July 21, 2025 • 27 mins
Tune in here to this Monday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by talking about the close of municipal election filing and the unexpected drama unfolding within the CMS school board races. Brett dives into the political infighting in Districts 1 and 6, where multiple Democrats are running against each other—an unusual twist in local races.
Jensen then sits down with Tony Mecia, founder and executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger, to discuss the eye-opening report on CMS board politics and potential conflicts of interest involving key district figures. The conversation centers on a top advisor to CMS Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill, who is backing candidates against current board members who voted against awarding a $500,000 CMS contract to his wife.
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen
To be the first to hear about Breaking Brett Jensen's exclusives and more follow him on X @Brett_Jensen!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi, Oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh,
Let's come the.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Blues Talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT Brett
Jensen here with you on this Monday night edition of
Breaking with Brett Jenson, as we're going up until seven
o'clock tonight, seven oh four five, seven eleven ten, And guys,
make sure you follow me on X at Brett Underscore
Jensen for all the letters and breaking news in and
around the Charlotte area. And if you follow me on
X then you'll understand some of the stuff that we're
(00:54):
talking about tonight. Because the municipal finally for municipal elections
is finally over two weeks. It was nine and a
half days that you could file to run for municipal elections,
nine and a half days. It ended at twelve noon
as opposed to one noon, but I guess they say
(01:15):
twelve noon ended at noon on Friday. And there were
some surprises, not some surprises. And we're gonna look at
a lot of the things as we get into some
of the stuff going on, whether it's Matthews, whether it's
the wildness that's going on in Huntersville right now, there's
(01:39):
other things going on, you know, whether it's Charlotte City Council,
whether it's mayor for Charlotte mayor for Matthews mayor for
Cornelius mayor for Huntersville. Some a lot of interesting things,
not just in Charlotte, but in the surrounding areas the
here in Mecklinburg County, And if you're not a resident
of lumber County, some of these things will still be
(02:03):
of interest to you because it's a oh let me
watch others implode to make sure our community doesn't implode.
So again, this isn't just a Meclimberg County thing. So
we're going to get into all of that throughout the
course of the week. Tonight, we're going to focus heavily
(02:25):
on school board specifically two or three races, but really
two races. There is a third, but that's of importance,
of great importance, but not happening to the levels of
what we're seeing here. You guys know that I like
to use the term republican on republican crime, Democrat on
(02:50):
Democrat crime, right, And every time I say that, people
get a chuckle out of it. But this is what's
going on for once, because usually it's Republicans eating their own,
whether it's up in Congress, and they're always running new
Speakers of the House or Republicans here locally or at
(03:10):
the state levels, just constantly going against each other. When
Democrats are like an army and they do what they're
told and they don't get out of line. They wear
what they're told, they have like actual talking points, and
they're told what to say, and they rarely get out
of line, rarely on occasion, but rarely. Well, now what's
(03:32):
going on with CMS school Board District one North Mecklimber
County incumbent Melissa Easley, She's a Democrat. You have the
Republican Bill Fountain, and then you've got another Democrat and
it's a Charlita Hatch. Well, so now you've got two
(03:53):
Democrats and one Republican. And by the way, there's no primary.
