Latest / The SEANC View / Raises, Bonuses, and the Fight for Jobs

Transcript

Raises, Bonuses, and the Fight for Jobs · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
0:04
I'm your host, Jonathan Owens, along with Suzanne Beasley, Artis Watkins, and Samantha Klein.
0:10
I'm calling you by your full name this week, Samantha. I know.
0:13
I'll take it. You give Sammy all the names.
0:16
We have so much to talk about this week. It was a week. Let's jump into it.
0:32
So, anything happen this week, y'all? It was a slow week until they decided
0:39
to roll part of the budget out or kind of part of the budget. A budget framework.
0:45
Yeah. Concepts of a budget. So we're all a little punchy because we have been working nonstop.
0:51
This week has been particularly busy. It's been busy because the legislature
0:55
sort of released the budget this week, their agreement on pay raises for employees
1:02
and a bonus for retirees.
1:04
That was pretty much the major crux of their press conference, I guess, right? It was.
1:08
It was. And it was a brief briefing. Yeah.
1:11
Because this is not the full budget. So I think that's been kind of confusing
1:15
for folks, too, that this is not actually the full budget that they'll vote
1:19
on. This is just a portion of the budget.
1:21
They still have other things that they have to hash out.
1:23
I did hear some rumor yesterday to hold the week of June 15th.
1:27
Oh, that's going to hold money now. Yeah.
1:30
So clearly there are things to be. It's not over yet, as we said yesterday. Absolutely.
1:35
It's not over yet. So let's get into the details of the plan they announced.
1:40
For state employees, it's a 3% raise for most state employees with larger increases
1:45
for certain areas like law enforcement, correctional officers and SBI agents, parole.
1:53
We'll get into the details of that. And a bonus of $1,750 for employees making
1:59
less than $65,000 a year or $1,000 for those making over $65,000 a year.
2:08
Retirees would get a 2.5% bonus. It's a one-time bonus, not a cost of living adjusted.
2:15
Teachers have an average 8% raise across the entire salary schedule,
2:21
including veteran teachers.
2:23
But it's kind of geared more towards the earlier career. Newer teachers. Yeah.
2:28
Which apparently this puts us at number one in hiring pay for teachers.
2:33
In the South? Southeast, I think. From worst to first.
2:36
Yeah, from worst to first. And they would get a $1,000 bonus for teachers with
2:41
16 years plus of experience and a $500 bonus for those under 16 years experience.
2:49
So that's kind of interesting because they flip-flopped on the teacher bonuses.
2:54
The ones who would be higher paid because they've been around longer and moved
2:56
up the food chain are getting bigger bonuses.
3:01
And with the state employees, it's the opposite. that for some reason, it is considered,
3:08
bad to make a living wage as a
3:11
state employee honestly yeah every which way they're trying
3:13
to like hit them if you work long enough to move up it's
3:17
like well now we're going to make the sliding scale for the health plan so you're
3:20
going to pay more yeah and then by the way you're not going to get as much bonus
3:23
it's weird to me it really is only for them because with the law enforcement
3:28
everybody got the same amount that's great but with state employees i don't
3:33
know it's like we want to run them off before they stay long enough to make anything.
3:37
It does very much feel that way. I mean, it almost feels like they kind of pit
3:39
them against each other.
3:40
I know that's probably not the intention, but I think that's what happens,
3:44
you know. But look, if a state employee is making $65,001, they're apparently rich.
3:51
Now, if a millionaire's kids go into private school, we need to help them.
3:57
Well, I mean, for real, $65,001, but these opportunity scholarships throw money
4:03
at rich people to send their kids to the private school they want to send them
4:06
to. You can't make that make sense to me.
4:09
No, that's totally ridiculous.
4:12
And you think about, you know, $65,000 in Raleigh, where a lot of state employees
4:17
live, that's not, that's not a ton of money.
4:20
You're not a millionaire to make that much, so.
4:24
The law enforcement raises were kind
4:26
of the headline for much of the media requests we've gotten this week.
4:32
Correctional officers would get a 15.4% average raise with steps.
4:37
Probation and parole officers is a 10.1% average raise. Other LEOs,
4:43
including state Capitol Police, is 13%.
4:46
State Highway Patrol is 17.7. SBI and ALE officers would get 20.3% average raise, including steps.
4:56
Where is all that coming from? Like, what is the impetus for all that?
5:00
Well, I mean, I think, let's face it, going back to the tragic incident,
5:05
the murder on the light rail in Charlotte of Irina Zaruzka.
5:09
Am I pronouncing that right now? Because I know I struggled with that pronunciation
5:13
for a bit. But public safety and public safety officers and whether we have
5:18
enough of them and whether we treat them properly so they'll stay,
5:21
that became a big issue and rightfully so.
