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State employee protections under fire at the NC Legislature · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Scenic View podcast.
• 0:04
  Jonathan Owens, Communications Director here at Scenic, and we have Executive
• 0:08
  Director Artis Watkins, Government Relations Director Suzanne Beasley,
• 0:13
  and podcast producer Sam Klein in the house. So get ready for a great episode.
• 0:19
  Music.
• 0:28
  So we we decided to change it up a little bit on you
• 0:31
  guys this week our usual two or three listeners will be like what is going on
• 0:36
  am i am i on the right episode welcome everyone our scenic studio is ready and
• 0:43
  willing for any sponsorship opportunities that may come about Today is Thursday.
• 0:48
  I still think peeps should sponsor this podcast after the Easter podcast.
• 0:52
  Well, they're out of money now. They wasted all their money on Easter.
• 0:56
  No, they should have more money because we all just spent all our money.
• 1:00
  Maybe they're squirreling it away.
• 1:04
  They're saving it for next year to make more peeps. Yeah. Before we get into
• 1:08
  the legislature, can we talk about that?
• 1:10
  Why would something called peeps be, what are they like, bunnies?
• 1:14
  They're like little chickens. No, they don't look like chickens. They look like bunnies.
• 1:18
  Yeah, like their little ducks, like Peep.
• 1:21
  But there's some bunny ones. I know that makes no sense.
• 1:25
  They're special for Easter. They make those ones especially for Easter.
• 1:29
  All the other ones are little chickies.
• 1:30
  Wait, do they make Peeps year-round, though? Yeah.
• 1:34
  They're people who actively look for them. I've never seen them any time but
• 1:37
  Easter. Anyway, Peeps, we're here. We digress.
• 1:41
  We're already off the rails. I know, but I really wanted to ask that.
• 1:45
  Well, today is Thursday, May 1st.
• 1:49
  And you know what that means. It's going to be me.
• 1:52
  It's going to be me. I was like, what is he doing?
• 1:57
  That's the overused internet meme.
• 2:01
  And punchy. We may get taken off of YouTube for using that. I'll see how long
• 2:07
  the clip is. Oh, dear. If you've lost seven seconds, we're good.
• 2:09
  You don't need to worry about it. So one of my favorite podcasts always comes
• 2:13
  out on Saturdays. And the first thing that the host says is what a week.
• 2:18
  And I think that is apropos for us this week, right?
• 2:21
  Artists got down in the dirt with some folks, and she's got her thumbs are sore from her Twitter wars.
• 2:27
  I only have one little Twitter skirmish going right now, which I haven't done in a long time.
• 2:33
  It feels good. Yeah, it's good to be back in the game.
• 2:36
  We were just talking last week about the toxic nature of social media,
• 2:40
  but every now and then that's just a fun. It's a release.
• 2:42
  That's a fun toxin, just like Coca-Cola. You just don't know.
• 2:45
  Nothing personal, Coca-Cola. It seems like back in the good old days,
• 2:48
  though, you knew who you were fighting.
• 2:50
  Now it just seems like it could be like a bot in Turkey that you're fighting, you know?
• 2:54
  It might not be a real thing. But see, that's the point. It really kind of doesn't matter.
• 2:58
  And if somebody says their location is North Carolina, then it could be.
• 3:02
  Because most people would say, like, Havelock or Mebane.
• 3:07
  Or there's random ones that you can't even read. Yeah.
• 3:10
  I guess we'll start like we always do with a little update on what's going on
• 3:14
  with the state budget, since that's such a big, important thing for us.
• 3:17
  What's going on, Suzanne? It absolutely is.
• 3:19
  Chairman Donnie Lambeth announced on the floor of session on Tuesday that all
• 3:24
  the appropriations chairs have received their spending targets and that they
• 3:28
  hope to have their House proposal out by Memorial Day. So, yeah, it's rolling.
• 3:33
  Okay. It's rolling. Now, when you say out by Memorial Day, do you mean voted
• 3:36
  on and approved by Memorial Day?
• 3:38
  We'll see. Because I'm like, my wife asked me today if I could take off that
• 3:42
  Friday to go to the beach. So I just need to know.
• 3:45
  Can you ask someone down there? They generally release it on a Monday.
• 3:48
  So it may drop Memorial Day Monday.
• 3:51
  Oh, okay. So ruin the whole weekend. I mean, you know, it's give or take.
• 3:56
  He wasn't given a solid date. There have been times we've heard maybe Memorial Day and it was Labor Day.
• 4:01
  So, you know, I mean, you don't know.
• 4:05
  You should go. Do not plan your life around it. We don't have any details on that. No, not yet.
• 4:11
  Okay. Not yet. So stay tuned on that one, but we do have two of the three proposals out.
• 4:16
  Neither one were great for our members, so we're hoping for big things from the House. Yeah.
• 4:21
  This week, Artis went viral, as I mentioned, for her testimony at the House
• 4:26
  State and Local Government Committee meeting. What day was that? Tuesday.
• 4:31
  Tuesday. You really let them have it there. Okay. Should we play it?
