RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A top North Carolina Department of Public Safety administrator has a new job and two others are no longer listed among agency leaders after a management shake-up.
The reorganization announced this week by Secretary Frank Perry comes as the recently approved state budget eliminated the position of law enforcement commissioner, which had been held by Gregory Baker. Baker now has a newly-created post - commissioner of operations.
Not on the new organizational chart are Commissioner of Administration William Crews and Chief Operating Officer Lorrie Dollar. Dollar is a longtime state employee and wife of top House budget-writer Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake.
The Cabinet-level department oversees the state’s prisons and juvenile justice centers, the state Highway Patrol and emergency management. In a memo dated Wednesday, Perry said the organizational changes, effective immediately, are part of “ongoing efforts to make state government more efficient and accountable.”
Department spokeswoman Pam Walker told media outlets the agency has already been working to identify “great opportunities” in state government for those involved in the reorganization. She didn’t immediately respond Thursday to an email request seeking more information on Dollar and Crews.
Under the new budget law, Highway Patrol Commander Col. William Grey now reports directly to Perry, instead of to the now-eliminated law enforcement commissioner. The memo reflects the new structure, with Grey as one of nine administrators reporting directly to Perry. The Republican-led legislature had changed the chain-in-command in recent years.
Lorrie Dollar, a veteran of several state agencies, had worked at the department since early 2013 as GOP Gov. Pat McCrory took office. Crews had been in high-ranking jobs within the department’s predecessor agencies - the former Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and Department of Correction.
Baker briefly headed the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement after working for the FBI. Perry is also a former FBI agent and once headed up the bureau’s Raleigh office. He became secretary in the summer of 2013 after the sudden resignation of Kieran Shanahan.
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