From the state Republican Party, partly in response to recent news about depositions in a lawsuit filed against the Easley administration over e-mail records:

Fetzer Calls for Dismissal of Two High Ranking State Officials and for Perdue to Provide Easier Access to Public Records 

?It?s time that ?Business as Usual Bev? started backing up her rhetoric when it comes to ethics and transparency.? –  Tom Fetzer NCGOP Chairman
 

RALEIGH?NCGOP Chairman Tom Fetzer today called on Governor Bev Perdue to remove from their positions Alvin Keller, Secretary of the Department of Corrections, and Reuben Young, Secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Fetzer also called on Perdue to convene a panel of journalists to determine barriers to access to public records and have those barriers lifted immediately.
 

Fetzer referenced Young?s time serving as former Governor Mike Easley?s Chief Legal Council, saying that Young failed to properly investigate claims that the Governor?s office instructed employees to delete emails.  Fetzer charged that ?Young either orchestrated the cover-up or observed it with a casual indifference.?

Fetzer also noted Young?s inclusion in the recent Ruffin Poole indictment, where Young failed to properly investigate the Easley staffer about being taken on a private jet to New Orleans for a bachelor party thrown by an Easley supporter. 

Fetzer said Young is a ?holdover from the incompetence and corruption of the Easley administration? and that Perdue should dismiss him from his current post immediately.  

Fetzer outlined Keller?s lack of results as the head of Corrections, including his poor handling of problems surrounding the state?s probation system. 

Keller had made filling vacancies of parole officers his #1 priority; but the number of parole officers actually went down during his tenure.  Recently, Keller has refused media requests to release records showing the details of supervision of those out on probation and backpedaled on his ordered to release prisoners who were sentenced to life in prison.  

According to Fetzer, a lack of internal checks and balances has left it to the media and private ?watchdog? groups to uncover corruption in state government. Fetzer said he believed even more problems would be discovered if access to public records was easier. He proposed that the Governor put together a panel of journalist and members of concerned citizens groups to identify the obstacles that stand in the way of access to public records. 

?The governor should listen to common sense recommendations from those who know what the obstacles are and then, using whatever is within her power as Governor, implement reform by executive order.?
 

?Bev Perdue has called herself the ?Education Governor? and then promptly signed a budget that slashed education.  She called herself the ?Jobs Governor? when unemployment increased on her watch. 

It?s time ?Business as Usual Bev? started backing up her rhetoric when it comes to ethics and transparency,? Fetzer concluded.