Charlotte targets Musk; Helene funding passes; DMV audit (06-24-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to vpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, rite to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. End of the last hour. Talked about the Charlotte City Council voting to essentially ban Tesla from getting any kind of contracts for electric vehicle purchases. It was a six to three vote last night to remove Tesla from a list of approved vendors. And this isn't even like they weren't even up for an award a contract. They were just on a list and that list was compiled by city staff and had a bunch of different vendors that are on the list. So depending on what is needed for a particular purchase, they would look at any company, any vendor on the list. But Lawana Mayfield, Democrat, who got into a bit of hot water talking about nine to eleven several years ago when she was a county commission but then after sitting on the sidelines for a couple of years, made her triumphant return truth or return you might say, as a city council member. And so she wants Tesla off the list, and she claims that there are safety reasons and lawsuits, poor quality or something about Tesla. It's not political, well, not predominantly political, she said. So in other words, there is some bit of politics, because of course there isn't. Councilman ed Driggs, he pointed this out. This is a very bad path to go down. You're going to start taking vendors off of list because of the political activities or opinions of their CEO. That's an American manufacturer that you are now precluding, prohibiting from awarding contracts Andy sent me a message saying, if Charlotte removes Tesla from the vendor list because of politics, it is admitting that it was likely accepted for political reasons as well. Right, Tesla was put on the list years ago, but now Mayfield says, oh, well, we have other vendors, lots of different car companies to choose from, so that's why we should take it off the list. Well, why would you take it off the list if you've got all of these other car companies, if they're also manufacturing evs, just award the contracts to them, right, But no, it's a boycott. That's the primary purpose. That's what they did last night. And I hope Elon Musk hears about it. Ron, Welcome to the program, Hey, Ron, Hey, how you are good? What's going on? Yeah? I just wanted to comment on that action that the city council took last night. Oh, it just of courts. One thing that I've held for a long time is that you know, a government city, city and county government, and Charlotte Meckenburg is predominantly run by the Democratic Party. Correct, well yeah, and at the county level it is completely controlled by Democrats. Yeah yeah, And that that that that that creates the inherent danger because of all of these cities, that these great cities that have popped up in this country, most of those who have failed failed because they had a one sided government that you know, was a political let's put it that way. Well, and they yeah, go ahead, Yeah, But you know the thing is is that that six y three vote last night, he was saying that someone would have someone else would have looked at him side Egg Driggs and other two people that voted with him, to see, wait a minute, this is not right. But you know, I think it's a fear within the Party of Democratic Party. If they they don't total line, they will lose money. I'll put it that way. Well, they lose support. Right, this is the issue. So I will name that so Edwin Peacock who was newly appointed to fill the rest of the term of Tark Bakari, So he's the other Republican. The two Republicans out of the eleven members, they both voted against this, and they were joined by Democrat at Large member dimple Ashmira and so that they were on the right side of this issue. Now regarding the political side of it, and yeah, you've got you got six Democrats that are sitting at that table, and if you've got Lawana Mayfield making this motion, they have to understand that their base hates Elon Musk and if they side with the two Republicans on this issue, they then risk their base getting mad at them and them getting primaried by somebody further to the left than they are. And that's I think what is the motivating because nobody else spoke about this. Not a single other council member offered an explanation for why they would cut Tesla out of this list of vendors that could be awarded contracts. Nobody else said a word. So Mayfield's argument was the only argument made in favor of it. And this is, like you said, this is the problem with single party control. I'm reminded there was a book called the five thousand Year Leap and it talked about the American eagle needs the left and the right wings to fly straight, and when you have one party in complete control, you don't get that kind of course correction, and so you just keep veering off to one side. And yeah, it's unfortunate that now Charlotte finds itself in this position after having been built by Republicans with the help of yes, Democrats over the course of you know, one hundred years. But now you know Republicans like, okay, well we got to be a big city. Thanks for your help. Now get the hell out. We don't care what you say. So that's where we are. Ron. I do appreciate the call, sir, Okay, all right, take care. Let me get Earl on. Hello, Earl, Hey, how are you doing, buddy? All right, man, how are you? I just wanted to. Say, like, if there was any chance of getting a Tesla plant or something in Charlotte and bringing jobs here, that's pretty much shot now, right. I don't think that this council would vote to a any kind of a deal with Tesla. Yes, no, I I And again, I hope Elon Musk finds out about this action and and draws attention to it, because yeah, I don't know. I mean, yeah, he's pretty online from what I understand, he's uh, he's on social media quite a bit, so he may very well find out about this, and I hope he does, and I hope he has some thoughts to express about it, because it is a to me, it's clearly political