Latest / The SEANC View / WakeMed-Atrium Merger Clears Commissioner Vote

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WakeMed-Atrium Merger Clears Commissioner Vote · The SEANC View

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We are standing here in Raleigh, North Carolina. North Carolina,
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the number one costliest state in this nation for health care.
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And what is this nation? The costliest place for health care in the world.
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So North Carolina is the most expensive place to go get your health care in this world.
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Despite having so much amazing health care, with so many amazing health care
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breakthroughs and research, something's wrong with this picture.
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And it's pretty simple. It's great.
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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I'm Jonathan Owens, along with Artis Watkins and Samantha Klein.
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Healthcare is about to get a little more expensive in the most expensive state in the nation,
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as the Wake County Board of Commissioners approved its parts of,
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I guess, the paperwork to allow the WakeMed and Atrium merger.
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So that was on Monday. Before the vote, we did join with a few groups in the
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area and beyond for a rally at Nash Square that I thought was pretty awesome.
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So we'll just dive into talking about all of these things.
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Artis, I guess, first question, did you enjoy your night in jail?
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I never went to jail.
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I would have been willing, but I never went to jail. Okay. Yeah,
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we'll hash all of this out. It was drama.
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So last Friday, we interviewed members of the Patients Union for the podcast
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and put that out on Friday. And we did mention that the vote had been called
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for Monday, which is this Monday.
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And we discussed it a little bit, but it's exactly the same situation as we
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were in when the first vote came up.
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Well, it wasn't on the consent agenda, at least this time. Yeah,
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at least there was a tiny bit. Yeah, there was discussion this time.
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But very little preparation. But we were able to put together a rally on Monday,
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which, like I said, we'll talk about.
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But on Sunday night, Governor Stein issued a statement that he had agreed to
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some of the changes that were made onto the contract. And he would be not supporting
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it, but he would not fight it. Is that what you took from his?
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He said he was not against it. Not against it. Just for historical purposes.
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When Governor Stein was Attorney General Stein and New Hanover Regional was taken over by Novant.
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As Attorney General, he said, I am not against that. Same thing.
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When he was Attorney General in 2019 and HCA took over Mission in Asheville,
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he said, for it, it's good. In 2023, as Attorney General, he had to sue Mission.
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He had to sue the hospital, HCA, for not upholding aspects of what they were supposed to do.
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So his track record as governor and as AG has not ever been to oppose one of
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these things. So that would have been weird. Yeah.
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So he doesn't really have a role in the whole fight. I mean,
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he can't just stop it outright.
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But, you know, if he had taken the side of the people and our side,
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he would have made a huge statement in the whole issue.
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I think it's real quandary for Governor Stein because the Wake County Democrats
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met and the Wake County Democrats voted.
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And put out a strong statement against Atrium taking over Wake Med.
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Yeah, and the whole commission are Democrats. They are all Democrats.
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Interesting. And five of them voted to allow the takeover by Atrium. Two of them did not.
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So the Wake County Democrats made a strong statement,
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Every person that spoke in that room the other day that was against it was a regular person.
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And the only ones that were speaking for it seemed to be on the payroll of either
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Wake or Atrium or on their boards.
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It seemed to me that, you know, if the governor comes out on one side of an
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issue, it can kind of take the wind out of the sails of the other side.
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Or, you know, if someone as prominent as the governor takes a side.
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But I thought that the rally was well attended. Still, people were still fighting
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it. And the rally was great. It was mainly put on by the Patients Union.
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And I know the Justice Center was active with them. And then they invited a
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bunch of different people. We were invited.
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I'm not even going to try to name because there's so many people that were involved,
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so many groups. I will miss somebody. But I do want to say the Patients Union
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and the Justice Center did an extraordinary amount of work and organization and kept this going.
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That was great. And that was really the people, hearing from the people.
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And what happened, if you bounce back to May,
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when the Wake County Board of Commissioners first did that Friday afternoon
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announcement, they were going to vote on a Monday just on the consent agenda,
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which means just up or down vote at no discussion, that it was the same scenario this time.
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But the difference is, when the governor came out with his statement.
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It gave Wake County Board of Commissioners something they desperately wanted.
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Because after the public had an outcry in May, and they had to pull that thing
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off the consent agenda, they couldn't sneak it through the way they wanted to.
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Then Wake County Board of Commissioners' line started to be,
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we really don't have a role in this.
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Like, our opinion doesn't matter. They did not want responsibility for selling out Wake County.
