Latest / The SEANC View / North Carolina, the nation must tackle health care costs

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North Carolina, the nation must tackle health care costs · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
0:03
You have the usual crew in the studio today.
0:06
I'm Jonathan Owens, the communications director, along with artists Watkins,
0:10
Sammy Klein, and Suzanne Beasley.
0:12
I gave my title that time, but I didn't give yours. I'm sorry about that. As always, it's okay.
0:17
And we're joined by the Scenic General Treasurer, Timothy Morgan,
0:21
from District 10 today. And he's going to sit in on our first newsy portion
0:26
of the podcast, and then we're going to interview him.
0:28
So you're welcome to speak up during the newsy portion.
0:32
Welcome to the fray. Thank you. Let's have a great show.
0:47
All right, so let's get down to business. Like I said, we do have some serious topics to get to.
0:52
We have some town halls set up this week and possibly a few in the coming weeks
0:57
around the Lantern Program for the state health plan.
1:01
The surgery program that State Health Plan Executive Administrator Thomas Friedman
1:06
came on the podcast to talk about a few weeks ago.
1:09
I think it's very important that we do this because we're getting a lot of questions.
1:13
There's a lot of interest in the program, but also maybe some skepticism.
1:16
Yeah, well, you know, a lot of times things sound so good that everybody second guesses it.
1:21
So to help answer some of those questions, we're holding a series of town halls,
1:26
and the first two will have happened by the time you hear this podcast.
1:30
We're having one virtual town hall event that will include the executive administrator,
1:34
Thomas Freeman, of the state health plan to answer questions about the new program.
1:39
Lantern, partnering with the state health plan.
1:41
And then tomorrow evening in Morganton, North Carolina, we will have our first
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in-person town hall, and we will have a Lantern representative there,
1:49
and Thomas Friedman will also be available to talk about the new program and answer your questions.
1:55
So if you're in one of those districts, maybe, hopefully you came out.
1:59
If you didn't come out or you didn't get on a virtual, there's good news.
2:02
Yeah, we've got more coming.
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We've got more coming. So stay tuned for early December. We're going to try
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to line up some more of these town hall events so you guys can get the information
2:12
that you need on the Lantern plan that's going to start in January.
2:15
If you're in Wayne County, pretty sure you're up next or you're beginning of December.
2:20
So it seems like there's a lot of interest in this on our Facebook from our
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posts last week about this and this week.
2:27
It just seems like there's a lot of interest in health care in general.
2:30
I mean, the whole shutdown situation in the federal government was about health
2:35
care, at least from one side.
2:37
It's about, look, everything's going to be about health care.
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Because the number one suppressor of wages, keeping wages down because of how
2:46
much employers are having to pay for it, is health care.
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And so people are tired of not making enough to make the bills.
2:53
And they're not going to make any more as long as the employers are just getting
2:57
soaked by the health care industry. And they're getting soaked.
3:02
So that's why programs like Lantern, you know, hats off to the state health
3:06
plan. Now, we give whoever the treasurer is, we're going to give the treasurer
3:10
and the state health plan so much grief because we want transparency in the pricing.
3:15
We want to know which hospitals we're paying 800 percent of Medicare reimbursement
3:21
rate to instead of 200 percent, which they could make a profit at.
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So we're always going to be a little bit of a pain, but we also give credit where credit's due.
3:29
And this is creative thinking. If they can find programs like Lantern where
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members can get some of these elective surgeries right now for free from qualified
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folks and therefore drive their costs down, but also kind of push the market.
3:43
Yeah. By doing that, push the volume to people who are willing to.
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To work for a reasonable rate and not want to get mega rich on the backs of
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state employees who are barely getting by because that's just messed up and wrong.
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But you know what? The whole nation feels that way.
4:00
That's why you saw it figure in the national.
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You know, and we're right now, you know, we're maybe coming out of the shutdown.
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And it seems like to me, you know, some people are starting,
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you know, they defend Obamacare and they're opposed to Obamacare.
4:13
Maybe it's time to have another fight about it. Maybe it's time to have a real
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discussion about the pros and cons of what happened with Obamacare and how can
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we change it to make it better.
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Or obviously, the health care system is not working for America.
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What can we do to change things?
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It's not working. It wasn't working then.
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No. And so the idea and why did we get the Affordable Care Act?
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Because that's as much as politicians could extract out of other politicians
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because the pressure from the biggest lobby in America, which is healthcare
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lobbyists, was too much.
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So we got what we could get. And everybody thought, well, this will fix it.
4:55
After that, you had to see subsidies and things like this. It was never going to fix it, fix it.
5:00
They're all going to have to roll their sleeves up. You can't keep kicking this can. They've.
