Latest / The SEANC View / Correctional Pay Crisis & Budget Gridlock: Who’s Left Holding the Tab?

Transcript

Correctional Pay Crisis & Budget Gridlock: Who’s Left Holding the Tab? · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan Owens, alongside Artis Watkins,
• 0:04
  Suzanne Beasley, and Sammy Klein, and we're here for another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
• 0:09
  We are going to cover several topics, and then we're going to kick it to an
• 0:14
  interview that we did with the State Employees Credit Union Chief Revenue and
• 0:20
  Credit Officer, Stacy Walker.
• 0:22
  And she's going to talk to us about several exciting programs that they have
• 0:26
  and some important information that you need to know. But let's just dive right
• 0:30
  into the budget talk, which we always lead with.
• 0:34
  And the talk is there really isn't any talk, right, Suzanne?
• 0:37
  Yeah, it's been a quiet week. The legislature took a break this week.
• 0:40
  Obviously, there's still some work going on behind closed doors that,
• 0:44
  you know, most of us aren't privy to.
• 0:46
  The team has reached out to some of our friendly legislators.
• 0:49
  We heard from two big co-chairs of budget writers on the House side yesterday
• 0:54
  that they still seem to be on track for mid-June.
• 0:58
  So it looks like Governor Josh Stein took the opportunity with them out of town
• 1:02
  to have a press conference yesterday and talk about budget negotiations,
• 1:06
  particularly the raises for correctional officers.
• 1:10
  Yeah, I saw that. And apparently are doing some pilot projects for hiring.
• 1:15
  Yeah. The question will be how many of those new hires they can retain.
• 1:19
  Well, I think the real question is, do you think he listened to our podcast
• 1:22
  last week and was like, I have to have a press conference? Of course.
• 1:26
  Because this is what we talked about last week with the 15 percent raises for
• 1:30
  correctional officers and then staff at the prisons are only getting the 3 percent.
• 1:36
  So it's going to create a lot of wage compression. Huge wage compression issue.
• 1:40
  Yeah. On our Facebook, people have been very vocal about this,
• 1:44
  folks who work at prisons. So how do you see that playing out? People are angry.
• 1:50
  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, wage compression is a problem here.
• 1:54
  And while we want to see correctional officers, you know, get paid what they
• 1:58
  darn well deserve for doing such an incredibly dangerous job,
• 2:01
  there are other positions, you know, behind the walls of a prison.
• 2:05
  And they're in just as much of a, you know, position that puts them in danger as other.
• 2:11
  Well, but the ironic thing is we're hearing it from the correctional officers
• 2:15
  even who are saying, hey, don't forget the folks in various areas of the prison
• 2:20
  because I need them to be good. They've got my back.
• 2:24
  And then you've got the folks who are supervising who just kind of got left out of anything good.
• 2:30
  And we actually hear from some of them, too, who are like, well,
• 2:34
  I'm just going to go back to being a correctional officer then.
• 2:36
  Yeah. So I can get more money. So that creates the whole problem of your institutional
• 2:41
  knowledge and experience that you still need, you know, to teach the new employees
• 2:47
  coming in. Yeah, so you don't want to create a scenario, which we have now at this point.
• 2:51
  Where you disincentivize somebody from wanting to move up.
• 2:55
  So it's like, okay, well, I don't want to work hard, so I'll move up and take less.
• 3:01
  That's not good. Usually the way it goes. So DAC Secretary Leslie Dismutes at
• 3:08
  the press conference said that they have about half of the correctional officers
• 3:13
  they need to safely operate prisons.
• 3:16
  And they're responsible for almost 33,000 incarcerated individuals,
• 3:20
  which is more than they've had in many, many years.
• 3:23
  So it doesn't seem like there's any light in sight for the. No,
• 3:27
  I mean, nothing's changed really enough to speak of. Yeah.
• 3:31
  Over the last decade, I don't think.
• 3:33
  Oh. And Suzanne and I were talking about it recently, but we've talked about it many times.
• 3:38
  After the murders at Pasquotank and Bertie, every legislator,
• 3:43
  one after the other, stood up on the floor and talked about those brave law
• 3:46
  enforcement officers who worked in the prisons who were killed.
• 3:50
  And it seems like the only time they
• 3:51
  look at them as brave law enforcement officers is when they get killed.
• 3:56
  So we've got to pay folks during their lifetime so that they can support their
• 4:00
  families while doing a job more dangerous than any of us would ever have the guts to do.
• 4:05
  And it's beyond me why we can't just get that done. done.
• 4:08
  And, you know, we had a, I don't know where he is right now,
• 4:12
  but he retired, so we've kind of lost touch.
• 4:14
  But there was a correctional officer who used to join us to lobby at the General
• 4:18
  Assembly, and he was a former police officer.
• 4:21
  And when he left the police department, he went to work for the state prison system.
• 4:25
  But he used to tell us that as a police officer, 80 percent of his time was
• 4:30
  spent, not in a dangerous environment, 20 percent of his time was spent with
• 4:33
  the bad guys, but in the prison system, it's just the opposite.
• 4:37
  So it looks like this pilot program that they've launched at three prisons allows
• 4:41
  recruits to begin working while they complete certifications.
• 4:45
  I mean, that sounds good. It looks like they've hired 95 officers through the program.
• 4:50
  That sounds good. It may be a little dangerous, too.
• 4:54
  Yeah, I mean, because you've got bodies in the prison, you know,
• 4:57
  filling positions. But these are people who haven't even been through BASIC. Yeah.
• 5:01
  So how safe are we just having bodies in the prisons? But I assume they got
• 5:07
  to do something, right, at this point. I mean, something's got to give somewhere.
• 5:12
  But like I said a few minutes ago, too, how many of those are going to stay?
• 5:16
  Yeah. That was something that Wendell brought up a few episodes ago when he joined us. Yeah.
• 5:21
  He just flat out said they're not going to stay. And Wendell's our president,
• 5:24
  y'all. I'm sorry. Wendell Powell, the president, he works at Harnett.
• 5:28
  Yeah. So he flat out said that you can sometimes get them in the door,
• 5:32
  but you can't really keep it. They walk right back out.
• 5:34
  Yeah. And what does that do? It costs money. Yeah.
• 5:37
  So the irony is we're right back to spending more money for nothing than if
• 5:41
  we just spent money to support North Carolinians trying to support their families
• 5:46
  who are doing work we wouldn't be willing to do ourselves. Exactly.
• 5:50
  So I have a couple more things on the budget. Artis, you were a part of an extensive
• 5:55
  story in the greatest school newspaper in the world, The Daily Tarter.
• 5:59
  Yeah, I was going to say that would have to be the DTH. Yeah, the DTH.
• 6:03
  So where I did work once upon a time. So it was like the highlight of my career.
• 6:10
  But it was a very extensive interview. When I was there, we didn't have this
• 6:14
  much space to write about.
• 6:16
  She did a heck of a well-investigated interview.
• 6:21
  So it was just about the—you know, our part was about the raises.
• 6:25
  And you said if people keep leaving, the ones you've got aren't experienced,
• 6:30
  so the taxpayers are left to pay the price at the end of the day. Right.
• 6:35
  Look, we talk about folks who go and inspect bridges. We had to rebuild a lot
• 6:40
  of bridges after Helene.
• 6:41
  And folks who go and inspect those bridges, do you want them to be experienced
• 6:44
  or do you want them to be the cheapest, you know, cheapest thing we can find
• 6:48
  going who might not be good and who might not be experienced? That's where we are.
• 6:52
  Yeah, I saw a TikTok the other day. It wasn't about North Carolina,
• 6:56
  but it was talking about the best well-paying jobs that you can have that people
• 7:02
  just don't really know about. And elevator inspectors was on there.
• 7:07
  And I was like, I never thought of that until we started talking about how we needed them.
• 7:11
  But they're in such demand now that the pay is going up for them.
• 7:16
  And that's been, I mean, you know, that's one of those that was one of the first
• 7:19
  ones in state government that was a pocket of trouble because we couldn't keep them in the 90s.
• 7:24
  They could go make twice their salary in the private sector.
• 7:27
  So that's what I kind of down the rabbit hole.
