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Cooper blocks bonus payment to outgoing McCrory administration officials

Gov. Pat McCrory ordered state agencies to give bonus payouts to his 10 cabinet secretaries as the administration left office. Gov. Roy Cooper has stopped those payments, saying they're not appropriate.

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Gov. Pat McCrory
By
Mark Binker
RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory ordered an unusual set of bonus payments for his 10 cabinet secretaries as the Republican's administration wound down last month.
In a letter to the state controller and interim director of human resources, McCrory said heads of his 10 cabinet departments should receive payouts "for accrued vacation and bonus leave as if they were regular State employees covered by the North Carolina Human Resources Act, retroactive to their first day of employment in the exempt position."

The total amount of money entailed in fulfilling that order could be as much as $166,000. While ordinary state workers might receive such payments when they retire, cabinet secretaries, who earn higher salaries, typically would not receive such bonus payments upon leaving office.

"These irregular payments have been brought to the attention of the administration and are halted pending further review," said Ford Porter, a spokesman for Gov. Roy Cooper.

Cooper, a Democrat, took over from McCrory, a Republican, on Jan. 1 after a contentious election season.

It's unclear whether similar payments have been made to cabinet secretaries leaving prior administrations. It's also unclear whether cabinet secretaries who previously served in other jobs, such as former Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Donald van der Vaart, might be eligible for some form of payment.

The 10 people who McCrory put in line for the extra payments headed departments that included DEQ, Administration, Commerce, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Information Technology, Military and Veterans Affairs, Natural and Cultural Resources, Public Safety and Revenue.

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