October 22, 2025 • 34 mins
Tune in here to this Wednesday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by talking about the massive sick-out by 700 Union County teachers protesting the lack of county supplements promised by the school board, as well as a powerful press conference addressing youth violence and homicides in Charlotte. Jensen explains that the Union County Commissioners had already approved the money months ago, but the school board never distributed it, sparking widespread frustration among educators and parents.
Jensen is joined by North Carolina State Representative David Willis from Union County for an exclusive one-on-one interview to discuss the newly redrawn congressional maps passed in Raleigh. Willis explains that while North Carolina will still have 14 congressional seats, lawmakers decided to revise the district boundaries to make them more compact and to counter what he describes as “egregious overreach” from California’s redistricting efforts. He notes that Districts 1 and 3 in eastern North Carolina were the primary focus, shifting from vertical to more horizontal layouts for fairness and geographic sense.
Jensen is also joined by Union County Commissioner Chair Melissa Merrill to discuss the massive teacher sick-out that shook Union County schools. Merrill explains that earlier this year, county commissioners approved an additional $8.8 million for Union County Public Schools — funds that could have supported a $1,000 to $2,000 supplement increase for teachers. However, despite receiving the money in July, the school board chose not to distribute the funds, later claiming the county had not approved the raises.
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi, oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh,
Let's come loose.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Talk eleven ten and ninety nine three.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
WBT Brett Jensen here with you on this Wednesday night
edition of Breaking with Bret Jensen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
As we go up until seven o'clock tonight, and we've
got a big, big, big show for you installed tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Union County teachers, seven hundred of them called in sick
today in protest of not getting county supplements from the
school board.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And we will talk to the head.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The chair of the Union County commissioners who approved this
money several months ago, and that the school board never
allotted or gave to the teachers. So and they sort
of threw the county under the bus. And so the
county has been fighting back in Union County. So where
we are going to have the head of the Mecca,
excuse me, of the Union County, the Union County Board
(01:24):
of Commissioners on tonight because I mean, seven hundred teachers,
like I know a lot of people that actually kept
their kids home because of all this stuff tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So it's Melissa Merrill. She will be joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Also joining us will be North count of state Representative
David Willis, who happens to serve Union County. But we're
not going to talk to him about the school teachers
and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We're going to.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Talk to David Willis about the new congressional maps that
were passed today. Finally, in yesterday the Senate and today
the House passed the new congressional maps. So I'm going
to talk to him about that, like, how can this happen?
Why did it happen? All that good stuff. So again,
David Wilson be joining us and Melissa Merrill be joining.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Us later as well.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
But we're gonna start off tonight with a press conference
that's happened this morning and it was put on by
the MECHGP and you had the Republican candidates that were
running for office, as well as the moms of two
people that were murdered, two youngsters that were murdered in
Charlotte earlier this year. But what we're gonna do, First
(02:32):
of all, I'm gonna you're gonna hear a net Albright.
A net Albright, in case you don't remember, she ran
for school board not long ago, did not win, and
then she actually spoke during the RNC up in Milwaukee
and she and she actually took the stage and you know,
(02:52):
we interviewed her about it, and she spoke on behalf,
you know, praising Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So and it is very important.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Ninety nine times out of one hundred, I don't say this,
but this is important to the context of the situation.
She is African American, and you'll understand why I'm telling
you that she's African American momentarily. Well, first one, I
want tom just so the press confercise at about thirty
eight minutes today, so you're only gonna hear a short
snippet from A net Allbright right now, and then I'm
(03:20):
going to give you some information that she gave me
and I'll relate.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It to you later as soon as she's done speaking.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So I want you to hear the first part of
this press conference with A net Albright talking about the
murders in Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I am a net Albright, and I come to you
today to speak to you about a very serious problem
that is plague in our community, and that is the homicide,
the juvenile homicide of black males in this city and
now also merging over to taking the lives of black
females on October the twelfth, we had Joelle Kaliska and
(03:57):
I'm hoping I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Eighteen years old,
October the thirteen. Then Trevion Hobbes twenty three years old.
October the first, Alexander Martinez sixteen years old. September to
twenty first, Jeremiah Gonzales sixteen years old, September the seventeenth,
(04:23):
Jace Edwards four years old. August the twenty fifth, Tyshawan
Stokes sixteen years old. And the thing that is most
disturbing about the homicide of Tyshan Stokes is that sixteens
were arrested. The ages of those teens were fourteen to
(04:45):
sixteen years old. So we have a problem with you
violence in this city. It's a problem that's often hushed
away and people don't want to talk about, but it's
having a big impact on our city and the lives
of the juveniles in this city. What is the cause
(05:06):
of gun violence? We often hear so many times we
need the root cause, we need the root cause. We
know the root cause. The root cause of gun violence
is solving conflicts with guns, lifestyle choices and firearms improperly stored,
getting into the hands of our youth and even our children.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So she spoke for several more minutes, and we're gonna
hear other parts of the press conference later, but I
want she went on to discuss some stats, and this
is according to CNPD, of those murdered, ninety percent are minority, Black, Hispanic,
or Asian. And I don't know if any Asians have
(05:51):
been murdered, so it would be primarily black. And I
want to say, like last year, something like sixty four
percent of those murdered in charlotteasty or black victims. But
ninety percent of those murdered so far in Charlotte are minority. Okay,
that's according to CMPD. Now she should also know that
(06:12):
she went on to talk about and it's a very
interesting thing.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
She went on to talk about how poverty people like.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
To blame poverty for the reasons that there's people who
are committing crimes or murder or whatever. And she threw
out this stat and I asked her later on where
she got it, and she gave it to me. So
from twenty twenty, from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two,
the census data, Okay, in Charlotte fourteen percent of Blacks
(06:44):
in Charlotte live at the poverty level or below poverty
live in poverty, six percent white live in poverty, and
nineteen percent Hispanics they all live in poverty, nineteen percent.
So Annette was saying, well, if that's the correlation, then
we should have way more Hispanic people committing murder and
(07:05):
being murdered if you're basing it solely on the poverty level.
And I thought that was a very good point. It
was a very very good point that she brought up.
And she talked about that and so again it's and
her big thing is youth violence, and she.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Will talk about how do you know, how are.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You as a mother not knowing that your children have
assault weapons? How is that even possible? And the problem
is it's all too common. And this was one of
the things that Ernest Winston when he was the former
superintendent of CMS, he missed the mark on this pretty bad.