• 7:30
  That's what I found that, you know, people, the state can't pay enough to hire
• 7:36
  like the other places can. So that's why there isn't such demand.
• 7:40
  So one of the reasons. Another budget related topic that I saw was that the
• 7:46
  budget stalemate is keeping the zoo from opening the Asia expansion,
• 7:50
  which is going to be awesome when it opens, apparently.
• 7:53
  I grew up near the zoo, so I'm a big fan of the zoo.
• 7:57
  They're going to have all kinds of cool things in there, but they're still waiting
• 8:01
  on their money from the budget from the state.
• 8:03
  And the zoo is a, I mean, that's a cog in the engine, the wheel of the North Carolina economy.
• 8:10
  Yeah, that's huge for tourism. And the Asia expansion is a major investment for the zoo's future.
• 8:16
  More than $75 million has already been spent. I saw something about the zoo
• 8:22
  is very popular this year. Lots of people are going to it.
• 8:27
  So, yeah, well, I mean, you can make it a day trip for a good part of the state. Yeah.
• 8:32
  We're just talking about plane tickets. People really can't afford plane tickets
• 8:35
  right now. So they really will try to visit more North Carolina tourist destinations.
• 8:40
  The question is, are we ready?
• 8:44
  So according to officials, the zoo needs roughly 70 additional employees to
• 8:49
  fully staff the expansion.
• 8:50
  And so that's the holdup. So another thing about the budget hold up,
• 8:55
  saw that Jet Zero can't start their hiring, which is coming employer that receiving
• 9:01
  incentives. So they are waiting on that.
• 9:03
  And I thought that would open a little can of worms about us talking about.
• 9:06
  Well, you know, I don't love incentive because we've watched these incentives for decades now.
• 9:11
  And Suzanne and I can tell you, all we've heard is all the grumbling over the
• 9:15
  years over all this money we hand to businesses trying to incentivize them to come here.
• 9:19
  And then they pick up and leave. And sometimes they pick up and leave and then
• 9:23
  don't pay penalties they were supposed to pay. Big penalties.
• 9:26
  So we have a real beef with incentives generally.
• 9:29
  However, I will say, I'm sure they play their role in the overall plan for bringing
• 9:34
  commerce to North Carolina. But that's just another example.
• 9:38
  If that's being held up, it's the
• 9:40
  same kind of example Secretary of State Marshall gave us on this podcast.
• 9:44
  Business, this isn't just state employees are having to do more.
• 9:49
  They don't like that. You know, they're not being paid right,
• 9:52
  so they leave and it costs us money and turnover.
• 9:55
  It also costs business money and that costs us tax dollars.
• 9:59
  So once again, we stay in this cycle of kind of, it doesn't seem like a very
• 10:05
  bright cycle to be in, where everything that disincentivizes business,
• 10:09
  which is what we're doing by choking out government right now.
• 10:13
  It's a cycle that we'll just stay in. So this is in Greensboro,
• 10:17
  and they're expected to build, to create 1,438 jobs, and they're going to have
• 10:22
  to push their timeline back a year already, so...
• 10:25
  That's interesting. Interesting. The other topics I have, I wanted to talk a
• 10:30
  little bit about what's going on with Atrium and WakeMed.
• 10:33
  They are holding their listening sessions. And I think that you said the last one is tonight, right?
• 10:38
  Oh, we're recording. Yeah, we're recording on Thursday, the 28th.
• 10:42
  The last one seems to be tonight.
• 10:45
  Okay, I just want to say something before Suzanne jumps in about Atrium and
• 10:48
  WakeMed. But it is still bizarre to me that the Wake County commissioners are
• 10:54
  the ones that have to vote to make this happen.
• 10:57
  The Wake County commissioners said, we hope Atrium and WakeMed hold some listening
• 11:03
  sessions for the public.
• 11:05
  And I want to repeat, we told Scenic on behalf of our members in the state health
• 11:12
  plan who would have to pay probably $7 more a month in premium.
• 11:16
  And that's everybody in the state health plan. Every single person,
• 11:18
  no matter where you live, your premium would go up at least $7 just because
• 11:22
  of this consolidation is our understanding at this time.
• 11:25
  But on behalf of those folks, we really could give two cents what Atrium or
• 11:30
  WakeMed think of our concerns about that. We want Wake County commissioners.
• 11:35
  So no matter where you live in this state, you should call Wake County commissioners
• 11:39
  and let them know your concerns about this and let them know that you are aware
• 11:43
  they, in fact, have to vote for this.
• 11:46
  They can control whether this happens. Yeah, they're the decision maker.
• 11:48
  Yeah, they're going to try to tell you they're not. I don't even understand
• 11:51
  that when government's like, oh, man, I don't know.
• 11:53
  Then why was it on your consent agenda in the first place? Of course you have control. Right. So—,
• 11:58
  That's where we are with that. Yeah. And there was so little transparency up
• 12:02
  to that meeting that, you know, when it got out at the last minute.
• 12:06
  Yeah, but every politician jumped on that, right? Yeah, yeah.
• 12:09
  Oh, I'm so upset. There was no transparency. Yeah. But where is anybody now, really?
• 12:13
  I mean, the treasurer keeps speaking out, to his credit, because he's got the
• 12:16
  health plan, and he's trying desperately to take care of it. Yeah.
• 12:19
  And so we appreciate Treasurer Briner. He's been a leader on this.
• 12:23
  But, like, literally at first, everybody's speaking out. This is wrong.
• 12:26
  Yeah. Nobody's doing anything. You got to do this yourselves,
• 12:29
  folks. You got to call Wake County Board of Commissioners. And we've got contact
• 12:32
  information for that on our website.
• 12:34
  Yeah, I thought it was funny. The first story I saw about the listening sessions,
• 12:39
  the CEO basically said that, like, Scenic and the treasurer and everyone else
• 12:45
  just didn't understand the whole issue.
• 12:47
  They spoke without knowing the facts. No, we understood.
• 12:50
  Well, we know the overall fact, which is that consolidation leads to higher
• 12:55
  prices. Okay, you're trying to have your hospital merge with the hospital that
• 13:00
  pays their CEO $26 million a year.
• 13:05
  Yeah, we know what we need to know. Yeah. And that's all we could know at that
• 13:09
  point because they had tried to slide this through on a consent agenda at the
• 13:12
  county commissioners, which would have meant no debate and no discussion and no information.
• 13:17
  So if you're listening— And apparently no other bids at that point.
• 13:20
  It's Donald something. I can't remember his name. Wait, man.
• 13:22
  Donald whoever. If you happen to, if somebody plays this for you,
• 13:26
  we'd love to hear what you have to say. We'll do a listening session for you. Absolutely.
• 13:29
  Come on our podcast. Happy to set that up. That's actually a great idea.
• 13:32
  Come on our podcast. You're very welcome here.
• 13:35
  Yeah. But this was just about Atrium. And then UNC got into the mix.
• 13:39
  Yeah. So this week there was. Tell us about that part then. That's interesting.
• 13:43
  So UNC got into the mix and I think it was five billion.
• 13:46
  Yeah. That was their bid for the merger. Now it's still a merger,
• 13:50
  but UNC is more than doubling.
• 13:53
  The $2 billion that Atrium has put in, and they turned it down. Right. So why?
• 14:00
  Yeah. Well, I mean, I think there's probably a clause in that Atrium contract
• 14:04
  that benefits someone in particular.
• 14:06
  Well, that's certainly, I mean, I've seen where that's been asked publicly.
• 14:09
  Do individuals benefit out of any of this?
• 14:12
  Because that's a fair question. If we're talking about everybody's costs going up, we need to know.
• 14:18
  The public has a right to know. And again, And that would be anybody that would
• 14:22
  like to come on the podcast, the atrium fella, Gene, somebody.
• 14:25
  I'd love to have the conversation, Gene. He's welcome to. Yeah, that was interesting.
• 14:30
  They offered them $3 billion more.
• 14:33
  And they said no. No, we're not doing that. Because somebody's not getting a cut of that $3 billion.
• 14:38
  I'm just going to be frank. Don't you have, like, a responsibility for your
• 14:42
  shareholders to take the higher bid?