• 4:35
  Should we stick it into the- Well, first let's set the stage.
• 4:37
  Okay. There was a bill that affected the rights, literally every employment
• 4:42
  right, that the employees of a certain agency, it's the auditor's agency in this particular bill.
• 4:47
  But if this bill passed, taking all their rights, every agency would want that.
• 4:51
  And nobody articulated a need or a reason for taking those rights.
• 4:56
  And it would make every single employee at that agency a political appointee,
• 5:00
  inserting politics directly, instead of merit, directly into the game.
• 5:04
  So instead of hearing from people before the vote,
• 5:09
  They literally took comment after the vote, which I had not seen.
• 5:12
  I thought I'd seen it all. I've seen committees not take comment at all. That's a bummer, too.
• 5:18
  Because, you know, the public comment is the people's house,
• 5:21
  and you kind of want the people's voice to be heard, and we speak for an awful lot of people.
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  But I've seen no comment allowed, but I've never been told, okay,
• 5:29
  you can now speak your member's piece after the vote was already done.
• 5:32
  Because what's the point? And so that's what happened to set the stage.
• 5:35
  So was it set up that way or was it like just we're going to talk about this
• 5:38
  bill and then someone said, oh, let's just vote on it? Well, Sam was there.
• 5:41
  What it was was at the beginning, they said we have so many bills to go through
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  that we're going to push public comment to the very end.
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  And I thought that meant they're going to push it to the very end and they'll
• 5:54
  vote after the public comment is made and after they've gone over each of the
• 5:58
  bills and questions were asked.
• 6:00
  Like the very end of the discussion on that. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 6:04
  And I think that was probably your assumption, too.
• 6:08
  Yeah, but they just meant it literally. Like, after we vote,
• 6:10
  maybe you can talk. And then they would say, okay, does anyone have any other questions? No. Okay.
• 6:15
  And someone would make a motion and vote right then and there.
• 6:18
  And that was my first committee meeting I've ever been in.
• 6:22
  Welcome. It was intense. It was not a good look.
• 6:25
  Yeah. I remember my first committee meeting down there. I was so out of place.
• 6:30
  Like, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to put my hands. Yeah.
• 6:34
  But, yeah, it's nerve-wracking. And one of the parts of your speech,
• 6:37
  I guess, when you finally did get to comment that people reacted to was the
• 6:41
  part where you said that the auditor's office had said we were going along with this change, right?
• 6:47
  So what happened, and this apparently didn't go over so well with the person,
• 6:52
  someone from the auditor's office did speak on the bill and said,
• 6:55
  Sammy, help me here, it was something along the lines of, and we've talked to scenic people.
• 7:01
  Yes, it was something along the lines of, we have come to an agreement with
• 7:05
  scenic and made a just man.
• 7:07
  I don't know that he used the word agreement, but he certainly left the very
• 7:11
  strong impression that we had worked together to come to a meeting of the minds,
• 7:17
  as I called it, and that we agreed to something, which was patently false.
• 7:21
  And the problem is there had been a previous miscommunication with another committee's
• 7:27
  member who felt he was led to believe that we were on board with something that the office wanted.
• 7:33
  And so I took great exception, obviously, to that happening.
• 7:37
  So that's why that was said.
• 7:39
  So let's step back and explain the bill a little bit. I know you did at the
• 7:42
  beginning, but the SHRA is the State Human Resources Act.
• 7:46
  And in it is a lot of the protections that keep employees from retaliation or punishment.
• 7:53
  And just being fired for, you know, you could come in and I don't think you've
• 7:56
  been supportive to me in my re-election campaign. So you got to go quite literally.
• 8:00
  If they're political appointees, they serve at the pleasure of the politician.
• 8:04
  Yeah. And so our point as an organization was these agencies do not belong to
• 8:09
  politicians. They belong to the people.
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  And so you shouldn't be able to say every single person in this agency.
• 8:15
  Now, some positions, you do have a need for them to be a political appointee, one of your people.
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  The positions most close to the like the lobbyist and the finance person and
• 8:27
  all that. And we asked that question.
• 8:29
  Yes. I mean, we've had conversations with the auditor's staff,
• 8:33
  and we asked that question, are there some specific positions that you need to be exempt?
• 8:38
  Because we can, you know, we can talk about that. They already have,
• 8:41
  I think, 20 exempt positions in the auditor's office, and they're generally
• 8:44
  for things like policymaking exempt positions. The people that,
• 8:47
  again, who would expect themselves to be at the will and at the pleasure of
• 8:52
  that politician. Right.
• 8:53
  So you told me even this week some things that kind of opened my eyes to what
• 8:58
  the dangers are of making everyone exempt.
• 9:01
  Can you talk about like how it used to be, how people used to have to work for?
• 9:06
  Yeah, we've talked about it so much this week amongst ourselves.
• 9:09
  Back in the 50s, even after that, when everybody was considered exempt,
• 9:14
  everybody was a political appointee, there were politicians running agencies
• 9:17
  who would tell people, I need you to donate to my campaign or go put these signs out in the yard.