And it's from this aspect.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
All.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Remember, it wasn't that long ago, what three years ago,
that thirty guns were seized or found on a CMS
campus in one year, one school year.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Thirty guns.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I promise you that's probably up there near I would
bet that's top five nationally. I would might even be
the highest nationally in terms of school districts. So he
has a thing and he puts out a video saying
parents need to sit down and have dinner with their
children and.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
All of that and ask them about their day and.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
You know, pay attention to what they're looking at on
the internet, and you know, take part of their children's lives.
While that's all good, so many of these children don't
have parents. They're being raised by their grandmothers or grandparents,
their aunts or uncles, or their cousins or neighbors down
the street because their dad's in jail or their mom
(08:47):
is cracked out, what are just not around either or
in jail possibly, So these kids, they're being raised by
the streets. So to sit down at dinner time and
then talk about your child's day, So what did you
learn in social studies today? That's not happening. So many
(09:09):
of these people can't do that. So that is the
big problem right there. Yes, parents need to get involved,
but a lot of times they're not, which leads to
other things. Or a lot of times they can't because
they are either homeless, the parents are homeless or and
the kids are just trying to survive, or the dad's
(09:31):
in jail, or the moms cracked out or working on
the street.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Corner, whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So there are a lot of big issues going on,
and this is a big thing in the people. Poverty
doesn't matter if they're Hispanic, white, or black. That happens
a lot in the world of poverty. So just to
ask parents to help out, that's not gonna happen. And
that's why Ernest Winston cast so much heat for saying
(09:57):
something like that, because it wasn't reality. When we come back,
you're gonna hear other parts of the press conference, including
people running for office in Charlotte and a very passionate
speech that I really think you should listen to from
the mother of someone who her son was killed earlier
this year and just a random, random shooting and her
(10:19):
son was killed earlier this year. Welcome back to Breaking
with Brett Jensen on this Wednesday night. Okay, So the
press conference today, make GP along with people running for
office as well as the mothers of two slain youngsters,
(10:41):
spoke today in front of the government's building, the Government Center,
I should say, in Uptown to talk.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
About this particular situation.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So what I did was because the press conference is
like thirty eight minutes long, so I took bits and
pieces of it and put it together. And but before
each person speaks, you will hear their name or their introduction,
so you know who they are. That being said, here's
how the press conference went.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
City councilmen Edwin Peacock to give you a few words.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Think, if there's anything that we've learned in this tragedy,
that we know that public safety is and always will
be our number one priority. So I hope that Democrats
and Republicans, particularly my colleagues on the City Council, can
come together after this election to begin to address the
very serious situations that we have seen develop since this murder.
(11:28):
Abdul has pointed out obviously consecutive weekends of senseless murders
here in Uptown Charlotte and across this region. And this
must stop. Everyone, and I mean state, local, and county.
We all are responsible in this situation. And so it's
incumbent upon elected officials in both our city Council and
(11:49):
our County Commission and our local state delegation to begin
to work together to address the gaps that we know exist.
The gaps exist between law, law enforcement, prosecutors and clearly sentencing.
How do we fill those gaps? And the end of
the day, ladies and gentlemen, public safety does not need
(12:11):
to be partisan. We need to be focusing on fixing
problems and finding solutions.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Chairman of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party, Kyle Kirby.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
How many more have to die before this city council
wakes up, before the mayor realizes what she is doing
is not working. We have to hold the county and
city leaders responsible for these deaths. Charlotte is clearly in
a crisis. Crime is out of control, and families are
afraid to walk the streets at night. Businesses are closing early,
(12:43):
and police officers are demoralized and do not have the
tools which they need in order to effectively police this city.
Republicans are standing here today because we refuse to accept
this reality.
Speaker 9 (12:56):
My name's Terry Donovan, and I am the Republican candidate
for mayor. Race is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans.
This race is about wrong versus right. This race is
about good versus evil. It's about delusion versus common sense.
You know, many of my best friends are Democrats, and
guess what they're voting for me, They're voting for change.
(13:19):
The media has divided us so much that there's some
people that are way far right and some that are
way far left. But I personally believe that, like me,
most of us live somewhere in between. And until we
can all get on board and acknowledge that and Stipe
stop with the divisive rhetoric, we're never going to take
(13:39):
stops forward in Charlotte. Enough is enough At this.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Point, I would like to bring up Claudia him away.
Speaker 10 (13:46):
I would like to know when our law abiden citizens
laws be protected when with our Declaration of independence uphold
is declarations that we have the right to life and
enjoy the fruits of our labor. My labor was my
twenty two year old son I no longer get to
enjoy as he was ambushed and gunned down at a
(14:06):
residential pool by people he didn't know, nor did they know.
Don Quavian, who goes to a pool going to do
a good deed and expect your life to be taken
by murder? Lastly, why does a murderer mom get to
see feet and write her murdering son. When I ain't
no longer get any of that from my innocent, law abiding,
(14:27):
public servant son. Don Quavia's win with lawmakers think about
victims and realize this is a pain forever. My son
was killed twenty nineteen. It feels like yesterday, and that
spoke don Quavians had four more siblings. I have to
watch my children grieve, you know, when they're sick. I
(14:48):
used to take them to the doctor that get wounded.
I could put a band ind over that wound. That
Now that they're grieving their younger brother, there's nothing I
could do. There's nothing that I can do, and I
hate that. When will humanity matter? When will humanity matter?
When when human lives matter? When would they stop thinking
(15:09):
about the killer and his family? Like I said, she
gets to see her child. She gets to see her child.
What's their purpose of half loss if everybody can just
break them and get out. I worked hard to teach
my children respect and to be good citizens. But there
was another mother who didn't do the same. And that's
not fair. That is not fair. There are children sitting
(15:32):
in their cars being killed. There are children sleeping in
their homes being killed. Public safety is what I'm talking to.
And again, it's not an issue of poverty. Those boys
that ambush my son, they lived in three story homes,
drove nice cars. I sat in court one time with
the mother whose only son was murdered. The mother of
(15:54):
the killer taught her sons how to wash the DNA
from off their hands. The mother. The mother even had
the nerve to ask the judge because she have her
gun back, because it was registered and that was the
same gun that her two sons used to kill this
innocent boy, to rob him and kill him. The mother.
So these kids are not going back to a productive environment.