• 14:45
  They don't have shareholders. That's the thing. So the reason the county commissioners
• 14:49
  has to approve any of this is because it started, the way Wake Med started was
• 14:55
  as a community hospital.
• 14:56
  Over the years, it's morphed because, make no mistake, these things find a way
• 15:00
  to become part of a corporate machine no matter who starts it.
• 15:03
  But the problem for them is there is still that Wake County connection.
• 15:09
  And so the way the board is constructed at the current time has Wake County folks in the mix.
• 15:17
  The way it would be moving forward, Atrium would have control of the board. Yeah.
• 15:23
  It says here, reading from the assembly, they always do great work.
• 15:28
  But Wake County would continue to appoint a majority of the seats on the new hospital board.
• 15:33
  But Atrium would gain effective veto power over those appointments. Right.
• 15:39
  So, okay. Yeah. All right. Atrium is like a country in the United Nations.
• 15:45
  Yeah. I say no, so it's no. This goes nowhere. Like, it's crazy.
• 15:52
  But again, just to drive the point home, this will increase costs for everyone,
• 15:56
  Not just state employees, but it's going to have an effect on health care for everyone.
• 16:02
  But specifically for members of the state health plan, your premiums will go up.
• 16:06
  And I'm with you, Suzanne. I mean, it's only fair to say if there's the rumors
• 16:10
  there are out there to the volume they are out there, that anybody could,
• 16:15
  and I have no idea, we would have no way of knowing if any rumor is true. Yeah.
• 16:21
  But the rumors are that it could be that people could be enriched personally from this.
• 16:27
  And that would be crazy to me if it were true. Like, absolutely.
• 16:31
  There's surely no way anybody would ever go that far because that would seem
• 16:35
  illegal. Well, yeah, and if not— Or improper.
• 16:39
  Yeah, dangerous and wild, but I don't know.
• 16:43
  I mean, again, when rumors get to that kind of volume, it's like,
• 16:47
  I don't even know what to think anymore. But how would we know what to think?
• 16:50
  The problem is we have to figure out what to think because our members' costs
• 16:55
  are going to go up if this goes through.
• 16:56
  Speaking of the state health plan, WRAL had a story yesterday,
• 17:01
  Wednesday, about, it was State Treasurer Brad Bronner said he doesn't expect
• 17:05
  lawmakers to include funding for GLP-1 drugs in the upcoming budget.
• 17:11
  Kind of a strange story to me because this had kind of been settled three years ago.
• 17:17
  But, yeah, I guess the funding of it is. Yeah, because Treasurer Bronner was
• 17:20
  trying to bring those, you know.
• 17:22
  Yeah, there has been conversation about. Yeah. back into the fold and.
• 17:27
  Pretty much gone on record as saying he thinks that will help with health care
• 17:30
  costs overall, which makes sense.
• 17:32
  But it also makes sense there's not money for that unless something radical
• 17:37
  has. It's certainly facing the kind of things we're facing, hospital consolidation
• 17:42
  and things that we just talked about.
• 17:44
  I don't know where they would get the money for it except higher premiums and
• 17:47
  out-of-pocket expenses for our members. Yeah.
• 17:50
  And I don't know if the drugs are getting cheaper yet or not.
• 17:54
  I know that they came out with a pill version of one of the drugs.
• 17:58
  But there's also a new one that's supposed to be twice as effective,
• 18:03
  and it'll probably cost twice as much.
• 18:05
  So I think they're always going to be expensive.
• 18:08
  I think the White House even weighed into that fray at one point and said they
• 18:13
  were going to make sure we got them something more in line with what they're
• 18:17
  paying in Europe for them. I just don't know whatever happened with that.
• 18:20
  So we'll continue to watch that one as we have for the last few years.
• 18:24
  It is very popular with our members, though.
• 18:27
  A lot of people want to see those drugs return.
• 18:30
  The only other thing I had news-wise was I sent you a video a few days ago,
• 18:35
  because I knew it would fire you up, of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink saying that
• 18:40
  data centers should be paid for by public pension funds.
• 18:45
  So what do you think about that? Yeah, that these AI data centers,
• 18:49
  which, you know, are already controversial in the first place,
• 18:52
  subprime mortgages, remember those from the crash 2008, 2009?
• 18:58
  I mean, that's the last time that private equity and folks who've met harm.
• 19:05
  Literally siphoned trillions out of public pension plans, was investing in these
• 19:11
  subprime mortgages that the bottom fell out of,
• 19:14
  and the economy tanked, and there were, you know, golden parachutes holding
• 19:19
  virtually nobody accountable at the highest levels of the finance industry,
• 19:23
  but people's 401ks were demolished.
• 19:26
  Pension plans were, in many cases, demolished. We were very lucky in North Carolina
• 19:30
  didn't get demolished. Can you explain for the Gen Zs who were maybe only eight
• 19:36
  or nine years old what's the private mortgages?
• 19:41
  So see, the thing is, I grew up in a family that kind of sheltered me from that stuff.
• 19:44
  I didn't see much of the effects of how that was when I was eight or nine.
• 19:49
  So 2008, seven, eight, nine area. Yeah.
• 19:53
  Right when I was fresh out of college and looking for jobs.
• 19:57
  Well, I was a little beyond that, I guess, but I was always looking for jobs.
• 20:01
  But, yeah, so basically the market tanked because of subprime mortgages that failed.
• 20:09
  There's a really good movie about this called The Big Short.
• 20:13
  It is excellent. I love that movie.
• 20:16
  Explain a little more. I'm not as. Well, I mean, so basically some banks knew
• 20:22
  full well what they were doing.
• 20:24
  Gave loans to people. Let's say John wanted a loan for me, and I could see everything
• 20:28
  on paper that told me as a lender, this is a no-go. I should not give him this mortgage.
• 20:34
  And they just did it all over the place. And the economy ended up taking this
• 20:40
  massive hit because all these people defaulted.
• 20:44
  And the government had to step in, pay a ton of money.
• 20:50
  To bail out things like Lehman Brothers, which Louisville Brothers failed.
• 20:53
  Yes, we bailed out, you know, what was, quote, too big to fail in terms of financial
• 20:58
  institutions, bailed them out. And then the public waited.
• 21:01
  Like, we're waiting for a parade of CEOs from these banks that allowed this
• 21:06
  stuff to happen, and there was lots of documentation showing this wasn't random
• 21:10
  actions by certain employees. This was encouraged.
• 21:14
  And nothing, not only did nothing happen, those folks many times stayed in place,
• 21:19
  and their banks got bailed out and some of them got big payments from their
• 21:24
  banks for doing such a good job getting that money from the government.
• 21:27
  So we all stayed up in arms about this, us older folks, for years afterwards.
• 21:33
  And so, you know, that's what we see as a fear here. So these places,
• 21:37
  like these financial places, would take a bunch of these subprime,
• 21:41
  which means like terrible mortgages, and group them together and then create
• 21:47
  like a thing for people to invest in.
• 21:49
  And when that fell, it just tanked the whole, the whole, you have to watch the big shorts.
• 21:54
  See, I obviously knew that the market had crashed and everything in 2008.
• 21:58
  And I was aware of those things and obviously heard about it growing up after
• 22:03
  that had happened. Yeah.
• 22:04
  But as an eight, nine year old, I never understood it. I was just like,
• 22:09
  oh, the economy's bad. It's hard to get a job.
• 22:13
  Yeah, that's what I understood as it. Yeah, just like it was randomly just bad.
• 22:18
  People knew this was coming. So let me read you the cast list, just to...
• 22:23
  Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Strong, Selena Gomez is in it.
• 22:29
  How have I not seen this movie before? Oh, you gotta watch it at night. You have to.
• 22:33
  It's excellent in laying it out. And it explains it like, yeah,
• 22:36
  like... And the guy that predicted it, by the way?
• 22:39
  Yeah. There was a guy that predicted all of this. Yeah.
• 22:41
  So he's buying all kinds of interesting things right now that make some folks
• 22:46
  in the industry say we should all pay attention to what he's doing because he
• 22:50
  must see something right now.