5:24
The problem is there's a lot of other pieces to the picture that we've talked about in the past.
5:29
So it's odd to me, folks who work at DHHS facilities who work with folks who
5:35
are having sometimes mental health struggles and, you know, you want to help folks having that.
5:40
Not saying if you have a mental health struggle, you will commit a violent crime.
5:45
But it can increase your likelihood in some cases if you don't get treatment.
5:50
So why would we not also increase the pay for folks keeping the public safe
5:56
by helping make sure people can have that treatment? I don't know.
5:59
It just doesn't make sense to me.
6:01
Yeah. So, you know, we've talked a lot on this podcast about the challenges
6:05
of recruiting correctional officers and law enforcement in general.
6:09
But particularly correctional officers, there's a huge vacancy rate at a lot of our prisons.
6:14
Do you think this will go a long way towards combating that?
6:19
Well, hopefully it will definitely retain some of those good people that we have working.
6:23
We've talked about this before. In 2017, it took the murders,
6:27
the brutal murders of six employees to get that step pay plan in place for correctional
6:33
officers one, two and three.
6:34
So that definitely is a step in the right direction to paying people some sort
6:38
of a livable wage above where they were.
6:40
Just, you know, the bottom of the rung of the ladder.
6:44
But I'm not sure that it's still enough pay to, like, attract people to come
6:48
to work for the state in that capacity.
6:51
That's a difficult job. That's a challenging job, and that's a dangerous job.
6:55
As of right now, North Carolina is third from the bottom in starting pay for
7:00
correctional officers.
7:02
49th in the country for starting pay for highway patrol. We got a lot of ground to make up.
7:07
I think that they made a big step towards making that with this proposal.
7:13
But, again, cherry-picking just certain people leaves problems because there's
7:19
a lot of people working within the walls, as we say, in a prison who get left
7:23
out of that race. They're not correctional officers.
7:26
Yeah, and we've heard a lot from them this past week.
7:29
You know, we've got caseworkers and, you know, food service workers.
7:32
All these people still deal with offenders inside the walls of a prison,
7:36
but they're not getting that extra pay that correctional officers are getting.
7:41
And that's an issue. So I guess I didn't make that clear enough.
7:44
But yeah, you're right. So it's just the officers.
7:47
It's just the officers. COs one, two and three. It's not even their supervisors.
7:50
Not even their supervisors, which, you know, that wage compression causes people
7:54
who have who have grown in their careers and have all this institutional knowledge
7:57
and are the people who need to pass that on.
7:59
It makes them say things like, well, I'll just go, you know,
8:02
back down to being a correctional officer so I can make more money.
8:05
Or they go to the county jail. Yeah. Or they leave altogether.
8:07
And that's a whole other story.
8:10
Yeah. But same with public schools.
8:13
Teachers were going to get, on average, a really good raise,
8:16
but no one else in those school buildings. Right.
8:19
And it takes the entire building to get a raise.
8:22
To make the school function properly. And the kids rely on all of these folks for different things.
8:26
So the cherry picking is really, I'm struggling with it. Yeah, well, I mean, it's hard.
8:33
It's hard to explain it to folks because there's no good explanation for why
8:37
one position is being held in a higher light than another.
8:40
I mean, well, at the end of the day, you know why it is, because it would cost
8:44
so much more money to just say, hey, everybody in a school should get the right
8:48
thing, and everybody in a prison should get the right thing. Yeah.
8:52
So let's go back to the 3% and the bonuses.
8:56
So there have been some hints around. I don't know if anyone said it publicly
9:00
or it's like been given as the reason for the bonuses.
9:04
But the understanding is that that's kind of a makeup for not having a raise last year.
9:09
Is that what you're hearing? Yeah, so there was, you know, a lot of question
9:12
about this being retroactive because usually in the years when,
9:15
you know, the legislature fails to meet the budget deadline and it goes out
9:19
a few months, then they retro pay everybody back from July 1.
9:24
And that's not happening, which, you know, that's a lot of money.
9:28
You waited almost a year to produce a budget with pay increases.
9:32
So, yeah, that would be another chunk of money on top of that.
9:35
So, yeah, the bonuses, we have
9:37
heard that, were given because they're not making the pay retroactive.
9:42
You know, and a bonus on top of something meaningful, that's one thing.
9:46
But to have affected someone's pay, their base salary, that's going to affect
9:51
their retirement benefit.
9:52
You know, when that time comes, that $1,750 actually changes nothing for them.
9:58
So it's not the same as making the pay retroactive. Wasn't that about $150 a month?
10:05
On average, $1,700 by $1,200, I guess.