(16:16):
And it's important for judges to know that there's a
fifteen year old who at the time he was a juvenile.
He killed a young boy innocently. He did three years,
he got out, he shot four more people again this
past January and was arrested and back out again. But
you know, because he's a juvenile, nobody gets to know
that they're living against a cold blooded murderer. These mothers
(16:40):
have to take accountability for their children. If they can
get a driver's license, they can understand the laws of
the land. And I say that because you have court
advocates saying that juvenile's mans can't comprehend what they're doing
fifteen and CCOs, But yet they have permit, they have
driver's license, so how can they understand a yell to stop,
sign or not to go? They can understand it's time
(17:02):
to protect law of Biden's citizen.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
My name is a dual Ali, that's A d d
ul Ali. I am the chairman of the twelfth Congressional
District Republican Party. We just wanted to come out today and,
like I said, not only recognize the sixty days since
the senseless murder of Arena Zarutzka, but also to dismantle
this notion that Republicans don't care about what happens to
(17:26):
members of the black community. As a black man and
as a leader in the Republican Party, nothing could be
further from the truth. As a black man with a
black son and a black daughter who live and graduated
from Central from schools here in CMS, nothing could be
further from the truth. So to the members of the
black community of Charlotte, now is the time to vote
(17:47):
outside of that Democrat box. Now is the time for
you to vote for your values, to vote for your
safety and to vote to make a difference for your community.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
All right, So that was the press confence earlier today
at the govern I'm Center in Uptown Charlotte. As you
oc heard a lot of passionate pleas there. I condensed
it to about seven minutes worth of audio from a
thirty eight minute press conference. Just a lot of high
emotions going on, and a lot of people are still
upset and rightly so at what's happening and also what's
(18:17):
not happening in our court systems. All right, when we
come back, David will Stay, representative out of Union County,
is going to talk about the new congressional maps that
were passed today for the state of North Carolina. And
then coming up Melissa Merrill, who is the chair of
the Union County Commissioners. She will also join me to
talk about the big teacher walkout that happened in Union
(18:37):
County today. Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on
this Wednesday night, going up until seven o'clock. So some
big stuff happened up in Raleigh today that will actually
impact what happens in Washington, d C. So joining us
now to discuss this and tell us everything that happened
(18:58):
and why it happened is North ont of state Representative
David willis out of Union counties. So first of all,
I appreciate you joining us tonight. So and second of all,
they're not adding in an extra seat. North Carolina only
gets fourteen seats to go to Congress. So why did
you guys up in Raleigh decide at Passer cit in
sidate and today in the House. Why were the maps redrawn?
(19:20):
Why do you think the maps were withdrawn today?
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Well, I think it's very clear. I mean, I think
if you follow what's happening in California, you know they've
looked at changing a number of seats out there, and
you know, really flipping seven up to seven seats from
a you know, Republican to Democrat and then ultimately flipping
control of Congress. And so you know, in North Carolina
(19:46):
we have the ability, based on state statue, to redraw
the congressional maps at any time. And you know, in
order to help defend you know, what's happening in this
egregious over reach from California and Governor Newsom out there,
we decided to try to do what we can do
here in North Carolina and redraw We've got really two
seats that are being affected as District one and District
(20:09):
three at eastern North Carolina. And you know, they have
been drawn that they were more vertically aligned, if you will,
but you know, quite a far stretch just geographically trying
to capture the number of voters required for each district
in the existing maps. And so we looked at them
(20:31):
and said, you know what, there's some more compactness that
we can include in these. And so they're more horizontally
aligning out for the eastern part of the state from
north to south.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
And you know, we redrew those.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
We passed those in the House this week, and those
are the new maps that.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
We will be using in.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Six speak with North Carolina State Represented, David Willis, I
just want to let you know that your foold is
just barely going in in and out just a little bit,
so we'll continue here with you. So, did you get
a lot of pushback or a lot of feedback or like,
were the Democrats, you know, you know, stark raving mad
about this, I guess is a good way to put it.
Speaker 11 (21:10):
Oh, absolutely, I think you know, if you listen to
the day's you know, testimony over the last couple of
days and Committee and then hearings in the Senate and
the House. I mean, you've heard a lot of the
same talking points.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (21:23):
You know, we're alienating, alienating and disenfranchising certain voters, uh
and the will of the people of North Carolina. But
I think you know, clearly this is within our rights
as a state legislature. We are tasked withdrawing the maps,
and you know we've done what we felt like, you know,
we needed to do protect the citizens of North Carolina
from on a federal level, uh, and and protect them
(21:45):
from what's what's happening in California.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Speak with North Kinta state Representative David Willis.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Well, you know a lot of people will say that
the Democrats are being disingenuous because they jerry manner all
the time, whether it's in other states or even here
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Do you find that to be accurate?
Speaker 11 (22:02):
Oh? Absolutely. I think a lot of the testimony that
you heard today, you know on the House floor, a
lot of representatives from Mexlimburg County, from Wake County, from Guildford,
other counties have done everything they can within the local
municipal UH and judicial elections in their areas to make
it impossible for Republicans to win. I think, you know,
(22:23):
you look at Charlotte City Council, there's currently two seats
in there. I mean, if they went off of proportionment,
you'd be looking at an additional two or three seats
that would be Republican. The Mecklenburg County commissioners have zero
Republicans right now, and you know, nobody seems to have
any problems with that same thing in Wait County. Nobody
(22:44):
seems to have any problems with that. You know, they
they in Meximburg, for example, in the judicial races, they
went out of their way a couple of years ago
to ensure that the two or three judicial seats that
we had, you know, were impossible to win. And so
you know, it's all you know, political theater. It's hypocritical.
And if you go back and you look at the
maps that we have today, and there's really three requirements.
(23:07):
There's compactness, there's the Voter Rights Act, and then the
lines must be contiguous. And you look at the last
maps that the Democrats true when they were in office.
I mean, that's the very definition of terry mannering. When
you're you've got an High eighty five corridor. Uh, you
know that one district that ran basically from Seanotte Greensboro
(23:30):
about three to five miles you know, east to west,
all along eighty five.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I mean that was an impact on map, right, I
mean and why was that none? That was the specifically to.