• 22:51
  Yeah. So he's seen as kind of the oracle right now. Right. Yeah.
• 22:55
  So speaking of movies, what about this movie that you're coming in?
• 23:00
  Yeah. So they did the premiere of that thing. And I wish I could tell you more.
• 23:05
  I have been involved in all of our scenic stuff and I'm really not.
• 23:08
  Did you go to the premiere? No, it was in California. It was Sacramento.
• 23:12
  And they should have invited you.
• 23:13
  There is a group of public employees in California who are suing CalPERS.
• 23:21
  And they held the premiere at a historic theater in Sacramento right down the
• 23:26
  street from CalPERS, which is California's pension system, retirement system,
• 23:31
  which is the biggest one in the country by far. It's huge.
• 23:33
  And, yeah, it was literally a stone's throw from the CalPERS offices that they
• 23:37
  premiered it. So the name of the movie is Pension Fight Club.
• 23:41
  Go to PensionFightClub.com and it has a button here that you can watch it.
• 23:45
  So maybe you can watch it right here on your.
• 23:46
  Yeah, you can watch it. I haven't watched the whole thing yet,
• 23:50
  but the stuff I did see was really, really compelling.
• 23:54
  You think it'll be at the Canes Film Festival next year? Get a nice invite to their after party?
• 24:00
  Their after party is so cool. Everyone wears PJs.
• 24:02
  The people who run that party literally turn away A-list celebrities who say,
• 24:08
  I'm not going to wear PJs.
• 24:09
  They're like, okay, well, that's the theme of the party. So if you're not going
• 24:11
  to wear PJs, don't show up.
• 24:13
  It'll be turned away. So it may also play at the Scenic Film Festival at our convention.
• 24:18
  The Scenic Film Festival. We're going to work on that. Well,
• 24:20
  we do, you know, most of the states that were in the movie in some way are having
• 24:26
  premieres of it and inviting lawmakers and stuff like that.
• 24:30
  And we will we will do that and invite our lawmakers at some point.
• 24:33
  We just I told them it's kind of a really it's hitting at kind of a very busy
• 24:36
  time for us in terms of our legislative session.
• 24:39
  But we will we'll do something with it because, again, Doug Orchard,
• 24:43
  the director of this thing, he did really, really good work.
• 24:46
  And maybe we can talk to him sometime. Yeah.
• 24:49
  Because he's really fighting for people who have a stake in a public pension.
• 24:54
  He really is. Seen it, members. You have homework. Go to PensionFightClub.com
• 24:58
  and you can watch this movie.
• 24:59
  Artist is listed among the cast members. She got an IMDb.
• 25:03
  She has an IMDb. Yes. Y'all are really into this whole IMDb.
• 25:06
  That is like the pinnacle of it. That is the way you know if you've made it.
• 25:09
  Oh, okay. We'll see. As an actor.
• 25:11
  I want y'all to be impressed by my puffin that I have on this t-shirt.
• 25:17
  So my friend, they were filming a TV show in Wilmington and he went down there
• 25:22
  to be an extra and he went just because he hoped he would get an IMDB.
• 25:27
  Did he? And they made him one of the servers. It was like a dinner scene.
• 25:33
  And he got an IMDb. Oh, good.
• 25:36
  I'm glad you got it. That's my goal in life. That's how I'll know I made it.
• 25:40
  Okay, so now we're going to move to the interview portion. We had a good conversation
• 25:45
  with Stacey Walker from the Credit Union.
• 25:47
  Brenda Williams, our CFO, is also on this interview. And I hope you learned something.
• 25:57
  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Scenic View podcast.
• 26:01
  Today, we're joined by two special guests. One is, everyone knows,
• 26:06
  our chief financial officer, Brenda Williams Brown, is here to join us for this important topic.
• 26:12
  We also have a recurring guest.
• 26:15
  Stacey Walker from the State Employees Credit Union has come back to join us
• 26:18
  this week to talk about a few things going on at the credit union and also some
• 26:23
  important information that state employees need to know about upcoming things.
• 26:28
  For more than 88 years, the State Employees Credit Union has served North Carolina's
• 26:32
  state and public school employees and their families.
• 26:35
  It is the largest credit union in our state and the second largest in the nation.
• 26:40
  They serve over 2.9 million members in all 100 counties.
• 26:45
  That's a mouthful. Yeah, that is a mouthful. So what's that?
• 26:49
  That's about a third of the whole state is a credit union member.
• 26:52
  I'm a proud credit union member, and they've really changed my life from being
• 26:58
  able to work with me on various loans and things.
• 27:01
  And I really appreciate it. So Stacey Walker is the chief credit and revenue
• 27:06
  officer for SECU. And let's just jump right in, I guess.
• 27:11
  Well, first, thanks for being a member of State Employees Credit Union.
• 27:14
  I'm a member as well. Thank you. Mortgage loan. Yeah. You probably approve both of our mortgages.
• 27:20
  Good person to know, right? Yeah. So Credit Union just does amazing things for our members.
• 27:26
  Lots of our members say great things about the Credit Union.
• 27:29
  So just tell me a little bit about what's going on there first off and how things are going.
• 27:34
  Yeah, absolutely. Will do. And you kind of hit on it right off the bat. but you know,
• 27:38
  State Employees Credit Union is a member-owned cooperative, and our number one
• 27:43
  thing has always been and continues to be committed to exceptional service,
• 27:48
  value, and support of our almost three million members.
• 27:51
  And that's been going on since 1937. And we are so honored and proud to serve
• 27:58
  the people in our communities all across North Carolina.
• 28:01
  You mentioned our number of members, we are getting ready to knock on the door
• 28:07
  of welcoming our three millionth member.
• 28:10
  So all of our branches across the state have been having some celebrations.
• 28:14
  So pop into your local branch, see what's happening around there.
• 28:18
  We're very excited about that.
• 28:20
  So does that person get like a gift bag or anything if they're the 300th?
• 28:24
  Are you able to check? We are celebrating all three million members is what
• 28:29
  we want to do. Yeah. So go get your bag.
• 28:34
  If you walk in and like music goes off and balloons go everywhere,
• 28:37
  you are the three millionth member.
• 28:39
  So Scenic has a longstanding partnership with the credit union.
• 28:44
  It was interesting to hear some of the history a few years ago when we had a
• 28:49
  presentation at our convention.
• 28:51
  It's almost as if Scenic members were there at the beginning,
• 28:55
  you know, kind of started, almost started the credit union, kind of came up
• 28:58
  with the idea of having branches across the state.
• 29:01
  And I thought that was really interesting. And what are some of the products
• 29:05
  and services that you're offering now to have an impact on state employees?
• 29:09
  One of the products that I highlighted last time is that our board is really
• 29:13
  committed to recognizing our field of membership, who we were started for,
• 29:17
  and that is State Employees of North Carolina.
• 29:19
  So we offer half of a percent discount on our auto loans.
• 29:25
  And our closed-in fixed-rate loans, so just personal loans.
• 29:28
  So if you are a state employee or a retired state employee of North Carolina
• 29:32
  and you are looking for a new car, you are looking for a personal loan,
• 29:37
  when you go on our website, make sure you take a half a percent off because
• 29:41
  that's going to be your interest rate.
• 29:43
  So that is one of the things that we offer and very proud to offer that.
• 29:47
  And I will just put a plug in real quick. and speaking of
• 29:50
  auto loans at the end of April we were very excited
• 29:53
  to launch a car buying service we used to
• 29:56
  have that many years ago but had sunset
• 29:59
  that and looking for a new partner for that so we
• 30:01
  kicked it off at the end of April and it allows members to go online if you
• 30:06
  know exactly what you're shopping for you can put all that in or if you just
• 30:11
  know I want a Honda Accord but I'm not really sure what model the website does
• 30:15
  all of that for you our partner and so they come back and they do all the price negotiations with you.
• 30:21
  On average, it's roughly about a $2,700 savings on that.
• 30:27
  So we're very excited to kick that off. And also, if you're not looking for
• 30:30
  a new car, but you're ready to sell a car, they'll also buy your car from you too.
• 30:34
  So yeah, so very excited about that. What a cool product.
• 30:38
  Buying a car is probably one of the most stressful. I totally agree.
