Seventeen months after firing Harold “Buddy” Finch as state ferry director, the state Department of Transportation has promoted a 17-year ferry veteran to succeed him.

Harold B. Thomas of Newport, DOT’s assistant ferry operations director, was promoted to the top job Friday.

“He worked his way up through the ranks, and I am sure he will serve the state’s coastal residents and our visitors with integrity and determination,” Paul Morris, DOT deputy secretary for transit, said in a news release.

Thomas, 44, will be paid $84,587 a year. He joined the DOT Ferry Division in 1994 as a ferry crew member. He has served as assistant director for operations since March 2010, with a salary recently pegged at $56,158. ... [MORE]

State Auditor Beth A. Wood says the state Ferry Division should reduce employee overtime costs and stop violating its rules on hiring employees' relatives, but her 20-page audit report finds no support for the charges of waste, nepotism and abuse leveled by Harold "Buddy" Finch last year when he was fired after 55 days as the ferry director.

Auditors found 13 ferry employees working alongside or under supervision of family members at the same location or shift. That violates state rules against one relative overseeing the work of another, as well as more strict DOT rules against family members working on the same boat or in the same office.

But the report did not confirm Finch's charges that employees' time cards were approved by relatives, that employees worked excessive overtime to increase their pay, and that ferry managers made questionable purchases. ... [MORE]

Buddy Finch, who said he was fired in retaliation for his effort to root out government waste and abuse, wants a judge to put him back in charge of the NCDOT Ferry Division - and to shield him from political meddling.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this week in Wake Superior Court, Finch asks to be reinstated with back pay. A retired 30-year Coast Guard veteran, he was fired in June after 55 days as state ferry director.

Finch’s attorney, John C. Hunter of Asheville, said the state’s whistleblower law gives judges broad powers to reinstate and protect government workers who suffer illegal retaliation for their efforts to clean up abuses.

“We're asking that they not interfere with his ability to deal with the various problems he found and he reported,” Hunter said. “We're asking the court to keep a continuing role there, if necessary.” ... [MORE]