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And it's too bad because they did have responsibility. But what happened when
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the governor put out a statement Sunday, it gave them the out they wanted.
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So one after the other, commissioners during debate said when they were giving their statements.
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You know, when the governor, you know, said what he did, and then one of them
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said, I talked to his health care experts at the governor's office over the weekend.
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I mean, this was the cover they were trying to use to not have blame.
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They wanted to be able to say, hey, look, the governor staff knows more than
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anybody, and they said it's good, so it must be good.
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But so that was kind of a mess. I'm not sure why the governor was negotiating.
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Yeah. Because the governor negotiates state contracts. The county is supposed
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to negotiate county contracts.
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It got even more embarrassing. The county attorneys stood up and the staff,
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the county attorney and his staff were up there.
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And as they were asked questions by Commissioners Adamson and Waters,
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it was outright embarrassing because the commissioners do not know a lot of what they voted on.
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They said, you know, we're just going to vote it and then we'll figure that
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part out later is basically the message that they were given.
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And they kept asking questions to make sure they understood that correctly.
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Like, are you saying we haven't even worked out some of these details yet,
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but we're going to vote to do it?
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Because, of course, once you sign, your chance to change it is too late.
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Yeah, I do want to give a shout out to Commissioners Adamson and Waters.
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Yeah, Vicki Adamson and Tara Waters.
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They came to the rally, too, and spoke.
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And I thought it was interesting that Commissioner Adamson mentioned that she
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received an email from a retired state employee that made part of her decision.
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And I wonder if it was some of our folks, you know. But either way,
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good job to that person and everyone who reached out to the commissioners,
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because I think it did have an impact, at least on those two.
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Well, I mean, I think that what happened is we put them in a bind.
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The commissioners were going to have to kind of openly vote on such a bad, bad thing.
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And but for the governor's action on Sunday, kind of giving them what I think
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they believed is plausible deniability.
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Yeah. I don't think the vote would have gone down the same way.
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So it definitely, the governor carried the day in that room and got this done for Atrium.
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And Treasurer Briner came out yesterday with a video, and he kind of called
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the governor to task a little bit in it, I think. And he still made the same
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arguments that it's going to increase prices, especially for the state health
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plan and things like that.
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Well, I think what got a little troubling, and, you know, Governor Stein,
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we're on the same page as him on a lot of issues.
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We are most assuredly not on this issue, and it's his workforce.
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As governor, he has all the cabinet agencies, and it's his workforce that is
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going to suffer the most for this.
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I think what was troubling is that there's a few items that changed over the
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last weekend that made the governor feel more comfortable.
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One of them was Atrium would give $150 million to Wake County.
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Now, if you compare that to HCA Mission, HCA gave $1.5 billion,
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or 10 times the amount of money that Atrium's wanting to put on the table.
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And HCA put that $1.5 billion down for less beds than WakeMed has. Yeah.
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So $150 million is a joke in this scenario.
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Secondly, he said, well, they agreed to increase their charity care from 4 point
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something percent to 8 point something percent.
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Well, WakeMed was already doing 12 percent. So we're not even putting the charity
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care back to where it is right now.
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And the final thing was a price cap, not to increase prices for five years,
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more than one and a half times Medicare price increases.
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We've had 60 years of regulating fee-for-service Medicare and have an out-of-control price system.
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So why that would have comforted the governor's office either,
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no one is sure. I mean, and these are not, this isn't me talking,
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these are national experts who are saying, these are kind of joke provisions.
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You know, that's nothing. We're still handing a hospital basically for free.
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Oh, and the other thing was Atrium had gotten called out because after the May
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deal was put out there, they said, we're giving $2 billion for WakeMed.
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But when the governor asked questions of WakeMed, it turns out they weren't giving $2 billion.
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They were going to use all WakeMed money and borrowing power first,
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and anything after that, they would spend that.
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Well, WakeMed was going to have $2 billion easily. So Atrium wouldn't have to put anything in.
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The governor said, well, we changed that and now Atrium is going to put up the $2 billion.
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But every national health care expert I've talked to, and I've talked to a bunch
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in the last week, basically, said that's the way that was being told that it was written.
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It's a joke. They still get to use WakeMed money first. Yeah.
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And, I mean, if Atrium can just all of a sudden say, oh, we're going to give
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$15 million a year to the county, just imagine what they're taking out of the county.
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I mean, they're going to make a lot more than that. The land alone is over a billion dollars. Yeah.
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I mean, it's an embarrassment. This is an embarrassment.
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But more embarrassing was the process, right? And so I've seen a lot at the
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legislature, and I want to publicly apologize to the North Carolina General Assembly.