Speaker 11 (23:40):
One person there in office and so h it's all
hYP hypocritical.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
And and you know we've we've done this, you know,
in in in the uh you know, in the open
up you went an opportunity to way in on this,
and you know, we we've gone through this and unfortunately,
you know, the court system, you know, the retraws that
we've had to do a subliberal judgments over the last
few years. I mean, we we've kind.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Of gotten experienced with this, and you know we've been
redrawing more often than we would like to. I mean
typically you do it every ten years, but you know,
this time we fell off. We needed to do it
to combat what's happening in California.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
North kind of state Representative David Willis out of Union County.
I really do appreciate you joining us tonight, especially on
such short notice.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Absolutely thanks Brett.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
All Right, everyone, that's going to do it for the representative.
Mister Willis, appreciate him. Obviously we had a little bit
of phone issues with him bouncing in and out. But
the reason I kept it going because I could understand
what he was saying. I could make out what he
was saying. It wasn't perfectly clear, but I think everyone
could understand what he was saying. And here's the best part.
If you could understand what he was saying, go back
(24:47):
to WBT dot com later on and you'll be able
to go back and listen to the interview that we
just completed with North kind of state Representative David Willis.
All right, when we return, we're going to have Union
County Commissioner the chair Melissa Merrill joined us to talk
about the wildness that took place in Union County today.
(25:08):
And it all started with the county commissioners when they
started passing budgets for the school board and then the
school board opted not to give the money that they
said they were going to give to the teachers. So
what the teachers do today, About seven hundred of them
called in sick. We go back to breaking with Brad
(25:42):
Jensen going up until seven o'clock tonight. All right, so
joining we just finished with again North Kinta state Representative
David Willis out of Union County and joining us now
is the chair of the Union County County head. The
chair let's try that one more time of the Union
County Commissioners, Melissa Merrill. So, first of all, thank you
(26:04):
for joining me on short notice. And uh, second of all,
it was quite the day with about approximately seven hundred
teachers in Union County public schools calling in sick today
in protest of stipends being not received. So I'm just
gonna like walk the listeners through this who may not
know what's going on. Maybe they're in Gaston County, Ierdale
(26:26):
County or Mechlmore County.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So I'm just gonna walk.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It through the through the from the beginning to end.
So the not too long ago, a few months ago,
you guys passed a budget for the Union County's public schools,
and in that was supposed to potentially be included in stipends.
But I'm gonna let you take it from there and
just walk us through the process.
Speaker 12 (26:49):
So in April, during the budget planning process, on the
Board of Commissioners and the County Manager, we had a
joint meeting with the Board of Education and the superintendent
to begin budget conversations before they had to give them
plenty of time to get their numbers together and their
(27:10):
requests finalized before they were required to turn it into
the county by mass atteints. So in April, the County
Manager and our commissioners informed them in April that we
had collected enough tax revenue that we would be able
to give the schools an additional eight point six million
(27:35):
dollars in this year's budget. And so they knew April, May, June, July, August, September, October,
they've known that they would receive more than one hundred
and forty million dollars in operations, which you know they had,
(28:01):
which was eight point eight million dollars more than they
got in operations or last year. So the conversations that
our commissioners had with the Board of Education, they had
originally asked or indicated that they wanted to do a
two thousand dollars increase to their current supplement. The current
(28:25):
supplement from the county is six thousand, three hundred and
forty one dollars. So their original request was to do
a two thousand dollars increase, and we had conversations that,
you know, if they voted and chose to do that,
that would absorb most of the eight point eight million
(28:49):
dollars because it would take about seven and a half
million dollars to do a two thousand dollars increase, and
historically the Board of Education has done a one thousand
dollars increase in years past, and so we told them
that we thought, you know, they if they wanted to
(29:11):
do the two thousand dollars increase, they certainly could, but
they would not be able to do some of the
other projects on their list. But if they chose to
do the one thousand dollars in prease, they would be
able to do some of the other items on their
request with that extra eight point eight million dollars that
(29:33):
they would be receiving. And lo and behold, the money
gets sent over to UCPS in July, and we just
moved on with, you know, business as usual until I
got a screen shot from a teacher. I think it
(29:55):
was October second. I got a screen shot following a
Teacher Advisory Council meeting saying that the teacher that had
been indicated in their minutes. The teachers were told they
would not be getting the two thousand dollars increase because
the county commissioners did not vote and approve it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So with that being said, so let me ter up
real quick, sorry about that. So speaking with Melissa Merrill,
who is the chair of the Union County Commissioners. So,
you guys pass it, You give the money to the
Union County School District. They can do whatever they want
to with that money, like you have no say so
and how they use that money.
Speaker 12 (30:35):
Correct, That is correct by general statue North Carolina general statue.
Once we send them the money, the Board of Education
can allocate that money however they please. And we were
shocked to learn in October that they had decided to
hold on to the money and they did not do
(30:58):
the teacher increase in July or August, which we had
assumed they had done because of conversations our staff had
had with UCPS staff, and we were stunned that they
had not done the teacher increase that we had talked
about for many months.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Well, and so you guys pass that, you give it
to them, they do nothing with it. And then they
tend to like basically try to blame you for the
root cause of this.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Is that correct?
Speaker 12 (31:28):
Correct? That is exactly what happened. So I immediately sent
the screenshot to doctor Hulahan, the superintendent, and I said,
this is not accurate, you know. Can you please have
this retracted and corrected to the Teacher Advisory Committee and
send it out to all schools because by general statute,
(31:53):
we ended up putting this in our letter to the
superintendent and the Board of Education on October tenth. By
state law, we can't vote on and approve a two
thousand dollars increase because we can't tell them to do that.
But it was their decision to hold on to the
money and not do an increase at all. And so yesterday,
(32:19):
I think because of some of the heat that they
have received from teachers and parents in the county, which led,
unfortunately to the walkout today when when they found when
I think they found out we sent the money, but
the Board of Education and the superintendent and the CFO
(32:40):
were holding on to the money. And what they were
saying is they were holding onto the money to wait
and see what happens with the state budget. But I
disagreed with that because that was county money, county tax
dollars intended for a county teacher supplement, which has nothing
to do with the state budget. That is a county
(33:04):
supplement to hire, recruit, and retain teachers in Union County.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Well, I mean, so set in protest today apparently wanting
the two thousand dollars. That's seven hundred teachers or thereabouts
walked out today in are called in sick i should say,
today in Union County, and it, you know, caused a
lot of disarray because you know, teachers in North Carolina
are not allowed to strike, but so they did a
sick day today. So well, and so then you know,
(33:31):
the the Union County Public Schools decided that hey, you know,
we're going to give them one thousand dollars after all.