retribution, that's all it is. Oh, definitely. Yeah. I mean, I'm. All right, Earl. I appreciate the call, all right, I left him speechless. I have some emails. This is from Alan. Isn't this the same mindset that ended up with Charlotte having two or three city buses that are sitting dead in the water because the manufacturer went bankrupt. They can't. Yeah, they can't get the buses fixed. Right, isn't it wasn't that the story? Terry says, I hope that Musk sues the city for a bunch. Well, I mean, well I don't want that. I don't want to have to pay out elon Musk. He's got money, but I would like him to draw attention to it. Mark says they could face legal action over this. Regardless, this should be an open bidding to get the business. If Tesla Vehicles meet the specs laid out yet or denied the opportunity to bid, they might find that that is not quite legal. However, having said that buying evs with tax dollars is idiocy. Unless they are golf carts for the meter maids, they don't make sense. Yeah, I agree. You got two different issues that play there, and Mark broke it down very well. Right. You got the one issue of like, should we be buying evs as a policy, But yeah, if you are opening up bids, then any company needs to be allowed to bid. And what they just did is say we're not going to consider this one company for some nebulous safety concerns which I could not locate when I did a search for this stuff. I could not find this, Like, Oh my gosh, Tesla's are killing people all over the place. Kevin says, I hate ignorant people. I don't drive one, but Tesla's are one of the safest, if not the safest, vehicle on US roads. Has stated from multiple sources, what other decisions has she made in the past that were politically motivated that were not in the best interest of taxpayers? Seth says Pete. At some point, you have to realize Charlotte is lost. It'll never get better. There's been too much Democrat infiltration. Please quit trying to reach out to people that may be borderline moderate Democrats. Those folks will soon realize my opening statement that Charlotte is lost, and they will move to areas like where I live and bring their terrible political stances with them. And James says, does Rwanda know that Tesla charging connector is now known as. Oh? I guess, Lawana Mayfield? I thought, okay, so I thought you were talking about like the mineral mining and stuff Rwanda the country? Lawana Mayfield? Does she know that the charging connector is now known as the NACS North American Charging Standard All evs across all brands have adopted the standard. This did not happen because there are safety issues with the Tesla product. I'm guessing she has a closet full of Beta Max movies and can't understand why everybody went with VHS. That's that's possible. I don't know. Also, we've got senate approval of another Hurricane Helene relief package and an audit of the North Carolina DMV underway. We've got some preliminary results on that. All right, If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. The North Carolina Senate gave unanimous approval to a seven hundred million dollar recovery package for western North Carolina. This according to a press release from the Senate Leader's office, Senate President pro Tempore Senate Leader Phil Berger. This now brings the total amount of state funding dedicated to Hellene relief and recovery efforts to over two point one billion dollars. Of that fund, the House Bill ten twelve now goes back to the House for consideration. It includes so seven hundred million total of that funding, four hundred and eighty million will be appropriated for immediate needs. And here's the list of immediate needs. Five million to visit NC for tourism promotion because people aren't going to the mountains because they think it's completely devastated. I can assure you there are a lot of areas that are up and running, and the tourism industry that powers that region needs your tourism dollars. You don't have to go to downtown. Ashville, aka the Cesspool of sin You don't have to go there. There are lots of other towns and communities all around. You can access them. You can go to the you know, the state parks and such. They need your help. So fifteen million dollars to the North Carolina Forest Service for wildfire assets and preparedness because there's a lot of fuel right in the woods, in the forests that came down with the storm and now it's dried out right, it's just like waiting to combust. Ten million dollars to repair, modify, or remove dams that were damaged by Hurricane Leen. Ten million for dams, twenty million to Parks and Wreck Trust Fund for state and local park in the affected area. Eight million to the Department of Public Instruction for the repair of public school buildings, two and a half million for community colleges that experienced enrollment declines, seventy five million to repair and replace private roads and bridges. Out of the seventy five million, twenty five will be used to reimburse up to half of the cost for projects that are already done, seventy million to continue covering the FEMA state match, twenty five million for unmet local government needs, as well as fifteen million for local government capital grant programs for capital projects in the affected area, twenty million to provide flood mitigation grants and engineering assistant grants. Fifteen million to the Office of the State Fire Marshal to provide grants to volunteer fire departments and rescue squads which are all over the place in the mountains, Lots and lots of volley fire departments. And an additional one hundred million dollars to the cash Flow Loans for SORRY four Local Governments program administered by the State Treasurer. Okay, so helping out local governments. This is going to be like you're small towns that you know, if you've got devastation in this small town and you don't have people paying property taxes anymore, but you need to keep your police right, your city hall open, you need to keep your fire department running, your water and sewer stuff. So that's what the one hundred million dollars cash flow loans go for, is to help the small towns. Also, the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor has released preliminary information from its ongoing audit of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles aka the NCDMV. This is just preliminary, right, This is not a total list of all the problems. This is just the first round. Okay. The big takeaway in this preliminary information is that the current workforce levels are insufficient to meet the needs of North Carolinians. I am as shocked as you are to learn this information. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter, nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest. Their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi grills, outdoor tables and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Here's a message from Jane, who says, Pete, thank you so much for bringing this to the public's attention. Regarding the Tesla story, I emailed Councilman Ed Driggs and asked him to provide the names of one or two other companies on the approved list. So I can do my own research. I will keep you posted. Yeah. Well that was Driggs's point was that there was no argument made, no data or research, nothing on any of the other companies. What's their safety records? Are they fighting lawsuits or whatever. It was just I want to take Tesla off the list of approved vendors, and six members voted for it, So don't tell me it wasn't political. Over at the State Auditor's Office, they've been doing an audit, as they are known to do, of the North Carolina DMV, and the office put out a preliminary report, some preliminary information because DMV staffing adjustments are being considered as part of the legislative budget negotiations, and so the state auditor is like, this may be helpful to you guys to get this information now while you're negotiating a state budget, because workforce levels are insufficient to meet the needs of North Carolinians. Here are the preliminary results on DMV staffing that indicate Number one, additional driver license examiners are necessary to meet public demand and reduce weight times at the offices across the state, so they need more examiners. Number two, flexibility in current personnel rules is necessary to allow the DMV to hire and retain staff more effectively, and then more effective strategies are necessary to fill vacancies. The Auditor's Office reports quote the DMV's current reliance on temporary positions creates challenges. Temporary positions are harder to fill, they offer fewer benefits, and they result in additional training costs. Due to high turnover. Of the DMVs one hundred and forty two temporary examiner positions, ninety seven of them are vacant, which is two thirds. Two thirds of these positions are vacant because they're temporary jobs. Giving the DMV Commissioner flexibility to convert temporary positions to permanent roles and adjusting pay scales based on local labor market conditions may help attract and retain qualified examiners. Yeah, let me think about it. If you've got ninety seven positions that are not being filled because they are temporary, could you conceivably consolidate those down into like you cut it in half, let's say, and you've got like forty five or so full time positions instead of ninety seven temporary ones. You would at least have forty five positions that theoretically would be filled. Right, even though you've got fewer slots, they're all filled, so you would have actually more bodies. What else they say, Without addressing the workforce challenges, North Carolinians will continue to experience service delays, excessive weight times, and require multiple visits to driver license offices. The Office of the State Auditor anticipates that the final audit report will identify more details of staffing requirements, including driver license office locations where additional personnel will have the most immediate impact. The full audit is currently going through the Office of the State Auditor's quality control process and it will be shared soon with responsible officials as required by law. Okay, and so they're almost done, but they wanted this information out there. Now. If you are somebody who has had to recently deal with the DMV, this is obvious that the North Carolina DMB is among the worst, if not the worst, in the country. And you know, the Republicans in charge of the legislature, they can try to address some of this stuff. Now, maybe they will do it this time, and funding is probably going to be a big part of it. So I'm not letting them off the hook. They've been running the legislature for over a decade, like they can devote more resources to the DMV. Now that being said, the guy who was in charge of the DMV was a political hack appointment, Wayne Goodwin. He was the former chairman of the North Carolina Democrat Party and he seemed completely unable to fix the problems in the DMV. So enough blame to go. But that was a Cooper appointment. And you know my feelings on Roy Cooper, my good friend Ray. As I like to call him. What else. Oh, there's also legislation working through the General Assembly about HOA reform hoa's homeowners associations. There's a story in the Charlotte Observer by Nora O'Neill. A Charlotte resident who has spent years battling his HOA is now advocating for legislation that could change how similar disputes play out across the state. Jeffrey Baldwin, who faces foreclosure over unpaid HOA fees that he is fighting, is shifting his focus from his own legal battle to try to rally support for a bill that he hopes will prevent others from facing the same struggle. It's Senate Bill three seventy eight, which I have read through and seems like a good first step. There's a lot more that needs to be cleaned up. I have when I moved back to Charlotte, moved into our neighborhood and it has an HOA and I had lived in one house before with an HOA, but it was a very hands off HOA. I think we paid like two hundred dollars a year and they basically like did an Easter egg hunt event once a year and