• 9:23
  And they had to do that to keep their job, right? Yeah. And it was what we were
• 9:27
  calling the Wild West of state government.
• 9:30
  And state government evolved over time. So people were given rights,
• 9:34
  not just because it's the right thing to do if you want to keep good quality
• 9:37
  employees is to give them rights, but because otherwise it was our experience
• 9:42
  that politicians would end up abusing the privilege of everybody serving at the pleasure.
• 9:46
  Now, are we saying Auditor Bullock would? No, and that's the whole point.
• 9:50
  I don't know the man. And most of North Carolina doesn't know the man.
• 9:54
  We should never make policy around a person.
• 9:57
  No, because I mean, we've made the point this week that Auditor Bolick may be great.
• 10:02
  He may have a great vision for
• 10:03
  this. He may be great. But the next auditor that you bring in may not be.
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  And they've had three auditors in 14 months. And even though that's a very unusual
• 10:11
  situation, it's not unusual to have two of something in 14 months.
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  And people would be on this roller coaster ride.
• 10:18
  Who's going to come devote their professional experience to the state,
• 10:21
  which already has a vacancy crisis, if it's just an absolute roulette table
• 10:26
  of are you going to be okay in your job? And these folks are raw.
• 10:30
  I mean, we're hearing from them because they don't want to say anything because
• 10:34
  they feel insecure on the job right now. Which is why we exist.
• 10:37
  Yeah, because they can't say anything. Exactly. We can. And that's the thing.
• 10:40
  Even if they all agreed with Bolick and they thought he was great and all the
• 10:44
  current employees there wanted to be exempt and even if all the people he brought
• 10:48
  in wanted to be exempt, it's still not the right thing to do, right?
• 10:52
  Because it's not just about Dave Bullock. It's about state government.
• 10:56
  Well, it's about taxpayers getting professional level services.
• 11:00
  Right. So this is about making sure you're hiring people based on merit and
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  not politics, which is the opposite if you're keeping or hiring or disciplining
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  based on just whatever the politician wants with no checks or balances from an HR department.
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  And that's the main thing. Merit does matter. And as we were saying in committee
• 11:19
  the other day, we need the best people.
• 11:22
  Person for each state job. The taxpayers deserve the best person.
• 11:27
  Not the best connected person.
• 11:28
  And it's kind of ironic and kind of funny that these are the same arguments
• 11:33
  or maybe the mirror of the arguments that those people are making about the DEI bill, right?
• 11:38
  Well, that was actually what was the most crazy making about this is,
• 11:42
  and we've shared this with folks in the legislature, we're so confused because
• 11:47
  one minute, this matters very
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  much that people, no group of any kind is given any kind of preference.
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  And then the next minute, anybody that's in well enough with a politician has
• 11:59
  a leg up on everybody else.
• 12:00
  And this fair, open hiring practices that are part of the State Human Resources
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  Act would be thrown out the window.
• 12:07
  There's other things, though, in the State Human Resources Act,
• 12:10
  like confidential information.
• 12:12
  That act doesn't just give employees rights. It has responsibilities.
• 12:16
  It requires employees to keep anything they see confidential that's in records
• 12:20
  and whatnot. But that would go out the window.
• 12:23
  The question, though, becomes if you're looking for efficiencies,
• 12:26
  which is what we know everybody is, the governor, the House,
• 12:29
  the Senate, everybody wants efficiencies, and they should.
• 12:32
  How efficient is it going to be if people feel like, oh my goodness,
• 12:34
  I don't know if I want to point out that we're doing something inefficient because
• 12:38
  I don't have job protections.
• 12:39
  If I point out that we're being inefficient and just have a suggestion on how
• 12:43
  we could be more efficient, I very well could be packing up my desk.
• 12:48
  So the sponsor of this bill, Representative Brendan Jones, said this on the
• 12:53
  floor yesterday about another bill that he was. But I thought it was appropriate for this discussion.
• 12:58
  So we'll stick it in here. We are simply enforcing the principle already in North Carolina law.
• 13:04
  Public jobs should go to the most qualified, not the most politically favored.
• 13:10
  The next section is right there. That's exactly what Bill 549 is giving them
• 13:16
  the ability to do is to give them positions based on political favor.
• 13:20
  Right. To go to people who are politically favored. A political appointee is
• 13:23
  by its very definition politically favored.
• 13:26
  So that's why we're confused and how we're outraged.
• 13:30
  Because, again, if this bill moves the rest of the way through the House and
• 13:34
  the Senate and becomes law, every agency will be wanting the same power.
• 13:38
  I mean. Sure they will. Who wouldn't? Yeah. And there's a fair amount of confusion
• 13:42
  amongst the members of the legislature, too.
• 13:44
  I mean, we've talked to a lot of people this week about House Bill 549,
• 13:47
  and there is some confusion about, oh, tons, merit or not merit,
• 13:51
  you know, are we in or are we out? Why do they want it? Yeah.
• 13:54
  I've heard that a lot. I can't answer that question. Yeah. We don't know.