• 30:42
  I love new cars, but goodness, the process can be amazing. So if somebody is
• 30:46
  going to pick up and do all the negotiations for you.
• 30:49
  To me, that's a win-win. And then you bring back, if you need a loan,
• 30:51
  to State Employees Credit Union, taking advantage of that half of a percent
• 30:55
  discount on the auto loan rate.
• 30:57
  Can't go wrong, in my opinion. Great. I have a confession. I've actually used
• 31:01
  that in the past with the past product.
• 31:03
  Was it AutoPower or something like that? So AutoPower is the pre-approved check.
• 31:08
  Okay. So you have been pre-approved for your car loan. You don't really know
• 31:11
  what you're shopping for.
• 31:12
  So we go ahead and approve you for up to a certain amount, and we let you leave
• 31:17
  with a blank check, or we FedEx you a blank check.
• 31:20
  And then when you're at the dealer ready to finish out your loan,
• 31:23
  you just are ready to finish out your purchase. You just sign that check,
• 31:27
  and you drive away, and we'll send you the rest of your documentation through
• 31:31
  eSign, so you don't have to return to a branch.
• 31:34
  It makes the process a lot easier. I bought a truck with that,
• 31:37
  and I will say, though, that the dealership wasn't excited to see that check come out. I'm sure not.
• 31:43
  Right. It is a huge negotiating tool, because you're right. They want to do
• 31:48
  their own product, and it's probably not the best rake for you.
• 31:50
  But I stuck to my guns, and we got a good rake. Good for you. Yeah. Awesome.
• 31:54
  Yeah. So this interview came about because you guys are doing something a little
• 31:58
  different with payroll deduction and you wanted to kind of spread the word a
• 32:02
  little bit. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on? Absolutely.
• 32:05
  So first, let me describe exactly what payroll deduction is.
• 32:10
  So for a long time, State Employees Credit Union partnered with state employers.
• 32:16
  Different groups, public county school systems, and we would either take a section
• 32:22
  of your paycheck and pay it to a loan or deposit it into a deposit account for you.
• 32:27
  So when you got your old school paycheck stubs, I mean, I know they're still
• 32:32
  produced, but you don't get them paper anymore.
• 32:34
  They're all electronic. But when you look at it and you see FICA and Medicare
• 32:38
  and Social Security and state tax, then you would see SECU and that lump sum
• 32:43
  came out of your paycheck.
• 32:44
  So you really never saw it. It never hit your account.
• 32:47
  It went to the accounts that you designated it to. Right.
• 32:51
  So, you know, here we are in 2026, and there are so many more features and availability
• 32:58
  for members to be able to move money.
• 33:00
  And we want to bring those state-of-the-art transactions to our field of membership.
• 33:06
  So we are migrating off of that by the end of July.
• 33:13
  And so, but we are bringing a lot more options to our members on that.
• 33:17
  And so, as you can imagine, we've gotten so many calls and emails because our
• 33:21
  members, they hear payroll deduction and they're thinking.
• 33:25
  Well, my scenic dues or my deduction for my insurance products can't come out
• 33:30
  of my check anymore. And this is absolutely not that.
• 33:33
  But can you just, again, explain their very specific products.
• 33:36
  This has nothing to do with their scenic deductions. No, it has nothing to do
• 33:41
  with anything that is currently being deducted out of your checking account
• 33:45
  or your savings account, money market account, none of that.
• 33:49
  It is strictly your check, but these were only state employee account specific.
• 33:54
  So you talked about you had a truck. You could have had, if you're a state employee,
• 33:58
  your payment instead of $300, you doing a transfer, going into a branch or making
• 34:05
  that payment online every month.
• 34:06
  We could have just literally taken it out of your paycheck and you would have seen a $300 deduction.
• 34:11
  That is what we are discontinuing. And I will say, too, that just for reference,
• 34:17
  again, talking about almost 3
• 34:18
  million members, we only have roughly about 25,000 members that use this.
• 34:23
  So this is also a very underutilized program now.
• 34:27
  I think it was much bigger probably in the 80s.
• 34:31
  But again, as technology has changed and members have more ways to pay for them,
• 34:37
  with savings or making loan payments, you can definitely see that a lot of our
• 34:41
  members have also migrated away from payroll deduction.
• 34:44
  Yeah, I think even now with my mortgage, I have automatic drafts set up,
• 34:49
  but it's a different, it's called a different thing.
• 34:51
  It's probably funds transfer or bill pay, either one. So those are two of the
• 34:56
  options that are not going away.
• 34:58
  Yeah. So you can set it up where we can automatically draft your designated account.
• 35:04
  It could be your share account. It could be your money market account.
• 35:07
  It could be a checking account. It doesn't always have to be that,
• 35:10
  but we can draft it from one SECU account to pay for your loan,
• 35:15
  mortgage, credit card, car loan, or you can set it up on BillPay.
• 35:21
  And then you can also go online, whether it's on our mobile app or you go sign
• 35:26
  in to our member access on our webpage, and you can transfer money and make
• 35:30
  those loan payments directly yourself.
• 35:32
  So we have lots of options. And as we look to enhance our product offering,
• 35:37
  we will have some additional move money options coming.
• 35:40
  So do employees need to take any action on this today?
• 35:44
  No, they actually don't. So
• 35:46
  what we have done is we have tried to do a lot of communication on this.
• 35:49
  One, we have sent letters to every member that currently utilizes payroll deduction
• 35:54
  to let them know of the change.
• 35:56
  Two, we've also been very proactive in sending information to all of the payroll
• 36:00
  departments that leverage payroll deduction today. So whether that's a state
• 36:05
  agency or a local county school system, so that they are aware and can also
• 36:09
  trickle down that information.
• 36:11
  The letter outlines the different ways members can opt to pay their loan.
• 36:15
  If they want to set it up on funds transfer, they can call our member support center.
• 36:21
  They can set that up. They can go into their local branch or they can do a request online to do that.
• 36:26
  Or they have the other options bill pay, paying it directly themselves every month.
• 36:31
  So you said that there are so many other new tolls now. Are you finding that
• 36:35
  a lot of the people with this particular thing are like older loans or anything?
• 36:40
  Or is there any common reason?
• 36:42
  No, I think it's just folks that have probably set up maybe their first loan
• 36:47
  with us like 20, 30 years ago and that has been a continuing thing for them.
• 36:53
  And it still also allows you, I know that I'm very loan focusing.
• 36:57
  That lending is one of the two main areas I oversee, but it's also for deposit accounts.
• 37:02
  Like for some members, they had reoccurring $25 every month going to a child's
• 37:07
  account or a grandchild's account or something. You can set that up as well.
• 37:11
  You can do what we call a member-to-member.
• 37:13
  That is coming with our new enhanced digital platform. So we're getting ready
• 37:19
  to upgrade our mobile app and our storefront, so our webpage.
• 37:24
  And that will be an option. So if I want to send Brenda some money,
• 37:27
  I'm like, Brenda, what's your email?
• 37:28
  Give me the last four digits of whatever account number you want to,
• 37:32
  and I can pay her one time or I can set it up reoccurring every month.
• 37:35
  So you still have that option to do it. That's a big deal for families.
• 37:38
  I have a teenage, two teenage, well, actually, he's 20 now, so he's not a teenage.
• 37:43
  But you always have to send them some sort of Apple Pay or something.
• 37:47
  So speaking of, I think I warned you that I had some wildcard questions,
• 37:51
  and the app is actually my wildcard questions.
• 37:54
  When I log into the SCCU portal now, it just says, you know,
• 37:59
  coming soon, your new app, right?
• 38:01
  Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about, give us a little? Yeah,
• 38:04
  absolutely. So one of the things I will say is the biggest tip for getting prepared for that is,
• 38:09
  is making sure that you know your user ID and password today.
• 38:15
  So many people use the biometrics on their mobile app. I do too.
• 38:18
  Yes, or they use the five-digit PIN number on the mobile app.
• 38:22
  It'll be really critical that you know both the user ID and password because
• 38:26
  as this gets upgraded in a couple of weeks, you will be prompted to re-sign in using those.
