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RALEIGH — Gov. Bev Perdue has already rearranged the furniture in the governor’s Capitol office and set about Monday rearranging state government to better suit her liking and satisfy several campaign promises.

Amid still-unpacked boxes of personal effects and a stray baseball bat propped beside her desk, the newly installed Democrat signed five executive orders Monday morning.

Almost all the orders have to do with Perdue’s campaign pledges to make state government more open and efficient, including a provision that as many state government documents as possible be posted online. Another order established a budget reform commission to look for things that can be cut from state programs.

Perhaps the most pressing of Perdue’s first executive fiats will change how highway contracts are awarded.

Currently, the appointed N.C. Board of Transportation has the ability to approve contracts for new road construction. This has led to accusations that politically connected members have steered funding from where it is most needed to projects that satisfy parochial or personal interests.

“They will be taken out of the process of approving these projects,” Perdue said. Her order directs board members to turn over their power to steer road-building projects to the department’s secretary, Eugene Conti Jr., and his professional staff. And as she signed the directive, Perdue noted that board members served at the pleasure of the governor.

“If they don’t want to do that, they shouldn’t serve,” she said.

The idea, Perdue said, was to take political considerations out of the process. Board members would still approve certain things, such as land purchases, and would still have a role in setting strategy for the department.

Reaction to the plan was mixed Monday.

Andrew Perkins Jr., a DOT board member from Greensboro, said he had not seen the plan and would reserve comment until he had reviewed it.

Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham Democrat who has long sat on two key transportation committees, embraced the idea.

“I think if you’ve got the professionals in place, these are the people with the necessary experience to make things happen,” he said.

Cole said the state was already struggling to find enough money to build roads and railways before the current recession deepened late last year. Now, he said, with available funding shrinking, it would be all the more important to manage funds wisely.

Perdue said she hoped the new road approval system would be in place by the time the federal government handed down a stimulus package. She is due to go to Washington on Wednesday to stake North Carolina’s claim to a share of whatever spending Congress and President Barack Obama put together.

Money — or the lack of it — has dominated the conversation during much of Perdue’s transition to power from Gov. Mike Easley, who left office Saturday after eight years.

She acknowledged that even with Democrats in control of the state House and Senate, she could have trouble if legislative leaders decide to resist her reform proposals.

“I really look forward to my first sit-down with the (House) speaker and (Senate president) pro temp in my official capacity,” said Perdue, a veteran of the legislature who has particularly close ties to Senate leader Marc Basnight.

Perdue’s Cabinet secretaries were also sworn in Monday. Among them were Linda Carlisle, a Greensboro businesswoman who will lead the Department of Cultural Resources.

“I think even in today’s environment, there are creative ways that we can look to expand on the offerings we have,” Carlisle said. In particular, she said, the state needed to keep up investments in libraries, which fall under her department’s supervision.

“Everything you read and hear tells you libraries become a greater resource during economic downturn times,” Carlisle said. “Our funding for our libraries is abysmal at times.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com