• 13:59
  This is why members need to care about this issue. Even if you don't work at
• 14:02
  the state auditor's office, you know, what did you say earlier?
• 14:05
  Yeah, if you're a taxpayer, you should care because you should want your tax
• 14:09
  dollars hiring the best, not the best connected.
• 14:12
  Especially at the state auditor's office. Yes, it's so sensitive.
• 14:17
  So important. It's an important agency. Seems like this issue comes up almost every year. Oh, it does.
• 14:23
  In some form or another. You know, the UNC system went for it a number of times
• 14:26
  over the years, and then there have been others.
• 14:28
  It's just every now and then somebody really thinks.
• 14:31
  And that's the way to. Those pesky regulations. Yeah, sometimes they'll call it red tape.
• 14:36
  And I'm like, and I had a conversation with a legislator yesterday where he
• 14:40
  said, look, I just have more faith in people than to think they're going to
• 14:43
  go in and just wholesale get rid of people that disagree with them.
• 14:48
  And the unfortunate reality is the reason the law is there is that that did
• 14:52
  happen. And it didn't happen every time, but even one time is more than the
• 14:57
  taxpayers should have to have to deal with.
• 15:00
  It feels more like they're ripping away their bubble wrap of
• 15:03
  protection rather than tearing through some red tape. That's a great analogy, Sam.
• 15:08
  That's a great analogy. It just doesn't make sense. No one has articulated a
• 15:12
  good or compelling governmental reason to do it at all.
• 15:15
  I mean, I think there's plenty of reasons to do it. They're just not.
• 15:19
  Well, they're not compelling reasons for the government to take away rights.
• 15:24
  Having a vision for your agency is not a reason. I mean, everybody that comes
• 15:29
  in has a vision for A big vision is, you know, not the reason.
• 15:33
  Yeah. Well, what other topics came up this week? Anything? Look.
• 15:38
  Everything. That's been big. You know, once we got the word from Representative
• 15:43
  Lambeth about budget, it's just been covering bills. Next week is crossover week.
• 15:47
  Crossover deadline is May 8th, which means that any bill that's been filed in
• 15:51
  either chamber has to pass that chamber and cross over to the other chamber
• 15:56
  to stay alive for this session. So this week's been crazy. Next week will be insane.
• 16:02
  You know, they're going to move bills as hard as they can go.
• 16:05
  And as far as state employees, the DEI bill banning DEI and state government
• 16:10
  did pass the House just yesterday.
• 16:13
  And so that will now go to the Senate. But Suzanne's right. It's mainly budget.
• 16:18
  And our president, Kirk Montgomery, came down this week.
• 16:21
  And Sam and I spent the day with him.
• 16:24
  That was on Tuesday. That was the same day as 549 was running committee.
• 16:27
  That was an eye-opener for him as well as a civilian.
• 16:30
  Seemed like he had a very productive day, a very busy day as well, right?
• 16:34
  He met with several appropriations chairs to talk about the budget and about
• 16:37
  what scenic members are looking for in that and to represent their interests there.
• 16:42
  So we appreciate President Montgomery coming down and taking a lot of time on
• 16:46
  a pretty grueling legislative day as legislative days go.
• 16:50
  I was excited because my college was there. I got to. Yeah, it was like UNC
• 16:54
  day. It was. I saw the mascots out on the
• 16:58
  lawn or something right in western carolina robot yeah hers
• 17:01
  had a robot he was cool it was a robot dog i got a
• 17:04
  picture with the robot it is important to note that sam
• 17:08
  took a picture with the dog robot he did and the oddest thing
• 17:10
  about the dog robot is that everybody that came up to it was like kicking it
• 17:14
  over they wanted to kick it is that what a catamount i felt so bad no a catamount
• 17:20
  is like a smaller version of a bobcat mountain lion but why were they kicking
• 17:25
  the because if If you kick it, it doesn't fall over.
• 17:28
  It would get back up. And it knows how to get back up if it does fall over.
• 17:32
  Yeah, I don't want to kick it. And so people were like, oh, my gosh, I want to kick it.
• 17:35
  It just felt wrong to watch it. But it was cool that it could get back up.
• 17:39
  I'd have been totally. Because I did watch someone ninja kick it, and it didn't fall over.
• 17:42
  And shout out to Christy Agner, the amazing government relations guru for Western
• 17:49
  Carolina. Yes, she's been busy this week.
• 17:51
  She's fighting very hard. If any of you work at Western Carolina,
• 17:54
  you've got a heck of a fighter.
• 17:56
  For your rights and your pay. It's such a big issue.
• 18:00
  We should give this a moment since the UNC system was out there.
• 18:03
  It's really hard to live in those places on a state salary.
• 18:06
  It's really expensive to live up there. Like the college and off-campus dorms,
• 18:12
  those are cheaper and you don't, because there's not a lot of competition.
• 18:16
  There is not a lot of apartment competition. So those ones, they can kind of
• 18:20
  keep it lower priced for the college students. And they can't drive in from
• 18:23
  a half hour or 45 minutes away. No.