They all go on the ballot in November and you
just pick who you want and maybe the Democrats will
split the vote, who knows, and then Bill Fountain will
sneak in through the back way and get it like
who knows. And then in District six you have and
I totally apologize if I mispronounced his name, Tony Emil
(04:18):
E M E h E l Woman, Anna London and
Justin Sheeley. Justin is the lone Republican. The other two
women are Democrats. But it's how did they end up
with two Democrats in each race? Because a right hand
man and very instrumental in getting the superintendent, doctor Crystal
(04:43):
Hill her post, is backing Charlita and Anna London. He's
getting paid thirteen thousand dollars a year as an independent
contractor to work for CMS and dot Com Hill right,
and he was the one extremely important into getting her
(05:05):
her job of over three hundred thousand dollars a year. Oh,
by the way, did I mention that Rocky McGregor's wife,
his name is Rocky McGregor. Did I mention that his
wife is just got a five hundred thousand dollars contract
with CMS. Well, they voted on it the school board
and just purely by coincidence. Nothing to see here, ladies
(05:29):
and gentlemen, purely by coincidence. The three women that voted
against his wife getting a five hundred thousand dollars contract
with CMS. No, nothing, nothing, you know, nothing going on here,
Nothing to see here, ladies and gentlemen. Christa Hill's right
hand man. His wife is now getting a five hundred
(05:50):
thousand dollars contract, So he's getting thirteen thousand dollars a month,
and so that's one hundred and forty six, one hundred
and fifty two thousand dollars one hundred and forty six
fifty six, one hundred and what fifty nine thousand dollars
a year, and then she got a five hundred thousand
dollars contract. His wife. He's backing Charlita and Anna London
(06:14):
against two women who voted against his wife getting the
contract on the school board summer nine said, you know what,
I'm not running. You know what the fact that a
Democrat in my own district is running against me because
someone within CMS doesn't want me there because they're upset
that I voted against his wife. I'm out. I'm out.
(06:37):
And whether or not she said that, I guarantee you
she thought that guaranteed. Same thing with Melissa easily. Melissa's like,
you know what, I'll stick it out. I'll stick it out. Well,
there's a big story about this today and I've been
hearing about this for a while. And Tony Mussia of
the Charlotte Ledger he's the founder and the executive editor
(06:57):
of the Charlotte Ledger, which is a great publication. By
the way, he's going to be joining us next because
he wrote a very in depth story about all of this.
So when we return, Tony Mescia, founder and executive editor
of the Charlotte Ledger, to talk about how members of CMS,
high ranking officials of CMS are backing opponents to get
(07:19):
rid of people that voted against someone's wife and a
five hundred thousand dollars contract. All that coming up next.
Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen seven oh four five,
seven h eleven ten, and again follow me on x
at Brett Underscore Jensen for the latest in breaking news
(07:42):
in and around the Charlotte area. And again, if you
do that, then you would understand that Tony Marcia, who
is the founder and executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger,
is on the line with us now. So first of all, Tony,
I really do appreciate you joining us tonight.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Always good to be on with Breaking Brett.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Thanks Bud. All right, so you wrote a very in depth,
a very in depth piece for the Charlotte Ledger today
about the CMS school board and the people that filed
for election, including one incumbent, one term person, some or
none down in District sixth Charlotte, which is not filing
(08:22):
for re election. And I just explained I just explained
some of the nuts and bolts of the previous segment
of the previous segment, So I don't necessarily want you
to dive into everything, but I do want you to
dive into some of this. And you know the article itself.
When you first heard about this as a reporter, why
(08:42):
did you think this was an interesting story?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well, Brett, kind of like you, I've been in this
community for a while and it seemed unusual to me
to have somebody so close to in this case, the
superintendent or somebody who's supervised by a local board to
have them actually be involved to some extent in sort
of picking and picking winners and losers on who is
going to be on that board. So that struck me
(09:08):
as kind of unusual. And then on top of that,
you have this layer of you know, you have an
individual with very close ties to the business community, to
the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. You know, the CEOs of
some of the biggest companies in Charlotte. And then you
have this whole other issue about the contract that some
there was a dispute over among board members about his wife.
(09:30):
So you have all of these sort of factors kind
of swirling together, and I said, well, I think maybe
we need to kind of look at this a little bit,
because it's very unusual. You know, if you have if
you're talking about the city, for example, if you had
Marcus Jones, if one of Marcus Jones' top advisors was
out there, you know, getting involved in political campaigns for
members of city council, that would I think raise some questions,
(09:51):
right because you know, Marcus Jones reports to the city council.
So here, you know, you have the superintendent, Crystal Hill,
who reports the school board, has someone kind of close
to her who's basically helping kind of choose for bosses.