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Because, you know, I don't care who's been in charge. There's been times where
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things get shoved through and I don't like the process. I don't feel that it's
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been transparent enough. And this
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has happened under both Democrats and Republicans in terms of leadership.
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But I have never seen anything like this process in Wake County for the last
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few months. It was, it would be laughable if it was, if the stakes weren't so high.
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Part of that is what happened at the meeting on Monday night.
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You know, I think for the most part, I wasn't there, but I was watching online.
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And it seemed like for the most part, people were, they'd go up and speak,
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but they weren't acting out or anything. It seemed like it was pretty civil for the most part.
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No, what happened was when it was time to actually vote. Yeah,
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the vote is the part that got a little rowdy.
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Oh, yeah, there was nothing rowdy during any of the speakers at all.
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And, you know, I've been to a lot of county commissioner meetings in my time as a reporter.
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And, you know, it seems like when things like that happen, and I don't want
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to disparage the commissioners here, but just invariably when things like that
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happen, the immediate response is clear the room.
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You know, it seems like they don't really know how to take that maybe as well
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as like a legislator would or something at the, you know.
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Yeah, I've never, what happened was one after the other, I don't know,
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five or six people stood up and said,
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I want you to vote no for, and they would name somebody who had had a bad experience,
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with hospitals coming after them for debt or somebody whose life was saved at Wake Med.
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And it was not very disruptive, to be honest. Just one after,
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and then they left immediately after somebody said, okay, well,
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come on, you're going to have to leave now. And they got up and left quietly.
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There wasn't anything wild about it. Certainly, we've seen much more protesty
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protests at the legislature.
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But what ended up happening is Commissioner Miles said, everybody out.
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Everybody, whether you were disruptive or not, get out.
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And that's why you asked me how it was jail. I asked you if you went to jail.
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I did see one clip. Because I didn't get out. Like, no.
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And that made no sense. Yeah.
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And thank goodness, you know, and I felt bad for the deputies because they're
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just doing their job and they're told, you know, to get this one really obstinate person on out.
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And so I felt bad for them. So eventually I did get up and said,
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I'll go to the overflow room, but I want to know what law you're using to do this.
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And so long story short, went to the overflow room and Commissioner Waters asked,
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is it I want to ask the county attorney, can we do this? Can we kick out people
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who are not being disruptive? because I was not being disruptive.
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And the county attorney said, no, we can't. So they let us back in as long as
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we hadn't been disruptive.
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Yeah, I know that they asked, I guess, the deputies there first,
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and I was like, oh, don't put them on the spot like that. You know,
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that's not really good. Oh, yeah, I felt bad for them because,
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you know, they were just doing their job and they were very sweet.
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But we didn't have to bail you out. It is funny, though, because I'm like,
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no, scenic doesn't engage in, you know, disruptive behavior.
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But I was like, yeah, no, I'm not leaving.
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As soon as I started hearing the, you know, the chirps during the vote,
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I texted the group and I was like, uh-oh, we got to go bail artists out of jail.
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But luckily we didn't have to do that. So, but they did vote five to two to,
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allow the merger to continue.
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And our two commissioners that said they were going to oppose it kept their word.
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Yeah. So it was for anybody who wants to send an email to thank them or give
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them any other of your thoughts.
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It was Vicki Adamson and Tara Waters who voted against Atrium taking over WakeMed,
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increasing all of our prices.
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And those who voted for Atrium taking over WakeMed and increasing all of our
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prices were Commissioner Myle, Don Myle.
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Sophia Jackson, Cheryl Stallings, Susan Evans, and Shanika Thomas.
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So one thing that stuck out to me throughout the rally and comments from the
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meeting is just how many times people repeated that they love WakeMed,
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that WakeMed has saved their lives, and it's so important to them.
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And so it just, it's really heart-wrenching to hear that, you know,
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that's probably going to be taken.
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Well, I mean, it's going to at least change with Atrium County.
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Well, first, Atrium and WakeMed have to get through an FTC review,
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and our attorney general's office will do an independent review.
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And so, Jeff Jackson, our attorney general, is somebody that we're definitely
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going to be, the groups are going to be reaching out to to sit down and discuss all of this.
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I mean, I think the process itself was a complete cluster by the Wake County
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Board of Commissioners.
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And honestly, I felt sorry for the staff of the Wake County Board of Commissioners
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because they were clearly put in a bad position.
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Like I said, the county attorney staff,
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clearly was put in a terrible position of being asked to sort of oversee this contract that is an.