5:06
Well, I think outside the box, like the state health plan has done with Lantern.
5:10
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different. And I think that one side opening
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that can of worms may not like what comes out of it.
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You know, I mean, like maybe there'll be a strong enough need for like Medicare
5:21
for all or a public option. Or maybe there'll be the exact opposite of that.
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But we do need to have a discussion, I think, again.
5:29
Yeah. I mean, it needs to be happening all the time, right? Yeah.
5:32
I say ongoing talks. Yeah.
5:34
Everything will be on the table. But I do think it's a different country for folks my age.
5:40
When we were coming up, the very thought of having some kind of health care
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that the government played a role in, it was like, what? No,
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we'd have to wait forever.
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You know, it wouldn't. All the hard stories.
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And now look at North Carolina. Yeah. We don't have the best outcomes.
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We're in the worst set of outcomes in terms of states when we get health care.
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But we pay number one the most in the country. and how many people have you
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talked to since COVID who are having to wait times that we never would have
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heard of back in the day for a surgery they need or a procedure they need?
6:14
Yeah. We have another issue we kind of stepped into.
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So this week, State Treasurer Brad Briner and Scenic came out in support of
6:21
an ophthalmologist's attempt to overturn the Certificate of Need law in North Carolina.
6:27
And we can explain that a little bit. A Certificate of Need is,
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isn't it when the state approves a certain amount of beds for a hospital in a certain area.
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Is that... Yeah. Basically, it's a way government controls how many people can
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enter the private market and be competitors. Yeah. In healthcare.
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So if I want to start an ambulatory surgical center, maybe I want to do colonoscopies.
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But maybe I do. I can't do those kind of things without certificate of need.
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So again, the state controls. So that's the government controlling the market.
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That's what blows my mind about it. People say they want less government.
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The government's all in the market when it comes to health care.
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So doctors are frustrated. They
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want to be able to open these ambulatory surgical centers and compete.
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Now, DHHS says, hey, we're worried about safety.
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What's funny is there's not a problem that's measurable that I've read anything
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about in other states where you have a more open and more open to competition system.
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And most of the time it would be the same doctors that would do it at the hospital.
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Right. If there's some sort of safety problem, you're going to have people getting,
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I mean, that's malpractice.
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There's going to be a lot of ways in which that's the doctors are dealt with.
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So just to assume that if somebody's not one of the major players that holds
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the ability and authority from the state to do this right now,
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that they're not competent, makes no sense. They're licensed medical professionals.
8:03
So, Timothy, do you have any thoughts on the health care system in America?
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A pretty broad topic. But you are a member, and have you been listening to the
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Lantern discussion, and do you have any thoughts on that or what you're hearing from members?
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So, I'm not really hearing a lot because there are a lot of questions that they're
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asking, but I have tried to persuade them just to look into it more,
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and I've been trying to help them as well. Yeah. Yeah.
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And that's fair. I think people right now are like, yeah. Well, and change isn't easy.
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I mean, people are, you know, you're averse to change because it's uncomfortable.
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And this may be uncomfortable. A lot of people were worried that they wouldn't get to see their doctor.
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But the bottom line is you can still choose to go see your doctor and pay for it.
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And your doctor may very well be one of the Lantern physicians that they've
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vetted for the program or will be.
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Yeah. I think it's a healthy way to introduce some competition in the state's
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health. That's what it all comes back down to is competition.
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Why should the government restrict in any way, whether it's through the health
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plan, whether it's through certificate of need,
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why should the government restrict competition where we get fairer prices because
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the market drives that and we disincentivize monopolies?
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But that all goes back to transparency. It does. If we're transparent,
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then we can just choose which way we want to go.
9:31
Yeah, and I guess it allows the state to kind of choose winners and losers in that. 100%. Yeah.
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So, I mean, we've fought this fight a few times, right? I mean, we've come out of.
9:41
Yeah, but I do think it's a different day. Same fight, but I do think it's a different day.
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And it's because it's not just the state health plan. Americans everywhere are
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hurting very badly in terms of health care.
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They can't afford it. and it's taking too much of their income that would go to other things.
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And if you look at the rest of the world, people just aren't having to hand over as much as we are.
10:05
And you're handing it over again. You're handing it over as an employee,
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even if your employer says, we'll cover 100% of your health care.
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You're still handing over money as an employee because it's not in your wages
10:18
because your employer is having to give it to the insurance company.
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That's right. And I think I saw that a few days ago during all this,
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that up to like 30 percent of people's income or what they could be making is going to health care.
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It is. So I can tell you that from scenic, you know, we have to provide,
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not have to, we choose to provide health care for our employees because it's the right thing to do.
