the state's Health Director. Williams became embroiled in controversy over the safety of household well water near coal ash ponds. In testimony in May 2016, related to a lawsuit, state toxicologist Ken Rudo said state health and environmental officials including Williams and former Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder, attempted to “play down the risk” of coal ash contamination of those wells. The two officials had rescinded a "do-not-drink" notice sent to some well owners in March 2016. Rudo said in his deposition in the case that the state was informing residents that their household water was safe to drink when it knew it wasn't. Williams contended that he had rescinded those warning notices because he felt they were unnecessarily stirring up alarms. The state's Department of Health and Human Services disagreed with Rudo's contentions. Megan Davies, a state Division of Public Health epidemiologist who was section chief and Rudo's supervisor, resigned because of the manner in which the department and McCrory's administration disputed Rudo's testimony. Davies and a co-worker testified regarding concerns they held about the state inappropriately rescinding the warning notices. On December 30, a day before McCrory was leaving office, he appointed Williams, one of his closest advisors, to the Oil & Gas Commission, a regulatory body that had been moribund since the governor won a legal battle with the legislature over appointments a year earlier. Six weeks later, Williams was appointed Health and Senior Services Director in Missouri by controversial Governor Eric Greitens. I-77 toll lane Under McCrory, the NCDOT signed a 50-year contract with Cintra, a Spanish company, to add variable toll lanes to I-77 (a major, heavily congested trucking route and north-south corridor through the state) so as to provide a reliable travel speed of for those who pay the toll. The fee per mile will fluctuate in order to keep the toll lane from being over-crowded. Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act On March 23, 2016, McCrory signed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2). The law eliminated anti-discrimination protections including for gay and transgender people and barred municipalities from re-establishing them. It initially legislated that in government buildings, people could only use restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates, preventing transgender people who do not or cannot alter their birth certificates from using the restroom consistent with their