• 38:33
  So if you don't, then you're going to have to call State Employees Credit Union
• 38:37
  for us to unlock us and reset you.
• 38:39
  And again, you think about almost 3 million members.
• 38:43
  You don't want to be one of those people that are calling. You want to be able
• 38:46
  to just get in and keep going. So that will be one of the biggest things.
• 38:50
  There's a lot of enhancements to it. You can set out your own financial budgets.
• 38:55
  You can set financial savings goals on that.
• 38:59
  Again, the member to member today, if I wanted to send Brenda money,
• 39:03
  I'd have to go the ATM and go get cash.
• 39:05
  Or I'd have to be like, do you have one of those other platforms we don't like
• 39:09
  to talk about as much, like Venmo?
• 39:11
  I mean, I consider it that way, but now it can go straight from SECU to SECU
• 39:15
  instantly rather than like the other platforms where it goes to that platform.
• 39:19
  And then you got to wait a couple of days for the money to come into your account
• 39:23
  or pay a service fee to get it the same day.
• 39:26
  So that's just some of the heightened features. You'll be able to rename your accounts.
• 39:31
  You can move your accounts around. You can lock, unlock your debit credit cards.
• 39:36
  Like if your 20-year-old son's like, dad, I'm not sure where my card is.
• 39:39
  You can lock it immediately. He can.
• 39:43
  I love that. So we are very excited about what is coming with that.
• 39:48
  That's awesome. Yeah. So many people operate via their phones now.
• 39:51
  Yeah. Oh, yeah. These features will be so much more convenient.
• 39:53
  Yes. I left my cell phone at home one day and I said, I'll be right back. I got to go home.
• 39:59
  And I feel like Linus without his blanket, without your cell phone,
• 40:02
  I was like, I'd rather have my wallet stolen than I had to lose my cell phone.
• 40:07
  I can lock all my cards on my cell phone.
• 40:10
  So you mentioned to make sure you have your password and logins.
• 40:13
  So for those many members who may not, they'll have to call to get it before this happens.
• 40:19
  If they do not know it, like if you're so used to using the biometrics,
• 40:23
  their five-digit PIN, you can't quite remember, I would be proactive and go
• 40:26
  ahead and get that information out and reset your password so that once we change over,
• 40:33
  you aren't one of the probably several members that might be calling in. Right.
• 40:38
  I actually was talking to my mom this morning and I said, make sure you know
• 40:42
  that she loves, oh, I don't. And I was like, please, please figure it out.
• 40:45
  I can assure you my wife has no idea what that is.
• 40:49
  Technology makes it so easy. Yeah, but you can use, like you said,
• 40:53
  the reset password there.
• 40:55
  And so last time you were here, we talked a lot about financial literacy.
• 41:00
  Will there be any kind of tools to help with that on the app?
• 41:03
  Yeah, so I think one of the biggest things is, you know, depending on where
• 41:07
  you are in life, you can set like a savings goal.
• 41:11
  Like if you're trying to save for a down payment on a car or a home or you're
• 41:15
  just trying to save X amount of money every month, you can do that.
• 41:18
  You can see a budget, so you can see where your spending is as well.
• 41:23
  So those will be some tools that we currently don't have today right there in the mobile app.
• 41:28
  So I had an idea. Okay. I'm big on ideas these days for some reason.
• 41:32
  So it would be awesome if the app could tell us, like, what are subscriptions
• 41:37
  that we're paying for each month and things like that. So that's actually really good.
• 41:42
  So there will be two things, too, especially if you utilize BillPay.
• 41:46
  You can give two different grant accesses on
• 41:50
  the bill pay feature that will do two
• 41:52
  things one it will look at your accounts to
• 41:56
  see kind of like a history of it looks like you're paying Netflix
• 41:59
  every month yeah it'll be like do you want to set this up and it will also do
• 42:04
  a soft credit report inquiry so when I say soft credit report that means it's
• 42:08
  not a full credit report it does not hit your credit report as an inquiry and
• 42:13
  it will look to be like okay it looks like you have some other accounts,
• 42:16
  do you want to put these in bill pay too?
• 42:18
  So you will be able to see all of that, which we have been, a lot of the employees
• 42:23
  have been part of the pilot, you know, going through this, making sure all of
• 42:27
  the little nuances, kinks are worked out before going live.
• 42:31
  And it is a great.
• 42:34
  Feature like it is amazing like it literally
• 42:37
  pulls in almost all of my account numbers came
• 42:40
  in from other people i pay which are very few but nonetheless it it's a great
• 42:46
  future that we're adding that's awesome so yeah that's really the bane of my
• 42:49
  existence right now is all these subscriptions that i have are like tvs and
• 42:54
  yeah i just like where does my money go we don't remember until it renews on you. Yes, I know.
• 43:00
  And you're like, it's only $10 a year, $15 a year. But it adds up.
• 43:04
  It does. Yeah. So you mentioned some of the savings products. Is there any incentive?
• 43:08
  Like, do you pay a percentage on, if people are trying to save,
• 43:13
  do you offer any saving incentives?
• 43:16
  Additional incentives on top of our deposit interest rates, not at this time, we don't.
• 43:21
  But I will say that our deposit rates remain very high and very competitive
• 43:25
  when we compare ourselves across the industry and across other FIs in North Carolina.
• 43:30
  So 275 branches throughout the state, that's got to be the most of any...
• 43:37
  Bank, right. I do not know that for a fact, but I would say very close,
• 43:41
  and I'll let you in on a little secret.
• 43:42
  In 2027, we'll be at 276 branches. Oh.
• 43:47
  We are opening a branch in Graham, North Carolina. Oh, wow. Yeah.
• 43:51
  So, if you're in that area, be on the lookout. We do. That's awesome. Yeah.
• 43:56
  So, yeah, I think we have two in Sanford now. We're moving up.
• 43:59
  Look at Sanford, big time. Yeah.
• 44:02
  I did want to comment on something else back to the payroll deduction,
• 44:05
  too, because you said that there had
• 44:06
  been, you know, just a little misunderstanding, not fully sure about it.
• 44:11
  But the other thing that we have seen is some questions is we offer a summer
• 44:15
  cash account, which are typically utilized for teachers.
• 44:19
  They're the largest segment of employers that are paid 10 months because you're
• 44:24
  not in school unless you're in your round in the summer months.
• 44:27
  So what we have done to also try to help kind of help bridge that gap is they
• 44:33
  could set up a summer cash account and they determine how much money they want out of each paycheck.
• 44:38
  And it goes into this special account that we pay a little bit of a different
• 44:42
  savings rate on. And so then whether they are not getting paid in June and July
• 44:47
  or July and August, then half of that money comes to them in that first month.
• 44:52
  And then the second half of that money comes to them in the second month.
• 44:55
  So it's really like they've been paid for 12 full months and it's just their own money savings.
• 45:01
  That is not changing. We will continue to offer that on our loan products.
• 45:05
  We do also offer skip payments to help bridge that as well.
• 45:10
  If folks don't want to take advantage of the summer cash account and only want
• 45:13
  to pay for those 10 months on their consumer loans, 10-month payment options still remain.
• 45:18
  So that is not changing. It really is that instead of us taking the funds directly
• 45:24
  out of the paycheck, we're just going to have to draft it out of account or
• 45:28
  you can pay it yourself online or going into your local branch.
• 45:31
  That's really the only change.
• 45:33
  So do most teachers know about that? I mean, that's a great tool for teachers
• 45:38
  to bridge that summer month where they're not getting it.
• 45:41
  My hope is, yes, most teachers know about it. My sister works in public school system.
• 45:46
  She's a school counselor in Avery County. And she said this is like the biggest
• 45:51
  changer for a lot of her colleagues and herself.
• 45:54
  She was like, you know, and you're like, well, wait, I don't have a paycheck
• 45:57
  coming. And she was like, and now I do have a paycheck coming in.
• 46:00
  And we work really hard to get out to the local school systems and provide financial
• 46:05
  education at all levels, but also providing stuff to the teachers, the staff.
• 46:09
  We do send information to the county offices as well. So our hope is,
• 46:15
  but, you know, if someone's listening to this and wants to learn more,
• 46:18
  please reach out to your local branch.