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But we're a small employer. And guess what? It's really expensive.
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But it's an important thing that everybody needs.
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At the same time, it sure would be nice to have something actually affordable
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and to be able to do better by our employees and wages.
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So, segwaying from the cost of health care and how the cost of health care for
11:00
state employees has gone up in their premiums,
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but their wages aren't going up, we continue to try to highlight for the public
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and especially for lawmakers why you need state employees who are qualified
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and will stick around, and you have to give raises for them to do that.
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And also why you don't want to cut state government, because here's the kind
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of things people don't think about that state employees do.
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This week, the headline is state agencies, this is Carolina Journal,
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by the way, state agencies issue warning after suspected North Carolina botulism case.
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This botulism was linked to a baby formula. It was a suspected case of infant botulism.
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Now, as a parent, can you imagine anything worse?
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And the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday
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there was a recall of this, and it had been expanded, this formula.
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And it was expanded after more than a dozen infants across the country became ill.
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And DHHS, along with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer
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Services, issued a joint alert on Tuesday.
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This is today's Wednesday. Yeah, today's Wednesday, the 12th.
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So on Tuesday, the 11th, regarding an expanded recall of BiHart Incorporated
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Whole Nutrition infant formula.
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At any rate, this is something HHS and Department of Agriculture look out for
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us to make sure people know about it, to make sure they can investigate it.
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And HHS sent a message to providers all across the state, warning of the recall.
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And, you know, people think of what they can really see. Teachers,
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because we've all had a teacher, they think of that. Okay, that's part of government, public employees.
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They think of law enforcement because we're familiar with law enforcement.
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Beyond that, they're like, I'm not really sure what all those state employees
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are doing. and maybe we don't need so many of them. But that's exactly the kind
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that headline drives it home.
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HHS and agriculture have people, y'all, that try to protect all of us,
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but especially our babies.
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Especially the little babies. Terrible diseases like that. And it doesn't click.
13:03
The public perception of state employees is always challenging.
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And I'm not sure anybody would have thought the Department of Ag had any part
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in this alert. Well, Sammy, you said something about deer.
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Yes. Recently, I believe this was on November 5th,
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there was the possibility of chronic wasting disease may be present in Edgecombe
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County with preliminary positive tests for contagious deer disease.
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And they take those carcasses to the Department of Agriculture lab.
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So like they help communities by trying to identify where do we have these,
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you know, diseases, whether it's livestock or animals that we're hunting.
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I mean, these folks are looking out for our health and safety all the time,
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but no one knows they're there. That's kind of the beauty of them.
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Yeah. We don't know they're there because we don't have huge outbreaks of stuff
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because they're doing their job. It's like a superhero.
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They are superheroes. Thank you, Department of Ag.
14:02
Another way that Scenic is helping our president, Wendell Powell,
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he was a podcast guest a few weeks ago as well.
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He is going to serve on the Heat Stress Advisory Council for the Department
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of Labor. and I think that's a good thing, especially we've talked about in
14:17
the past some of our prisons do not have air-conditioned.
14:21
A lot of our DOT workers are out in the outdoors during the summer.
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Timothy, you know anything about no air-conditioned? Does your facility have air-conditioned?
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Partially. We have one unit that is not air-conditioned and I had to visit it
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this past summer and it was sweltering.
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Yeah. We do try to compensate with fans and extra water but sometimes that's just not enough.
14:43
It can be worse inside when it's hot than outside. Well, you had to send the block buildings.
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So once the heat gets in, and then you have the bodies and everybody's breathing,
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it just creates more heat. That's rough.
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Well, thank you to Commissioner Farley for establishing that group to look into heat stress.
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I know from ages ago when I worked at Department of Labor, the phone calls we
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would get from the private sector were heartbreaking in the summer.
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Is there anything you could do to help me?
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And there was not. I mean, unless occupational safety and health could come
15:14
out there if it was above some extraordinary.
15:17
Basically, if you start cooking...
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We can do something about it other than that. Yeah. Well, I think that's a good
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segue to our interview with Mr. Morgan here.
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Our guest today is the general treasurer, as I said, for Scenic.
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His name is Timothy Morgan, as I said.
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He is a 28-year veteran of state service. He has 28 years, from what I understand.
15:38
Yes. All at DAC or DPS? Okay.
15:41
And you're from Salisbury, North Carolina, right? Yes, home of Fulon and Cheerwine.
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Cheerwine, that's right. No plugs, but.
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He's been very active in District 10 for many years, and he is a proud alum
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of N.C. A&T State University.
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Aggie Pratt. And we did talk a little bit about football before the...
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He don't want to talk about it for some reason. That's kind of rough. That's kind of rough.
