Easley tells spokespeople to work with the press

Raleigh -- Gov. Mike Easley said today that he has instructed his press office and other state government spokespeople to cooperate better with news media outlets to provide information to the public.

A controversy over the deletion of government e-mail records at his office's behest is distracting his administration from its final year of work, Easley said at an informal meeting this afternoon with the executive director of the N.C. Press Association and the top editors of The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and The Carolina Journal.

"I've got basically nine months left in office," Easley said. "We've done a lot of good, but there's a lot more to be done. I want every day to count. I do not want to be distracted with pettiness."

Easley organized the meeting in response to criticism of his administration's handling of requests for information about the state's beleaguered mental health system, including the deletion of staff e-mails that might have been public record.

The public records controversy has overshadowed his proposal to fix the mental health system, he said.

"You know whose fault that is?" Easley said he told his staff. "It's our fault. We made that an issue."

Easley said he instructed executive-branch public information officers on Tuesday to work more cooperatively with the news media. And he hopes a commission he appointed to examine the issue of e-mail retention will develop a clearer policy.

"People who work for the state are very honest, and they try to do the right thing," Easley said. "But they need to know what that is, and the guidelines need to be more specific."