N.C. State head: No Easley deal in offing

RALEIGH, N.C., July 2 (UPI) -- A North Carolina university has no plans to cut a deal with an ex-governor's wife fired from her job running a campus speaker series, the school's head said.

North Carolina State University in Raleigh has no money to pay any settlement to Mary Easley, interim Chancellor James Woodward said at an editorial conference with The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

Easley, wife of former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, said last week she would appeal her June 8 firing, which followed disclosures she was given the five-year, $850,000 contract to run the speaker series and create a public safety leadership center due to her husband's influence.

The News & Observer reported her 2005 job was "pushed by her husband" and "orchestrated at the highest levels of state government."

Woodward told the newspaper he stood behind his decision to eliminate her position, saying Easley "had to know" that her husband, one of his top aides and a member of the university's board of trustees played a role in her job creation.

"I think she was well aware of the efforts made on her behalf to get her a new job and a new contract," Woodward said. "And those efforts were highly inappropriate."

While documents show former Gov. Easley helped orchestrate the creation of Mary Easley's job, Woodward said he found no evidence of a quid pro quo, or a favor for a favor.

"I can't see where N.C. State got anything as a result of that," he told the newspaper. "What could the governor do that could bring some short-term benefit to N.C. State? I can't identify anything."