So but again, I do appreciate you coming on and
joining me on such late notice because we are up
against the end of the show here. But again, thank
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 12 (33:46):
You're so welcome, my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
All right, So that is Melissa Merrill, who is the
chair of the Union County Commissioners, talking about that wild
scene going on in Union County today. All right, that's
going to do it for us tonight. If you missed
any part of tonight show, make sure go to WBT
dot com and check it out. They're all right there,
coming up next to TJ Ritchie. My name is Brett Jensen,
and you've been listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen
Hi, oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh,
Let's come loose.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Talk eleven ten and ninety nine three.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
WBT Brett Jensen here with you on this Wednesday night
edition of Breaking with Bret Jensen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
As we go up until seven o'clock tonight, and we've
got a big, big, big show for you installed tonight.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Union County teachers, seven hundred of them called in sick
today in protest of not getting county supplements from the
school board.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And we will talk to the head.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The chair of the Union County commissioners who approved this
money several months ago, and that the school board never
allotted or gave to the teachers. So and they sort
of threw the county under the bus. And so the
county has been fighting back in Union County. So where
we are going to have the head of the Mecca,
excuse me, of the Union County, the Union County Board
(01:24):
of Commissioners on tonight because I mean, seven hundred teachers,
like I know a lot of people that actually kept
their kids home because of all this stuff tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So it's Melissa Merrill. She will be joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Also joining us will be North count of state Representative
David Willis, who happens to serve Union County. But we're
not going to talk to him about the school teachers
and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We're going to.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Talk to David Willis about the new congressional maps that
were passed today. Finally, in yesterday the Senate and today
the House passed the new congressional maps. So I'm going
to talk to him about that, like, how can this happen?
Why did it happen? All that good stuff. So again,
David Wilson be joining us and Melissa Merrill be joining.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Us later as well.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
But we're gonna start off tonight with a press conference
that's happened this morning and it was put on by
the MECHGP and you had the Republican candidates that were
running for office, as well as the moms of two
people that were murdered, two youngsters that were murdered in
Charlotte earlier this year. But what we're gonna do, First
(02:32):
of all, I'm gonna you're gonna hear a net Albright.
A net Albright, in case you don't remember, she ran
for school board not long ago, did not win, and
then she actually spoke during the RNC up in Milwaukee
and she and she actually took the stage and you know,
(02:52):
we interviewed her about it, and she spoke on behalf,
you know, praising Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So and it is very important.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Ninety nine times out of one hundred, I don't say this,
but this is important to the context of the situation.
She is African American, and you'll understand why I'm telling
you that she's African American momentarily. Well, first one, I
want tom just so the press confercise at about thirty
eight minutes today, so you're only gonna hear a short
snippet from A net Allbright right now, and then I'm
(03:20):
going to give you some information that she gave me
and I'll relate.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It to you later as soon as she's done speaking.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So I want you to hear the first part of
this press conference with A net Albright talking about the
murders in Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I am a net Albright, and I come to you
today to speak to you about a very serious problem
that is plague in our community, and that is the homicide,
the juvenile homicide of black males in this city and
now also merging over to taking the lives of black
females on October the twelfth, we had Joelle Kaliska and
(03:57):
I'm hoping I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Eighteen years old,
October the thirteen. Then Trevion Hobbes twenty three years old.
October the first, Alexander Martinez sixteen years old. September to
twenty first, Jeremiah Gonzales sixteen years old, September the seventeenth,
(04:23):
Jace Edwards four years old. August the twenty fifth, Tyshawan
Stokes sixteen years old. And the thing that is most
disturbing about the homicide of Tyshan Stokes is that sixteens
were arrested. The ages of those teens were fourteen to
(04:45):
sixteen years old. So we have a problem with you
violence in this city. It's a problem that's often hushed
away and people don't want to talk about, but it's
having a big impact on our city and the lives
of the juveniles in this city. What is the cause
(05:06):
of gun violence? We often hear so many times we
need the root cause, we need the root cause. We
know the root cause. The root cause of gun violence
is solving conflicts with guns, lifestyle choices and firearms improperly stored,
getting into the hands of our youth and even our children.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So she spoke for several more minutes, and we're gonna
hear other parts of the press conference later, but I
want she went on to discuss some stats, and this
is according to CNPD, of those murdered, ninety percent are minority, Black, Hispanic,
or Asian. And I don't know if any Asians have
(05:51):
been murdered, so it would be primarily black. And I
want to say, like last year, something like sixty four
percent of those murdered in charlotteasty or black victims. But
ninety percent of those murdered so far in Charlotte are minority. Okay,
that's according to CMPD. Now she should also know that
(06:12):
she went on to talk about and it's a very
interesting thing.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
She went on to talk about how poverty people like.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
To blame poverty for the reasons that there's people who
are committing crimes or murder or whatever. And she threw
out this stat and I asked her later on where
she got it, and she gave it to me. So
from twenty twenty, from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two,
the census data, Okay, in Charlotte fourteen percent of Blacks
(06:44):
in Charlotte live at the poverty level or below poverty
live in poverty, six percent white live in poverty, and
nineteen percent Hispanics they all live in poverty, nineteen percent.
So Annette was saying, well, if that's the correlation, then
we should have way more Hispanic people committing murder and
(07:05):
being murdered if you're basing it solely on the poverty level.
And I thought that was a very good point. It
was a very very good point that she brought up.
And she talked about that and so again it's and
her big thing is youth violence, and she.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Will talk about how do you know, how are.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You as a mother not knowing that your children have
assault weapons? How is that even possible? And the problem
is it's all too common. And this was one of
the things that Ernest Winston when he was the former
superintendent of CMS, he missed the mark on this pretty bad.
And it's from this aspect.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
All.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Remember, it wasn't that long ago, what three years ago,
that thirty guns were seized or found on a CMS
campus in one year, one school year.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Thirty guns.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I promise you that's probably up there near I would
bet that's top five nationally. I would might even be
the highest nationally in terms of school districts. So he
has a thing and he puts out a video saying
parents need to sit down and have dinner with their
children and.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
All of that and ask them about their day and.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
You know, pay attention to what they're looking at on
the internet, and you know, take part of their children's lives.