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See, we had a whole discussion. I thought A&T was really good at football,
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but I guess I was... No, but I will shout out our women's basketball team. They are
16:13
Where's that? Okay. All right. Girl power. So, Timothy, just tell us a little
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bit about yourself first off, and then what made you want to run for treasurer?
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Well, when I got active and scenic, it was just come join, come join.
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And the more that I participated, the more I saw.
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Became district chair, started attending the Board of Governors,
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and I just saw how much was being done across the state and what more could
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be done across the state.
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And I'm the type of person, even with my fraternity, I like to get in,
16:45
roll my sleeves up, and just get to work.
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And I think there's a lot of work that can still be done, and I'm ready to work.
16:51
Your role as treasurer, as we talked about in our interview with the other officers
16:56
a few weeks ago, the treasurer seems to be the most hands-on, the busiest person.
17:03
Very. And have you seen that so far? I saw you brought in a stack of papers
17:08
that you had to sign here.
17:09
I did. I love numbers, and I serve as treasurer in other organizations,
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so this is right up my alley, but working with numbers and just making sure
17:18
everything is accurate is important to me.
17:20
Now you, let's talk a little bit more about your state service.
17:24
Did you start at Piedmont, or did you? I did. Okay. I started as an officer
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and served as an officer for 23 months.
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Okay. Then I went into programs and have been there ever since.
17:35
Okay. What does programs mean for our listeners?
17:38
So within the prison system, when an offender comes into the system,
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we look at their criminogenic needs to see what we can do and offer to them
17:48
to try to change their mindset and keep them from coming back and re-offending.
17:53
Well, that's the goal, right? That is. To rehabilitate. Yeah.
17:56
You don't just lock them up. You want to. No, no, no, no. Yeah.
17:59
Okay. And Piedmont, is that medium security or has?
18:03
We're actually processing. Okay. We get minimum, medium, and close custody offenders.
18:10
Wow. That's kind of tricky. Yeah. So are you like the first place they go?
18:15
No, actually, that is what we call our diagnostics department.
18:18
Oh. The program is dealing more so with regular population.
18:23
But I do have some hands-on with processors when they need my assistance. Okay.
18:29
Oh, I'm so wanting to pick your brain. Okay, after, you know,
18:33
a lot of attention was brought to our whole state's criminal justice system
18:37
after the attack on the light rail in Charlotte. it.
18:42
And we've been talking on the podcast about the intersection of mental health
18:47
and corrections or law enforcement, all of it together, and how very difficult that is.
18:53
You just mentioned that the whole goal is to try to make sure folks don't end up back in the system,
18:59
that they don't go out and hurt somebody or steal from somebody again,
19:02
and that you don't see them again, that they have a productive,
19:05
happy life away from you and not bothering anybody, right? Right.
19:09
Has it been your experience that over the years, more and more money's been
19:14
thrown at y'all so y'all can try to achieve that?
19:16
Well, that's kind of slippery. The money is being brought to us so that we can work on new programs.
19:23
But in a situation like what happened in Charlotte, in my opinion,
19:26
that's a totally different entity that deals with mental health.
19:30
And if we could have facilities like we used to have Broughton and other places
19:35
like that, where we can treat individuals with those needs, that would make
19:40
it a lot easier for them to get the help they need on that end.
19:45
For me, I don't have that background, so I'm not able to help treat somebody in that situation.
19:52
Right. You're not going to give psychiatric treatment, but you've got to have
19:56
folks who've come through there who are in the prison system,
19:59
not a mental health system. Right.
20:01
And who clearly have some mental health struggles, whether or not they need
20:04
to be institutionalized or something like that.
20:06
But they're struggling with mental health issues that might prevent them from
20:10
being able to have meaningful full-time employment and a life that might keep
20:15
them away from things that put them in prison.
20:17
And so I'm wondering, I wanted to pick your brain about that and see if there's
20:21
anything that stands out to you that we could or should be doing.
20:25
Like I said, in my opinion, that needs to be away from the actual prison system.
20:31
Maybe we can treat what needs to
20:32
be treated and then we can implement the different programs to help them.
20:36
But the underlying issue is they need the treatment.
20:39
And we've talked to members who work in DHHS facilities who they actually say
20:46
they've got patients who technically need to be in prison.
20:50
And you guys have got folks in prison that technically need to be in a bed in
20:55
one of those facilities.
20:57
Yeah, it takes investment to
20:58
do that. Yeah, it does. Right now we're not seeing it at the court level.
21:02
I mean, sometimes it's hard to get it right, you know. It is.
21:06
Because a lot of times in the courtroom, and sometimes I'll see individuals
21:11
coming back that are medicated.
