NC Auditor Boliek on Helene funds & lawyers' grants| Hour 3

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 of the links, become a patron go to thepekclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. Right now, I want to welcome back to the program the auditor for the State of North Carolina, Dave Bullock. How are you, sir, Pete? I'm doing great. How are you today? I'm doing well. You guys, you and your team are busy. Like I've been covering North Carolina politics for a while now, I'm not sure I remember seeing this many reports coming out from the State Auditor's office. And that's no shade being thrown at the previous auditors. I'm just like you and your team seem to be doing a lot. Do you guys have like a bunch more funding or something that you're able to do this well? One I promised you you I was on your early on. I promised you and the people of North Carolina that we were going to get to work and we're going to produce product, and that's what we've been doing. The legislature did give us some additional positions. Uh, this last summer that we have gone out and of all things, Pete hired people. I mean yeah, uh, and so. We put them to work. Well, we are We've developed new computer programs. We want to we want to check the return on investment of taxpayer money, but as an office, we also want to give taxpayers a return on the money that they're investing in the State Auditor's office as well. Yeah, it's it's vital. I think, you know, most people's concern like you know, conservatives are complaining about waste, fraud and abuse and that sort of thing. It's it really is about, like, do people think they're getting good value right for what they spend in taxpayer or taxes? Right? What if they feel like there's a lot of waste and corruption and that sort of thing, then it undermines content evidence in the government. Frankly, I'm kind of surprised. I don't see a lot more people on the other side of the aisle also interested in the waste and fraud, because like every dollar that is lost to waste or fraud is a dollar that's not going to the programs that they themselves support. Well, I would agree with you one hundred percent. I get pushed back from the other side of the isle. I am an elected Republican all the time about the activities that we're engaged in at the State Auditor's Office. But we do work really hard. I can't say every person who is a Democrat, even an elected Democrat, has pushed back. We do work cooperatively with a lot of people on the other side of the isle. People some of the delegation in Mecklenburg County, for example, We've worked with them on some projects that we're in the middle of, and so it's not everybody. But look, I think the question you ask when you do these audits aught to be what is the return on investment? With the DMV audit that we did, you know, we recommended additional license examiners because we felt like the people could get a better return on their investment by getting full time license examiners. And we're seeing that agency turnaround with the taking of our recommendations from the audit that we completed last year. That was a good example of cooperative government, shared priority from the Governor's office, the legislature and our office working to do something on behalf of every North Carolinian. It's not fixed yet, Pete, but it's on the way and that's that's what our vision is. That's what the goal is every day at the Auditor's Office. So I covered on Tuesday one of the one of the audits or the rapid Response special report that came out on Hurricane Helene use of mental health funds at three community colleges, including Gaston College. And I guess they were the ones with the rhino stress balls. I guess it's their mascot or something. And so for folks who aren't aware of the colleges used this Heleene related fund in order to pay for potted plants, stress balls, t shirts, gift sets, flowers, red light therapy, salt therapy, foot detoxes, and gentle guided strolls. That focused on bird songs. So when I was discussing this, and I'm not sure maybe you've heard this as well, but I had people write in say all of those are legitimate mental health treatments. If you will like all that stuff makes sense. I'm a mental health professional, and all that makes sense. What would be your response to that. Response, Well, first of all, I think you have to look at the context of the funding. And let me say, the community colleges that we've worked with on this have actually been great, and you see in their responses to our report that they have recategorized those funds and taken a look at it and said, maybe this is not a common sense use of hurricane relief money to buy stress balls and succulence that maybe the taxpayer and the general taxpayers and the General Assembly expect hurricane relief money to go to different things. So while those may be expenses that would be normally incurred, they are Rhino's stress ball for marketing purposes or whatever that might be a legitimate purpose. I just don't think it's a common sense use of hurricane relief money. And I would debate that with anybody that wants to debate it with me, and I just you know, but I want to tell you this, the point of that report was not as much about the stress balls the succulents, because in the grand scheme of things, that's not a tremendous amount of money. The point we wanted to make with that is two things. One, you've got a state auditor that's ready to get down to the