State Auditor Dave Bolick | Hour 3

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from nuon 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 thepeakclendarshow 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. I'm Donna King from the Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. Joining us now, North Carolina's state auditor, Dave Bowling. All right, we're having some technical we're having some technical difficulties going on right now. We're going to try and get the auditor big audit coming out about the town of Carrie today. He's joining us and we're going to talk more about this and it's something that we've been talking about a lot about. The auditors focus on what's happening in some of our towns and an investigative report, so the town of Carrie and their spending practices. This is something that we've been covering a lot in the Way County area, but it really has some legs for communities across the state. One finding that stood out is that more than sixty two percent of Carrey employees had a government issued visa. State auditor Dave Bullock back with us. Thanks so much for your patients. Tell us more about this investigative report on the town of Carrey and what prompted your investigation. Well, hey, Donna, it's great to be with you and great to be on the air in Charlotte. What we found really was the culture of culture of extravagance spending in the town of Kerry. A lot of people may not realize town and Carrie is the seventh largest municipality in the state of North Carolina, and there were some concerns about the former town manager that really prompted the investigation. But once we got into the books of the town of Carrey, we began to find a wider problem, you know, with the town manager. Specifically, thirty four hundred dollars Penhouse stays on the taxpayer dime bone in ribi stakes at one hundred and twenty dollars apiece and forty eight dollar glasses of wine sixteen hundred dollars on RayBan sunglasses. Those types of expenses just really, I mean, I think extravagant is being nice. I mean those are ridiculous expenses of taxpayer dollars as And you know, because I've said this many times as I travel around the state, taxpayers and citizens they understand government's going to spend money. What they want is they want to return on the spending of money. They want a return on investment, and they want town officials, municipal officials, state officials to have their best interest in mind. And these types of expenses just do not demonstrate having the taxpayer's best interest in mind. Sure. I mean, anybody who's had a lot of interaction with state government as employment, you know, you just don't see those kind of expenses in state or federal government. Really, when you look at all of this together, what concerns you most. Well, what concerns me a lot is one a lack of transparency. Another finding that many people didn't know. I think most people in the town and Kerry, for example, did not know that town council members and the mayor got eight hundred and two dollars a month in a car allowance and that had never been that had never been transparently reported by the town council. There's never been a vote by the council to approve that on their behalf. There's never been any type of reporting on that. So these are all new findings. And then you have you have these individual expenses, but you got large expenses like eighty six thousand dollars spent on the production of a dance video about a retreat in Wilmington, North Carolina, followed by an additional thirty five thousd dollars spent of taxpayer dollars on a documentary about the filming of the dance video. I mean, just the old thaying you just can't make some of this stuff up. I mean, like, I wonder who they hired for the dance video. Are these employees? I got to see this thing. No, this was a private company they hired to come do this production. I think you know. And you mentioned some of the top line numbers. Eight hundred and twenty eight town visa cards. You know, the city of Charlotte, largest municipality in the state of North Carolina, has eight hundred town credit cards. That is approximately ten percent of the total number of employees in the city of Charlotte, Okay, Raleigh, North Carolina, sixteen percent of the town team members have town visa cards. In Carrie, that eight hundred and twenty eight represents sixty two percent of City of Carry employees a town visa card. And by the way, Donna, from January twenty four through December of twenty twenty five, employees made more than sixty thousand government credit card transactions totaling twenty four point two million dollars in expenses. You know it's time for the Town of Carry to get a hold of the expenses. And you know, you ask the broader question, what does this really mean? I mean this points to the fact that elected town council members and mayors need to start asking tough questions of staff on how money is being spent. They're elected to look after the town's. Money and that's something that really for any city in town. Exactly what you're saying, where is the line between poor judgment and these mess use of taxpayer dollars? These are stewards of our money and our resources. Yeah, I mean the line. The line should be number one common sense, right. If you want one hundred and twenty dollars bone in reb buy it yourself. I think it should be common sense. If you're an elected official, if you're the town manager, you think, you think when you sit down, you know what what are What is my neighbor going to think about me using his money to buy one hundred and twenty dollars bone in REBI? And that's pretty much a common sense thing, you know, Donna, You and I remember the book every You Learned Everything you need to Know in kindergarten. That's one of those things. You kind of learned early on. Right, is sure, let's just have some common sense about what we spend money on. And then and then secondly, ask tough questions if you're a city council member or if you're a mayor, and if the town management obvius skates, if