For much of the past year, Gina Dean was U.S. Rep. Brad Miller's point person for African-American issues. And for roughly the same period, she did the same job for state Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett as minority affairs director.

None of them thinks her dual employment posed a conflict of interest. But Al McSurely, a Chapel Hill lawyer representing blacks seeking jobs, promotions or contracts from the DOT, has another view.

"Look at it from the point of view of a black man in Granville County who is trying to get a contract on a DOT project," McSurely said. "Can that person go to Brad Miller and say, 'Congressman Miller, can you bust this good old boy system in the DOT?' And here's Gina Dean working for him."

Dean, 35, took off one of those hats at the end of January when Miller let her go, ending an arrangement that no other aide in his office had. She was the only staffer working outside of normal business hours to handle constituent matters, so that she could continue working full time in another job for the DOT.

Dean gave a different interpretation of her work for Miller. She said Tuesday that she did not handle constituent issues and assisted him only on weekend events that he attended. If Miller didn't have an event scheduled, then Dean didn't have to work, she said.

Miller said Monday that he dismissed Dean because her schedule didn't let her serve his constituents well. He now expects to hire a full-time aide to handle minority outreach in the 13th Congressional District that stretches from Raleigh to Greensboro.

"I certainly didn't see any conflict in what she was doing [with the DOT] and what we were doing in my office," said Miller, a Raleigh Democrat seeking a second term this year. "What did prove to be a problem was simply accomplishing the amount of work that we felt should happen."

He said that if a possible conflict had arisen, "we would probably have dealt with it by excluding Ms. Dean from any involvement in the issue."

DOT officials also saw no conflict in Dean's two jobs. She notified them of her work for Miller, as required by state law. The state Board of Ethics also found no conflict, DOT spokeswoman Ashley Memory said.

Dean was a paid, part-time staffer on Miller's 2002 campaign. Dean is also in the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, an influential African-American political group, and lobbied fellow members to support Miller. He got the nod, despite the endorsement of the association's executive committee for a Democratic primary opponent, former state Sen. Bill Martin of Greensboro.

Martin said he had no concern with Miller's hiring Dean.

Miller said that he wanted a full-time aide to handle outreach, but African-American leaders persuaded him to hire Dean part time. At the time, Dean worked as a diversity trainer for the DOT, making nearly $40,000 a year.

On Jan. 3, 2003, she began working weekends for Miller for $24,000 a year. She did not have to provide time sheets showing how many hours she worked, said Miller's spokesman, Joe Bonfiglio.

Dean and Miller say the job wasn't a perk for helping him get elected.

"It wasn't a reward; I had to work," Dean said.

Her secondary employment form filed with the DOT indicates that she would work about 10 hours a week, on the weekends. That amounts to $46 an hour.

Two days before Dean started working for Miller, the DOT created a new job for a minority affairs director, and by the next month, the department had reclassified Dean's position to fulfill that role. Her new salary was $62,500.

She remains in that position, and McSurely said that one of her tasks last year was to distribute a DOT statement that blunted the claims made by his clients at a news conference.

Dean is the second DOT official Miller has hired. Miller gave Gene Conti, the No. 2 man at the DOT, a one-day-a-week job managing his Raleigh office. In June, Gov. Mike Easley removed Conti from his state job because of concerns about the arrangement.