So that struck me as a little bit unusual.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, and on top of that, and we're talking with
Tony Mescia, the founder and executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger,
which is truly and I'm not just saying this is
truly one of my favorite publications here in the Charlotte
metro area that not only is and The person that
we're talking about is Rocky McGregor and who used to
be at Novant. But and you know, depending on who
you believe, he either got laid off or he got fired,
(10:27):
or he resigned whatever, but used to be at Novant
is no longer at Novant. But the fact that he's
on the board of Anna London's community, you know, Charlotte
Works program. She's the one running for District six. He's
on her board, her company board and now is getting
(10:48):
her to run. So you're gonna have at a top
advisor who's on the board of a particular potential Charlotte
School board member. There seems to be eighteen thousand different
ways of conflict of interest here.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, there's certainly, you know, I mean there's certainly a
lot of influence. I think that you know that he
has on the Shoal Executive Leadership Council, you know, has
had you know, they have this Executives in Residence program
where they put executives into CMS to you know, to
help with the operations of CMS. And you know, I
don't I don't think anybody has any problem without using
outside business expertise to come in to help a you know,
(11:21):
a public entity like the school board or the school system.
But it's you know, it's just sort of hard to
know you know who, you know, who is who's running
the show, right, I mean the school board is the
ones who we all elect and so you know, they
they make the decisions, and so I think it's important
to sort of point out, well, who is making the
decisions at the district level and what is there, what
(11:42):
is their level of influence and you know, anytime they
get involved in a in a political campaign, you know,
I think that's worth I think that's worth looking at.
So that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, some or none. In District six, a Democrat said,
you know what, I'm not running after Rocky McGregor is
openly supporting Anna London and you have so I have
another woman and I and I know I mispronounced her name,
but Tony Emil, I don't know if that's how you
pronounce it. She's running a District six as well. But
up in District one, which is the North Mecklenburg section,
Melissa easily even though Charlita Hatch was put up there
(12:16):
also to run against her, uh, with you know, Rocky
McGregor supporting her, she decided to stay in the race,
and you had a chance to talk to him, Lissa,
Why did she decide to stay in the race when
Summer Nune got out of it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Well, I think she is she feels like, you know,
she still has work to do. And she says, listen,
you know, I asked, I asked questions, and you know,
she was elected by the people, so I mean, she
didn't feel like she was going to be you know,
forced out. I mean, I think she said, she told
me she's very proud of her record. I will say
I did talk to Trela Hatch and she also said
she denied that she was recruited by Rocky mcgregorka. This
(12:53):
is something the decision, this decision that she made, and
you know, she you know, has a lifelong CMS connections
that sort of thing, and she did acknowledge that Rocky
McGregor was there at the you know, when she signed
up to run. But you know, she she said, you know,
she's her own person as well. So but I think
I'm less easily. I mean, I think I think she
(13:13):
sort of welcomes the debate and the chance to kind
of you know, get the information out and then see
what the voters want to do.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But it would be foolish to think it's purely by
coincidence that the three women who voted against the contract
of Rocky McGregor's wife for five hundred thousand dollars that
all of a sudden, just purely by coincidence, they were
getting candidates that were maybe not handpicked, but maybe it
was hand picked with Anna London, but at the same
point supported by Rocky McGregor. I don't think it'd be
(13:43):
I think it'd be hard to find that as coincidental.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Well, it does, you know eventually, you know, you get
enough pieces of information and you start to scratch her
head and say, well, what what's the most obvious explanation here?
I mean, you know, I don't think there's a smoking
gun necessarily, but you know, it does. Eventually the pieces
of information start to add up.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And so the other person was District five, and that
was Lisa Kleine. But what what can you tell us
about the opponent of Lisa Kline, the Loan Republican on
the CMS school board, right.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, so her opponent is a retired piecher. I exchanged
some emails with her and Lisa Kline's opponent told me
that she, you know, she has nothing to do with
Rocky McGregor, and she actually thinks she pointed out, she said,
I think Rocky McGregor is trying to knock off people
who ask too many questions and who ask hard questions.
That's what she told me. And she said, I'm not
(14:34):
part of that group. I have nothing to do with him.