10:08
Yeah, but it doesn't affect your base salary. No, no, and it's taxed,
10:13
so it's not that big. Yeah, so it's not a big reward.
10:16
You giveth with one hand and taketh with the other. It is kind of weird that it's taxed, isn't it?
10:21
But it really doesn't help you build your salary up as you grow up.
10:25
And when you get ready to retire and your benefit is calculated,
10:29
right now there's a whole year where you had nothing. Yeah.
10:33
That's why people feel really disrespected. They're like, yeah,
10:36
they don't care if we leave.
10:38
In fact, they kind of want us to leave, go to the private sector,
10:41
get some brand new people in, burn them out and let them go and just be that
10:47
training ground that the taxpayers pay for for these companies. Yeah.
10:51
And let's touch on that a minute.
10:53
John, let me take over for you. Please do. Turnover. We've had quite a bit of
10:58
conversation about that, and that leads right into it.
11:00
Turnover, what, $500 million a year, I think was the last report that you dug
11:05
up out of somewhere, 2022-ish.
11:08
Something like that. It was about $500 million a year. The Office of State Human Resources.
11:11
Yeah. Yeah. So we would love to see a new report on that with current figures,
11:16
but $500 million, you're just throwing out the window. You could do a lot with that money.
11:22
You could. Speaking of upset folks, you could give a COLA with that money,
11:26
right? Gosh, yeah. Poor retirees. We have really had.
11:30
We have. And honestly, we just need to do like many episodes just on how the
11:36
retirement system works and where the COLA is actually supposed to be generated from.
11:41
But when the system doesn't work properly, because in this case,
11:45
we haven't had investment gains for a very long time to put us in a position
11:49
for the system to pay like it should, then that leaves us knocking at the door
11:53
of the General Assembly.
11:54
It is an exorbitant amount of money to ask for for a real recurring COLA. But here's the thing.
12:01
You told people there would be a COLA, and if there is something wrong and the
12:06
system is not able to produce that COLA, then it's incumbent on the state.
12:10
Well, okay, let's talk about part of what's wrong.
12:13
For years, we've been told there is a three-legged stool is the way to look
12:17
at funding for the retirement system.
12:19
One leg is what employees put in, active employees put in 6% of their paycheck
12:24
every month until they retire.
12:27
The next leg is what the state puts in, the employer contribution.
12:31
Which right now is very high. It's at like 18%. Yeah, almost 18%.
12:35
So the third leg is what the gains, whatever profit you make on investments from the system.
12:43
If one leg of that stool has not moved at all in practically 20 years,
12:50
you're going to have problems.
12:51
And that leg is the 6% coming from actives.
12:55
We have no more, in fact, we have less state employees than we did almost 20 years ago.
13:01
We have more people drawing a retirement check than we have in the system working.
13:06
This 18% employer contribution that the legislature gets really mad they have
13:11
to put in to the system, They wouldn't have to put that in there to nearly that big a level.
13:17
If they took that $500 million, they're literally wasting on turnover costs.
13:25
Put people in jobs to serve taxpayers, since we have 2 million more citizens but less employees.
13:32
And then those people would be putting 6% a month into the system.
13:37
This doesn't seem like, I'm not a big math person, but y'all.
13:41
That one leg of the stool is just not there.
13:45
And it doesn't make sense to add to the other leg, which is the employees,
13:51
because you'd be adding to them to get a cola.
13:54
So it's like it's a wash, you know. So, you know, you at some point,
13:58
I don't know what kind of gains you'd have to make to make up for the fact that
14:02
we have less employees working.
14:05
Yeah. And I'm not sure that clicks with a lot of people.
14:08
You know, let's say it again. there are fewer employees paying into the system than there are.
14:14
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many more people are getting a benefit check
14:18
than are paying into the system to be. I'm.
14:21
So if you paid more, had more state employees, they would be paying more into the retirement system.
14:27
So the legislature could pay less into the retirement system.
14:31
And the legislature would probably keep those $500 million in turnover costs.
14:35
Yes. And they would have money to maybe spend on a COLA.
14:41
Or either way. Or at least there'd be money there. Yeah. Either way,
14:44
they wouldn't have so many mad people, too. Exactly. And people would be living better.
14:48
Great timing. You wouldn't have the DMV issues crop up. Yeah.
14:53
Those would never have cropped up if we kept up the number of employees to the population.
14:58
Elaine Marshall, the Secretary of State, was on here a few weeks ago talking
15:01
about how her office that brings in fees for the state doesn't have enough people
15:07
to bring those fees in at the rate they should be and used to be.
15:12
And not only does that cost the state money, but it slows down entrepreneurs,
15:19
small business people trying to get started in the private sector. So it's just a mess.