they cleaned. Up some walking trails and that was it. That was all. We had no amenities, there was nothing, you know. They planted flowers at the front entrance. That was it. This HOA. Much more. Well, we're still under builder control, and none of that is actually addressed in this legislation. That's why I say this is a good first step to rein in some of the abusive practices of hoas and management companies. Usually, it seems like these abuses occur when they are resident controlled, because when a builder is building their development, they maintain control of the HOA until they until they sell a certain number of units, and they get to determine what that number is. A lot of them will go. With like, you know, seventy percent or eighty percent of the units have been sold and then they start turning it over to the residents. But they can do one hundred percent. That's what mine is. They've been building my neighborhood for over twenty years. It's crazy. So residents have not been in control of the HOA for the entire length of the lifespan, and so there are other problems associated with that. But this bill, Senate Bill three seventy eight goes after some of the more egregious violations and abuses. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. 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All right, So back to the Charlotte Observer story on Jeffrey Baldwin who was fighting with his HOA about fees that they were levying against him that he is disputing. Senate built three seventy eight. He is now championing. It has passed through the Senate sitting in the house. It would put a cap on the amount that a homeowner can be fined. It would require violation hearings. You'd have to go to a hearing, and it would prohibit hoas from profiting off of fines. That to me is the big one. That to me, is the biggest part of this legislation because you should not have an incentive for the HOA to be finding residents and the property management companies, some of them apparently get a cut of those fines for all the violations. So not only do you have an incentive to levy the fines, to violate, issue the violations, but then you also have an incentive to keep the homeowner in the dark about any potential finds that may be accruing, because if they don't pay the fine within a certain period of time, then they start getting fined like one hundred dollars a day in some cases, and that racks up, obviously very very quickly, and then you have to fight the HOA, which they've got much deeper pockets to fight you in court. It would also. Include new requirements for giving notice to a homeowner and would require mediation before any foreclosure proceedings. Supporters say the changes would offer more safeguards to homeowners navigating complex and costly disputes like the one that Baldwin is still fighting. He and his husband Levi Baldwin have been battling their HOA in northeastern Mecklenburg in a development called the Settlements Odd in. The West Bank. This is this is Northeastern Mecklimburg and the Association of therefore closed on their home in twenty twenty four. The dispute stems from unpaid fines that they accumulated from having a vehicle parked in their driveway. I don't know what kind of vehicle. If it was like a broken down vehicle or something, or maybe it was an RV, I don't know, but it was in violation of the HOA rules. Baldwin said that he had no idea that he owed thousands of dollars in fines until he went to pay his annual membership to the HOA. This is why you got to keep you gotta. I don't know why you do it annually. I would beat, I would pay it monthly, but maybe they only send out one bill in a year, so they have a very, you know, low funding requirement. I don't know. But he goes to pay the mint the HOA fees annually and then he finds out he owes thousands and thousands of dollars. Now the HOA has sense agreed in court to drop the fines if he will pay his annual fees and the HOA attorney fees. Baldwin said he will not accept that, though he says the HOA should pay his attorney fees, which already total around ten thousand dollars. Baldwin has spoken to lawmakers, and Raleigh launched a website. It's called saferhoa dot com. He's asking people there to sign a petition and support of the legislation. The Senate bill would reshape the power that hoas have in North Carolina. Caps finds for violations at twenty five hundred dollars each and requires a hearing before fins can even be imposed. Baldwin said this would prevent cases like his, where he was unaware of the accumulation of the fines for a whole year. The bill also prevents hoas from foreclosing based solely on violation finds, and it requires the multiple written notices before filing a lean against a house because they can try to take your property as well. The bill requires meetings between hoas and homeowners before anything can even go to court. It's got bipartisan sponsors. It passed unanimously in the Senate. HOA reform has been difficult in North Carolina. According to The Charlotte Observer, which has previously reported that HOA lobbyists are often successful in blocking or stalling legislation that would limit the powers of hoas. There are around fourteen thousand hoas in North Carolina. That's a lot that hoas are actually the largest bipopulation, the largest political entity in America. There are more people serving on HOA bodies, and those bodies are political. I tell the people in my neighborhood this all the time. People volunteer. I volunteer do neighborhood stuff on the committees and stuff. These are political bodies. Yes, we're going through and we're trying to do stuff for the community and all of that. But you have to understand that there is a political element to this position, and people who are not good at politics should probably not be on HOA boards. In fact, they definitely should not be on HA boards. If you don't understand that, please do not join HA boards. Just stay on like a committee and help plan the Easter egg hunt and just do that. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.