In addition to the $2.4 million discretionary fund parked at the Department of Health and Human Services that he and Speaker Jim Black were to divide, former Republican House co-speaker Richard Morgan controlled $1.5 million in another account.

Last fall, Morgan instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to send $500,000 to his district of Moore County to set up a senior center. He later decided to double it.

On Oct. 14, 2004, DHHS Division of Aging and Adult Services Director Karen Gottovi sent a memo to Moore County Manager Steve Wyatt informing him of the money.

“The Joint Conference Committee Report on the Continuation, Expansion, and Capital Budget authorizes $500,000 for the development of a senior center in Moore County.”

But Gottovi’s statement about the source of funds was incorrect. No specific line item mentioned the Moore County funds, and which account the funds were to come from was not clear.

On Dec. 16, 2004, DHHS budget analyst Pam Leaman notified Aleta Mills in Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom’s office that Morgan wanted more money for the project.

”In a conversation with Sabra Faires in Morgan’s office today we have learned that the additional $500K was placed in a reserve in DHHS’s budget, not in OSBM’s (Office of State Budget and Management). The Division of Aging is ready to allocate the $1 million NR (non recurring) funds to Moore County.”

But the exact source of funds was still not clear.

On Dec. 17 Faires, Morgan’s chief of staff and general counsel, sent a request to DHHS Deputy Secretary Lanier Cansler telling him where the money was to come from. Half of the $1 million was to come from a $1,831,000 appropriation to the Division of Aging and Adult Services for Senior Center Outreach and Development. The other half was to come from the $2.4 million reserve account at DHHS that then-Co-Speaker Black and Morgan had agreed to split.

On Jan. 24, 2005 Moore County sent an application for a $1 million grant to the Division of Aging and Adult Services.

According to Wyatt, buying the property and converting it to a senior center and headquarters for the county’s Department of Aging will cost a total $1.4 million. Asked what he knew about Morgan’s role in the grant process, Wyatt told Carolina Journal, “It is my understanding that he worked out all the logistics.”

Asked if the county had considered other funding, he said, “There were attempts to do private fund-raising drives but the efforts never took off.” The 2002 per capita income in Moore County was $32,107, 16 percent higher than the state average, and the fifth highest county per capita income in the state.

In addition to the Moore County project, the Division of Aging and Adult Services notified Gaston County Manager Jan Winters on Oct. 14 that his county would receive $1 million for a senior center. According to the Gaston County Commission Clerk Martha Jordan, Rep. Debbie Clary, who represents Cleveland and Gaston Counties, arranged the grant. “The County Commission is reviewing alternatives, but has not yet decided on a site,” Jordan said.

Clary, a House Appropriations co-chair at the time, supported the co-speakership arrangement between Black and Morgan.

Cansler, a former Republican House member, told CJ how the grants materialized. He said he was the point of contact for all legislative requests. He said that during the budget negotiation process, Rep. Clary told him that $1.5 million had been added to the Division of Aging and Adult Services budget for distribution to senior centers in Moore and Gaston Counties.

When asked why he was taking orders from legislators, he said, “Unless the governor says don’t, we do as directed by the legislature. If the speaker says to do it, we do it.”

When asked if Gov. Easley knew about the legislative requests Cansler said, “I don’t know. I didn’t tell him. The dollars were disbursed as directed by the General Assembly leadership.”

Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.