• 18:27
  And there's not anywhere. You know, at a price point, they can.
• 18:29
  Yeah. Because Asheville, if people were to stay in Asheville,
• 18:32
  they would not be able to afford as college. So this is becoming a bigger and
• 18:36
  bigger issue for folks who work at these universities. We have a beautiful state.
• 18:40
  An awful lot of it is tourist area. And that's awesome. You know,
• 18:45
  if you own property there, that's awesome.
• 18:46
  If you're needing to work there and try to find someplace to rent or own.
• 18:51
  It's getting really, really priced out of anybody's range that's in state government.
• 18:56
  Even the most professional positions at Western Carolina, they're just not able to afford it.
• 19:01
  And that's true at Asheville and Boone and I'm sure Wilmington and then Chapel Hill.
• 19:06
  You know, they keep driving in from further and further out there.
• 19:10
  So folks in our university system, we are aware of that issue.
• 19:13
  And so many of my professors and just professors at Western in general would
• 19:18
  live in Waynesville and Asheville,
• 19:20
  which is half an hour to an hour away, or live at the state border of like right
• 19:26
  next to South Carolina, where they'd be driving like an hour and 15 minutes
• 19:29
  to come to campus because there's not enough housing around Silva. It's very, very small.
• 19:34
  It's basically the college and a couple stores. Very small.
• 19:38
  Very beautiful, though. And so there's not a lot of housing or places to live around there.
• 19:41
  And the things that are there are super expensive because it's in the middle of nowhere.
• 19:45
  And people are wanting to get to that and get away from the massive cities.
• 19:48
  So these chancellors at these universities in touristy areas are having to pull
• 19:54
  a rabbit out of a hat to keep people, keep good quality people and keep them coming.
• 19:58
  So, again, my hat's off to the people that work there. My hat's off to all those
• 20:01
  chancellors. It is not easy.
• 20:03
  But thank you for what you do. And it was cool to see all your mascots.
• 20:07
  John, you were just talking about them. Yeah, the mascots were theirs from what
• 20:10
  I saw on Twitter. What's your favorite?
• 20:12
  Oh, man. And more than one legislator got their picture taken with,
• 20:16
  I guess, most of the mascots from their area.
• 20:18
  Ramesses is obviously the best one, right, UNC? But I'm going to have to give
• 20:21
  it to that Fayetteville State Bronco. That's pretty cool.
• 20:24
  That is very cool. I like that one. Biased.
• 20:27
  I love paws. I love him. You love the catamount. So much fun.
• 20:31
  Winston-Salem State's Ram is pretty cool, too. Their Ram, I think,
• 20:34
  is very cool. Yeah. It's got the right expression.
• 20:38
  School of the Arts, we're not sure exactly what yours is, but it's pretty cool,
• 20:42
  too. We love the School of the Arts.
• 20:44
  If you're listening, we love you. Thank you for the work you do.
• 20:46
  It kind of looks like a... We have a lot of scenic members there.
• 20:49
  Don't rag on their mascot.
• 20:50
  It kind of looks like a cucumber painter.
• 20:54
  Oh, yeah, the pickle. Yeah, of course. Why am I... It's a pickle and a painter.
• 20:57
  It is pickle, for real. Okay.
• 20:59
  It looks like VeggieTales. Yeah.
• 21:02
  Oh, is that their mascot, the pickles? It is the pickles. Okay. Well, that's cool.
• 21:06
  I'm sorry about that. How did I not know that? I'm obsessed with pickles.
• 21:09
  We had a... The Charlotte 49er was there.
• 21:12
  The 49er's cool, but I've always been confused. The 49er and the Appalachian
• 21:17
  State Mountaineer to me are very similar.
• 21:20
  But the School of the Arts, you want to know the deal with the pickle?
• 21:24
  The deal with the pickle. The deal with the pickle. You know.
• 21:28
  Did you do that for purpose? She's good. Of course I did not. I'm not punny.
• 21:32
  So according to AI, because, you know, that's the new thing. We're going to use AI.
• 21:36
  The name originated from a contest in the 1970s to name the school's touch football
• 21:41
  team, where a group of students submitted the pickles as a joke.
• 21:46
  The Fighting Pickles have become a beloved symbol of the UNC School of the Arts
• 21:50
  with various campus locations and events featuring the mascot.
• 21:53
  That's awesome. They win. I'm sorry. No, Pickles.
• 21:57
  Fighting Pickles. I'm sorry I ragged on your mascot. See, they came up with
• 22:00
  their mascot name the same way that we came up with ours.
• 22:04
  Oh, yeah. We have a mascot. We don't talk about that. It's always good to ask
• 22:07
  the people. We didn't know this. Next year, write it down, April 29th.
• 22:11
  Well, I mean, it's not our event. We wouldn't be invited. Yeah,
• 22:14
  you've got to invite us. But ours could run through and just challenge the other mascot.
• 22:19
  But, yes, C. Nick has a mascot. And his name is C. Nick Strong. C. period Nick Strong.