they sort of give you, like I say, give you the heisman and start not giving you the information that you're asking for, that's a red flag and it's time to start micromanaging from the council. Absolutely are Now is some of this going to be referred to District Attorney's office or SBI? What's the next step? So two things. One is at the outset and is part of the audit, which by the way is twenty six hundred pages long. This is a true open window into the expending of money in the town of Kerry. But we say at the onset of the audit investigative report that there is an active, ongoing criminal investigation that continues with the SBI and the Wake County District Attorney. Some of the information that is part of that investigation has been excluded from the current report with respect to that part of the criminal investigation. And there is an ongoing, active criminal investigation that we will continue to follow up on. And in additionally, we are going to follow up with the town of Kerry in the coming weeks and months to see where they are moving forward with their finances and the culture that is extravagant at this point. Absolutely. North Carolina State Auditor Dave Bullet, thanks so much. You can find everything you need to know on the State Auditor's website and then of course on Carolina Journal dot com. Thanks so much for your time this afternoon. Thank you, Donna. All Right, for over a year now you've heard me talking about create a video. Great local company in mint Hill that has helped more than two million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes, now creative videos helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out Group travel videos dot com. That's Group travel Videos dot com or call seven oh four, eight four six, seventy eight seventy extension two o six. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes you can. You can email Katie Katie at group travel Videos dot com. Group travel Videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. It looks like President Donald Trump could get a chance to appoint a new federal judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. That story on Carolina Journal dot com this afternoon. Joining us now to talk more about that and a few other things. Mitch Kokai, senior political advisor, a senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation. Good, good afternoon, Mitch. How are you. I'm doing fine. I hope you are. Donna good to talk to you. So tell me more about this potential opening on the federal bench. Well, there definitely is an opening on the federal bench that will be coming up. The question is how soon does it get filled. What is happening is that US District Judge Terrence Boyle, who is eighty years old and has been on the bench for more than half his life because he was appointed to the US District in eastern North Carolina in nineteen eighty four by then President Ronald Reagan. He has officially sent in his letter to the court system saying that he wants to take senior status. And for those who aren't familiar with that, it's not retirement. It's kind of a semi retirement. Remember, these judges have lifetime appointments, so they don't have to retire. They could go until they drop while sitting on the bench holding a gabble. But a judge Boil now more than forty years on the bench and after having turned eighty, has decided he's going to take senior status, which means he can cut back his case load. We know from the court system that these senior judges take up about twenty percent of the case load about at the trial court anppellag court level, so many of them don't really go into the retirement, although they may cut back a little bit. But the big point that you referenced is that by taking senior status, that does open up another appointment to the federal bench in eastern North Carolina. And because the president makes that appointment, it could be in the hands of President Donald Trump to make that appointment. He certainly will have the opportunity to do it. Sure, what role would the Senate confirmation process play in that federal position. Yeah, well, the Senate would have to confirm that person. And we know that the last time there was an opening in the Eastern District, it really did come down to the Senate not wanting to confirm the initial appointee that was put forward by President Donald Trump. We know that this was an appointment that had gone back to the Bush administration. The George W. Bush recommended a particular candidate to fill that position. It was rebuffed by the Senate, and when Donald Trump came in, he put forward the same candidate. Senators told him we're not going to appoint this person, so instead he appointed Richard Myers. That choice did get through the Senate, and now Richard Myers is the chief judge in the Eastern District and has been very involved in a lot of these cases that are important to people following politics in North Carolina because Judge Myers has overseen most of the election related cases that are in the Eastern District. So the person who will fill this next role in the Eastern District could play a very important role for years and maybe even decades to come. We know that Judge Boyle's been doing this job for more than forty years with him taking senior status. The active judges in North Carolina's Eastern District are all Republican appointees. I mentioned Richard Myers, who's the chief judge, and the other judges in the Eastern District are Louise Flanagan and James Dever, all of them Republican appointees. So if we get an appointment from President Donald Trump, which would be his second in the Eastern District after Judge Myers, that would mean for active judges in the Eastern District, all of them Republican appointees. All very interesting. I'm gonna switch gears with you just a minute. Governor Josh Stein is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to support the state law prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms. Can you give me the background on this. I want to know more about the story