granular level where we're looking at the three hundred and fifty dollars bird watching excursion that was paid for by hurricane relief money. And second that these community colleges are taking the recommendation of the North Carolina State Auditor and reversing the way they do things. And so both of those things are I think really the top line takeaways from that particular report, and that brings to mind what we've got coming next, because we've got overarching reports that are going to come out across western North Carolina to look at the large tranches of money, the two hundred and fifty dollars tranches of money. In the coming days, we're going to be releasing those reports feats, and that's going to get into the big dollars and ask the real questions about how we fund disasters in North Carolina. Well, and I will say one of the bigger questions I had on this report was I saw it reported I think that like two thirds of the expanded mental health support funding has not even been spent. And that's just baffling to me, Like why, why wouldn't you be sending mental health professionals or something, you know, out into the areas that were affected, Like I don't understand why. I Also, Gueston College got money for Helene related effects. I mean, I guess they maybe they did suffer some effects from Helene, but it seems like you got all this pot of money and you only spent a third of it. Like why, Well, in Gaston College's example is because they had a lot of students who resided in western North Carolina who were coming into the community college, so you know, there was a direct connection there. I think the bigger question is, again, what type of return on investment are we getting for the taxpayer dollars? And that's why we're on the job, Pete, to take a look at this. And again I'm not professing that this report in and of itself is, you know, the greatest revelation of all time. What it does demonstrate is the level that our computer technology is getting to in the State Auditor's Office, so that as we begin continue to move forward with reports, we're able to get down to the minutia that I think the public really wants to know. About how is my tax dollars being spared across the state. And we're ready to answer that question. We've been working really hard the last year to develop the capabilities to beat that true watch dog. Well, and one of the things cited in that report but also in the one that was released today on the IOLTA, the interest on lawyers trust accounts. It's about internal controls, you know, for people who are giving out the grants or receiving the grants, like, how are they actually accounting for this stuff? And it usually is one of the findings out of your office that's like, you guys don't have proper internal controls to make sure that the money is going to where it's supposed to be going. So let me shift over to the IOLTA report. So this is revenue generated from lawyers trust accounts. What are lawyers trust accounts? Yeah, so attorneys of which I was a practicing attorney before I was elected, among doing another business interests have trust accounts. In other words, if you hold clients money, you hold it and what's called a trust account. Those accounts can earn interest. They all earn interest, and lawyers are captives to the state bar. Interest earned on cliance money has to be there is no option out. You have to turn that interest money over to the State Bar. As a matter of fact, you've got an account for it to the penny, and the state Bar audits lawyers across the state rightfully so to make sure that they properly account for clients' money. The interest on those accounts get sent to the bar and then they disperse it for legal needs people who need legal services that can't afford those services per statute. And what we found was is because there's been a tremendous amount of property change hands over the last few years, real estate attorneys keep a lot of money in their trust account, a lot of interest. Gained more than thirty million dollars in interest money was delivered to the State Bar, and then they distributed that to folks that they deemed worthy of receiving funds almost six million dollars to traditional that to folks that they deemed worthy of receiving funds, almost six million dollars to traditional legal Aid. But there was a million dollars cent more than a million dollar cent to the North Point Carolina Justice Center. I would submit there is no more politically motivated organization in the state of North Carolina other than maybe the Republican Party and the Democratic Party than the North Carolina Justice Center. And why should attorneys uh who were forced to have to send this money be responsible for supporting that organization. I've got a real question about that. I just got to be frank with you. Yeah, no, I did when I was reading this report and that nee and I saw that organization pop up, and I thought, why why is that organization getting money? Is there any equivalent on the on the right side. Of the spectrum? Well, good point for those of your listeners who may not know. The Justice Center was infamously responsible for the Moral Monday reports. It's it was the organization that was partly founded by the Reverend William Barber. And and and I would ask you, you know know, the Heritage Foundation got no money from the North Carolina bar nor neither did the Americans for Prosperity, who also do legal work. Uh No, there was no uh corresponding