• 22:26
  That's pretty good. He's very cool. Very wide. He's very large,
• 22:29
  yeah. Very large. Yeah, it requires handlers. Short, too. He's very short.
• 22:34
  Well, I guess depending on who's wearing him, right? So I say we can get someone
• 22:37
  up to the height of 6'2". We got to get that tall to do it. Oh,
• 22:42
  Chris Haley is, what, 6'2"? He is taller than 6'2". Yeah.
• 22:46
  He's too tall for the mascot costume. Personally, I'm down here at five foot
• 22:49
  thinking he's... He's way over 6'2". He can't wear the mascot. Yeah. Way too tall.
• 22:54
  Chris Haley, one of our lobbyists. What's up, Chris? Yay!
• 22:57
  We tried. We tried. Oh, you tried to get him to do it? Yeah.
• 23:00
  Okay, cool. No, he's really tall.
• 23:03
  Well, now it's time for John's Wacky Weird Question of the Week to wrap this
• 23:07
  shenanigans up. Already?
• 23:08
  Oh, hold up. If you're a state employee, all the stuff we just talked about
• 23:12
  with the budget, with the auditor's bill, Suzanne, tell them what they can do about this.
• 23:17
  Yeah. So the bill we've been told is going to be placed on the House calendar
• 23:21
  on the House floor for Tuesday.
• 23:23
  So we are lining up an event. If you can be at the legislature at one o'clock,
• 23:29
  we want to gather some scenic members to take you around, let you talk to legislators
• 23:34
  and tell them how detrimentally this would affect, you know, maybe your current job.
• 23:38
  But also, you know, your colleagues in state government.
• 23:41
  Scenic will provide transportation from our office here if you need it,
• 23:45
  or you can just come downtown.
• 23:46
  So check. Wear blue. Wear Scenic blue. Wear your Scenic blue.
• 23:49
  Check your email. Email went out already.
• 23:51
  It'll be in the scoop on Friday. Okay, so check the scoop. It'll have gone out by time we.
• 23:55
  Yeah. It's a great time to talk to House members about the budget and to defend the rights.
• 24:01
  If you're an active state employee, to defend your own rights.
• 24:03
  If you're not, to defend your right as a taxpayer to have employees who are
• 24:08
  accountable to you and not a politician.
• 24:11
  But we did leave out one other thing, this piece of news. It's so current.
• 24:15
  We have a new DMV commissioner. Oh, really?
• 24:18
  Yes. Paul Tyne, who's a former representative. Oh, yeah.
• 24:21
  I've heard that name. And I think he was very respected when he was in the General
• 24:25
  Assembly. And he's a very rational.
• 24:28
  And yeah, we worked very well with him as an organization. So congratulations to Paul Tyne.
• 24:33
  That's something I think so far everybody seems very pleased with that appointment.
• 24:37
  Good luck to that man. I know it. But he knows what he's taken on because he's
• 24:41
  been a legislator, and he knows how choked for funding that agency has been.
• 24:46
  Just to reiterate, that's Tuesday. We're going to gather probably around 1 o'clock
• 24:51
  at the legislature, right?
• 24:52
  Correct. If you come to the office before the—well, this will all be in the
• 24:56
  scoop. Tuesday is May 6th, by the way.
• 24:59
  May 6th. Then we'll make an arrangement to get you downtown somehow.
• 25:03
  We may all just drive people down.
• 25:05
  But the vote will probably be about 3.30 or so. Well, so they usually convene
• 25:09
  9.30 or 10 just to convene session in the morning.
• 25:12
  Then they recess the majority of the time till about 4. So session may start at 4.45.
• 25:17
  And we're still hopeful that by the time there's a vote, maybe this thing has
• 25:21
  changed and becomes more reasonable.
• 25:23
  I mean, apparently there's that possibility. We were told by several legislators
• 25:27
  today the work continues.
• 25:29
  There seems to be a sincere desire among a lot of Republicans that are trying
• 25:35
  hard to see that something agreeable to everybody. can get worked out.
• 25:39
  So thank you to the legislators who are not just listening to us nonstop about
• 25:44
  this thing, but are working to get the best thing for the people as a result.
• 25:47
  And for the agency head at the same time.
• 25:51
  And even if it does change, you can still come down. Still need you to lobby the budget.
• 25:56
  Exactly. Cool. Well, now it's time for John's Wacky Weird Question of the Week. John's Wacky Weird.
• 26:01
  Music.
• 26:06
  Okay, so I put a lot of thought into this one. Actually, I didn't,
• 26:10
  but I do have an interesting one, I think. It may fall flat, but whatever.
• 26:15
  What is something new that you're into that you think folks should know about?
• 26:19
  It can be a movie, a book, a show, anything in the world.
• 26:23
  And I say this because my new obsession is this TikTok kind of series that's going on.
• 26:29
  It started out as a Reddit post, right? Now, did you drive to Florida last week?