She said, I'm somebody who, uh, you know, who asks
hard questions and so, so you know, it does. I
don't have any evidence. I haven't seen anything that suggests
that she's part of this as well, but you know,
it's uh, you know. Then she said she wasn't, so
you know, would take her at her word.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Well, like I said, the fact that you put this
out there and I put on X, I don't know,
like like fifteen miss for You're getting ready to come
on and or fifteen miss for the show started, and
I said, this is a great story, extremely well done
by you, And I wondered, I wondered on Twitter on
the tweet that posted, I wonder how many other media
(15:16):
outlets will try and pick this up because it is
a very important story and the fact that you put
it out there first is absolutely kudos to you, and
that's why I wanted to have you on immediately. So
nice joll, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You know, as you know, it is a complicated story.
There's a lot, you know, it's hard to explain in
a sound bite, It's hard to explain in a headline.
But I think it's an important story, and I mean
it goes to you know, who's who's running the school district.
You know, what are some of the political forces at play.
You know, sometimes the school board doesn't get a lot
of attention. I know obviously, you know, Brett, You've broken
a lot of stories, broken a lot of news on
(15:48):
the school board. But you know, in the media environment
we're in Charlotte, a lot of times, you know, there
are a lot of people paying attention. So you know,
who knows where the story goes from here. But you know,
we'll keep following it. I'm sure you will too.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Real quick to before we get out of here, Tony
Mica the showt Ledger. Tell people how they can sign
up for the Charlotte Ledger.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
You can go to v Charlotte Ledger dot com. Just
trying to do smart local news. We have sort of
a sort of a business orientation sometimes and we also
cover local politics, nonprofits, a little bit of everything, try
and keep it interesting. But yeah, v Charlotte Ledger dot com.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Thanks a lot, Tony Mesicia, the Charlotte Ledger founder and
executive editor. I really do appreciate your time tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Thanks Brett.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
You need Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen. Once again,
I want to thank Tony Mescia of the Charlotte Ledger,
the founder and executive editor of the SHOWT Ledger, for
joining me to talk about the CMS stuff. And again
(17:00):
it's it's not saying that anything is wrong, not saying
that anything is illegal. I'm gonna make that clear, but
the optics of it are horrific. And a lot of
times where there's smoke, there's a big, giant fire. Not always,
(17:24):
but a lot. And the conflict of interest seems it
feels like it goes without question. How you're going to
have the right hand man, an advisor to the superintendent
(17:44):
who is backing at least one, if not two candidates
running for school board against people that voted against his
wife getting a five hundred thousand dollars contract with CMS
and his wife's company. Oh and by the way he
just also happens to be on the board of one
(18:06):
of the women's businesses that he picked. You would have
to be foolish to think that doesn't just look awful
and dirty or whatever you want to call it. Conflict
of interest. There are a million definitions to think that
it doesn't look like that is just stupid or you're
(18:28):
just lying to yourself and lying to the public. And
Anna London's knee deep in this knee deep She's the
CEO of Charlotte Works, and there's a lot of questions
about that as well, and her candidacy to be on
a CMS school board, a lot of questions about that.
And then the person on her board at Charlotte Works
(18:50):
all just happens to be the person backing her, who
also just happens to be the right hand man for
the superintendent, whose wife also just happened to be getting
a five hundred thousand dollars contract, and who is supporting
people that voted against his wife. Really, you don't think
that looks just awful? Again, I am not saying anything
(19:14):
happened that was illegal or anything like that. And by
the way, for the second time in a row, I
want to apologize for us coming back so damn late.
I want to apologize for like, damn near a nine
minute commercial break. That's inexcusable, So thank you, no ten
minute thanks, thanks Isaac. Inexcusable. So anyways, but all that
(19:41):
being said, I don't know. We'll see what happens come
We'll see what happens come November, because again they don't
have primaries in the school board. You could have eighty
seven people on the ballot for one district in theory,
because there aren't primaries come November, just all on the ballot.