• 46:20
  We're happy to come in and talk to a whole group of teachers about any of this. We love to come chat.
• 46:25
  Okay, so one big partnership that we've had with SECU throughout the years is
• 46:30
  our theme park discount program.
• 46:33
  And we just launched our, I think, eighth park this year.
• 46:37
  We have eight parks for sale, and I just posted the Facebook post about all
• 46:42
  of them. and it got like 400 shares.
• 46:45
  So it was a very popular...
• 46:47
  Now, people can still, we get a question all the time because people are used
• 46:51
  to going to their branches and buying them.
• 46:52
  And we always get the question, is this the same deal that's at the credit union?
• 46:57
  And we're like, yes, this is the deal with the credit union.
• 47:02
  But now you are linking through your portal to our site. So it's still a partnership. Absolutely.
• 47:08
  Very glad to be able to offer that partnership as well. What is it, through the member?
• 47:13
  Through member access. So you go online, sign in, go to member access,
• 47:16
  and then it'll be theme park tickets.
• 47:19
  And then you click on that and it
• 47:20
  takes them to your website where you can purchase any of the eight parks.
• 47:24
  Everyone knows the credit union. They don't all know Scenic,
• 47:27
  but they recognize the theme park tickets.
• 47:29
  So we're glad to have that partnership and glad to continue it as well.
• 47:33
  Is there anything else you want to talk about?
• 47:35
  I think being prepared for the D3 upgrade is the most important.
• 47:39
  What's that? Know your user ID and password. Oh, okay.
• 47:44
  Okay. Well, thanks so much for joining us. And, you know, we do cherish the
• 47:48
  partnership we have with SECU and we hope to continue it for years to come. Same.
• 47:53
  Thank you. Always great to see you. You too.
• 48:01
  And we're back. I hope you guys got a lot from that interview and take advantage
• 48:05
  of all the products that they have and be excited about the app that's coming up.
• 48:10
  And as Stacey said, please try to figure out your password if you don't know
• 48:16
  it, because that's going to be very important.
• 48:18
  What is the Gen Z moment of the week?
• 48:24
  So, Gen Z moment of the week is how Gen Z's feelings towards influencers are shifting.
• 48:32
  Now, it seems like this has happened a lot in like the recent year, year and a half.
• 48:38
  But I still feel like I started noticing it personally in about 2023.
• 48:43
  But more and more comments have been made about it recently.
• 48:46
  And consumers are not being as forgiving as they used to be.
• 48:51
  What is that? What do you mean? Like, I don't understand.
• 48:54
  Social media influencers. Social media influencers. people were almost looking
• 48:58
  up to them like they were these some big things that were unattainable.
• 49:03
  They had all this power and influence it. And they would tell you like,
• 49:07
  here's what you should wear, right?
• 49:08
  Here's what you should wear, what you should buy, what you should support,
• 49:12
  what you shouldn't support, different things like that.
• 49:16
  And recently there's been more and more influencers that have made comments
• 49:20
  that just make Gen Zs, especially older Gen Zs, realize how out of touch they are. Thank you.
• 49:27
  So, for example, one that I noticed, I think this was in 2023,
• 49:31
  there was an influencer who was talking about how difficult it is to be an influencer
• 49:37
  and said something along the lines of try being an influencer for a day.
• 49:42
  I woke up at eight o'clock this morning and wasn't done until 6 p.m. Oh, my goodness.
• 49:48
  And we're like, OK, well, that's a that's a normal day job. That's what I do on a regular basis.
• 49:53
  And people started canceling that influencer over that. That influencer has
• 49:57
  been in hot water many, many a times since then. So it seems like they're baiting.
• 50:03
  Yeah, there you go. That's the term. I was trying to say gilded something.
• 50:07
  Yeah, there's something like
• 50:08
  that, too. But so you think you're more cynical about these people now?
• 50:12
  It seems like that's a natural progression. I think that might be the progression
• 50:15
  that things are going towards.
• 50:17
  Another recent media example, like two, three weeks ago, James Charles.
• 50:22
  Have you heard that name before?
• 50:24
  He has lost more than 4 million followers on TikTok in the past two to three weeks.
• 50:29
  Because about two or three weeks ago, he made a post bashing and insulting a
• 50:34
  former Spirit Airlines employee who had DM'd him.
• 50:38
  And it's assumed that she had DM'd a bunch of celebrities because Spirit had
• 50:42
  shut down so quickly that she created a GoFundMe because it doesn't take you
• 50:47
  two days to get a new job when your company just goes under suddenly.
• 50:52
  And so she had created a GoFundMe and DM'd him and a bunch of other celebrities.
• 50:57
  And he made a video bashing and insulting this woman.
• 51:02
  He called her lazy. He called her entitled, said that instead of asking for
• 51:08
  help, she could be using this to apply for jobs.
• 51:12
  And in the 48 hours after posting that, he posted two apology videos,
• 51:17
  both essentially doubling down on what he had said and not apologizing at all.
• 51:23
  And then two, three days ago, he posted another apology video in which he stated
• 51:32
  himself. But I bet you she ended up raising a lot more money because of the
• 51:35
  whole thing. So he never said her name.
• 51:37
  Extra drama. Oh, he didn't. He never said her name. But people found out. Oh, yeah.
• 51:41
  Yell at Sleuthy. And another influencer, this girl's goal was only like $1,000.
• 51:48
  She was just trying to make it through like a month. Another influencer had donated $5,000.
• 51:53
  And then people had found out that James Charles had donated $500 under an alias
• 51:59
  and then donated $5,000 as himself to basically say, I'm not a terrible person.
• 52:06
  I didn't completely bash him. He's trying to make up for it.
• 52:10
  But about two to three days ago, he posted another apology where he stated himself
• 52:14
  that people are going to think that I'm only making this video because of the
• 52:18
  backlash that I've received. And you're right.
• 52:22
  So he's continuing to essentially not apologize, but just say,
• 52:26
  I'm only saying these things because people are mad. Okay, so how much did she write?
• 52:30
  I'm just curious. Yeah, what was the total? I'm not sure we have the total.
• 52:33
  We just know that she has raised a lot more than her goal was.
• 52:38
  Interesting. Yeah. But I think the question is— Larry Fink has competition from her.
• 52:44
  I think the question is now, is this shift going to continue,
• 52:48
  and are influencers that out of touch? And how will it affect the online community
• 52:53
  and how influencers grow and what the generation looks for in the content they consume?
• 52:58
  So that was my question, because I know a lot of people aspire to be influencers.
• 53:05
  And is this I mean, is this going to maybe make that less lucrative and less of a possible career?
• 53:13
  You know, I don't know if it'll make it less of a possible career.
• 53:16
  I think it will change what the generation looks for in influencers and less
• 53:22
  looking for tips and how you should live your life and more just genuine authenticity
• 53:28
  and how people live their lives on a day-to-day basis.
• 53:32
  Yeah. Because personally, I make TikToks. I have a couple series that I do on
• 53:37
  my TikToks that get a couple thousand views every single time I post it.
• 53:42
  One in particular, I get about 300,000 views-ish. that I do every now and then. What is that?
• 53:50
  I do a little series. 300,000 or 3,000? I got 300,000 views recently on it. Wow, okay.
• 53:54
  I've been showing my gymnastics coach musicals that he's never heard of.
• 53:59
  Nice. And most of the comments have just been things of,
• 54:03
  Them saying that they can tell I'm having fun. He's having fun hearing them
• 54:07
  and just genuinely enjoying it because they love music. Something positive. Yeah.
• 54:14
  Speaking of viral posts, our theme park tickets post this week,
• 54:19
  we posted it. Went nuts, didn't it?
• 54:20
  And it's up to like 500,000 views. Because that's positive as well.
• 54:24
  People like the idea of a theme park. But we're going to do a video with Brenda
• 54:28
  Johnson, who is our director of operations, and she is in charge of the theme parks program.
• 54:33
  And she's going to answer some of the questions that came up through that whole post.
• 54:37
  But I was surprised because we usually get, you know, 100,000 views on that
• 54:42
  because people like to share it.
• 54:43
  And then everybody just kind of shares.
