Corruption hotline, anyone?

Former State Auditor Les Merritt may be out of office but he's not out of the corruption hotline business. Merritt, who lost his seat in the 2008 election, announced Monday that he and former FBI agent Frank Perry are setting up an ethics foundation to, among other things, hear complaints about ethics and public office.

Here's part of his announcment news release:

RALEIGH, NC – Former N.C. State Auditor Les Merritt has teamed up with Dr. Frank L. Perry, a veteran FBI agent who worked for both the N.C. Ethics Commission and the N.C. State Auditor’s office, to launch the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service and its Web site, www.ReportPublicCorruption.org. The Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization which will educate citizens and public officials about the nature, causes and remedies of public corruption and spotlight significant occurrences of public corruption. Specifically, the Foundation will facilitate the investigation and reporting of public corruption by receiving tips about alleged acts of corruption, independently investigating those tips to ascertain their credibility, and passing the information along to investigative reporters or enforcement agencies as appropriate. The organization will also teach classes and conduct seminars and other programs to educate public officials on ethics issues.

Merritt will serve as Executive Director, Perry will serve as Director of Investigations and Public Affairs and Hayley Phillips Bushnell will serve as Director of Operations. Bushnell previously worked at the N.C. Ethics Commission, in the healthcare industry and as a summer intern for U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre (D-NC).