While that's all good, so many of these children don't
have parents. They're being raised by their grandmothers or grandparents,
their aunts or uncles, or their cousins or neighbors down
the street because their dad's in jail or their mom
(08:47):
is cracked out, what are just not around either or
in jail possibly, So these kids, they're being raised by
the streets. So to sit down at dinner time and
then talk about your child's day, So what did you
learn in social studies today? That's not happening. So many
(09:09):
of these people can't do that. So that is the
big problem right there. Yes, parents need to get involved,
but a lot of times they're not, which leads to
other things. Or a lot of times they can't because
they are either homeless, the parents are homeless or and
the kids are just trying to survive, or the dad's
(09:31):
in jail, or the moms cracked out or working on
the street.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Corner, whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So there are a lot of big issues going on,
and this is a big thing in the people. Poverty
doesn't matter if they're Hispanic, white, or black. That happens
a lot in the world of poverty. So just to
ask parents to help out, that's not gonna happen. And
that's why Ernest Winston cast so much heat for saying
(09:57):
something like that, because it wasn't reality. When we come back,
you're gonna hear other parts of the press conference, including
people running for office in Charlotte and a very passionate
speech that I really think you should listen to from
the mother of someone who her son was killed earlier
this year and just a random, random shooting and her
(10:19):
son was killed earlier this year. Welcome back to Breaking
with Brett Jensen on this Wednesday night. Okay, So the
press conference today, make GP along with people running for
office as well as the mothers of two slain youngsters,
(10:41):
spoke today in front of the government's building, the Government Center,
I should say, in Uptown to talk.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
About this particular situation.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So what I did was because the press conference is
like thirty eight minutes long, so I took bits and
pieces of it and put it together. And but before
each person speaks, you will hear their name or their introduction,
so you know who they are. That being said, here's
how the press conference went.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
City councilmen Edwin Peacock to give you a few words.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Think, if there's anything that we've learned in this tragedy,
that we know that public safety is and always will
be our number one priority. So I hope that Democrats
and Republicans, particularly my colleagues on the City Council, can
come together after this election to begin to address the
very serious situations that we have seen develop since this murder.
(11:28):
Abdul has pointed out obviously consecutive weekends of senseless murders
here in Uptown Charlotte and across this region. And this
must stop. Everyone, and I mean state, local, and county.
We all are responsible in this situation. And so it's
incumbent upon elected officials in both our city Council and
(11:49):
our County Commission and our local state delegation to begin
to work together to address the gaps that we know exist.
The gaps exist between law, law enforcement, prosecutors and clearly sentencing.
How do we fill those gaps? And the end of
the day, ladies and gentlemen, public safety does not need
(12:11):
to be partisan. We need to be focusing on fixing
problems and finding solutions.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
Chairman of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party, Kyle Kirby.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
How many more have to die before this city council
wakes up, before the mayor realizes what she is doing
is not working. We have to hold the county and
city leaders responsible for these deaths. Charlotte is clearly in
a crisis. Crime is out of control, and families are
afraid to walk the streets at night. Businesses are closing early,
(12:43):
and police officers are demoralized and do not have the
tools which they need in order to effectively police this city.
Republicans are standing here today because we refuse to accept
this reality.
Speaker 9 (12:56):
My name's Terry Donovan, and I am the Republican candidate
for mayor. Race is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans.
This race is about wrong versus right. This race is
about good versus evil. It's about delusion versus common sense.
You know, many of my best friends are Democrats, and
guess what they're voting for me, They're voting for change.
(13:19):
The media has divided us so much that there's some
people that are way far right and some that are
way far left. But I personally believe that, like me,
most of us live somewhere in between. And until we
can all get on board and acknowledge that and Stipe
stop with the divisive rhetoric, we're never going to take
(13:39):
stops forward in Charlotte. Enough is enough At this.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Point, I would like to bring up Claudia him away.
Speaker 10 (13:46):
I would like to know when our law abiden citizens
laws be protected when with our Declaration of independence uphold
is declarations that we have the right to life and
enjoy the fruits of our labor. My labor was my
twenty two year old son I no longer get to
enjoy as he was ambushed and gunned down at a
(14:06):
residential pool by people he didn't know, nor did they know.
Don Quavian, who goes to a pool going to do
a good deed and expect your life to be taken
by murder? Lastly, why does a murderer mom get to
see feet and write her murdering son. When I ain't
no longer get any of that from my innocent, law abiding,
(14:27):
public servant son. Don Quavia's win with lawmakers think about
victims and realize this is a pain forever. My son
was killed twenty nineteen. It feels like yesterday, and that
spoke don Quavians had four more siblings. I have to
watch my children grieve, you know, when they're sick. I
(14:48):
used to take them to the doctor that get wounded.
I could put a band ind over that wound. That
Now that they're grieving their younger brother, there's nothing I
could do. There's nothing that I can do, and I
hate that. When will humanity matter? When will humanity matter?
When when human lives matter? When would they stop thinking
(15:09):
about the killer and his family? Like I said, she
gets to see her child. She gets to see her child.
What's their purpose of half loss if everybody can just
break them and get out. I worked hard to teach
my children respect and to be good citizens. But there
was another mother who didn't do the same. And that's
not fair. That is not fair. There are children sitting
(15:32):
in their cars being killed. There are children sleeping in
their homes being killed. Public safety is what I'm talking to.
And again, it's not an issue of poverty. Those boys
that ambush my son, they lived in three story homes,
drove nice cars. I sat in court one time with
the mother whose only son was murdered. The mother of
(15:54):
the killer taught her sons how to wash the DNA
from off their hands. The mother. The mother even had
the nerve to ask the judge because she have her
gun back, because it was registered and that was the
same gun that her two sons used to kill this
innocent boy, to rob him and kill him. The mother.
So these kids are not going back to a productive environment.
(16:16):
And it's important for judges to know that there's a
fifteen year old who at the time he was a juvenile.