15:24
There's no logic to it. Well, then we're not going to stay number one place
15:27
to come do business. Well, I mean, it's number one for big business.
15:31
Oh, definitely. It's not number one for people.
15:34
I feel like we really made a breakthrough right there.
15:37
I feel like we have something we can argue. That is a very profound thought when you think about it.
15:43
If you paid more to employees, they would put more into the system.
15:48
Oh, we got to map this out. I got to figure this out. It's going to be a whole episode right there.
15:56
So 2.5% bonus. That's, I think I saw someone on Facebook, and I don't know if
16:01
it's correct or not, but I think that's like $700 for some folks.
16:06
Yeah, I mean, it depends on what you're, the amount of your benefit,
16:08
obviously. retirement checks are usually very low yeah what is it like 60% of
16:13
your income roughly okay,
16:15
I don't know how people are making it on there. I don't either.
16:18
Well, I mean, a lot of them are not and having to go back to work. Yeah.
16:24
And by the way, this coming week, a documentary is coming out.
16:29
Oh, yeah. Artist is going to be a celebrity. Well, that's not why we're talking.
16:33
No, there is a documentary coming out called Pension Fight Club.
16:37
And it's about public pensions all around the country. and how 26 million people
16:43
invest their money in these pensions while they're working.
16:47
And they are getting all but robbed blind by folks investing it with the outrageous
16:54
fees they're charging them.
16:56
But they're able to keep those fees secret from the public, even though it's
16:59
the public's money and these public employees' money.
17:02
And it is fascinating. I used to think we were kind of alone in North Carolina with this.
17:07
And it's hurting our retirees. And it's going to hurt all of our actives one day.
17:11
But these retirees are starting to band together, these 26 million from around the country.
17:16
If you are a retiree or ever want to be, go to the website, and there's a trailer for the documentary,
17:25
www.pensionfightclub.com, and you can see what they're doing in other states
17:30
where they're banding together and fighting back.
17:32
And what's going to happen is that from all around the country,
17:36
we're all going to get together and we're all going to stand up and fight this
17:40
so that the money stays in the system and you can actually give people,
17:45
like Suzanne was saying, you know, give them enough to live on.
17:48
Yeah, an artist plays a prominent role in the trailer. I was joking about her
17:52
being a star, but she might be a star.
17:54
It's the only time in my life I'll ever see my name on a movie post.
17:58
I just discovered something that you're very excited about.
18:02
I did look up this Pension Fight Club, and you have an IMDb.
18:07
No way. You're listed as a cast member.
18:10
Wow. Yeah. Like, you're an actress. I think I'm going to get an Oscar.
18:14
Oh, 100%. I hope not. I think the trailer's pretty awesome.
18:19
Yeah. I mean, it's like. Doug Orchard, who put this thing together,
18:24
is, I think he did a good job.
18:26
Let's face it. It is not sexy material, like investing pension money.
18:32
That's on its face kind of boring. But I think he did a great job of showing
18:36
how it affects lives and how it is absolutely just the biggest gambit going.
18:44
We'll share it on our Facebook, all our social medias, and you can go there and look at them.
18:50
One thing about Doug Orchard is he's not, he wasn't letting anybody control
18:54
messaging. It was going to be the real unvarnished truth.
18:58
And because of that, he wasn't going to go through these big corporate,
19:03
you know, distributors you can see things from because you get nasty grams for saying the truth.
19:10
Maybe we can get a screening at our convention or something. That'd be cool.
19:14
Yeah, that would be cool. That'd be really cool. And this is kind of cool,
19:17
though, too, that this is coming out because, you know, we had our lobby day last week.
19:21
You know, what's happened with the budget framework this week has happened.
19:24
So, you know, retirees are definitely feeling some kind of way.
19:27
And I know I saw comments on our social media about retirees picketing,
19:33
retirees, you know, banding together. This would be, yeah.
19:36
You know, find a fight club near you is something Doug Orchard said he was going
19:41
to put somewhere on the website. I haven't checked to see if he did.
19:43
But in North Carolina, he said, it's going to be scenic because we have,
19:48
as an organization, we're really proud of this.
19:50
We have taken a lead on issues protecting and fighting for retirees forever.
19:56
I mean, in 2001, we sued the governor who took funds that belonged to the system
20:02
before they actually got put in the bank.
20:04
And that lawsuit took years and had to go all the way to the Supreme Court,
20:09
but we won, got that money put back for retirees.
20:12
And since then, it's been one thing after another that CNIC has tried to take
20:16
a lead nationally, one of the leaders in this.
20:22
You know, protecting. And maybe we can have Doug Orchard on and we can have
20:26
some people from that documentary and just let retirees know what he found around the country.
