The Charlotte Observer

September 13, 2006
 

RALEIGH - State Auditor Les Merritt scolded the General Assembly's top two leaders Tuesday for giving raises with little documentation to justify the pay boosts.

The salary increases, though, were not given to the personal staffs of either House Speaker Jim Black or Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, according to a spokesman for the auditor's office.

The findings were the result of an audit that Black and Basnight requested last September because one had not been conducted since 1999.

Merritt, a Republican, said Black and Basnight, both Democrats, permitted raises in excess of the 10 percent limit established in the General Assembly's personnel manual. The manual, however, also allows the two leaders to increase salaries as they see fit.

The bigger raises went to 15 of the 315 employees who make up members' staffs, sergeant-at-arms staff and the clerks' offices, according to a statement released by Amy Fulk, Basnight's chief of staff, and Julie Robinson, Black's communications director.

Six of the employees who got large pay boosts were part-time interns who were hired for full-time jobs, said Chris Mears, spokesman for the auditor's office. The other raises reflected an increase in workload, with a 50 percent increase in the number of bills filed during the 2005-2006 General Assembly session over the 2003-2004 session, Fulk and Robinson said.

One pay raise was a 35 percent increase for Denise Weeks, the principal clerk in the House of Representatives, Mears said. Her salary last year was $92,324 and was up to $125,000 this year before an additional $6,875 raise in July, according to the General Assembly personnel office. Mears said the reasoning provided was a memo that noted "additional duties."

The auditor's report said Black and Basnight should communicate clear policies and standards for awarding raises and provide more documentation to justify them.

"Policies establish uniformity, help reduce the perception of inequities and ensure that employee relations are handled in a fair and consistent manner," the report said.

North Carolina's General Assembly ranked 46th in a 2004 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures of how much state legislatures cost to operate.

The state audit also addressed several bookkeeping and procedural problems in other areas of the General Assembly, such as the cafeteria.

 

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15505163.htm