conservative organization that got a dime from the. State bar So what comes of this now is the bargain to not give them any money any more money in the future. Well, what comes of this is is even previous to this, the Northline General Assembly froze those funds. So interestingly enough, these funds were actually distributed days before the North Carolina Legislature actually passed a bill freezing the expense of these moneies. And I would I. Would say there is a high likelihood that our North Caroline General Assembly, which is in session right now, is going to take a hard look at the statute that determines how interest on lawyer's trust accounts is dispersed moving forward. We appreciate the time and the work you're doing, as always, State Auditor Dave Bollach. Travel safe, sir, appreciate it. Thank you, my friend. All right, yes, sir, take care. 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. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven in Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. All right, I forgot to call her, sitting on here for a very long time. I will take it. Hello, Ray, Hello, thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes? Okay, I heard a piece of fleeting news somewhere yesterday's election in Virginia that just happened. I don't know if you've covered it. I haven't been able to listen to you in the next last couple of days like I normally do is regular. Well, you can get the podcast. It's at the peatpod dot com and then it'll be on your smartphone or tablet right there for you. Okay, thanks Pete. What I heard was that this election that happened in Virginia, part Harrington and Fairfax are not actually a part of Virginia because of some ruling or of all that happened in the late seventeen hundreds or early eighteen hundreds. Therefore, their boats don't chaump, and without those votes they have won this election. Did you know anything about that? I think you are referring to. I think it's called recision maybe, or I forget, but it's there's a what's his name, Schmidt from Missouri. Senator Schmidt used to be the attorney general down there. He's now a US senator, and he's pitching this idea of make DC square again, because the original, the way they originally drew up the District of Columbia was a square, and that would encompass parts of the areas you're talking about, and so he wants to sort of bring it back, or you know, you know, seed back some of the property to Maryland or from Maryland and Virginia wherever. I think that might be what you're talking about, but that would require a law change and maybe a constitutional change or something. I think that's what you're talking about but they are part of Virginia. Their votes do count. So yeah, that sounds like people I've heard, but I was just wondering about that. I appreciate you're taking my call, Yes, sir, good. To hear from you. Ray, take care all right. Over on the text line, Jonathan says mental health is an excuse to spend money and for people to be soft these days. I'm sick of it. David says being an aggressive auditor of the executive branch would be a huge advantage if you were to become governor someday. The level of knowledge would be indispensable as the executive makes me think about Dave's future plans. Hmmm, interesting it would be you go from auditor to governor, Like that would be That's that's why I like Dale Fallwell. He was the state treasurer and when he ran for governor in the Republican primary he lost to Mark Robinson. But Fallwell, well, he was a you know, former state lawmaker and then became treasurer, and like he had a very good understanding of the finances right, and like that would be a very good skill and body of knowledge to draw from as governor. Same for Dave Bullock if he I don't know what his plans are. I don't have any idea. Hadn't even considered it until you just mentioned it, David, But that would be that would be something because I remember talking to Pat McCrory when he first won as governor, and I was in Ashville at the time in the Governor's office as the Western Residence in Ashville, and so he had come out there, you know, to hang out like a weekend or whatever it was, and so he was doing meetings and stuff, and so he was out in Ashville, and so I was like, why don't you come on in. So he came into the student and we had a talk or whatever, and he's on air. He talked about how when he first got in there, he went around to the various departments and agencies and stuff to kind of get a feel for and to get eyes on, like what are the people doing here? Right? And he said there were people that literally hid under the desk because they weren't doing anything, and so they didn't want to get caught. Like that's the kind of stuff that has been going on. And when McCrory got in there, he wanted to, you know, see what the operations actually look like. And if you can pair this thing down to some degree, you can save money. You could readirect it to other agencies that need the money whatever. Like that's the kind of stuff you're dealing with when you walk in the door. And yeah, Bullock is doing these kinds of deep dives, you know, in state government and all these different aigesencies like that would be that would be really helpful. I wonder if anybody has told him that. Maybe he's maybe he's already aware of it. I don't know. I don't know how old he is. Maybe he's like this is he's going to do this for you know, a term or two and then he's going to