and how unusual is it for the governor to urge the court to act this way. Well, I'll answer the last question first. It is unusual for the governor to step into a case like this, there's a case at the North Carolina Supreme Court that involves a challenge to North Carolina's law against felons possessing firearms. The planet or actually is the defendant in the case because there's a criminal case against him. Eric Ducker is challenging this law, saying that, look, there's no reason for him not to have his Second Amendment rights because of a year's old felony conviction that did not rise to the level of being a violent felony. There's some dispute about whether this particular charge would be something that would count as violent or not. But as the case is now trickled up to the state Supreme Court, he's lost at the lower court levels Ducker has. But supporting him in his effort to get rid of this law are groups such as the ACLU of North Carolina, the libertarian Cato Institute, and Strange Bedfellows here the gun rights group Grassroots North Carolina. All of them are supporting Ducker. Meanwhile, on the other side, as the state government has put forward its brief and this is a lawyer's working for Attorney General Jeff Jackson defending the law, Governor Josh Stein submitted his own brief. And as we've talked about a little bit earlier, this is unusual for the governor to go in and put forward a brief that's not in a case in which he's involved. Because Governor Stein has submitted a number of briefs to the courts in a case where he's either the defendant or he's the plaintiff. But this is a case where he's not involved. He doesn't have to take any sort of stance. But he decided he wanted to to defend North Carolina's law against felons owning firearms, and he put forward a brief. Also at the same time, groups representing district attorneys, police chiefs, sheriffs, they all submitted a separate brief also supporting this law. And it'll be very interesting to see what the State Supreme Court does with this case. It has not yet been scheduled for oral arguments. Those arguments may happen in November, because that's the next time when there's an opening for cases. But if they don't happen in November, the arguments might not happen until twenty twenty seven. Sure, and this may ask for some speculation on your part, but why would the governor get involved in this. It kind of surprises me. He's not in the ballot November. It's not a campaign issue. What are your thoughts on this rather than just leaving it to the attorney general in the courts. I don't have a definitive answer for you, but I think that one factor in this may have been that before he became governor, remember the Josh Stein was the attorney general for eight years, so he has some familiarity with this law, the uses of this law. So my guess is that at least gives him some interest in this case. And it might also be a case where he saw an opportunity to put himself forward as not a far left, free all the prisoners type of Democrat, which we have seen some of those in North Carolina and especially in other states Northeastern states and West coast states, where you've seen a lot of Democrats who adopt policies that seem to suggest they don't want any to want to be in prison and they would like to look into the rights of prisoners more than the rights of crime victims. So this is an opportunity for Governor Stein to mind people that he was an attorney general that he's interested in criminal issues and that he supports laws that involve protecting people's safety. So other than the time that it takes for his lawyers to put together the brief, he doesn't have to do anything else in terms of spending his time more resources to do this. So it's a way just to remind people that, regardless of what they might think otherwise of him, that he is interested in some of these criminal justice issues and might take a stance that you wouldn't expect from a typical Democrat of twenty twenty six. Sure, sure, all right, Mitch Cokain the John Locke Foundation, thanks so much for joining us today and filling us in on all the details. Joining us now, what are my good friends and senior editor for American Habits over at State Policy Network, Ray Nolstein. Ray, it's so good to talk to you. It's great to talk to you, great to hear your voice. Dona, It's so fun and you're one of my, you know, favorite people to talk to. You are really a student and a theologian interested in the history of human freedom, and you've got some great work out there. I'm going to talk a little bit about one of your recent writings the relationship between citizens, government and responsibility. You reference Alex to Topeville. We haven't talked about that in a long time. Why do you think he deserves a statue in Washington. D C. Yeah, that's a great point. There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal recently. So it wasn't my idea, Johnna, but I kind of kicked myself in the foot a little bit saying I wish it was my idea, because Toapville. Is one of those great you know, as Americans, we don't really like admire the French a lot, but we should like Lafayette and to Toauville because Topville had great insights about America. He was part of the French elite, and he came over here in the early eighteen thirties to study prisons, but he wanted to expand that. He came over with a friend and they were going to look at America. He ended up traveling all across the country in the early eighteen thirties and writing about democracy and self government because you know, there were democratic movements in Europe, not you know, not sophisticated like America. They were much more fractured and violent, but there were democratic minded movements in Europe, and so Tokyo is trying to understand why does self government work in America? And so he was able to kind of see, you know that the real issue here is whether we can really sustain freedom and can we do that? I think that's an important question, Dona, as we're approaching America to fifty and Tokyo had a lot