21:13
And when that medication runs out or wears off, then you get a whole different person.
21:19
Yeah. So it's kind of hard to dissect initially. Yeah. Unless you have a history with that person.
21:25
Well, like John just said, too, there's got to be an investment by the state for resources. Right.
21:31
To do what you do. Yeah. Yeah.
21:33
Well, what do you think? You're getting to where you can all but retire and
21:37
say, I don't have to deal with it. That's a wonderful feeling.
21:39
But again, like I said, I like to help people that need help.
21:44
And that's part of the reason why I have not thrown the papers in and just said I'm ready to retire.
21:49
I have a young staff coming on and I want to help train them to get them to
21:53
a point that when I do retire, they'll be able to continue. Right.
21:57
Do you think, you know, I know there's no question in terms of the statistics
22:02
on state government and particularly in the prison system that we're really
22:07
struggling when we bring younger employees on to keep them. Yes.
22:11
Do you think that's starting to turn around a little bit?
22:14
If not, what can we do? It's getting better, but it's not where I would like to see it.
22:19
If you could, you know, wave a wand and make something happen,
22:22
what would you do to try to, what do you think the single most important thing
22:26
would be to make people want to work there when it's a really difficult place to work? Wages.
22:32
Unfortunately, like my uncle used to say, you get what you pay for.
22:36
And it's not a bad job by no means. But the dangers that potentially can be
22:41
faced, you need to safeguard against that. And if you pay a person,
22:46
they'll be willing to come in day in and day out, just like with any other sector.
22:50
And I think if we could, I hate to say this, but get a budget passed,
22:54
get raises, get salaries that people will be happy with, they will come to work.
22:59
Yeah, don't hate to say that. That's our message.
23:02
That's right. I mean, but, and that's just the bottom line. You get what you pay for.
23:07
Now, do you have a lot of co-workers who are also at your age and looking to
23:12
retire, or you have more younger members? Mid to young.
23:15
We have probably a third that are brand new, and then we have several,
23:20
in my situation, probably about a good 10. Okay. And then everybody else is mid-level.
23:25
Okay. And here's the importance of folks like Timothy.
23:29
They're your institutional knowledge and what you were just saying about teaching
23:33
these younger people what to do,
23:35
you know kind of growing them up so to speak
23:38
is so important and there's what maybe 10 of you 10
23:41
so you know i mean it's something and unfortunately that's what
23:44
we do is nothing you can just learn through a
23:47
book right it's all situational and it just takes on-the-job training yeah so
23:53
while the state's facing about what's it 20 to 25 percent yeah it's about a
23:58
quarter of the current workforce for state government will be eligible for retirement
24:03
in the next five years Yeah.
24:06
Timothy's raising his hand. Yeah, he smiled. But, you know, and that's wonderful
24:11
for the folks who've literally put their time in and certainly earned every
24:15
bit of that retirement benefit. It's real scary for the state.
24:19
I mean, we have a huge vacancy rate still, and it's very hard.
24:24
And I mean, he just said it.
24:26
Wages. So when a new employee comes in, can you tell right away whether that
24:31
person's going to stay or are they going to make a good employee?
24:35
Yes. Okay. So you know. It's just, you can tell by the look on their face,
24:41
walking into a prison, and just the way they attack their work every day.
24:45
Mm-hmm. So that's another thing you're losing, you know? Yeah.
24:48
What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in prison? Oh. Hmm. Hmm.
24:54
Yeah, because 28 years, you know he's got stories. You've seen some.
24:57
I mean, I've seen violent fights.
25:00
I've seen people stabbed. So you pretty much name it, I've seen it. Yeah.
25:05
Well, and I think that's important that when we talk to anybody who's worked
25:09
in a prison, we usually hear from some listeners afterwards,
25:12
they really didn't know.
25:14
It really is like TV, where you see stabbings and things like that. It's real life. Yes.
25:20
Actually, TV has cleaned up a lot. It's a lot worse.
25:25
And the things that you see, you just have to be built for it.
25:29
And sometimes you have those lasting memories. But, yeah, it's real.
25:33
Yeah, I don't think you can work 28 years in a prison or more and walk out of
25:37
there without some level of trauma. Right.
25:40
Just from doing the work. I'll tell you right now, I'm not built for it.
25:44
I used to say, I'd cover my ears and say la, la, la, la, la for my mom's ICU
25:48
stories. At least, I mean, I'm thankful that folks are able to do it because,
25:53
you know, we need folks to do it.
25:56
And we need folks in law enforcement on the street.
25:59
I think what would scare me more, I wouldn't be cut out to do either job,
26:03
but it would scare me more to be in a prison because I would feel,
26:06
from what I've heard from folks
26:08
who work in them, that there's not a second of the day I can let down.
