RALEIGH \u2013 Sparks flew during a Wednesday Senate committee meeting after a top aide to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue said that he never intended to alter the opinion of a top Department of Transportation official when he changed a letter about the timing for money on two toll projects.Democratic Sens. Dan Blue of Wake County and Martin Nesbitt of Buncombe County objected to what they called \u201cone-sided cross-examination\u201d of two DOT employees who spoke before the Senate Rules Committee.\u201cThat\u2019s outrageous,\u201d Nesbitt said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anything justifies what I had to sit here and watch this morning.\u201d\u201cOK, you had your say, and I\u2019ll have mine,\u201d Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, responded. Apodaca is the Senate Rules Committee chairman.<\/p>\n
Apodaca said that in the 10 years he\u2019s been in the Senate, he\u2019d never seen the type of events as those that occurred this year. He was referring to instances in which electronic signatures of the DOT\u2019s chief operating officer, Jim Trogdon, was placed on two altered letters. The alterations said the opposite of what Trogdon had written earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t work in my world,\u201d Apodaca said. \u201cAnd I certainly hope it doesn\u2019t work in y\u2019all\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the senators\u2019 remarks, Kevin McLaughlin, Perdue\u2019s deputy chief of staff, and two DOT employees, Susan Coward, a deputy secretary, and Vicki Stanley, Trogdon\u2019s executive assistant, gave their account of what happened June 14, when Trogdon\u2019s letters were altered and the digital signature was applied. Trogdon was in Charlotte that morning and was participating at an event that made him unavailable to discuss revisions to his letters.<\/p>\n
Trogdon had said that money for the two toll projects \u2014 the Mid-Currituck Bridge on the Outer Banks and the Garden Parkway in Gaston and Mecklenburg counties \u2013 would not be needed in the 2012-13 budget because anticipated litigation over the projects would prevent construction from beginning until the following fiscal year.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin told committee members that he felt that Trogdon\u2019s letter needed to be altered so that money would be available for the projects in case the litigation did not occur or in case the disputes were settled early.<\/p>\n
Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, questioned McLaughlin about the changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it customary for you guys in the governor\u2019s office to send someone over to an agency to alter positions when you don\u2019t agree with what they\u2019ve already written?\u201d Newton asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope you are not saying that this process was altering someone\u2019s position,\u201d McLaughlin said. He said he was seeking a clarification.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems quite clear to me that\u2019s exactly what happened,\u201d Newton said.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin said he did not discuss the changes in the letters with Perdue until after news reports brought the controversy to light.<\/p>\n
Coward and Stanley detailed their roles in making the changes in Trogdon\u2019s letters. They said they were made after Pryor Gibson, a former Anson County Democratic representative and currently Perdue\u2019s top legislative aide, requested the change.<\/p>\n
Both said the changes were a mistake and apologized for them. Neither said that they were pressured to make changes, but did say that they felt an urgency to get the letter out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn haste, a mistake was made,\u201d Coward said.<\/p>\n
Apodaca said he expects the committee to take up the issue again Thursday, as it decides its next course of action. He said he expected a \u201cspirited debate\u201d at that meeting.<\/p>\n
Barry Smith is an associate editor of<\/em> Carolina Journal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carolina Journal News Reports Officials claim letter reversing department funding position was a mistake By Barry Smith Jun. 28th, 2012 \u00a0 RALEIGH \u2013 Sparks flew during a Wednesday Senate committee meeting after a top aide to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue said that he never intended to alter the opinion of a top Department of Transportation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,94,97,105,110,123,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bev-perdue","category-currituck-development-group","category-dot-letters","category-lochner-mmm-group","category-mid-currituck-bridge","category-pryor-gibson","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}