of comments and things to say about that. Sure, he talked about America's habits of the heart, what does that mean? What did he mean by that? And what are those habits? Where are they important? Yeah, so this is a great, great point. I mean, it really has to do with the Americans. They understood that there are these habits and traits that you have to have to achieve self government. Right, you have to believe that you're a part of a group. You have to work with civic organizations. See a lot of times in Europe they just look to the government to tell them what to do. But in America, they had all these civic associations, they had local towns and local government. That's an important part of federalism. And they didn't wait for, you know, someone from DC to tell them what to do. How to act right, I mean during the Missippi flood A little bit more of a modern example when they said Hoover should call out the military during the Missipi flood of nineteen twenty nine when he was in the Coolidge or in nineteen twenty seven when he was part of the Coolidge administration, he said that we're going to call out in mainStreet because Americans know how to get things done. They don't have to wait on the government to tell them what to do. So Tho's important. Habits of the heart are traits about governing yourselves. And these are things that we're still asking ourselves today as Americans because we don't have to look to d C for all the solutions to our problem. We can solve problems at our own level, at the local level, with our communities, whether it be churches, you know, rotary groups, lions clubs, different sort of you know, even sports teams and communities that we're involved with. We can solve these problems without looking to Washington. And so that's what he meant by the habits of the Heart, and that's where we take the name of our publication, American Habits. Sure. Sure, so tell me more. We in the last hour had State Auditor Dave Bollick on they have a report out today about the town of Kerry and some you know what they're considering, you know, extravagant expenditures. They're investigating it. Where is that tension between keeping governance at a local level and not looking to larger government for things and finding the balance so that we can make sure that that governance is responsible. Yeah, that's a great question, and I think that's a that's a problem that we you know, over the decades and years in America, we've content to look more to the centralized state to solve a lot of our problems, and we have to do a better job. And this is easy to say. I know, it's so easy to say, and it's easy to look to Washington and to point our finger to Washington and blame Washington. And they make a lot of mistakes and they do a lot of things wrong. But we could solve a lot of problems more at the local level. And I think that demands several things. It demands us holding our state legislatures accountable that they can solve problems. And one of the good examples of this really might be religious liberty because there was a recent report that said Arkansas was one of the top states for religious liberty in North Carolina is actually it might surprise some people, but it's near the bottom when it comes to individual states. And so I think this reminder gives us this onus to hey, you know, at the state level, they could do stuff about when someone encroaches against your constitutional rights, and you don't have to just wait on Washington and the Supreme Court. But state legislators are very equipped to deal with these problems. We have an interview with Mike Sheetzel, who's a representative from Wake Forest, and he talked about this a lot in his interview at American Habits about the importance of state and local government officials standing up for the constitution and creating that bulwark. And so I think this tension is becoming more apparent. I think, thankfully for a lot of lawmakers, is that maybe not to depend on the federal government as much. I mean, look what the federal government has give us given us with inflation and debt and all these things that all families across the state and nation are dealing with. And I think there's this tension that's going to always exist to some degree, but I think we can do a better job of channeling and asking local government and state government to do more in our lives to fix things that the federal government just I mean, you look at Congress and they can't do anything right, and so there is this onus I think where we need to hold our local lawmakers more accountable and not just have their hand out to the federal government or looking at the federal government to solve their problems. Le Ray Nothstein, thank you so much from State Policy Network. Always great to talk to you. Great to talk to you. Thanks, Don, I appreciate it. I'm Donna King from Carolina Journal, sitting in for Pete Callender today. Here's some of the stories that we've been following throughout the afternoon. Among them, a Charlotte area transportation debate is really heating up as local leaders face a decision on the future of the I seventy seven Express Lanes project. While the region begins planning the next decade of transportation investments, North Carolina is giving several Charlotte area communities a choice continue supporting the I seventy seven Express Lane project or potentially repay millions of dollars already spent on planning and design. The state says Charlotte, Mecklenberg County, Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, and mint Hill have ninety days to reverse previous votes that withdrew support for the project. If they don't, the state could withhold future transportation funding to recover the share of roughly sixty million dollars already spent on play and design. Now, Charlotte would face the largest potential repayment because it has the greatest voting weight on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization Board. One community has already changed course. The City of Monroe recently voted to restore its support for the