• 26:34
  A couple weeks ago, yeah. Okay, so you drove down I-95. right
• 26:37
  yes so this started as a reddit post that this
• 26:40
  family was driving down i-95 and like you
• 26:42
  know you get to like south georgia there's like nothing forever yes
• 26:46
  that was so beautiful the brunswick island yeah but like there's no yeah it's
• 26:50
  nothing which is awesome yeah so they they i think they were running out of
• 26:53
  gas or they just they had to use the bathroom or something so they pulled off
• 26:56
  onto an like a interchange that they said there it said there was gas but it
• 27:01
  was like no arrow or anything.
• 27:03
  So they started driving to the right and it was like forever, like eight, nine miles.
• 27:09
  They finally came up on this little tiny store, right?
• 27:12
  And they go in and the person in there, it looked like they were from like the
• 27:16
  eighties, the customer, you know, the, uh, whatever the, uh,
• 27:20
  person's behind the counter. Right.
• 27:21
  And he was just like stunned and like just staring at them and did not move.
• 27:26
  Right. So then they went ahead and used the bathroom and they left. Right.
• 27:31
  So then they got back in their car and they drove back towards the interstate.
• 27:35
  And they drove and drove and drove and they passed this same store without turning
• 27:40
  around or anything, like twice, they said.
• 27:43
  They finally got to the interstate and then they took off towards Florida and
• 27:47
  was like the weirdest situation ever, right?
• 27:50
  I know, I've blown your minds already, right? So what would the new hobby be? No, no, no.
• 27:55
  So then this turned into a TikTok series where this woman like explained this Reddit post. Right.
• 28:00
  So then there was this other guy who saw the TikTok and was like, wait a minute.
• 28:05
  This sounds just like my dad's story from the 80s.
• 28:09
  So apparently his dad worked at a gas station in that area, came home one day
• 28:15
  and was like, you're never going to believe what happened.
• 28:17
  Like these people from the future came in my store and like told them all this
• 28:21
  stuff about those same people. This is marijuana Reddit.
• 28:25
  This is some kind of marijuana Reddit. So I'm like 90% sure that this is made
• 28:30
  up and not real. This is some Groundhog Day.
• 28:33
  But like it got really weird. And so then the people started commenting on the
• 28:37
  TikTok and like the family started.
• 28:39
  So it turns out like they thought that the dad was like a drug addict and like
• 28:43
  crazy because he held on to this one story his whole life about these people
• 28:48
  from the future coming to his gas station. It is pretty mind blowing.
• 28:52
  Again, what's the new hobby out of all that? No, it's just my new obsession.
• 28:57
  The obsession is the Reddit thread.
• 29:00
  Getting on the marijuana Reddit. Yeah. Well, it's not legal here. I mean, never mind.
• 29:06
  Just quit while your head kind of thing. But it's very interesting. So check that out.
• 29:12
  I'm like 93% sure it's probably made up and fake.
• 29:15
  But on the off chance that it's not, it's pretty awesome. Still funny. Back to the future.
• 29:20
  Yeah. Or roundhog day. What are y'all into these days?
• 29:25
  Nothing that interesting. Oh, Sam's got one. I can go.
• 29:28
  Okay. One thing that has been very popular on TikTok recently that I have fallen
• 29:33
  in love with because anyone who knows me really well knows that I love seafood.
• 29:38
  I'm obsessed with seafood. Yeah, you are. And I have gotten really into tin fish plates.
• 29:44
  And I've learned how to make tinned oysters Rockefeller, like a tin of oysters
• 29:48
  that you can get for $2 or $3 at the store.
• 29:50
  And I've learned how to make oysters Rockefeller, and it's really,
• 29:53
  really good with like kettle cooked chips.
• 29:55
  And then I've also been making like different sauces to put on tinned salmon, tinned mussels.
• 30:00
  Sammy is quite a cook. It's so good. So I'm not going to alarm you guys or anything, I hope.
• 30:06
  But my other question was, what is your favorite seafood?
• 30:10
  Oh, that's funny. See? See?
• 30:14
  Anyway. So you mean tinned, like sardines come in a tinned? You're going to
• 30:19
  lay off that for a while, right?
• 30:20
  Because we are no longer in an R month. And that is a real thing with oysters.
• 30:24
  Yeah. They're canned. They're tinned.
• 30:26
  Ooh. Oh. Oh, goodness. I didn't know.
• 30:30
  And then I make them into Oysters Rockefeller. We have some of the most delicious
• 30:33
  real oysters in the world at our coast. And I am too broke to buy them.
• 30:38
  I wondered how you were getting them two to three dollars. I thought you meant
• 30:42
  you're doing something in a cooking tin with them.
• 30:45
  Not that they came in a tin. However, I will give you this.
• 30:49
  Whole Foods has $2 oysters that they will shuck for you every Friday.
• 30:53
  Good to know. Huh. I feel like you're not getting many oysters for $2.
• 30:57
  You get as many as you want. It's a $2 for one oyster, and you can just buy it. Oh, $2 for one.
• 31:02
  Yeah, and they'll shuck it for you. Take me like 40 bucks. I was going to say,
• 31:06
  man, I'm going to need at least 20.
