Former NC Governor Mike Easley (more commonly referred to as Sleazley) has been in a world of hurt since he left office and his wife Mary Sleazely refused to give up her taxpayer funded no-show job with the state university system. Mary Sleazley was famous for her taxpayer funded European travel and a no-show job while ole Mike was in office, but the fertilizer didn't hit the blower until he left office and she arranged another no-show job which ultimately resulted in top state university administrators resigning and her getting fired.
This got folks to digging in Easley's term in office and all kinds of sleaze is showing up. The latest is In drought, Easley's club got water:
As a four-year drought parched North Carolina into the middle of 2002, then-Gov. Mike Easley and his administration called it a major disaster. The governor urged people everywhere to save water, and he imposed stiff restrictions.
Except at Easley's exclusive private golf club in northeastern Chatham County.
New records and interviews show that Old Chatham Golf Club pumped millions of gallons from a creek leading to Jordan Lake, diverting water from one of the region's major sources to keep greens alive.
The records show that a state water resources chief questioned the pumping but that higher-level officials -- including at the Governor's Office -- got involved.
Gov. Sleazley cares about even the smallest things in making life better for the citizens of North Carolina.
It all took place a year after golf club leaders provided Easley with a major benefit: Club directors had voted in 2001 to waive the governor's monthly membership dues. That saved Easley about $50,000 while he was in office, a break he did not reveal on financial disclosure forms.
Hmmm - maybe it's because ole Mike is such a swell guy? And look who else was a member of the club:
Their club boasts many prominent businessmen among its 300 members, including Charles Sanders, the former Glaxo chief and state lottery chairman; state Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate; former Department of Transportation secretary Lyndo Tippett; and Frank Daniels Jr., former publisher of The News & Observer.
...
Both Mead and Fransen said in interviews that the golf club had made it clear that the purpose of the pumping was to save the club members' investment in grass.
Nice - think of it as a verdure stimulus plan.
Two days later, Easley issued a controversial directive that local water systems and businesses, including in Chatham County, take quick steps to reduce their water use by 20 percent. Easley spent the next week urging people to save water, including during a visit to a farm in Knightdale on July 17 where he called the drought a major disaster and sought federal aid.
But Old Chatham Golf Club's water was not affected by Easley's water-saving directive.
Even better, Gov. Sleazley was telling everyone not to let the water run while they brushed their teeth. There's more in the article about how "The Governor's Office" applied the pressure to get 6 million gallons of water and they even got the state Department of Transportation to agreed "to let Old Chatham run a pipeline along the state's right-of-way to an irrigation pond on the golf course's property."
Mike Easley - just another Democrat looking out for the little people.