(20:03):
And the Anna London situation and the char Leader Hatch situation,
maybe the two Democrats will split the votes and justice
will be served. And if it were two Republicans and
the same thing happened with the Republican, I'd say the
exact same thing. Maybe the two Republicans would split the
(20:25):
vote and the Democrat would get in. Because again, perception
is reality, and if you're not smart enough to realize that,
then you have no business being in the world of politics,
or you have no business being an advisor to anybody
if you don't realize that perception is reality. Just as
CNPD over the last six months about the crime stats
(20:47):
going down, But perception is Charlotte's a dangerous city and
compared in last year in twenty twenty four, Charlotte was
a horrible city. Balleunce wise. I mean, everything's going to
be down compared to last year's stats. During the first
six months, you had fifty nine murders. Last year you
got forty two. Now, well, look we're getting better. We've
(21:10):
only got forty two. Yeah that you're still on pace
for over eighty murders, which which honestly would be a
miracle in the city of Charlotte. If we're under ninety
murders in the city of Charlotte, that's nothing short of
a miracle. But last year, at this time through June thirtieth,
we had fifty nine, which meant you were on pace
(21:31):
for one hundred and eighteen murders. So anything is going
to be down compared to last year anything. So my
point is perception. Ask CMPD about perception. They're constantly talking
about Charlotte is safe. Look at the numbers, Look at
the numbers. It doesn't matter. It's perception because everyone knows
what Charlotte went through in twenty twenty four. Same thing
(21:53):
with Anna London, Charlotte Works, Rocky McGregor, and doctor Crystal Hill.
The fact that Krista Hill maybe didn't know about this.
So it's two things. Either Christa Hill didn't know about
this and I would be furious, or she did know
about this and I would be furious. Hey, let's just
we just want to you know, we're just here to
(22:15):
try and get along and help the kids. Oh and
by the way, just make sure sort of like a
anyone who didn't vote for my wife getting a five
hundred thousand dollars contract, I'm going to try and get
out of here. I'm just saying, but not saying anything illegal. Nothing.
(22:37):
Nothing seems to be illegal or anything like that. So
I'm not saying there was, but it just looks horrible
and it looks like there's eighty seven thousand ways this
might be a conflict of interest. And if you don't
think that's reality, then then you honestly don't have a
(22:58):
grasp on reality. Welcome back to Breaking with Bret Jensen
(23:20):
on this Monday night, seven oh four, five, seven oh
eleven ten. All right, so I'm gonna geek out on
you guys a little bit like I used to do.
Back in my old sports days. I don't know why,
but for the first time in about six seven years.
And believe me, what I'm about to say is gonna
(23:41):
sound like a total geek, and I get it. But
I have watched with intent every single Sharlotut Hornet Similargue
game in Las Vegas because I wanted to see what
their four draft picks were gonna do. And I wanted
(24:01):
to see how Konker Nipple, the player that they took
number four overall out of Duke, if he was going
to be able to, you know, get a shot off,
be this And I'll grant it. I get it. They're
going against rookies and second year players who's in the
summer league, cookies and second year players, and a lot
of the players are either going to be overseas because
(24:21):
they're not going to make the NBA, or they're gonna
be in the minor leagues the G League as they
call it, or they're gonna be working at Burger King, Right,
I get it. But these are still very athletic people,
good enough to be on an NBA summer roster, like
an NFL training camp roster. These are still better than
(24:47):
ninety eight percent of the people that are playing college
ninety nine percent of the people playing college. And the
Charlotte Hornets won the Summer League championship last night, and
they were blowing teams out. I mean they were beating
them like a fool. But more than that, more than that,
(25:07):
kN k Nipple, the player out of Duke that they
drafted number four overall, he got Summer League MVP. Summer
League MVP. Now there's like two or three different summer
leagues that go on in the country. This one was
in Las Vegas, and that's the one that the Hornets
go to every year. And they won the championship last night.
(25:29):
And telling you what, there, there's there's reason to be excited.
And what I mean by excited don't expect fifty wins,
but I mean with some of the trades that they
made and some of the freges signings, there's no reason.