20:31
Yeah, we definitely are working for you. I know that a lot of the comments,
20:36
maybe not a lot of them, but some of them question if we are.
20:38
But we're doing I mean, we really work a lot for retiree issues in addition to the.
20:43
Well, they don't let us write the budget. No, that's the one thing we cannot do.
20:48
If they did, it would be a lot different. Right.
20:51
So another thing that we're definitely tracking because it was in the House
20:57
budget and the Senate budget was vacant job cuts.
21:00
This week we did release a database of,
21:04
we took a look at State Auditor Dave Bullock's report on vacant jobs and explain
21:11
what it means in our terms, you know, what we really think it means.
21:16
And the biggest takeaway that we have is that it's not a vacancy crisis.
21:21
It's a pay crisis, right?
21:23
And so you can see that whole report on jobsdata.scenic.org.
21:28
You can link to it from our Facebook and also from scenic.org.
21:32
But we've gotten a few compliments on that issue, on that database.
21:37
But what, how are you hearing about job cuts? Anything yet?
21:43
So nobody's saying anything in particular about that. I mean,
21:45
we obviously know it's in the mix because it was in both proposals that were
21:49
left on the table when they ended the long session.
21:52
But we are not hearing specific numbers right now.
21:55
What there has been conversation about is how are they going to pay for the
21:59
pay raises that they rolled out in the budget framework this week?
22:03
You know, where's that funding going to come from? How many positions is that going to cost? Yeah.
22:08
And I saw a tweet today that mentioned something that I had not even heard,
22:14
that they were thinking of increasing the sports betting fees or taxes to pay for the raises.
22:21
That was kind of out of left field, so to speak.
22:24
Well, there's been some left field stuff this week from legalizing the need
22:28
and gambling. But John, I want to compliment you on that dashboard.
22:32
It's really cool. And I think, you know, what the auditor's team came up with,
22:36
the data itself, we didn't take any issue with the data itself.
22:41
It's how folks are interpreting that data as opposed to how the agencies themselves
22:47
can tell you they're using it. I mean, the lap salary money, that is.
22:53
But I think you did a great job on that, and I think it's a novel way to sort
22:57
of amplify the auditor's message and show that these vacancies...
23:03
Are not necessary if we paid people right.
23:06
Yeah, it's really complicated. It's a lot, but- And it's misleading in that,
23:12
you know, when you say vacant positions, people think, well,
23:14
they're vacant, we don't need them. And that's not the case at all.
23:18
They need to, people need to be paid to fill and fill those positions to,
23:22
you know, support North Carolina.
23:24
So what else are we fighting on the budget? Anything, or are we advocating?
23:29
Well, that's the big issue right now.
23:33
You know, now we're in the what's next stage.
23:37
Do you see them moving at all? Lots of conversations. But, you know,
23:41
all this is being done behind closed doors. This is not vetted out in committee anymore.
23:45
And this is the conference report. So it's not like it didn't start from scratch
23:50
over again. So once they decide on what's going to be in it,
23:54
it'll come to the floor and they'll vote. Yeah.
23:57
I'm very hopeful that with, you know, we have some younger legislators coming in.
24:02
And I'm hopeful they'll throw out the old ways of doing things behind closed
24:07
doors and bring some of what I feel like the younger generations really value a lot,
24:13
which is more transparency, more public hearings on things, you know,
24:17
actually hashing things out because I think the younger generations kind of get it.
24:22
That the public understands. You should go ahead and have those conversations in front of the public.
24:28
They understand. I don't know. I'm speaking for y'all.
24:31
We understand. Yeah. So there are lots of ways for you to get involved and advocate
24:38
for yourself and for your coworkers on our scenic.org website and also our Facebook page.
24:46
We have ways for you to email your legislators really easily,
24:51
And also call them We've had a lot of calls this week I was really surprised
24:55
I mean We usually offer that option And nobody really does it And that's probably
24:59
the best option It really is I mean that You know We get too many people Saying
25:04
their emails bounce back Or that they don't get A response to their email Yeah
25:08
we haven't I sent out a question Of.
25:11
The people who have taken action earlier this week and people just aren't getting any response.
25:16
And that's unlike them. It seems like they'd at least send a form response or
25:21
something. Yeah, well, sometimes.
25:23
So there's a whole issue with emails in the legislative building. It's not you. It's them.
25:29
Tell us what you were telling me earlier. Yeah, so emails will go into quarantine,
25:34
into a quarantine section of email. So they, you know, legislators,
25:38
if you don't hear back from them, they may not have ever even seen your email come through.
25:42
Is it a super aggressive spam filter? Yeah. I mean, Scenic has one,
25:45
too, that's super aggressive.
