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The laws that govern the pest control committee give Black one appointee. But correspondence and interviews show that Black has ties to three other recent committee appointees.

One of Easley's appointees, exterminator Wallace "Benny" Ray of Winston-Salem, came on board after Black recommended him. A second Easley appointee, construction company owner Fred Mills of Raleigh, said in an interview that he went to Black to get on the board. A third Easley appointee, exterminator Phillip Clegg of Durham, donated $1,000 to Black in each of the past two campaigns and gave him another $1,000 last year. Clegg said he visited Black and Basnight to help him get on the board and that his contributions had nothing to do with his appointment.

Correspondence shows that Jon Black sought to put two people on the committee. In April 2002, Norris, then a legislative aide to the speaker, sent the speaker a memo regarding his son's request.

"He will get us two names," Norris wrote, "one for your slot and one for Senator Basnight's."

Basnight, who said he recalls no conversation about the appointments with Black or his staff, chose to reappoint his committee member.

Two months later, Norris wrote to Jon Black with another suggestion: "Jon -- we are going to see if Sen. Basnight will agree to add another person to the [committee] so that we can put both of your nominees on the board," she wrote. "... Be sure to let me know the priority of your two nominations so we at least get the most important one named on our end."

Norris could not be reached for comment. Black's press secretary, Julie Robinson, said Black's son did not drive the effort to add the seats. She said the speaker had met with officials at the state pest control association and at N.C. State University.

"The speaker agreed that the board needed to be more balanced in order to allow the voices of both sides to be represented in relevant discussions and decisions, and he asked them to provide to his office recommendations for appointments," Robinson said.

The additional seats were inserted into an omnibus appointments bill, which the legislature passed in October 2002. Easley vetoed it for technical reasons.

Termite treatment

Two years later, Jon Black had another request -- for the speaker to look into the seat on the committee held by an epidemiologist.

At the time, the committee was considering whether to reapprove a product called Bora-Care as a stand-alone termite pretreatment for new homes.

Bora-Care is applied to the first 2 feet of all wood rising from a home's foundation. The manufacturer, Nisus Corp., provided data showing that the treatment keeps termites from invading homes, but some question its effectiveness because termites can reach the home's foundation.

Black Pest Control is a Bora-Care provider. Jon Black told the committee at its September 2004 meeting that his business had treated about 3,000 homes with no complaints.

In October 2004, two months before the vote on reapproving Bora-Care, the committee received a Bora-Care complaint regarding a Lincoln County homeowner who reported termites in her crawlspace. In an e-mail message, Norris told an aide to the speaker to fax the complaint to the speaker and his son.

On Nov. 30, 2004, according to a written phone message to the speaker, Jon Black asked about the epidemiologist position. "He said he needed help with it soon, given meeting was coming up," the message said.

Black's staff and state health officials say there was no attempt to get the epidemiologist off the committee.

As it turned out, Jon Black had nothing to worry about. The committee unanimously approved the use of Bora-Care.

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