Some things should go without saying.
State employees should not have to be told that they can't take free meals, gifts and sports tickets from vendors doing business with their agencies. And the vendors should know better than to offer such things.
But that is not the case everywhere in state government, so Gov. Bev Perdue issued an executive order last week telling state employees that such freebies are now illegal. Workers in the departments she oversees now face a misdemeanor charge if they violate the order.
Perdue's order stems from the actions of employees in the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Division of Air Quality. At both, workers took gifts from Verizon Business. The company just had a $51.5 million contract approved at DMV after agency officials asked the legislature to allow a no-bid renewal. (Why the legislature would agree to such a request is a topic for another day.)
It wasn't all that long ago that our governor, Cabinet secretaries and legislators could take almost anything from vendors and from lobbyists seeking favor. It was all legal in Raleigh and many a nice meal, round of golf or tennis vacation was provided to state leaders under the guise of something called "goodwill lobbying."
Credit former Agriculture Secretary Meg Scott Phipps, former House Speaker Jim Black and other lesser public officials with cleaning up the system. They all got caught with their hands too deep in the cookie jar, taking not just what was legal but going for more. Their prison sentences created pressure on legislators to reform the way the state does business.
Top state officials are now banned by law from taking gifts from vendors and lobbyists. Many lower-level employees are under the same restrictions now because of the executive order.
State employees in departments outside of Perdue's control are not under the order, including insurance, labor and agriculture, but their leaders should move quickly to issue similar edicts. And when the General Assembly returns to Raleigh in May, it should convert Perdue's executive order into a statute.
Perdue acted decisively with her order. That is to her credit. But we must ask why it takes a scandal to show state leaders that the old ways of doing business in this state are just not acceptable. Perdue has been in the capital since the mid-1980s. She knows about all the free meals and gifts.
For too long state leaders have accepted influence-buying as the way things get done in North Carolina. The public shouldn't have to tell them that they want it fixed. That should go without saying.
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