retire and whatever. I don't know. I don't know what his plans are, but now I feel like I should ask him. Brenda says, Pete, you should run for Senate. Oh no, no, no, think about all of the hours I have spent running my mouth on air. That would be oppo research gold right, So no, I would not. Yeah, I don't think I would make a good candidate. I think h O a volunteer is sort of my ceiling. I got a uh was this a message? Yeah? It was a tweet. It's a pete tweet from jall Day who says, I've leave Alexandria and Arlington going back to d C is called retro seating. I think you are correct. A new recision wasn't the right word, but it was something like that, So I think you are correct. I think it's retro seating. So instead of secession, it's retrocession to send it back. Because you know, if as originally laid out, d. C was a square, right, so. If you were to make it go back to the way it was supposed to be, then that those voters would be in d C and they wouldn't be part of Virginia anymore. All right? What else here? I think I had? Yes, a text from Marty who says, I am a truck driver and the company I work for has been hauling generators and compressors in and out of bat Cave No No, No, no no, and Lake Lore, North Carolina for over a year, and these people are still devastated. The roads are trash, and these people are still coping with the hurricane. Anyone that voted for Cooper or Stein should be ashamed and should be institutionalized. I don't know what is wrong with Ashville, Raleigh, Winston, Salem, Greensboro, and Charlotte. We need to turn this state back red. Thank you for your show and all you do. Give him hell brother. That's from Marty. Yeah, the guy right, Josh Stein had an opportunity and he still he still does right to fix what was broken with Cooper's legacy of disastrous disaster relief and response. Yeah, Cooper, we talked about it forever when he won and he beat Pat McCrory. Pat McCrory. In the final days of the campaign, Pat McCrory was dealing with a hurricane Matthew. I think it was Matthew Hurricanes, or maybe it was Florence. I think he was dealing with Florence, and so while it made landfall and he was down at the coast, he was doing a lot of stuff right, and Cooper comes in I think Matthew hit. Then they were both pretty close together. But McCrory lost, and then Cooper basically is in charge now of the relief efforts for both of those hurricanes. And like that's been a decade. I still don't think everybody is back in their homes like it was so bad that Stein scrapped the program that Cooper was using. I think this one is now I was going to I'm drawing a blank on the name. Was one of rebuild NC. I think was one that's either the new one or the old one. Yeah, because I think Encore was the old one. It's just. Like that his failure, Cooper's failure on that basic thing should be a should be enough to disqualify him for any kind of higher office. And the fact that he won reelection in the midst of that failure, like that's shameful. And now he's running for US Senate and he's attacking Michael Wattley for Hurricane Helene disaster response, like the hood spot of this guy. Like, of all the people that should not even be talking about hurricane relief efforts, you're that person, Ray, you are You should not be attacking anybody for failure to adequately respond to a hurricane disaster. You, of all people, you couldn't get homes built for South Carolina got hit by the hurricanes too, and every one of their victims are back in their homes and were years ago. South Carolina could figure it out, but for some reason, Roy Cooper couldn't. Okay, I will not use your name. Thank you for putting it first in the message. By the way, if you want to remain anonymous in your text messages, do. What this individual did and said, don't use my name. Say it first, because if you say it at the end of the text, I will have read the whole text before I get to your request. Okay. I work for a company that's working on the roads in the western part of the state. And the hold up is the nc doot red tape. Yeah, that's I have. I've been hearing that for years. Let me see here, Cassidy says, was the hurricane Matthew was the hurricane Pat McCrory was dealing with? Thank you, cassidy. Yeah, I always forget which one it was, h because there were two, right, Florence and Matthew, and McCrory was dealing with one of them. So matth hurricane Matthew was it? The Hellia says here in Virginia, only a million of thirty three million meant for Helene has been discharged in one planning district. Yeah, well, what did Reagan say? The scariest words in the English language. I'm from the government and I'm here to help right. Now. One of the roadblocks to approving a new state budget has been medicaid funding and oversight reforms. The North Carolina House and Senate yesterday announced that they have reached an agreement on legislation to cover a shortfall in the state's medicaid program while tightening oversight of one of North Carolina's largest government expenditures. This is from the Carolina Journal Carolina Journal dot com piece by Andrew Palmeran's House Bill six ninety six would I locate three hundred nineteen million dollars to cover the Medicaid rebase for the remainder of the fiscal year. Lawmakers say the measure also includes a series of reforms that they say will reduce waste, fraud, and abuse within the program. Once again, this should be something Democrats get on board with. What about like, you're getting