26:12
Never. From the time you walk in to the time you get to the parking lot.
26:16
You always need to be on guard. Yeah, something's always stuck with me.
26:20
One of our members told me that a policeman deals with people who may be criminals,
26:26
but a correctional officer deals with people who are criminals.
26:29
They're definitely criminals, right?
26:31
Right. Now, what's the vacancy rate at your prison, and has that changed in recent years?
26:36
I don't know the exact number, but it's high. And no, it has not changed for the better.
26:41
Yeah, it hasn't really. Okay. Actually, in my department, we had one position
26:46
frozen just a couple months ago, so we'll probably never get that back.
26:51
How difficult is that to deal with as an employee? Extremely.
26:55
Because regardless of how many employees we have.
26:59
We still have the job to get done. So whether I have 10 people or two people,
27:03
we have the job that we have to get done.
27:05
Yeah, and the dangers are there, no matter how many people are there.
27:08
And I think the piece that blew my mind when I learned about it is that the
27:13
dangers aren't just there while you're there.
27:15
It is a sobering statistic nationally that folks who've worked in a prison die
27:22
within just a few years of retirement.
27:24
You better not ever retire. Because it is a literal statistic, though. It is, yeah.
27:30
Because of everything it puts your body and your mind through.
27:34
And I don't think the public understands that usually either,
27:37
because why would they? I worked here and didn't think about it until somebody
27:40
showed me the statistics.
27:42
And what is it? Honestly, a lot of people that I talked to had no idea what I did for a living.
27:47
And when I start telling them, and we would go through different scenarios, they had no idea.
27:52
Because, again, it's what you see on TV. And a lot of times on TV,
27:56
it's glorified. And if you do see something violent, it's nowhere near what really happens.
28:01
So, the general public does not have an idea. Well, not to be all gloom and
28:06
doom, let's talk a little bit about something happy, Scenic.
28:10
What are your thoughts on how we move Scenic forward, and what does Scenic need to do to accomplish?
28:16
Well, first and foremost, in my new role, I am ecstatic to be with our new president,
28:22
our new first and second vice presidents, and you all as staff.
28:26
And it makes the job, it makes it happy for me. Okay. And I'm just looking forward. Give us a few months.
28:34
I just want to get out and, like I said, see different people.
28:38
I've done some networking.
28:39
I'm trying to get to different district meetings just to get out and meet people
28:43
and try to help where I can.
28:45
You're so calm and so dignified.
28:48
If I met you, no, I wouldn't think that you'd ever worked at a job where you lost that.
28:53
If you met me 28 years ago, I was not the same person. Oh, really?
28:56
So you got calmer? Oh, God.
29:00
Yeah, I used to be a handful. Maybe I'll be that calm one day.
29:04
I would think you're in a boardroom somewhere if I just met you.
29:08
But I will say I've always noticed you're noticing everything at all times. I do.
29:14
And I think that's part of it. And I positioned myself so I could watch the room.
29:18
You're watching everything always very subtly, very calm, very calm,
29:22
not paranoid or anything like that. It's very calm.
29:25
So basically what I've gotten out of this, though, is outside of the important
29:30
work that you do, Scenic is your happy place. It is. Okay.
29:34
So what do you tell someone who's thinking about joining? What can they get out of Scenic?
29:38
Honestly, when I have somebody that's interested in Scenic, I invite them just
29:42
to come out and join us. Yeah.
29:44
See for yourself what we do. And when they see the work we like to do with the
29:48
community, the different avenues we try to take to make state employees' lives
29:53
better, they usually join on real quick.
29:56
Well, having been a district chair, it'd be useful, I think,
29:59
to a lot of people listening who would have no idea what do these scenic districts do in the community?
30:04
What's an example of something the district did to give back to the community
30:08
and maybe people like to get involved in?
30:10
So, some districts do highway cleanup, and my district, District 10,
30:15
we go to the homeless shelter every other month, help feed, or we pack food
30:20
items for school-aged children who do not have food at the house.
30:24
They can get that every weekend. We also go to a nursing home and help volunteer.
30:29
So, we just get out in the community and just try to just give back.
30:33
Wherever there's a need that you can plug your people in. I'm always impressed
30:37
to hear what the districts are doing. And y'all don't brag about it a lot.
30:42
We might want to brag a little more because I'm very proud of y'all and proud
30:45
to be part of Scenic because the districts are doing really good. They are.
30:49
And I think some people just see Scenic as Scenic, this big organization.
30:52
Just complaining about raises, right?
30:54
Yeah, exactly. And they don't understand all the community involvement and one-on-one,
30:59
the people that you— It's North Carolinians helping North Carolinians. Exactly.
