Complaint alleges Moore threw weight around to save money on land deal

Three employees at the state Department of Environmental Quality told WRAL News that they never felt pressured, though, to grant Moore's company a time extension he sought to avoid unearthing and disposing of aging underground fuel tanks on the property in 2014 and 2015. Those employees include the immediate supervisor for Rose Pruitt, the inspector who dealt most directly with Moore, and the head of the permits and inspections branch at the time for DEQ's Underground Storage Tanks Section.

Both supervisors acknowledged the issue was forwarded all the way up to Donald Van der Vaart, then head of the state environmental agency. Word came back down that Moore's case should be handled like any other, emails indicate.

It's common to tell department leaders when legislators are involved in enforcement matters, Ruth Strauss and Steve Booe said Monday, because of the likelihood the legislator will reach out to leadership on his or her own.

"We do let our management know if we've issued a notice to a party that (department leadership) may have to respond to," said Strauss, branch head for the permits and inspection program.

Pruitt herself, who was the inspector on Moore's case, told WRAL News Monday that she vaguely remembered it. Asked whether anyone put pressure on her to decide the case in his favor, Pruitt said she'd have to go back and look at her files.

DEQ's official comment on the matter Monday was a no comment.

Spokesman Jamie Kritzer provided WRAL News with the same records the department sent to the Campaign for Accountability, the Washington, D.C., outfit that filed the ethics complaint. But Kritzer declined several opportunities to say whether anyone at DEQ felt Moore had tried to pressure inspectors, saying only that WRAL News should review the email record.

Among other things, that record includes at least two emails from then-DEQ Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder saying Pruitt should proceed as she would in any other case. Reeder is now an adviser for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. Much of the top leadership at DEQ changed after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper beat Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in the 2016 election.

Happenstance brought the group into this matter, according to Executive Director Daniel Stevens, who said he initially filed a records request at DEQ for emails between van der Vaart, who may be up for an appointment with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Scott Pruitt, who heads that agency.

DEQ provided emails about Moore's issue with underground tanks because Rose Pruitt's last name is the same of the EPA administrator's, Stevens said.

While Southeast was working to sell the property, a neighbor apparently complained about underground gasoline and diesel tanks, bringing Rose Pruitt out for an inspection. A notice of violation was issued in August 2014 and Moore requested a meeting with higher-ups, including Annette Parker, who handles underground storage tank permits, DEQ emails indicate.

"I wasn't in any capacity pressured," Parker said Monday.

Moore also asked for a waiver on late penalties associated with the tanks, which was granted, the emails indicate. Pruitt agreed to a 30-day extension to have the tanks closed out, and Moore agreed to have remaining diesel fuel pumped out.

In April 2015, with the tanks still a problem for DEQ, Moore requested another extension while his company looked to finalize a sale at the facility. Pruitt, according to an email to her supervisors, told Moore that the department was unlikely to grant this, but she invited him to make a formal request. By this time, a number of DEQ officials had been looped in, including department lobbyists Matt Dockham and Brad Knott, who would have worked regularly with Moore's staff and state legislators.

This email chain had Moore's name in the subject line.

At one point, the emails indicate Dockham, Knott or both, would participate in Pruitt's calls with Moore. Linda Culpepper, who was then head of the state Division of Waste Management, said in an email to the two lobbyists that "staff are instructed to have one of you involved in any conversation with General Assembly members."

Reeder changed that in early May, telling Pruitt via email that the pair "will not be participating in any future phone calls."

"You should just proceed as you normally would," he told Pruitt.

Soon after, the second extension was granted. Strauss, Pruitt's branch head, reported up the chain of command that Pruitt had approved a 90-day reprieve. The tanks were supposed to be removed by August 2015, well before the sale to Mountaire closed, but it's unclear what happened to the tanks themselves.

The new Mountaire facility is not yet open, having moved a February 2018 target back to January 2019, a spokesman said Monday.

It's also unclear what tipped the scales in Moore's favor. In one email, Culpepper references "points we considered to make the extension," thanking Strauss and Art Barnhardt, who has since retired from DEQ, for sending them along. But the points themselves are nowhere to be found in the emails DEQ released. An attorney for the department explained to Stevens that DEQ couldn't find any emails detailing these points and suggested Culpepper may have been thanking Strauss in advance.

"Even if this dubious explanation is somehow accurate, in light of the extensive email correspondence surrounding this issue right up until the moment DEQ reverses its position to personally financially benefit the Speaker of the House, it seems likely there would have been some written explanation," Stevens wrote in his complaint. "Yet, according to DEQ, there are no records explaining the sudden about-face."

Through spokesman Joseph Kyzer, Moore called the complaint "a meritless election-year ploy."

"As the public records demonstrate, the Siler City project was a private property redevelopment handled properly by a state agency," Moore said in his statement. "DEQ and their underground storage tank division dealt with the project as they would any other business, and we complied."

Also through Kyzer, Moore declined an interview request.

Kyzer did not respond to specific emailed questions, including a question about why one of Southeast's other partners, someone unconnected to state government, didn't handle the tank issue with DEQ.

The most complete answer as to why the second extension was granted comes from a response Pruitt sent Reeder in mid-May of 2015 after Reeder asked, "whatever happened with this matter."

"Mr. Moore requested an extension of 90 days to remove the tanks and provided proof that the tanks had been emptied of product," Pruitt said. "Based on that information, we granted him an extension."