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In the summer of 2002, amid the worst drought in half a century, then-Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, was a busy man.
He was encouraging people to conserve water and turn off the faucet while they brushed their teeth. He was the first Southern governor to seek federal disaster aid because of the drought. A high-profile visit to a Wake County farm showed a concerned governor sifting through the stunted shoots of a shriveled corn field. In mid-August he issued an executive order halting non-essential water use and creating a Water System Protection Team to study water restrictions.
It was just the sort of thing a governor ought to do in a crisis. But what only a few insiders in Raleigh knew was that his administration was helping Easley's golf club get permission to pump millions of gallons from a tributary of a major water supply to water the club's greens. Despite warnings from some officials about how it would look if the public caught on, the Easley administration cleared the way for Old Chatham Golf Club to pump 450,000 gallons a day from Northeast Creek, which eventually flows into Jordan Lake, a source of water for Cary in Wake County and for Chatham County.
As J. Andrew Curliss reported in Sunday's News & Observer and Charlotte Observer, the OK came after a call from the governor's office to Dempsey Benton, a top official at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, paved the way. By then, mid-level officials had questioned whether watering greens at a private club was the best use of public water during a drought.
That question answers itself. But the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, which controlled the use of 4 million gallons of Jordan Lake water each day, was not using all its allotment and approved the sale of the water to the golf club. The club pumped 6 million gallons of water from the creek. Records show there was little impact on Jordan Lake levels. Rains at the end of the summer replenished much of the state's waters.
But the Easley administration's assistance to the golf club came the year after the club had waived the governor's monthly membership dues, saving Easley about $50,000 while he was in office. Easley did not reveal the waiver of fees on financial disclosure forms. This smells bad.
Easley did not view financial disclosure requirements as something he had to observe slavishly. We don't know why Easley appeared to spend more time at the trough than at the office during his eight years in the governor's mansion. He has refused to discuss this story, or his acceptance of free flights, use of autos and other perquisites of power. He owes an accounting.
We may learn more when the State Board of Elections conducts hearings next week on how his campaign complied with finance disclosure laws. And state and federal officials are also conducting investigations into what occurred on his watch. That's appropriate. The public deserves answers.