31:03
Yeah, because a Scenic member has a family member homeless.
31:07
A city member has a family member that is in a nursing home.
31:11
Right. So we're giving back.
31:13
Like you said, North Carolina, giving to North Carolina. Well,
31:15
we're happy to have you on board and we look forward to at least two years, right?
31:19
Are you thinking of moving up after those two years? We'll see how it goes. One day at a time.
31:23
One day at a time. That's a politician right there.
31:27
Well, when the mic's not hot anymore, I want some of those stories about when you were younger. Yeah.
31:32
Outside the room to make sure. Yeah. Okay. Because the young lady on the mic.
31:37
I'm sneaky. As long as she doesn't have a camera, we're okay.
31:41
Sammy, are you a District 10 member now? Did I hear that? Or no?
31:45
I'm still District 1. Oh, okay. District 1, okay.
31:48
Western Carolina. Of course, she's District 1. I thought that Allie had switched you over.
31:54
Allie tried. We're still working on it. Okay.
31:58
So I guess we'll just go to our question of the week. And I think Sam's going to do it this week.
32:04
It's not really a question, but I've been thinking about a couple specific things
32:08
a lot recently that I was like, you know what, this would be good for the podcast.
32:12
Instead of a question of the week, what is your hot take right now?
32:16
Oh, I don't know if we can say that on the... It doesn't have to be a bad one.
32:20
Like, it doesn't have to be controversial. Mine's not controversial.
32:23
Okay. Okay, give us yours first.
32:25
Something I've been seeing a lot recently that's gotten on my last nerve is
32:30
a lot of people on their phones while driving.
32:31
Please bring back those aggressive amount of PSAs on the TV that are like,
32:37
if you text and drive, you might die.
32:40
I want more of those back on the TVs because... See, I thought there was a law against that.
32:46
But I think it's by, I don't know. Is there? I mean, you can still get pulled
32:50
over for it. You can't? Yeah, right. Okay.
32:53
But we just need an aggressive more amount of those PSAs that are like,
32:57
hey, if you do this, you also might die.
32:59
But I drive a lot. And I see people on the phone all the time.
33:03
With the phone up. Yeah. Looking at the phone.
33:07
You got a long drive, too, Timothy. I don't know if you want to.
33:11
Be on that phone. No, but especially like on the interstates and US-1.
33:16
Oh, there's just, and I probably, I mean, I know I am guilty of it as well, but you're right.
33:20
People do need to know more. I get so frustrated with it because I'll get cut
33:24
off somewhere and then I look over and I'm like, oh, yep, looking at your phone.
33:28
Okay, cool. I know what we should call this question, that what's grinding your gears?
33:33
You remember that whole thing? There used to be a segment on the radio.
33:36
Anyway, I'm probably dating my, you got anything that's. Well,
33:40
mine's kind of phone-related, too.
33:42
My hot take, so to speak, would be it is your phone, your mental health,
33:47
your lack of sleep. It is your phone.
33:50
I think the phone is really hurting everything, pretty much.
33:53
We are a different society because we're all glued to our phones.
33:57
If you watch a show or a movie from, like, six, seven years ago,
34:01
it's a totally different experience.
34:03
Like, we watched some show. It was about a high school.
34:07
It was that senior year on Netflix. Oh, with Rebel Wilson. Yeah. Yeah.
34:12
And like, no one's using the phone. This is really unrealistic.
34:16
And it was only a few years ago, you know?
34:18
It's true. It's really taken over everyone's life.
34:22
My son's 35, and he's the last of the generation that knows what it was like
34:26
to live without a phone. Yeah.
34:29
So, yeah, it's your phone. I didn't get a phone until I was in seventh grade.
34:32
I didn't get a smartphone until I was in high school.
34:34
My parents said, here's a flip phone. If you need us, you can call. Good call, parents.
34:39
Until I was in ninth grade. Do you have anything grinding your gears, Mr. Morgan?
34:45
Just check on your friends. Check on your family. I'm a big Dallas Cowboy fan.
34:50
Oh, especially check on them. Oh, dear.
34:53
But I'm just saying, just going back to mental health, just check on people.
34:56
Make sure they're okay. Especially if they're Dallas Cowboy fans. Yeah.
35:00
I'm sorry, did I interrupt? Did you have a story? No, no, no.
35:03
Okay. Just check on your phone. Yeah, I think that made a lot of people think this week.
35:09
Yeah. And obviously what we're alluding to is a Dallas Cowboy who took his own life.
35:15
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. He's going through some stuff, you know?
