepherd the ethics law.

Clodfelter said the legislature's Joint Ethics Committee will meet Thursday to discuss legislation that would clearly assign ethics issues to the commission.

The commission cannot act on complaints or allegations by the public unless they are submitted with a sworn statement. Merritt's office wrote that forcing him to turn over anonymous complaints to the commission could have a chilling effect on tipsters.

"We believe the State of North Carolina and her citizens are best served by transparency, disclosure and 'sunshine,' " Hoegemeyer wrote.

(Mark Johnson of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report.)