He killed a young boy innocently. He did three years,
he got out, he shot four more people again this
past January and was arrested and back out again. But
you know, because he's a juvenile, nobody gets to know
that they're living against a cold blooded murderer. These mothers
(16:40):
have to take accountability for their children. If they can
get a driver's license, they can understand the laws of
the land. And I say that because you have court
advocates saying that juvenile's mans can't comprehend what they're doing
fifteen and CCOs, But yet they have permit, they have
driver's license, so how can they understand a yell to stop,
sign or not to go? They can understand it's time
(17:02):
to protect law of Biden's citizen.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
My name is a dual Ali, that's A d d
ul Ali. I am the chairman of the twelfth Congressional
District Republican Party. We just wanted to come out today and,
like I said, not only recognize the sixty days since
the senseless murder of Arena Zarutzka, but also to dismantle
this notion that Republicans don't care about what happens to
(17:26):
members of the black community. As a black man and
as a leader in the Republican Party, nothing could be
further from the truth. As a black man with a
black son and a black daughter who live and graduated
from Central from schools here in CMS, nothing could be
further from the truth. So to the members of the
black community of Charlotte, now is the time to vote
(17:47):
outside of that Democrat box. Now is the time for
you to vote for your values, to vote for your
safety and to vote to make a difference for your community.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
All right, So that was the press confence earlier today
at the govern I'm Center in Uptown Charlotte. As you
oc heard a lot of passionate pleas there. I condensed
it to about seven minutes worth of audio from a
thirty eight minute press conference. Just a lot of high
emotions going on, and a lot of people are still
upset and rightly so at what's happening and also what's
(18:17):
not happening in our court systems. All right, when we
come back, David will Stay, representative out of Union County,
is going to talk about the new congressional maps that
were passed today for the state of North Carolina. And
then coming up Melissa Merrill, who is the chair of
the Union County Commissioners. She will also join me to
talk about the big teacher walkout that happened in Union
(18:37):
County today. Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on
this Wednesday night, going up until seven o'clock. So some
big stuff happened up in Raleigh today that will actually
impact what happens in Washington, d C. So joining us
now to discuss this and tell us everything that happened
(18:58):
and why it happened is North ont of state Representative
David willis out of Union counties. So first of all,
I appreciate you joining us tonight. So and second of all,
they're not adding in an extra seat. North Carolina only
gets fourteen seats to go to Congress. So why did
you guys up in Raleigh decide at Passer cit in
sidate and today in the House. Why were the maps redrawn?
(19:20):
Why do you think the maps were withdrawn today?
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Well, I think it's very clear. I mean, I think
if you follow what's happening in California, you know they've
looked at changing a number of seats out there, and
you know, really flipping seven up to seven seats from
a you know, Republican to Democrat and then ultimately flipping
control of Congress. And so you know, in North Carolina
(19:46):
we have the ability, based on state statue, to redraw
the congressional maps at any time. And you know, in
order to help defend you know, what's happening in this
egregious over reach from California and Governor Newsom out there,
we decided to try to do what we can do
here in North Carolina and redraw We've got really two
seats that are being affected as District one and District
(20:09):
three at eastern North Carolina. And you know, they have
been drawn that they were more vertically aligned, if you will,
but you know, quite a far stretch just geographically trying
to capture the number of voters required for each district
in the existing maps. And so we looked at them
(20:31):
and said, you know what, there's some more compactness that
we can include in these. And so they're more horizontally
aligning out for the eastern part of the state from
north to south.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
And you know, we redrew those.
Speaker 11 (20:42):
We passed those in the House this week, and those
are the new maps that.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
We will be using in.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Six speak with North Carolina State Represented, David Willis, I
just want to let you know that your foold is
just barely going in in and out just a little bit,
so we'll continue here with you. So, did you get
a lot of pushback or a lot of feedback or like,
were the Democrats, you know, you know, stark raving mad
about this, I guess is a good way to put it.
Speaker 11 (21:10):
Oh, absolutely, I think you know, if you listen to
the day's you know, testimony over the last couple of
days and Committee and then hearings in the Senate and
the House. I mean, you've heard a lot of the
same talking points.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (21:23):
You know, we're alienating, alienating and disenfranchising certain voters, uh
and the will of the people of North Carolina. But
I think you know, clearly this is within our rights
as a state legislature. We are tasked withdrawing the maps,
and you know we've done what we felt like, you know,
we needed to do protect the citizens of North Carolina
from on a federal level, uh, and and protect them
(21:45):
from what's what's happening in California.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Speak with North Kinta state Representative David Willis.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Well, you know a lot of people will say that
the Democrats are being disingenuous because they jerry manner all
the time, whether it's in other states or even here
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Do you find that to be accurate?
Speaker 11 (22:02):
Oh? Absolutely. I think a lot of the testimony that
you heard today, you know on the House floor, a
lot of representatives from Mexlimburg County, from Wake County, from Guildford,
other counties have done everything they can within the local
municipal UH and judicial elections in their areas to make
it impossible for Republicans to win. I think, you know,
(22:23):
you look at Charlotte City Council, there's currently two seats
in there. I mean, if they went off of proportionment,
you'd be looking at an additional two or three seats
that would be Republican. The Mecklenburg County commissioners have zero
Republicans right now, and you know, nobody seems to have
any problems with that same thing in Wait County. Nobody
(22:44):
seems to have any problems with that. You know, they
they in Meximburg, for example, in the judicial races, they
went out of their way a couple of years ago
to ensure that the two or three judicial seats that
we had, you know, were impossible to win. And so
you know, it's all you know, political theater. It's hypocritical.
And if you go back and you look at the
maps that we have today, and there's really three requirements.
(23:07):
There's compactness, there's the Voter Rights Act, and then the
lines must be contiguous. And you look at the last
maps that the Democrats true when they were in office.
I mean, that's the very definition of terry mannering. When
you're you've got an High eighty five corridor. Uh, you
know that one district that ran basically from Seanotte Greensboro
(23:30):
about three to five miles you know, east to west,
all along eighty five.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I mean that was an impact on map, right, I
mean and why was that none? That was the specifically to.
Speaker 11 (23:40):
One person there in office and so h it's all
hYP hypocritical.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
And and you know we've we've done this, you know,
in in in the uh you know, in the open
up you went an opportunity to way in on this,
and you know, we we've gone through this and unfortunately,
you know, the court system, you know, the retraws that
we've had to do a subliberal judgments over the last
few years. I mean, we we've kind.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Of gotten experienced with this, and you know we've been
redrawing more often than we would like to. I mean
typically you do it every ten years, but you know,
this time we fell off. We needed to do it
to combat what's happening in California.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
North kind of state Representative David Willis out of Union County.
I really do appreciate you joining us tonight, especially on
such short notice.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Absolutely thanks Brett.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
All Right, everyone, that's going to do it for the representative.