35:19
I'm sorry. Yeah, that was awful. And I didn't get too into sports talk,
35:23
but he scored a touchdown the day before, you know?
35:26
Like, you just never know. But there is a lesson.
35:29
Yeah. Touchdowns doesn't fill the hole inside. And I love that you said check
35:34
on people because we do have to check on each other and we have to.
35:38
Not everything's about you, basically. And we have to have some grace about
35:43
give each other grace, give ourselves grace.
35:46
I don't think anybody gives anybody, including themselves, a bit of grace anymore.
35:50
You can see it in society. We have never been so struggling.
35:55
Yeah. Yeah. That is a great one. Is that your hot take as well? It is. Because I just...
36:00
Piggybacked off. Well, because the grace thing's been on my mind.
36:04
And when he said that, I thought, yeah, you know, that's part of the same idea,
36:08
which is, man, we're really good at...
36:10
So advice. Blaming each other, but I got a second one that's a little more lighthearted
36:14
that I think the girls would like. Let me do mine first. Okay.
36:17
So mine is, can we like have a law that says you can't call old people about
36:22
Medicare Advantage plans 24-7? Right, yeah.
36:26
Like, can we just do that? Like, my dad gets nonstop calls. Seriously.
36:31
Like, I mean, we have to turn his phone off. Like, he has to turn his phone
36:35
off. And he has a business phone.
36:37
Block caller. Yeah, but he doesn't really do that.
36:40
But, yeah, like, it's so much. Well, they'll call up a million numbers today.
36:43
Yeah, it's just too much. Like, I guess it's, like, open enrollment time now
36:47
or something for Medicare plans.
36:50
So it's, like, twice as much or something like that. But, oh,
36:53
my gosh, it's really bad. So let's get a log.
36:56
Someone at the General Assembly do that log for us, please.
37:00
Okay, Sam, what's your second? Sammy. Okay.
37:02
So this one kind of came from some of the YouTubers that I watched because they had the same hot take.
37:07
And I was like, that is amazing. We have the FDA and we have food regulations
37:11
of making sure that when a packaging says it's 100 calories, it's 100 calories.
37:17
Can we have the same thing for women's clothes? A size 2 is a size 2 across
37:22
the board. A size 6 is a size 6 across the board.
37:25
Because imagine if we didn't have those calorie laws and stuff.
37:30
Then 100 calories for this company could be 200 calories, actually.
37:35
100 calories for this other company could be 50 calories.
37:39
I think the idea is if somebody can afford, you know, a $500 blouse,
37:43
they should be able to have a tag that says it's smaller. Do we?
37:47
You know what I mean? Because that's what it is. It is. It's expensive clothes
37:51
that are sized smaller. See, this is not a problem for men.
37:54
Like, I don't think this is a problem. I don't think it is. Men's sizes are
37:56
pretty much the same across the board, no matter where you go.
37:58
Yeah, like, you could get a size...
37:59
36, it'll be 36 pretty much everywhere. But in our clothes, we could go down full side.
38:06
We just had a bigger bank account. I didn't, see, I didn't know this was a thing
38:09
until I went shopping with my daughter a few weeks ago.
38:12
We went to like someone's store and their numbers were like 25, 26, 27.
38:18
Like that doesn't, that's not part of the scale.
38:21
PacSun is like wool measure in inches. And then American Eagle,
38:24
you got like 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.
38:27
I like this. And this is why I never shop with my daughter. Yeah.
38:31
Just give her the card. Yeah, just throw the money at her. Just give her the
38:33
card. I hate to shop. I feel sure she's fine with that.
38:36
My daughter would be like, sure, just the card and not you. No problem.
38:40
She's called me three times since I've been in right.
38:43
Where's the card doing? I'm stopping by through Greensboro to see her when I leave. Aw.
38:48
I can't say the same. My dad's a more picky shopper than I am.
38:51
When it comes to shoes, he'll say, you want to go shoe shopping with me?
38:54
Sit there for six hours while he shoe shops.
38:56
I feel that too. I've never seen Timothy Morgan not looking right.
39:02
True. So, please, he shops too. You shop too. That's the thing,
39:06
though, the shoes. No, no, she shops for me. Oh, okay.
39:09
It's hard to pick out men's shoes, especially for me. I'm very.
39:12
And good shoes. Yeah. Good shoes are important.
39:15
Yes. See, y'all buy, like, many shoes.
39:19
We buy, like, three to four pairs a year. They all buy the same shoe in full colors. Yeah, exactly.
39:24
Well, I think that's a great episode, and we'll just wrap up there.
39:27
But thanks for coming in, Timothy, and good luck this year.
39:30
Thank you. And we'll be rooting for you and working for you.
39:33
And let's make it a great year for Scenic.