25:46
So a lot of times people will say they tried to email us. And I don't know what
25:50
you do in that situation.
25:52
I had a conversation with a legislator yesterday, and she said the same thing.
25:56
I don't know how you fix that. But I know we had reached out,
25:59
Scenic, just to our IT people to make sure it wasn't something on our end.
26:03
Yeah. So, you know, that's problematic with sending an email,
26:06
not just for us, but for anybody trying to email their legislator.
26:09
So call them. So what are the most effective ways?
26:11
Calls or visits? Call them or go see them. Yeah.
26:14
Yeah. Do all these legislators have offices in their districts, too, or no?
26:19
No, but you, I mean, you hear a lot in the rural areas. Oh, I saw him at Walmart.
26:23
I saw her at church. You know, I saw.
26:26
They're out. They're people. So they're out in the community.
26:28
Yeah, they're people just like us. So don't be intimidated to talk to them.
26:32
Like we said, we still have about a month left on the old budget. Anything else going on?
26:37
The budget kind of sucked all the air out. Hey, Dan. We had talked about wake med and atrium.
26:43
Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, well, it's so much in like 10 days' time. But...
26:48
The proposal that the Wake County commissioners almost voted on,
26:54
like as number 16 on a consent agenda, was to allow WakeMed and Atrium to become one entity.
27:02
Why you should care if you are a state employee is that your premiums,
27:09
according to what we were told.
27:11
Your premiums would literally, if this went through, go up like $7 a month just
27:18
because of this consolidation going through.
27:20
That's how much the power would be consolidated, and, you know,
27:26
that drives prices up 10 times out of 10.
27:29
So they are going to have, Wake Med and Atrium are having community forums.
27:34
Now, this is weird because Wake County commissioners said, hey,
27:37
we don't actually have the power here, which they, you know,
27:41
experts are all saying, yeah, they actually very much do have the power, but.
27:45
Otherwise, why would you have to vote? So Wake County commissioners are trying
27:50
to lead everyone to Wake Med and Atrium's listening sessions.
27:56
And we just put it right out there. We don't give a hoot what Wake Med and Atrium
28:01
think of what our members have to say.
28:04
We very much care that the Wake County commissioners give a hoot what their
28:08
constituents have to say.
28:10
But if you want to go to one of these community forums, on Wake Med's website,
28:15
there's a list of them, and they start Thursday, May 21st. Yeah,
28:18
WTVD 11 has a story about it as well.
28:22
And they're on May 19th, 21st, 26th, 27th, and 28th at Wake Med Hospitals and Community Centers.
28:30
I guess they have a list of them here, all in the Raleigh and Cary area.
28:34
So that just broke. That was just a...
28:48
Y'all should go anyway. Let them know what you think. If nothing else, just for fun.
28:53
But Wake County commissioners, let them know.
28:57
So it's in our news section. We tried to make it easier for you to contact them.
29:03
So, yeah, it was kind of hidden on their website, if you ask me.
29:05
But we made it a little more easily accessible. I have a couple other stories about that same issue.
29:12
WRAL came out with a look at con reform, certificate of need laws reform,
29:20
in the wake of this WakeMed atrium deal.
29:22
Do you think that this would maybe have an effect on that?
29:26
You know, for years, there's a bunch of us that have been down there lobbying
29:31
to reform that system where certificate of need, y'all, is where certain entities
29:37
get these certificates of need.
29:41
And they, by holding them, can be the only people to be able to do certain things
29:47
like have MRI machines in a certain geographic area, do things like that.
29:52
So what it does is it keeps competition out.
29:56
And there isn't there is not any significant safety or any other reason that
30:03
anyone's articulated that's been really compelling to say government should
30:08
allow this and should participate in it.
30:10
So, yeah, it's it's just it's amazing to me that so many people are for this
30:17
change, you know, state treasurer, Brad Briner, us.
30:22
We had a brief in that. I think there was a lawsuit about it.
30:26
Senator Michael Lee. Oh, it's bipartisan. I mean, there's a lot of support for
30:32
this, and yet the hospital lobby is so...
30:35
Because think about it. Everybody, you know, we hate regulations.
30:40
Government regulations have to stop, except where they protect my market share,
30:44
in which case government regulations are important and they serve the public well.
30:50
Yeah. I remember learning about what that was in like 2012 because we were in a fight over it.
30:55
I was like, what are you talking about? Con reform?
30:58
I've never heard of this. So, yeah, that's I think it's definitely needed.
31:03
Sammy, you look like you had a thought on con reform.
31:05
Sounds like a monopoly to me. Exactly. Right.