project, with leaders saying they did not want to risk future transportation funding. Now, Charlotte City Council Member At Driggs, who represents the city on the Transportation Board, says he does not expect major action at this week's meeting. Instead, the discussion is expected to focus on what changes could be made to the project to address concerns and potentially bring opponents back on board. Meantime, Transportation Board is also looking ahead at future transportation needs across the region. The organization has opened a thirty day public comment period on proposed transportation projects for Iredale, Mecklenburg, and Union counties. Now. That comment period is part of North Carolina's Prioritization eight point zero process, which helps determine projects included in the states twenty twenty eight through twenty thirty seven Transportation Improvement Plan. The draft list includes projects like highways, aviation, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, rail and transit. Residents have until five pm on August fourteenth to submit their comments, and a Pineville building damaged in a deadly crash earlier this year is back open. Pinevilt Town Hall reopened to Tuesday morning, more than two months after a driver crashed into the building. The town reopened the facility at eight am, and the town Council is scheduled to hold its meeting in the council chambers. The Pineville Library, which was also impacted, has not yet announced a reopening date. The crash happened on April twenty seventh. Police say a twenty two year old driver lost control of a Honda SUV and slammed into the building, and when officers arrived, they found the vehicle completely crashed into the structure. The driver was pen an ounce stead at the scene, but there were no passengers in the vehicle and no one outside the vehicle was injured. Police say the vehicle was not being pursued at the time of the crash. Charlotte leaders are also taking action on another public safety concern, large gatherings of teenagers known as teen takeovers. The Charlotte City Council's Safety Committee has unanimously recommended changes to the city's Youth Protection Ordinance following several incidents this summer involving large crowds, fights, and gun related events. The recommendations now moved to the full City Council for consideration. Officials say recent gatherings at places like parks and Birkdale Village and University City Boardwalk have really created some challenges for law enforcement. The proposed changes are aimed at giving police additional tools to respond before situations escalate. State officials are warning taxpayers about a new scam involving fake refund messages. North Carolina Department of Revenue says criminals are sending text messages claiming that a taxpayer's refund has been approved that asking for bank account information through a link. The messages often appear to create a sense of urgency. They threaten that the refund will be forfeited if the information is not provided quickly. Officials say the messages really can look official, but they are fake. The Department of Revenue does not communicate with taxpayers about refund through text message, and if you do receive a message like this, officials say delete it and do not click any links. Those links can allow criminals to steal personal information or access your bank account. If you're not quite sure whether our communication is legitimate, the Department of Revenue says taxpayers should call its customer service line at one eight seven seven two five two three zero five to two during normal business hours. And A new foundation has been created to support employees of North Carolina's Department of Adult Corrections. The NCDAC Employee Foundation was incorporated with the Secretary of State's office. The nonprofit is designed to help correctional employees and their families during times of need. This could include assistance after an employee dies in the line of duty, help following a natural disaster or personal tragedy, and other support. The foundation is modeled after similar organizations in other states. The specific benefit will be determined by the foundation's board of directors to help launch the effort. North Carolina's Department of Adult Corrections Secretary Leslie Dsmucks is directing half the proceeds from the department's annual Secretary's Cup golf tournament to the foundation, and additional fundraising is expected through the state employee, combined campaign fundraising events, and other approved efforts. Turns out, enrollment in the Affordable Care Act plan has dropped in North Carolina. Federal data shows enrollment declined by twenty one point three percent in our state between February of twenty twenty five and February of twenty twenty six. Enrollment dropped from seven hundred and seventy four thousand people to six hundred and nine thousand people, a decrease of more than one hundred and sixty thousand. That decline was one of the largest percentage drops in the country. Nationally, more than two point six million Americans were no longer enrolled in ACA plans compared with the previous year. The data includes people who signed up automatically, re enrolled, and those who paid their first monthly premium to maintain coverage. One factor cited in that decline is the expiration of enhanced Premium tax credits, which had helped lower the cost of the ACA for most consumers. Another factor is increased government oversight aimed at identifying fraud and fraudulent enrollments. The North Carolina State Health Plan and Duke Health have reached an agreement that will keep Duke Health as an access provider under the state's new plan. The agreement means the state Health Plan members, if you're a state employee, will continue to have access to Duke. More than seven hundred and fifty thousand North Carolinians participate in the state health Plan and in the new provider tier system that they're instituting. Will take place January first of twenty twenty seven. 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.