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Awful contract for the taxpayers and has no answers to so much that any lawyer
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would be ashamed to be up there.
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So I really felt bad for the legal staff. But I don't know what's going to happen
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when the FTC reviews this?
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Because Commissioner Adamson was pointing out to the press an Ohio hospital,
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that wanted to sell itself and didn't end up being able to sell itself to the
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people it wanted to, that it chose,
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simply because it would have increased the prices in the market.
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Well, Wake Med CEO Don Gensig said out loud in an interview within the last
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two weeks that he hopes so. He hopes those prices increase after the merger or takeover.
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And I don't think it's been any question those prices would go up.
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When Atrium took over Wake Forest Baptist a couple years ago,
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the prices there went up almost 30%.
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So that's why Treasurer Briner is still in the fight. And as you said,
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somewhat called out the governor because he's stuck with this as an issue for
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state employees and retirees. He's running the health plan.
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And I already noticed on our social media, some of the comments are mad at the
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health plan that this went through.
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Yeah, automatically, yeah. So let me be really clear.
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The health plan is trying to control these out-of-control hospital costs.
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The Wake County Board of Commissioners and other.
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Bodies of government that could do something about it literally won't.
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Frankly, because of the immense power of these hospitals, the dollars they have are crazy.
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And so I noticed there were legislatures weighing in afterwards.
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You know, the problem is the legislature could have passed some legislation
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to do something about this before it happened. They were here this summer.
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So I think it's interesting that an all-democratic Wake County Board of Commissioners,
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passed something that the Wake County Democratic Party said they were against.
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But I think it also tells you exactly where we are. There is no party right now.
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That is on the side of patients in a real enough way to heavy lift,
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to upset the apple cart for hospitals in a real way.
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And by upset the apple cart, all I mean is not let them have free willy reign
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to stand up. Yeah. People, yeah.
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And it's a little crazy, but I think it was interesting to watch these other
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groups kind of have the light bulb go on that, yeah, you have to be nonpartisan.
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And you have to be for or against individual politicians who will actually do something.
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And the first party that will actually do something big about health care,
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I think they're going to have the public's undying affection.
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Because the one thing about this whole deal, it wasn't just state employees and retirees.
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The community, when they learned about it.
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Was always upset. They don't want that. Yeah. We see that even on our social
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media. We don't have anyone saying it's a good thing at all.
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You know, I mean, we would welcome that comment if someone had a good argument for it.
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But, well, I think some Atrium staff have been infiltrating some of our posts.
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But, I mean, you know, majority of the posts are against the merger.
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And I think people are starting to get it, that, you know, health care is bankrupting us all.
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And I mean, we see it every day. Well, it takes the money the legislature would
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have for pay raises or COLAs for retirees or for the work the agencies do.
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I mean, it's costing so much money, not just out of the premiums,
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the paychecks, the bank accounts of state employees and retirees,
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They're co-pays when they do go to the doctor,
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but it's keeping them from getting anything they would normally be getting in terms of increases.
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Sammy, what was your take from the day you spent all day at the rally and the
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meeting? What did you think?
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One thing that I noticed while I was sitting in the meeting and people kept
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getting up to speak, I was watching the commissioners. That was my main thing.
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Like, through my little camera lens, I had it zoomed in on some of them.
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And I noticed quite frequently the ones who voted in favor of this passing weren't paying attention.
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They were looking down at papers on their desk. They didn't want to look these people in the eye.
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The two who voted against it were looking at every single person who got up to speak.
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Like, do you think they had to, like, disassociate? Because it has to be difficult
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to listen to people's stories. Some of those stories are heart-wrenching. Yeah.
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It has to be difficult to listen to it and then ignore it, you know? Yeah.
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Yeah, I hate to say this, but it just seems like there's probably a little bit of shame involved.
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You know, or at least, you know, reconsidering for a second at least.
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Yeah. And speaking of shame, the part I left out that is kind of the whole plot,
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people in that room were upset, people from the public, not just because of
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the deal being a bad deal for Wake County and increasing our prices.
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But we had asked to meet with the commissioners.
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The hospitals have been meeting with them for months and months.
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Every time one of them talks, it turns out it's been longer than one of them said for six months.
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I heard three years at one point. Well, Wake Med and Atrium for sure have said
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they've talked about this for two years.
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So I don't know which commissioners they've talked to for how long,
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but one of them said six months.
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We do know they've had countless hours where hospital executives have been in
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the room with county commissioners by themselves, just having only their information presented.