31:09
The same fight that we just had against Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
31:13
It is. You know, every time we get, talk about those things,
31:17
it comes back to, you know, it's bad enough if your concert tickets are done that way.
31:22
But when your health care is. Yeah, that's. Yeah.
31:25
You know. The other story I wanted to mention that I just saw,
31:29
I actually saw this on the way to Raleigh today, was Atrium is opening a new
31:33
$893 million tower at their main campus. Oh, neat.
31:39
And there's a really beautiful picture of this tower at their hospital. I bet it's cool.
31:44
Yeah, so they're not hurting for money. They got enough to buy Wake Med.
31:48
Well, they have the number two paid CEO in the city of Charlotte.
31:53
He makes more than any of the Panthers, right?
31:55
I think we looked that up. I believe so. He's $25 million a year.
31:59
Just crazy. I mean, when do you have enough money? Exactly.
32:04
No one at this table could tell you. We'll ever know. We'll ever know.
32:09
So, Wendell Powell, our president, just stepped into the makeshift studio.
32:14
How are you doing, Wendell? I'm doing pretty good. How are everybody doing today?
32:17
Are you excited for a board meeting?
32:19
We're doing our quarterly board meeting this weekend.
32:22
Oh, yeah. I'm pumped up. Got my materials.
32:25
There's a lot to discuss. A lot of things coming up on the horizon.
32:28
A lot of things our membership needs to be aware of.
32:31
So, I'm looking forward to getting the word out and doing scenic business.
32:37
So, Wendell, how are the proposed raises going over in the prisons?
32:43
We were talking a little earlier about how we're hearing from people who are
32:47
not correctional officers, but work inside the walls who are kind of upset.
32:52
Well, you know, there's always been a separation whenever there's a raise.
32:56
I mean, you'll have the officers are like, yay, the line staff is there.
33:01
Everybody is ecstatic. But then the other people that work behind the walls
33:05
as your trainers, your admin staff, your wardens.
33:11
Sometimes your program staff, they don't, or your food service, they differentiate.
33:17
Sometimes they don't get the bonuses the same as a correction because they say
33:21
they're not correctional staff.
33:23
Well, they've got the whole step plan for correctional officers and that leaves
33:27
out everybody else. So it's a very, you know, so we can get everybody on the
33:32
same page because they deal with the offenders.
33:35
Well, in Pasquotank, it wasn't just officers that got attacked.
33:39
Correction Enterprise, they deal with the offenders just as much as we do.
33:42
So there should be some equity. But unfortunately, there are divisions even within the divisions.
33:49
So a raise is great, but we're also facing some job cuts, vacant job cuts.
33:55
And if you cut jobs, you're kind of making those struggles that correctional
34:01
officers are facing every day.
34:03
You're making it permanent, right? Because you're not going to have the jobs there for them.
34:06
And that was something I explained to my staff when I went over the pay raise and the bonus.
34:11
And I explained to my staff, I understand you're happy on the front end,
34:15
but also understand, you know how hard you're working now?
34:19
If they start cutting positions, guess what? That's how hard you're going to
34:23
be working in the future because they're not going to be hiring new staff and
34:27
we're going to be in the same situation. We're a little bit more money in your pocket.
34:30
Yeah. You know, at some point that, you know, you're going to get burnt out
34:34
because we got to have staff. So, yeah, making it permanent. Yeah.
34:38
How hard is it to hire someone at $37,000 a year as a starting salary?
34:47
Well, they don't stay. Yeah. I mean, you can hire them, but when they start
34:52
seeing what the job entails, and then the fact that you're working holidays,
34:56
you're away from your family, you're working a 12-hour shift,
34:59
it doesn't always translate.
35:01
Yeah. So they start to look kind of, oh, and there's an expectation that you
35:05
got to do this. I'm giving you a weapon.
35:08
You know, there's a lot of expectations working in the Department of Adult Corrections.
35:14
And, you know, there's a lot of responsibility for the pay.
35:18
Yeah. You know, there's still overtime, so people are working.
35:21
It's just getting in and, but, you know, corrections isn't for everyone.
35:25
So it's one of those niches. Yeah. Either you got it or you don't. That's right.
35:30
Well, we're happy you stepped in here. Give us some time here.
35:34
Anything else on your mind you want to talk about?
35:36
I guess the biggest thing is understanding, you know.
35:40
This health care, because even though we touched on raises, health care is still going up. Yeah.
35:45
There's still a lot of uncertainty. So we're still trying to wrap our heads
35:49
around what's going to happen with that. Yeah.
35:52
You know, what kind of pricing?
35:54
Our medications, I hear members talk all the time about complaining about their
35:58
medication, things that they used to be able to afford they can't afford.
36:02
A pill that they used to get for $20 now costs them $400.