• 31:07
  How many? I've never really gotten into oysters, I guess. A bushel is usually like a tendin ball.
• 31:11
  Shrimp is about scallops are probably as far as I go. Ooh, love those too. And mussels.
• 31:16
  I love any shellfish. clams, oysters, mussel, shrimp. It's probably my least favorite.
• 31:21
  Clearly, I should have gone with the seafood question. No crab leg.
• 31:24
  Anything food for us always. But I did get to tell my story.
• 31:28
  You did? Yes. And my thing lately, I'm a big reader, so I have been working
• 31:32
  my way down banned books, which I had already read.
• 31:36
  Yeah, I had already read Toni Morrison. You know, she's amazing and wonderful,
• 31:40
  but I just read Kindred, Octavia Butler.
• 31:43
  Holy cow. That book will stick with me forever. But I mean, some of these books I haven't read.
• 31:47
  So let me ask you, do you think that the banishments are warranted or do you
• 31:53
  can you see why that book would be banished? I cannot.
• 31:56
  OK. I mean, I can. Banned. But, you know, do you just leave that?
• 32:00
  But what all you do know, I'm building a library of those kind of books to make
• 32:04
  sure that my granddaughters have them to read.
• 32:07
  That is why my parents have a bunch of Dr. Seuss books, because there were certain Dr.
• 32:10
  Seuss books that were getting banned. And my mom said, I am buying every single
• 32:14
  one of those books before it gets banned because I read those to you when you guys were little.
• 32:19
  Anything with books, I'm obsessed. I do have a question about that, though. Sure.
• 32:23
  Is Hunger Games on that? Because I have been seeing a lot of things talking
• 32:27
  about they're possibly going to put Hunger Games on the banned book list.
• 32:30
  I don't know that it's on the list. I haven't seen that, but I wouldn't read that.
• 32:34
  I mean, that just wouldn't be my thing. And my mom kind of just realized this
• 32:37
  over the weekend. I thought you just were averse to it.
• 32:39
  So we realized over the weekend that that was like, because that's a book that's
• 32:43
  stuck with me my whole life. I have read every single book in the series.
• 32:46
  There's three for the original, and then they just started releasing kind of
• 32:50
  standalones that are prequels. I read every single one of them,
• 32:53
  and I read them in like two days.
• 32:55
  And my mom knows I'm obsessed with them. Every time the movie comes out, I'm there.
• 32:59
  Every time a book comes out, I buy it almost immediately and read it.
• 33:02
  A Court of Thorns and Roses?
• 33:04
  I got down with that series. That was really good. We're off in our own little world, Tammy and I.
• 33:09
  Literary. And I-95.
• 33:12
  Like, you're going south.
• 33:13
  There was a store. There was a store. And there was no...
• 33:17
  But my mom figured out the reason that that book stuck with me for so long and
• 33:22
  has stuck with me as a series is because that was one of the first book series
• 33:26
  that I ever read where I got to be shown a strong female lead who's absolutely
• 33:32
  determined to get what needs to be done. And did.
• 33:36
  And now you have Taylor Swift. And then we have Taylor Swift.
• 33:39
  That was my music. But the first book I ever read that showed a truly empowered
• 33:44
  female character. Yeah.
• 33:45
  Cher was my first truly empowered female character.
• 33:49
  I like Jennifer Lawrence, right? I love that movie. Mermaid.
• 33:53
  I think that's my favorite. Oh, wow. Okay, what about you, Artis?
• 33:56
  Do you have anything cool going on?
• 33:58
  No. Well, I mean, I'm not a big. House bill 549. Yeah, I know.
• 34:03
  Actually, I am doing the way instead of just scrolling or something like that.
• 34:07
  If I've got some downtime, I've gone to Duolingo because I'm too cheap to do anything else.
• 34:12
  And because I took French in school, I'm doing French and just having fun with
• 34:17
  completing those little exercises.
• 34:19
  Yeah, that's fun. My daughter. Bonjour.
• 34:22
  My daughter is. We're about to be au revoir.
• 34:25
  When are we going to get you to? Your daughter's taking French.
• 34:27
  No, she's doing the Duolingo Spanish.
• 34:30
  Because she has a lot of Hispanic classmates and she wants to talk to them. That's awesome, Clara.
• 34:35
  Yeah. And I had wanted to do that, but I thought I'm worried that I would just
• 34:40
  not do well if I don't have any previous experience with it.
• 34:44
  So we'll see. I would love to learn to speak Spanish. Well, aren't those languages
• 34:48
  kind of similar, like a romantic language? I don't know. I don't know that, but.
• 34:52
  I really don't know. So they might be. I know the numbers are similar when you're counting.
• 34:57
  Uno. I would love to speak Spanish. Yeah, that would be cool. That's aspirational.
• 35:02
  Well, that was a good week with several tangents, but I think we did pretty
• 35:06
  well. Thank you for the decompression. This was a good podcast. Yeah.
• 35:09
  Thank you for making time out of your week to join us, and we'll see you next week. Au revoir.
• 35:15
  Music.