the money to cover the Medicaid shortfall and you're getting measures to address waste and fraud and abuse, which you guys should be the biggest investigators of Democrats, like people who advocate for all of these social programs, y'all should be the ones that are the most hawkish when it comes to rooting out waste, because every dollar that is diverted to fraud is a dollar that does not go to the people that you claim you care more about than Republicans but you don't like. I'm sure they will. I'll go over some of these reforms. I'm sure they're going to oppose them. I am sure of it. Now will they vote for it? I don't know. Well, we shall see. Oh I said it again. Sorry, all right? So the House Bill six ninety six, it would allocate three hundred nineteen million dollars to cover the Medicaid shortfall for the rest of the year. The agreement comes as Medicaid costs. You may want to sit down for this. The costs have exceeded earlier projections. If only anybody could have predicted such a thing. Oh that's right, I did. I did, And I'm not an expert on this stuff. I just read experts and they were all saying, hey, every single state that did the Medicaid expansion, you have what's called the woodwork effect, meaning people come out of the woodwork, including scammers. Right. So whatever number you think, like, oh, we're going to put you know, we're going to extend healthcare to six hundred thousand North Carolinians. Yeah, and then it turned into like a million. You know, that's what happens every single time. So this prompted Republican leaders concerns about long term sustainability and program accountability. In other words, the very thing that Republicans were saying about the expansion before they did it. Roy Cooper didn't do it. That was the Republican legislature that did. It because they had found this this rebase, this workaround where they would like give the hospitals money and the hospitals would then return it to them or something like this. It's like this shell game that some other states had developed in order to extend Medicaid coverage. Get the sweet, sweet federal money, and then the state would I think, come in and tax the hospitals and the hospitals then pass it back to the state or something. I forget how this worked. I went over this a couple of probabout a year ago. It's a scam. It's a way that the state budget doesn't get impacted, or so they thought, right medicaid. So Destin Hall, the UH Speaker of the House Republican, said Medicaid should serve the people who truly needed. This bill make sure that happens after Governor Stein and his administration let costs run wild. We are tightening things up by adding common sense guard rails that cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse in the program. So here are some of the things that the bill would do strengthen eligibility, verification and the integrity of the program. For example, they're going to shift the eligibility reviews to find out if you actually should be getting Medicaid. They're going to shift those reviews from once a quarter to once a month. Also, they're going to have requirements for stronger documentation standards and limits to self attestation. What is self attestation? That is I'm poor, I qualify, I sign this piece of paper that says I'm not lying, right, and that's it. Now you got to have documentation. Here mandating citizenship and immigration status. Ah. We got to be able to pay for illegal aliens health care. Come on, I'm sure Democrats will oppose this. We must be giving medicaid to the illegal aliens. Directing the State Auditor to conduct a comprehensive review of Medicaid and related workforce programs, require annual reports from the Department of Health and Human Services on their efforts to combat fraud and abuse in a day. Lawmakers included new guardrails on applied behavior analysis therapy, a service used to treat children with autism, and these guardrails include limits on telehealth use, stricter supervision requirements, and updated credentialing standards for providers. The point of all of that is to ensure quality care while controlling costs. In other words, you might have a bunch of leering centers quality leering centers that gets set. Up to dit like we saw in Minnesota. They weren't learing centers, but they were all of these, you know, these nonprofits that claim to be treating autism and then lo and behold, there's an explosion of autism among the Somali community in Minneapolis. Everybody's got autism now, and all of the services that are so called offered to these kids. You go to their door, like Nick Shirley did on his YouTube channel, and there isn't anybody there. There are no kids, there are no counselors, no therapists or anything. They are fronts. So that's the point of this is to try to limit those kinds of scams, which I am sure the Democrats and the Legislature will scream bloody murder about that as well, because it's for the children, don't you say right. Eighty million dollars also going to the Department of Adult Correction, thirteen million going to the Divisionomotor Vehicles, two and a half to the State Bureau of Investigation as well, and ten million for recurring scholarships benefiting children of wartime veterans. All of that is also stuffed into this bill, so that's going to get taken up here in the short session which is now underway. 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. You heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.