36:07
Yeah. All because we switched from Blue Cross Blue Shield to Aetna,
36:12
and now it's going to go up even more.
36:14
And your family coverage is going to go up more. So it's a mess.
36:18
So there's so many question marks I have that I'm just trying to figure out
36:23
what's our take and how we're going to work on that.
36:26
Yeah. Well, I think we can finish with our question of the week,
36:29
if y'all are okay with that. All good here. Yeah.
36:40
All right, so I'll just make it brief. What are you looking forward to most
36:44
this summer? Anything on the horizon?
36:46
I got something possible. You always have something, right? Oh,
36:49
yeah. I always got something planned.
36:51
But this year, one of the things I might be doing is my mom and my aunt like
36:56
to take two of my baby cousins to the beach and go to Myrtle Beach for about a week.
37:02
So I might be joining them a couple days this year. It's kind of like a thing
37:06
to give my cousins a break from having to parent for a week. So, grandma...
37:13
Great aunt, take them out there. And sometimes they need some help with keeping up with them.
37:19
So we might go spend a couple days out there. That's awesome.
37:22
That's the best is the beach trip with the family. That's always remember that. That's fine, too.
37:27
We started a tradition of going to the beach in August for Mia's birthday.
37:32
She'll be five this year. So I'm looking forward to that beach trip.
37:37
So my wife surprised me that we're going to Disney World. What?
37:42
In August, randomly, well, my cousin wants to go.
37:46
He's going, and so we're kind of tagging along with him. But just a few days,
37:49
we're not spending like a week or anything, kind of like a weekend trip.
37:53
But our kids are 20 and 13 now, and I just feel like it's going to be a lot
37:58
different than when they were 6 and 12.
38:01
I've never been, but my understanding is there's plenty, just as much.
38:05
It's so much fun. It's not more for them when they're older.
38:07
Oh, yeah. We're going to Universal, so I'm excited about that.
38:11
That's a little better for the older kids from what I understand.
38:15
I said, I enjoy Disney. I think every time I've gone, we've had to stay at least four days.
38:21
Yeah. Because you got to go to each park.
38:23
Yep. And spend, even though you spend more time at the actual main park.
38:28
But yeah, that's the thing. My wife is saying we're going like four days and
38:32
like, we have to go to all the parks.
38:34
We're not going to be able to fit it in. Even if you don't hit the water parks,
38:37
you've got to at least hit Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios.
38:41
Animal Kingdom is the best. That's my favorite. Yeah. It's a lot of walking.
38:47
Animal Kingdom is, yes. But it also has some of the best food.
38:51
Oh, yeah. Here's where you lost me.
38:53
Florida in August. Oh, yeah. That I don't agree with. I have not gone.
38:57
It's not ideal. I don't agree with that.
39:00
I have potatoes. Yeah. Yeah, it's hot. So what are you looking forward to since
39:05
you've done Disney? What else?
39:07
Well, usually with the family, we'll either get like a house.
39:10
In Florida. We'll get like a beach house or we'll get like on those,
39:15
corporation houses that has theater the home oh yeah like a verbo i remember
39:20
some pictures from y'all that's cool i'm thinking about doing that again you
39:24
know it has the indoor pools and all that stuff and let the kids just run wild
39:28
i would say i don't want to go to disney no more,
39:31
but y'all had family come from like out of state i'm disneyed out but just to
39:35
go down there and just hang out go to the beach that's cool and just and just
39:41
you know swim and eat and that's it i I mean, I'm good.
39:45
Get one of those houses with like 10 or 12 people with three families.
39:48
Yeah. Yeah, about eight or nine bedrooms. They got different ones,
39:51
12 bedrooms. You can get smaller, but you can get a nice.
39:54
And they're nice. Always fun. What are you doing, artists?
39:58
I'm looking forward to, and I realized this the other day when it was warm, 9 p.m. and 6.30 a.m.
40:04
Because when we get to the real heat of summer, I don't like being out in the
40:09
middle of the day in that.
40:10
Gross. But I really like right before it gets dark and right after it gets light
40:16
because it feels nice and warm. You can go out there on your shore.
40:19
Flip flops and just piddle around. But it's not the humidity ain't killing you
40:25
yet, usually. I've already started.
40:27
Maybe it's a new apartment. I actually get really good lighting in my bedroom.
40:31
But I've started waking up with the sun. I'm up at like 6, 630 every morning.
40:35
And I'm like, I'm going to make a cup of coffee and go sit on my balcony.
40:38
Yeah, I love it. Beautiful. We're all getting so old.
40:41
Not sammy even her even her all right well that was a good synopsis of the budget
40:47
and i hope you enjoyed it have a great week all right bye everybody.