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So we reached out respectfully and requested a meeting, the patients union in
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scenic, with commissioners.
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Didn't even get a response, did you? No response. And then public records requests
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were made. Justice Center said most of theirs were not given.
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And the patients union made a public records request and said a lot of stuff appeared to be missing.
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Yeah, there was a question about that during the meeting. And I think the attorney
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said that there was way too many documents to give them that they'd have to
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parse through all of them or something.
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That's convenient. Well, and this goes back to the same problem we have with
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the state health plan and transparency or lack thereof.
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A lot of things are deemed confidential or too sensitive to release if they're
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from, you know, Gene Woods or Don Gensig, who are the CEOs of the two hospitals.
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That's insane. I mean, if they're trying to give away or take what started as
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county property, the members of Wake County need to know what kind of conversations
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are happening about that with our county commissioners.
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But we're told, no, that would disrupt somehow the commercial confidentiality
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of these hospitals. That's so ridiculous. And I think the public has truly had it.
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So, day after the vote, WakeMed released its renovation plans.
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They're going to build a huge tower, right, at the Raleigh campus. And, okay. Yeah.
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I'm tempted to move my primary care provider just because this went through.
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I'm like, I don't want to go there anymore.
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The thing about it is, and, you know, I've always gone to the Pinehurst area
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because that's where I grew up and everything. But I've really enjoyed using
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WakeMed since I've, you know, been in this area. And I have been to several
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doctors at Wakeman. I really enjoy it.
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And I hate that it's going to change, you know. No, it will change.
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According to people who work at Atrium who sent in comments and have called
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people working for these organizations saying, let me tell you what it's going to be like.
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It's hard to believe it's not going to change.
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Even people who had toured Wake Forest Baptist since it's been taken over by Atrium said, wow.
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They were, one of the commissioners said they were kind of taken aback by the
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condition two years after Atrium's takeover.
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That's sad because I know that, like, you go into the WakeMed carry facility there, and,
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it's just, it's a lot different than a regular sterile environment hospital
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that's, you know, cold and uninviting.
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Uninviting. It seems, I mean, I just really enjoy going, well,
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I don't enjoy going to the doctor, but if I have to, I mean, it's really easy to use.
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Everything's really, you know, spaced out and the people are really nice.
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And I hate that, that it's going to change. The reason that I always liked my
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provider at WakeMed is because it reminded me of the provider,
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the small town independent provider I went to in Hope Mills and grew up going to.
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That I'm like, this is going to change. And I don't like that.
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I like the feeling of small town independent providers where I know that I'm
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getting care because they care about you.
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I think it's better. It's definitely going to be better care,
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you know, if you can have that small town type care. But I think...
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It's just going away. It really is everywhere. The last vestiges of that are going away. Yeah.
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And, you know, I think Briner mentioned the task force that they had created
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to tackle health care costs. And even in that video, he was like,
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this is not going to help that at all. Yeah, no kidding.
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He's like, where do we go from here? Well, that's why I had asked the governor's
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office, why are there no voices for workers or consumer groups, patients groups,
26:29
on that board or committee or whatever the heck it is that he's called,
26:32
this affordability commission. Yeah.
26:37
I mean, no offense to Briner, but he's pretty much the only one that's anywhere
26:41
close to that on that board. And he's, I mean, he's not as in-depth with the
26:46
workers as we are. You know, I mean, he has other.
26:48
No, he's like a super savvy financial. I'm glad he is a super savvy financial
26:53
kind of guy, but that's not an average Joe. He's by far not an average Joe.
26:58
But we do appreciate him at least representing some of our interests on the board, right?
27:03
But I don't know if there's anything that a committee like that could do to make any of this better.
27:09
It's going to have to happen through legislation at the state and federal.
27:13
It's going to take actual action, and that's going to take major, huge guts. Yeah.
27:20
That's not been anywhere.
27:23
And I mean guts, because it'll be hard on these politicians if they stand up
27:27
to the hospitals. Ask Dale Falwell. Yeah, exactly.
27:30
And, you know, you think about everyone has a pessimistic view of politicians
27:35
and, oh, they're never going to stand up to these powerful, you know, it just takes too much.
27:40
But I think that the political climate is changing in the favor of pushing those,
27:46
leaders who will stand up to.
27:47
I think that there's more and more sentiment to make changes in health care now.
27:53
Than there even used to be. There'd be more support for it. So I think someone
27:56
could actually make some change. Oh, I think the public is definitely to the
27:59
fed up point. Yeah. Well...