Mister Willis, appreciate him. Obviously we had a little bit
of phone issues with him bouncing in and out. But
the reason I kept it going because I could understand
what he was saying. I could make out what he
was saying. It wasn't perfectly clear, but I think everyone
could understand what he was saying. And here's the best part.
If you could understand what he was saying, go back
(24:47):
to WBT dot com later on and you'll be able
to go back and listen to the interview that we
just completed with North kind of state Representative David Willis.
All right, when we return, we're going to have Union
County Commissioner the chair Melissa Merrill joined us to talk
about the wildness that took place in Union County today.
(25:08):
And it all started with the county commissioners when they
started passing budgets for the school board and then the
school board opted not to give the money that they
said they were going to give to the teachers. So
what the teachers do today, About seven hundred of them
called in sick. We go back to breaking with Brad
(25:42):
Jensen going up until seven o'clock tonight. All right, so
joining we just finished with again North Kinta state Representative
David Willis out of Union County and joining us now
is the chair of the Union County County head. The
chair let's try that one more time of the Union
County Commissioners, Melissa Merrill. So, first of all, thank you
(26:04):
for joining me on short notice. And uh, second of all,
it was quite the day with about approximately seven hundred
teachers in Union County public schools calling in sick today
in protest of stipends being not received. So I'm just
gonna like walk the listeners through this who may not
know what's going on. Maybe they're in Gaston County, Ierdale
(26:26):
County or Mechlmore County.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So I'm just gonna walk.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It through the through the from the beginning to end.
So the not too long ago, a few months ago,
you guys passed a budget for the Union County's public schools,
and in that was supposed to potentially be included in stipends.
But I'm gonna let you take it from there and
just walk us through the process.
Speaker 12 (26:49):
So in April, during the budget planning process, on the
Board of Commissioners and the County Manager, we had a
joint meeting with the Board of Education and the superintendent
to begin budget conversations before they had to give them
plenty of time to get their numbers together and their
(27:10):
requests finalized before they were required to turn it into
the county by mass atteints. So in April, the County
Manager and our commissioners informed them in April that we
had collected enough tax revenue that we would be able
to give the schools an additional eight point six million
(27:35):
dollars in this year's budget. And so they knew April, May, June, July, August, September, October,
they've known that they would receive more than one hundred
and forty million dollars in operations, which you know they had,
(28:01):
which was eight point eight million dollars more than they
got in operations or last year. So the conversations that
our commissioners had with the Board of Education, they had
originally asked or indicated that they wanted to do a
two thousand dollars increase to their current supplement. The current
(28:25):
supplement from the county is six thousand, three hundred and
forty one dollars. So their original request was to do
a two thousand dollars increase, and we had conversations that,
you know, if they voted and chose to do that,
that would absorb most of the eight point eight million
(28:49):
dollars because it would take about seven and a half
million dollars to do a two thousand dollars increase, and
historically the Board of Education has done a one thousand
dollars increase in years past, and so we told them
that we thought, you know, they if they wanted to
(29:11):
do the two thousand dollars increase, they certainly could, but
they would not be able to do some of the
other projects on their list. But if they chose to
do the one thousand dollars in prease, they would be
able to do some of the other items on their
request with that extra eight point eight million dollars that
(29:33):
they would be receiving. And lo and behold, the money
gets sent over to UCPS in July, and we just
moved on with, you know, business as usual until I
got a screen shot from a teacher. I think it
(29:55):
was October second. I got a screen shot following a
Teacher Advisory Council meeting saying that the teacher that had
been indicated in their minutes. The teachers were told they
would not be getting the two thousand dollars increase because
the county commissioners did not vote and approve it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So with that being said, so let me ter up
real quick, sorry about that. So speaking with Melissa Merrill,
who is the chair of the Union County Commissioners. So,
you guys pass it, You give the money to the
Union County School District. They can do whatever they want
to with that money, like you have no say so
and how they use that money.
Speaker 12 (30:35):
Correct, That is correct by general statue North Carolina general statue.
Once we send them the money, the Board of Education
can allocate that money however they please. And we were
shocked to learn in October that they had decided to
hold on to the money and they did not do
(30:58):
the teacher increase in July or August, which we had
assumed they had done because of conversations our staff had
had with UCPS staff, and we were stunned that they
had not done the teacher increase that we had talked
about for many months.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Well, and so you guys pass that, you give it
to them, they do nothing with it. And then they
tend to like basically try to blame you for the
root cause of this.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Is that correct?
Speaker 12 (31:28):
Correct? That is exactly what happened. So I immediately sent
the screenshot to doctor Hulahan, the superintendent, and I said,
this is not accurate, you know. Can you please have
this retracted and corrected to the Teacher Advisory Committee and
send it out to all schools because by general statute,
(31:53):
we ended up putting this in our letter to the
superintendent and the Board of Education on October tenth. By
state law, we can't vote on and approve a two
thousand dollars increase because we can't tell them to do that.
But it was their decision to hold on to the
money and not do an increase at all. And so yesterday,
(32:19):
I think because of some of the heat that they
have received from teachers and parents in the county, which led,
unfortunately to the walkout today when when they found when
I think they found out we sent the money, but
the Board of Education and the superintendent and the CFO
(32:40):
were holding on to the money. And what they were
saying is they were holding onto the money to wait
and see what happens with the state budget. But I
disagreed with that because that was county money, county tax
dollars intended for a county teacher supplement, which has nothing
to do with the state budget. That is a county
(33:04):
supplement to hire, recruit, and retain teachers in Union County.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Well, I mean, so set in protest today apparently wanting
the two thousand dollars. That's seven hundred teachers or thereabouts
walked out today in are called in sick i should say,
today in Union County, and it, you know, caused a
lot of disarray because you know, teachers in North Carolina
are not allowed to strike, but so they did a
sick day today. So well, and so then you know,
(33:31):
the the Union County Public Schools decided that hey, you know,
we're going to give them one thousand dollars after all.
So but again, I do appreciate you coming on and
joining me on such late notice because we are up
against the end of the show here. But again, thank
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 12 (33:46):
You're so welcome, my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
All right, So that is Melissa Merrill, who is the
chair of the Union County Commissioners, talking about that wild
scene going on in Union County today. All right, that's
going to do it for us tonight. If you missed
any part of tonight show, make sure go to WBT
dot com and check it out. They're all right there,
coming up next to TJ Ritchie. My name is Brett Jensen,
and you've been listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen
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