• 54:46
  I'm telling you, and I really do think a lot of it is definitely the economy.
• 54:50
  The economy is so bad that people aren't buying those plane tickets.
• 54:54
  They're not necessarily doing a whole week at the beach, but they're looking
• 54:59
  for something to do with their family. So I'm not surprised theme parks would
• 55:02
  be taken off same as people's interest in the zoos.
• 55:04
  So a lot of the questions we've gotten is, you know, these are similar to the
• 55:08
  prices on their websites.
• 55:10
  The thing about the difference is, one of the big differences,
• 55:14
  on the website, they'll charge you fees, convenience charges, whenever they.
• 55:18
  So it may say a price, but it'll probably be $10 to $20 more.
• 55:22
  Yeah, and they change it depending on the volume. That's right. The time of year.
• 55:27
  And also, their prices will go up as the season progresses, and ours are the same throughout.
• 55:32
  And some of our discounts are really good discounts, like in general,
• 55:36
  not just because of that.
• 55:37
  But we can still save you $10 to $20. bucks a ticket, it seems like.
• 55:41
  Which adds up. That's your food.
• 55:43
  You don't go to a theme park alone. You know, you take about six or eight people.
• 55:48
  So that adds up. That's 80 bucks. And you don't have to be a Scenic member to...
• 55:52
  This is just available to everybody. It's just something we do.
• 55:54
  It's on scenic.org. It's the main thing. You can just go there and check out
• 55:58
  our tickets. We have eight parks so far.
• 56:01
  So it's time for the question of the week.
• 56:03
  John's Wacky Weird Question of the Week.
• 56:12
  Lot of tiktoks as you hear and one of my favorites is
• 56:15
  the subway takes guy yeah who loves he
• 56:18
  gets on there and sits down a it's a celebrity sometimes
• 56:21
  it's a regular person sometimes and just ask them what their
• 56:24
  take is and they're awesome like so many different topics and things so my question
• 56:29
  this week is what is your take anything that you have an opinion on that may
• 56:34
  be kind of outside of the norm or wacky anything you got anything you want to
• 56:38
  talk about and mine is kind of wacky because I bought a toilet last week.
• 56:44
  And my take is toilets should be way more expensive than they are.
• 56:49
  Like you can get a good toilet for $200.
• 56:52
  Don't you think that toilets should be like $5,000? You don't buy toilets that often, right?
• 56:58
  Don't advertise for that. No, but you don't buy toilets. You don't buy toilets that often.
• 57:03
  How are they making money on these toilets? First of all, did you get the high
• 57:06
  up ones? Yeah, we got a good one. Yeah.
• 57:08
  17 inch one. Because nobody wants to sit on the ground anymore.
• 57:10
  That was the first thing we did when we bought our house.
• 57:13
  It's a good move. I was shocked at how cheap they were.
• 57:16
  Did you make sure the flush powers were really good?
• 57:20
  Yeah. It was an American standard. Our plumber pointed us towards the...
• 57:24
  Got a good squatty potty with it. Bidet.
• 57:27
  I can't believe that we have taken some turns on this thing,
• 57:30
  but this might be the ultimate. But you don't buy poets that often.
• 57:33
  Like, why are they so cheap is my question.
• 57:36
  So maybe that's a bad take. I have the same take about shampoo.
• 57:41
  Why is shampoo so cheap? You use it all the time. Okay, John.
• 57:45
  Not sure what you're using. What kind of shampoo are you using?
• 57:47
  But I think that's because men's shampoo is like $4 or $5.
• 57:50
  Oh, yeah. There's also a lot of men who use like three in one.
• 57:55
  I don't trust a man who uses three in one. Yeah. My daughter actually did make
• 58:00
  me start buying shampoo and conditioner separate. She was like,
• 58:04
  you can't buy the two in one.
• 58:06
  You have to buy them separate. I never understood the two in one.
• 58:10
  What does it do? I don't know. Okay. That's my tangent take.
• 58:14
  Anyone else got a take? Okay, I was telling Suzanne this earlier.
• 58:18
  I am in love with the battery. You know, I'd always been a gas-powered lawn equipment gal, okay?
• 58:26
  And I still have some gas-powered lawn equipment because it's going to cost
• 58:30
  a lot to convert everything over.
• 58:32
  But, man, these batteries last a long time on these things, y'all.
• 58:37
  And I bought one of those Ego weed eaters. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
• 58:41
  Y'all, that thing can cut through anything. I'm in the market.
• 58:45
  The battery's a little heavy yet because, you know, they haven't got the technology
• 58:47
  down to where it's going to be. They'll get it to where it's nice and light.
• 58:51
  So you do, after a while, you feel that you've been using it.
• 58:53
  But I got to tell you, I love that thing so much.
• 58:55
  Yeah. And it, I mean, it re-spools for you as you go. You don't have to tap.
• 59:00
  No tap and go, which was pretty advanced technology when it came out.
• 59:03
  Yeah. I mean, this is life-changing stuff. Do you have the lawnmower too?
• 59:08
  No, I wish. Oh, okay. Not yet. That'll be the last thing. I did buy a sprayer.
• 59:12
  I do, you know, a lot of different spraying of things.
• 59:15
  And I'm trying to put Sprout down so that I'm not harming animals or people or anything.
• 59:20
  But the weed eater is the bomb. The sprayer, I got a little,
• 59:25
  I don't have the Ego, but I've got a less expensive brand of that.
• 59:29
  And it's amazing, too, just how quickly you can get done what used to take so
• 59:34
  long out there pumping and pumping and pumping and then spraying for just a
• 59:37
  minute, you know, and then pumping another two minutes.
• 59:40
  I've been looking at the electric mowers and the, have you seen the robot mowers? Oh, yeah.
• 59:46
  But they're so expensive right now. But one day I will have them.
• 59:49
  One day. But just to have the ego mower. Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
• 59:53
  So what about you, Suzanne? I don't know that I have like anything wacky at the moment.
• 59:58
  Okay. I mean, Crocs are overrated. There you go.
• 1:00:03
  Breakfast food is better at night. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.
• 1:00:06
  Crocs. What about Crocs if you're on the toilet? I don't know.
• 1:00:11
  I think still overrated. Right? I think still overrated. I am.
• 1:00:15
  Still overrated. I mean, they're plastic shoes.
• 1:00:18
  Yeah. They're plastic shoes. I don't know. They made a comeback,
• 1:00:21
  too. Yeah. Apparently, right now, the Croc sandals are the bomb, apparently. Yeah.
• 1:00:26
  Who knew? Anyway. Anyway, pancakes are better at supper time.
• 1:00:30
  That is true. Yeah. It just seems like more fancy, right? It does.
• 1:00:36
  Mine should be that I don't like breakfast. No, I'm kidding.
• 1:00:40
  I'm a bit of a book loyalist so i guess
• 1:00:43
  my hot take would be that if a book is made into a
• 1:00:46
  series and it's like a series of books i
• 1:00:49
  gotta read every single book before i even watch the first
• 1:00:52
  season of a series so like the summer i turned pretty when that came out i didn't
• 1:00:58
  start watching it until season two had come out i forced myself in a matter
• 1:01:03
  of three days to read all three of the books before I could even watch the first
• 1:01:08
  episode of the first season,
• 1:01:10
  because they always change things,
• 1:01:13
  and they'll sometimes put things that are supposed to be in book two in season one.
• 1:01:18
  Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not getting stuff ruined for me. I think that's fair.
• 1:01:21
  And frankly, that's a good hot take in and of itself.
• 1:01:24
  If everybody would read just a little, I think, other than like reading stuff
• 1:01:29
  like I do scrolling my phone all the time, but if I pick up an actual book,
• 1:01:33
  I honestly feel like everything just seems a little better after that. Oh, yeah.
• 1:01:37
  I woke up. I've been the past two days. I've been waking up at 6 a.m.
• 1:01:42
  And just spending the first hour and a half of my morning before I log on for
• 1:01:46
  work, reading on my balcony with a cup of coffee. I like it.
• 1:01:49
  That's a perfect way to wake up. That's a good way to end.
• 1:01:52
  But everyone have a great week and we'll see you next week.