28:03
Our listeners might be fed up with hearing that. I think so.
28:06
And that's the problem. You know, this fight was about literally $10 more a
28:12
month coming out of somebody's paycheck.
28:14
And so I'm sure there's some of our members like, oh, my goodness,
28:17
are we still talking about this?
28:20
But I think, you know, we had discussions at our convention about $5 coming
28:24
out of somebody's paycheck and what a big deal it is.
28:26
So that's why Scenic is here, so that every time this one action would take
28:30
$10 out of your paycheck, we have to fight all of these types of actions that
28:34
would take a little more out of your paycheck.
28:37
And that's why we make such a massive deal of it, because it's not just that
28:41
$10 for premium, by the way.
28:43
It's not. That's what I was going to say. It would be your co-pays, everything else.
28:47
That's what I was going to say. Like if you have chronic illness or,
28:50
you know, you're aging, it's going to cost you even more.
28:54
And when we let things like this happen, stand by and let Atrium take over WakeMed,
28:59
eventually it's going to take over a system near you and it's going to be even
29:03
more and more of a monopoly. And as we keep pointing out, it doesn't matter where you live.
29:08
You don't have to live anywhere near Raleigh. This takeover,
29:12
it just costs you money. Yeah.
29:14
It's going up for everybody because the health plan will have to pay more if
29:18
Atrium is run in Wake Med.
29:20
Yeah. And when the health plan has to pay more, it affects all 100 counties.
29:24
Well, I think that's all I have for really this week. I didn't see any other
29:28
news stories. This kind of dominated the airwaves pretty much.
29:32
The only other issue that I wanted, or not issue, but a topic I wanted to bring
29:35
up was that our new board will come on on October 1st.
29:39
So I don't know if we have a podcast before then, but we, I think it's similar
29:44
pretty much to our last board, but we welcome them into the leadership of the association.
29:50
And Sammy and Beth and I are doing lots of things to update the website and
29:55
get ready for that change.
29:56
But the officers will remain the same. And Junior Hewlin was elected at the
30:03
convention to lead IMPAC again. So he has two more years.
30:08
Yes, and we need to make sure we thank Junior Hewlin on this podcast because,
30:12
he did a lot of work having to quickly organize over the weekend contacting
30:17
members of MPAC who were pretty ticked off at Wake County's Board of Commissioners.
30:23
Impact is now fully, I was kind of giggling about it, Impact is now fully engaged
30:28
and watching the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
30:30
We've not been politically active in local politics before, but I think the
30:37
future Impact discussions are going to be kind of fascinating because this certainly,
30:41
let's just say, got their attention.
30:42
Yeah, and I think things like this do energize everyone.
30:48
Any kind of Gen Z moment this week? I know that Taylor Swift made some news, right? Yes.
30:55
So yesterday there was a countdown on her website, which of course I had to
30:59
pay attention to for a little while.
31:01
The countdown announced at 2 p.m. that she was releasing a new single called Patient Zero.
31:09
And she did collector's item CDs that will be available until 2 p.m.
31:16
Today. We are recording on Wednesday, the 23rd.
31:21
And then this morning, it was announced that she did a The Life of a Showgirl,
31:27
the encore version, which releases on Friday with four additional songs,
31:33
including the single Patient Zero.
31:36
Is that the most recent album? Yes, it is. And she had told us when she first
31:41
announced this album on Travis Kelsey and Jason Kelsey's podcast that this was
31:46
it. These 12 songs were it. She's not doing anything else. She's not adding anything to it.
31:50
And so now people are kind of laughing and being like, she played right in our
31:53
faces. She told us that she wasn't doing any more.
31:56
But there are three other songs included besides Patient Zero called Cleveland,
32:01
Pink Clouding, and Babylon.
32:04
Okay. So have you heard any of these songs yet? None of them have been released.
32:08
They are all released on Friday.
32:10
So, very excited. Anything else happening in the young folks world?
32:16
How was the Gen Z contingent at convention? Were there a lot of Gen Z and millennial
32:22
delegates? Were there more than last year? There were quite a few.
32:25
There were more than last year. And I think that they're starting to get more and more involved.
32:30
Like one of our new incoming district chairs for District 9, Kadira Jones.
32:36
Is a younger? Yes, she is. And then,
32:39
We had our convention scholarship. We had our people from that,
32:44
which is primarily focused on our more Gen Z millennial members who have not
32:49
experienced convention yet.
32:51
There were a few in the district that sat next to the AV table there where I
32:55
was. It seemed like there was,
32:58
more than usual younger folks or first-time delegates. So that's exciting.