(25:51):
Like right now, I will tell you this, look, gambling
is legal in North Carolina, and I love the fact
that they like that. I think the over under for
the Charlotte Horns is something like twenty eight twenty eight
wins and like fifty four losses. I think is like
what Vegas has them at somewhere around and there. I
(26:12):
don't see how they're not higher than that. They got
guys who can flat out shoot for the first time
in about fifteen years, actually maybe even longer than since
before the Hornets moved to New Orleans it became the
New Orleans Pelicans. That's how long it's been since they've
(26:33):
had people who could actually shoot a lot of people.
These these people can flat out shoot. And while they
may lose games, and they may only win thirty five games,
they're going to be exciting to watch. I'm and I
tell you what a lot of the national media they're
getting high on the Hornets right now. They're lacking these
(26:53):
draft picks. I saw something earlier today outgoing how the
Hornets may have actually have wound up having the the
actual best draft in the entire NBA this past year
because of the four people they selected. So I'm I'm
looking forward to it that starts in October, starts in October.
All right, everyone that's going to do it for us
(27:15):
tonight again. Thanks to Tony Mescia, the founder and executive
editor of the Charlotte Ledger, for joining us. Make sure
you go check out the Charlotte Observer dot com or
excuse me, not the Charlotte Sserver. I want to make
sure I say that, do not check out the Charlotte
was the Charlotte Ledger dot com. Go check him out there,
executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger, for a great story
he did on CMS. All right, everyone, so until tomorrow.
(27:35):
My name is Brett Jenson, and you have been listening
to Breaking with Brett Jenson
Hi, Oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh,
Let's come the.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Blues Talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT Brett
Jensen here with you on this Monday night edition of
Breaking with Brett Jenson, as we're going up until seven
o'clock tonight, seven oh four five, seven eleven ten, And guys,
make sure you follow me on X at Brett Underscore
Jensen for all the letters and breaking news in and
around the Charlotte area. And if you follow me on
X then you'll understand some of the stuff that we're
(00:54):
talking about tonight. Because the municipal finally for municipal elections
is finally over two weeks. It was nine and a
half days that you could file to run for municipal elections,
nine and a half days. It ended at twelve noon
as opposed to one noon, but I guess they say
(01:15):
twelve noon ended at noon on Friday. And there were
some surprises, not some surprises. And we're gonna look at
a lot of the things as we get into some
of the stuff going on, whether it's Matthews, whether it's
the wildness that's going on in Huntersville right now, there's
(01:39):
other things going on, you know, whether it's Charlotte City Council,
whether it's mayor for Charlotte mayor for Matthews mayor for
Cornelius mayor for Huntersville. Some a lot of interesting things,
not just in Charlotte, but in the surrounding areas the
here in Mecklinburg County, And if you're not a resident
of lumber County, some of these things will still be
(02:03):
of interest to you because it's a oh let me
watch others implode to make sure our community doesn't implode.
So again, this isn't just a Meclimberg County thing. So
we're going to get into all of that throughout the
course of the week. Tonight, we're going to focus heavily
(02:25):
on school board specifically two or three races, but really
two races. There is a third, but that's of importance,
of great importance, but not happening to the levels of
what we're seeing here. You guys know that I like
to use the term republican on republican crime, Democrat on
(02:50):
Democrat crime, right, And every time I say that, people
get a chuckle out of it. But this is what's
going on for once, because usually it's Republicans eating their own,
whether it's up in Congress, and they're always running new
Speakers of the House or Republicans here locally or at
(03:10):
the state levels, just constantly going against each other. When
Democrats are like an army and they do what they're
told and they don't get out of line. They wear
what they're told, they have like actual talking points, and
they're told what to say, and they rarely get out
of line, rarely on occasion, but rarely. Well, now what's
(03:32):
going on with CMS school Board District one North Mecklimber
County incumbent Melissa Easley, She's a Democrat. You have the
Republican Bill Fountain, and then you've got another Democrat and
it's a Charlita Hatch. Well, so now you've got two
(03:53):
Democrats and one Republican. And by the way, there's no primary.
