The state Highway Patrol said it will release dismissal letters for two recently-fired troopers if the firings are unchallenged or upheld by the secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, who oversees the patrol.

Lt. Michael Faison and Trooper Hubert Sealey were fired last week, according to the Fayetteville Observer. Both were assigned to the Fayetteville-based Troop B. Sealey is a Robeson County commissioner.

The patrol has only said the firings do not involve criminal misconduct. The patrol's spokesman, Sgt. Jeff Gordon, had told the Fayetteville newspaper that the dismissal letters would only be public if the troopers had appealed their firings to Crime Control Secretary Reuben Young and he upheld them. That suggested the dismissal letters might not become public if the two troopers chose not to appeal.

Last year, the state legislature passed a new law that makes dismissal letters public. The new law followed our three-part series, Keeping Secrets, that showed North Carolina had one of the most secretive personnel laws in the nation.

This week, Gordon clarified the patrol's position on dismissals. He provided a memo from Joe Dugdale, the patrol's general counsel, that explains that dismissal letters for the two troopers would become public unless Young decides to reinstate them.

The letters may not be the ones that patrol Commander Michael Gilchrist wrote. If Young handles the appeals, the dismissal letters would come from him.

This is consistent with the new law, which makes public dismissal letters that represent a department's final decision. That provision is intended to keep private allegations of misbehavior that were later found to be untrue during the internal appeal process.

One new bit of information about one of the troopers: Faison served a three-day suspension for disciplinary reasons in 1996, roughly four years after he joined the patrol. The new law makes public such suspensions, though it does not require the reason for the suspension to be disclosed.

Gordon said the two troopers do not have the option to try to resign to avoid the release of a dismissal letter. At this point, they can be reinstated (possibly to a lesser position) or dismissed.

Fired Trooper Anthony Scott  is entitled to get his job back, though at a lesser rank and salary, the State Personnel Commission said this week.

The commission's decision affirms a recommendation made by Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison after a hearing last year.

The patrol fired Scott in February after they found out he was on duty when he visited the home of his girlfriend in Pittsboro. Shortly after he arrived, the girlfriend's estranged husband showed up and threatened to kill her, Scott and himself with a gun, court records said.

Scott had left the home before the husband entered in an attempt to avoid a confrontation, his lawyer said, and did not learn of the assault until the husband left. Scott  was initially demoted a rank, with his pay cut 15 percent, and reassigned to Charlotte.

Scott had appealed that punishment, which resulted in N.C. Crime Control Secretary Reuben Young reviewing the case, and determining that Scott should be fired.

The commission agreed with Morrison that Young had not followed proper personnel procedures in firing Scott. It also affirmed that the patrol was originally correct in its decision to demote and reassign Scott.

The patrol can appeal the decision to state court.

Since Gov. Bev Perdue ousted one N.C. Highway Patrol commander in favor of a longtime friend, Randy Glover, we've been asking whether she had helped him for much of his career.

It wasn't until late Friday, after announcing Glover had stepped down from the patrol, that Perdue confirmed what one patrol insider had been saying: that she had helped him climb the patrol's hierarchy.
Here is a history of how she and her staff have handled this question since July 1, 2010, shortly after Glover's appointment was announced:

July 2009 (from press secretary Chrissy Pearson): "I talked to the governor about whether she remembered doing any sort of recommendation for Glover. She did not."

Oct. 22: Perdue, from China in a teleconference with reporters, did not answer the question, but noted that Glover's predecessor, Walter J. Wilson Jr., had promoted him to second-in-command. She chastised us for reporting Glover's 1987 transfer for having an affair with a Harnett County dispatcher. "This is a man who is lieutenant colonel of the Highway Patrol. He had an affair nearly 25 years ago. He's married with two beautiful little daughters, and I really, really am disappointed in this kind of journalism. And did I disclose it? I will have to be very honest with you. I never once in any interview for any position ask anyone about their sexual preference, their sexual orientation or their past marital history. I didn't figure it had a thing to do with the job they could do for the people of North Carolina."

Jan. 7: On her blog, Perdue challenges our reporting on Glover. We "went too far when Dan Kane wrote, regarding a past affair by Highway Patrol Col. Randy Glover, that I 'said the affair is irrelevant when it comes to Glover's abilities to lead the Highway Patrol.' This is not true, and Kane's reporting on Col. Glover continues to be peppered with inaccuracies." We asked Pearson to name those inaccuracies. She did not.

July 7: At a news conference to announce get-tough patrol policies, Perdue provides three answers to the promotion question in the following succession:

"I don't think anybody can say who intervened when. I'll tell you what, I didn't intervene when he went from lieutenant colonel to colonel."

"Randy Glover never asked me for a thing."

"I don't intervene in promotions. I don't intervene in promotions. I never intervene in promotions."

She was responding to our report that day that a former patrol secretary, Jacquelyn Walker, said that Perdue helped Glover get promoted to first sergeant in 1995 after his name was left off of a promotions list.

All of this leads up to the statement Perdue issued Friday afternoon, a few hours after Glover stepped down: "I have offered many recommendations on which men and women deserved recognition at agencies throughout state government, including Randy Glover and other qualified troopers at the Highway Patrol."

Such recommendations are not public record under the state's personnel law. This past session, state lawmakers as part of an omnibus ethics bill approved reforms to the law that would make salary and employment histories, and dismissal letters public. But they did not accept Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger's proposal that hiring recommendations from elected officials be made public.

Pearson said Perdue intends to sign the ethics bill into law.

They are employees who have committed crimes on the job, won their positions through political connections or have received big salaries and plum positions over the years.

They work, or worked, in state and local public jobs. Taxpayers paid their salaries, but they aren't entitled to know the details of these employees' hiring, compensation over the years, or performance. North Carolina's personnel law virtually shuts down that information.

On Sunday, The News & Observer began a three-part series, Keeping Secrets, that looks at the personnel law, what it hides and how its secrecy compares with other states. Day One looked at employees who behave badly, while Day Two looked at patronage and cronyism. The series includes a survey of state lawmakers on the issue, as well as comments from top legislative leaders. The series concludes Tuesday with a look at compensation and employment histories.

Campaign finance watchdog Joe Sinsheimer is urging Gov. Beverly Perdue to remove Ruffin Poole, a former top aide to Gov. Mike Easley, from the Golden LEAF board because he refused to testify at last month's state elections board hearing.

Sinsheimer, a Democratic political consultant who has emerged as an advocate of transparent government and campaign finance reforms, also said Perdue should release all reports on missing travel records from 2005. Perdue has so far refused.

In addition, he asks for a review of the permitting process surrounding a controversial cement plant near Wilmington, citing ongoing revelations about the state's environmental agency.

There was no immediate response from Perdue.

(Full text of letter follows.)

Early this morning, Dan Kane joined in on Gov. Beverly Perdue's
conference call from Asia, where she was talking about her
economic-development trip. Dan asked about Col. Randy Glover's 1987
affair and why she appointed him to lead the state Highway Patrol. The
governor went off on our Tuesday story, as Dan has reported on newsobserver.com.

Dan Kane had an interesting story about the new commander of the highway patrol. Randy Glover took office in August amid continuing questions about sexual misconduct at the patrol, and said as recently as last month to troopers they need to be "morally and ethically beyond reproach."

Glover didn't disclose until Monday that he too had failed to live up to the patrol's standards years ago.

See photos from the swearing-in of Col. Randy Glover as the 24th commander of the State Highway Patrol. Photos by staff photojournalist Chuck Liddy.

See photos from the N.C. Highway Patrol service to honor troopers who died in the line of duty. Staff photos by Takaaki Iwabu.