33:05
Yeah, notice that in District 10 as well, there was a couple newer,
33:08
younger delegates. District 41 as well.
33:12
We're always hoping for younger members to get active and get involved.
33:16
So if you want to get involved, send us an email or talk to your district chair.
33:23
We have contact forms on our website.
33:25
Just get in touch with us and we'll point you in the right direction.
33:30
There is some news about Hurricane Helene relief and what is still going on.
33:34
As we come up on the anniversary of Hurricane 2nd, I guess, two years ago.
33:40
Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina. The 25th this Friday will be two
33:44
years. Because it was a day before my birthday. I was supposed to be up at Western
33:49
for my birthday that year, but then all the rain started coming in.
33:51
And my parents said no. Yeah.
33:55
I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. And like. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
33:59
We were on the other side of Florida. So, yeah, it was interesting.
34:03
And we were, our flights were delayed and everything, but that's not a big deal
34:06
compared to what everyone else went through. But I will always remember being.
34:10
Well, they're still definitely putting parts of Western North Carolina back
34:13
together. I mean, two years later, two years after a hurricane that big is not,
34:17
a tremendous amount of time. But it is kind of amazing what they've done to
34:21
put it back together. Yeah.
34:22
However, the state treasurer's office announced today, today we're recording
34:27
on Wednesday. 23rd. The 23rd.
34:30
Said more recovery funding is headed west. The latest round of interest-free
34:35
cash flow loans will provide $22.7 million to help Western North Carolina communities
34:40
address specific projects and recovery needs following Hurricane Helene.
34:44
And it's things like the town of Clyde, county of Rutherford,
34:48
town of Beach Mountain, county of Madison, town of Canton, village of Chimney
34:52
Rock, town of Lake Lure, and county of Polk. So that's good stuff.
34:57
It's good to see that people aren't forgetting. There's still support going
35:00
in there. There's a story in the Asheville Times from this weekend,
35:04
two years after Helene recovery efforts are unfinished across western North Carolina.
35:10
It mentions the I-40 is still one lane both ways through that area,
35:15
right? And I think that's supposed to...
35:18
I think I heard something about 2027, but I'm not 100% sure.
35:21
I did see that there are still parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway that are closed
35:26
due to damages that occurred during the hurricane. Yeah, it'll be interesting
35:31
to read some stories about what is still ongoing up there.
35:35
I think it isn't as front and center now in the news, which is sad.
35:40
But, I mean, there's still ongoing efforts.
35:43
So I'll be paying attention to that as well.
35:45
My question this week, this will be our first cold blast coming through this
35:50
week, right? This temperature is going to get down in the 50s.
35:53
Yeah. Highs in the 70s? It was like 102 two days ago.
35:58
Yeah. Are we getting there? We were dying two days ago. I know.
36:01
It's just crazy. So my question of the week is, what's your favorite fall activity?
36:07
Does my birthday count? Yeah, definitely.
36:10
Is that fall? When does fall start? September 21st. Fall starts September 21st.
36:14
My birthday's on the 26th. Okay. So...
36:17
My birthday. Yeah, I take it. I guess mine is easy as fantasy football.
36:21
So we're in week three right now.
36:24
I still got to find a running back. But definitely, we'll make it a very quick
36:28
question this week. What's your favorite thing about fall? The North Carolina
36:32
State Fair, which reminds me.
36:34
We've got to see. I know Commissioner Troxler's probably not available at this point.
36:39
But really, I heard him on Do Politics Better last year talking about the fair.
36:44
And you know, first of all, you know I love Do Politics Better.
36:46
But it was a great interview. It was so interesting.
36:50
I wonder if we could set up from the fair interview with him. That would be cool.
36:54
That'd be super cool. The ultimate question, who's coming to Raleigh for a concert
36:58
during the fair this year? Last year it was Tate McRae. The year before it was Sabrina Carpenter.
37:03
Who's going to be here this year? I got an admission, y'all.
37:06
One of the first concerts I ever remember going to was Aaron Tippin at the fair.
37:10
Aaron Tippin, a legend.
37:13
At the fair. But yeah, North Carolina Fair usually has some pretty good acts.
37:17
And then you're talking about like at the RBC next door.
37:21
At the Lenovo Center. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That causes all the insane traffic because
37:26
there's still construction going on over there on the roads.
37:30
So let's work on that. Let's get an interview with. I met Aaron Tippin at a
37:34
record store in Raleigh back in the day. It may have been the same thing. It had to be.
