Less Merit

Something bothers me about State Auditor Les Merritt. It could be the simple fact that he's a Republican, and honestly, that should be enough. There's more to it than that, though.

You might remember back in March when jpearson brought our attention to a piece in the N&O criticizing Merritt for using his elected position to promote his personal investment business. Merritt is not new to politics and the ban on using an elected position for personal gain isn't some new obscure ethics rule. He knew better. He had to. It's his job.

According to the mission statement on the State Auditor's web site:

Our mission is to provide state agencies, the legislature and the people of North Carolina with professional, independent evaluations of the State's fiscal accountability and public program performance. We continually strive to ensure that our state government executes its management responsibilities in compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and policies. We also evaluate management controls and policies in an effort to assist state agencies in making more efficient and effective use of public resources.

That's a pretty broad job description and Merritt has taken advantage of it.

I don't mind the fact that he plays watchdog over the state government, but I'm having a bit of a problem with the fact that our watchdog needs a watchdog. Les Merritt's ethics issue has put a huge crimp in his credibility.

Earlier this month, Merritt issued an audit report criticizing Governor Easley's efforts in the area of economic development. I know we don't always agree with Mr. Mike, but I had a hard time taking Merritt's criticisms seriously. The entire report smacked of politics.

You can read the report for yourself, but just taking a look at Robert P.'s post from May 11 and the fabulous table he provided tells me Mr. Mike is doing a helluva job marketing our state on the whole. Here's that table I mentioned:

Category	Ranking
Business Climate Ranking (Site Selection)	1
The Best States For Business (Forbes)	3
Best Places for Business and Careers (Forbes)	1
Total Tobacco	1
Flue-Cured Tobacco	1
Pig Crop	1
Sweetpotatoes	1
Hogs & Pigs	2
Christmas Trees Cash Receipts	2
Cucumbers for Pickles	2
Turkeys Raised	2
Net Farm Income	3
Trout Sold	3
Poultry & Egg Products Cash Receipts	3
State Cigarette Tax Rank	44

The State Auditor's report gives unattributed quotes that criticize the governor. Even the Charlotte Business Journal picked up on the anonymous quotes in the report in their article from May 3.

The Commerce Department, which also was criticized by Merritt's report, had this to say:

"It is not the highest and best use of the governor's time, nor the proper role of the office, to perform the tasks of local economic developers and to engage in meetings that are not strategic and not directly focused on job creation," the department's response reads. "The suggestion that the governor, rather than focus on building the best statewide business climate as possible, should instead use his energy and resources to be a 'cheerleader' defies reason."

Ouch.

I've linked to the report above. Go give it a quick read and tell me what you think.