37:38
It may have been going from there to the fair. Because there ain't nothing wrong
37:42
with the radio. He was the man. That's all I can say about my car at this point.
37:48
Yeah. Oh, that's clever. Sometimes it's like that. Yeah. So we're going to work
37:52
on getting Steve Troxler on the podcast to talk about the...
37:54
Another fun fall thing, though. Oh, one more. Sorry. She loves it.
37:57
Opening game of hurricane season, the 29th of September, first home game.
38:02
Of the season. Hockey's coming back.
38:05
Well, okay. Wait a minute. You got to see the Stanley Cup, right?
38:08
Both of you did. Yeah, it was at the commission. How should I not?
38:12
It was such cognitive dissonance. Stormy's jumping around. Yeah,
38:15
he's playing around. Yeah, funny. Taking pictures with everyone.
38:19
So before this very serious commissioner's meeting...
38:23
They had the Hurricanes resolution to recognize the Stanley Cup win.
38:28
And the Stanley Cup was in the room.
38:30
Were any of the players in the room? No, it was just Stormy.
38:33
The general manager or someone? But they officially made September 21st,
38:37
Canes Day in Canes County. So, yeah. So, Brian Fork was there as CEO of the
38:44
Hurricanes. And Stormy was there definitely dancing around.
38:48
You know, Stormy's a lot of fun. Stormy was having a grand old time. Great time.
38:55
Read the room, Stormy. Poor Stormy had no idea what else was going on.
39:01
He's out here picking on people, tapping on people's shoulders, running away.
39:05
And, you know, the Wake Med people were like, oh, Stormy, this is great.
39:08
The rest of the public is like, for real? Like, Stormy, now's not the time.
39:13
Well, that's not on Stormy. That's on the Wake County Board of Commissioners
39:16
because they were so determined to push this through that, But yeah,
39:21
sure, let's have the most serious health care debate we've ever had right after Stormy.
39:26
They should have had a little ceremony out front for that.
39:29
You know, I mean, I think they should have their moment in there.
39:33
Yeah, for sure. I just think we didn't have to do this because we didn't have
39:38
to vote on this health care thing right now when they don't even have all the details.
39:42
And while they're kissing the Stanley Cup.
39:45
It's just weird. I will say, whenever you mentioned earlier that they were still
39:48
having to ask, like, the county lawyers and attorneys questions about,
39:53
like, this deal and stuff, I'm like, it's kind of laughable that you guys don't
39:56
know all the details to this deal when you've had so many private meetings.
40:00
Or maybe they do, they just didn't. I was glad on behalf of the county attorney
40:03
that he was asked those questions so that he could say, right,
40:06
we don't know that yet. Yeah.
40:08
You'll be signing that and figuring it out later. And I'm thinking he's trying to let them know.
40:12
Yeah, you're signing something that you don't know what it is.
40:17
And they're like, cool, let's vote.
40:19
But I will say, I think it's very evident that Stormy was the star of the show at the beginning.
40:26
Because even when I texted my parents, my parents had no idea what I was doing
40:29
at this commissioner's meeting. All they knew was I saw the Stanley Cup and Stormy.
40:34
Because that was the thing that I wanted to send them pictures of.
40:36
I was like, I'm going to regret this forever, not selling the Stanley Cup.
40:39
I can't believe I didn't go in there. Well, let me tell you something.
40:43
I don't think, I think that your parents noticing Stormy above all else is exactly
40:48
the point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
40:51
Because that was the first thing I noticed when we walked in there.
40:53
And I was shocked, actually, that the health care debate got as much press as it did. Yeah.
40:59
Considering Stormy and the Stanley Cup. I thought that would have worked.
41:03
Oh, well. But maybe if they hadn't kicked everybody out.
41:05
Although, to be fair, apparently Charlotte, their city council,
41:09
kicked everybody out the same night over the I-77. Oh, really?
41:14
Because the public was up in arms not wanting the— People are restless now.
41:18
People are— People have had it. Yeah, all kinds of things. With their elected
41:23
leaders doing what corporations want and just kind of flipping the bird at them. They're tired of it.
41:31
I think people have also, especially this past week, been very angry because,
41:35
Trump was here, like, what, last week or something?
41:38
And him making a comment about how it's one of the most dangerous states now.
41:43
People were all like, North Carolina, are you sure? What are you talking about?
41:48
But anyway. That was weird. Yeah.
41:52
Midterms will be fun. Coming to you from the mean streets of Raleigh.
41:56
All right. Well, that's it for this week.