They all go on the ballot in November and you
just pick who you want and maybe the Democrats will
split the vote, who knows, and then Bill Fountain will
sneak in through the back way and get it like
who knows. And then in District six you have and
I totally apologize if I mispronounced his name, Tony Emil
(04:18):
E M E h E l Woman, Anna London and
Justin Sheeley. Justin is the lone Republican. The other two
women are Democrats. But it's how did they end up
with two Democrats in each race? Because a right hand
man and very instrumental in getting the superintendent, doctor Crystal
(04:43):
Hill her post, is backing Charlita and Anna London. He's
getting paid thirteen thousand dollars a year as an independent
contractor to work for CMS and dot Com Hill right,
and he was the one extremely important into getting her
(05:05):
her job of over three hundred thousand dollars a year. Oh,
by the way, did I mention that Rocky McGregor's wife,
his name is Rocky McGregor. Did I mention that his
wife is just got a five hundred thousand dollars contract
with CMS. Well, they voted on it the school board
and just purely by coincidence. Nothing to see here, ladies
(05:29):
and gentlemen, purely by coincidence. The three women that voted
against his wife getting a five hundred thousand dollars contract
with CMS. No, nothing, nothing, you know, nothing going on here,
Nothing to see here, ladies and gentlemen. Christa Hill's right
hand man. His wife is now getting a five hundred
(05:50):
thousand dollars contract, So he's getting thirteen thousand dollars a month,
and so that's one hundred and forty six, one hundred
and fifty two thousand dollars one hundred and forty six
fifty six, one hundred and what fifty nine thousand dollars
a year, and then she got a five hundred thousand
dollars contract. His wife. He's backing Charlita and Anna London
(06:14):
against two women who voted against his wife getting the
contract on the school board summer nine said, you know what,
I'm not running. You know what the fact that a
Democrat in my own district is running against me because
someone within CMS doesn't want me there because they're upset
that I voted against his wife. I'm out. I'm out.
(06:37):
And whether or not she said that, I guarantee you
she thought that guaranteed. Same thing with Melissa easily. Melissa's like,
you know what, I'll stick it out. I'll stick it out. Well,
there's a big story about this today and I've been
hearing about this for a while. And Tony Mussia of
the Charlotte Ledger he's the founder and the executive editor
(06:57):
of the Charlotte Ledger, which is a great publication. By
the way, he's going to be joining us next because
he wrote a very in depth story about all of this.
So when we return, Tony Mescia, founder and executive editor
of the Charlotte Ledger, to talk about how members of CMS,
high ranking officials of CMS are backing opponents to get
(07:19):
rid of people that voted against someone's wife and a
five hundred thousand dollars contract. All that coming up next.
Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen seven oh four five,
seven h eleven ten, and again follow me on x
at Brett Underscore Jensen for the latest in breaking news
(07:42):
in and around the Charlotte area. And again, if you
do that, then you would understand that Tony Marcia, who
is the founder and executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger,
is on the line with us now. So first of all, Tony,
I really do appreciate you joining us tonight.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Always good to be on with Breaking Brett.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Thanks Bud. All right, so you wrote a very in depth,
a very in depth piece for the Charlotte Ledger today
about the CMS school board and the people that filed
for election, including one incumbent, one term person, some or
none down in District sixth Charlotte, which is not filing
(08:22):
for re election. And I just explained I just explained
some of the nuts and bolts of the previous segment
of the previous segment, So I don't necessarily want you
to dive into everything, but I do want you to
dive into some of this. And you know the article itself.
When you first heard about this as a reporter, why
(08:42):
did you think this was an interesting story?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Well, Brett, kind of like you, I've been in this
community for a while and it seemed unusual to me
to have somebody so close to in this case, the
superintendent or somebody who's supervised by a local board to
have them actually be involved to some extent in sort
of picking and picking winners and losers on who is
going to be on that board. So that struck me
(09:08):
as kind of unusual. And then on top of that,
you have this layer of you know, you have an
individual with very close ties to the business community, to
the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. You know, the CEOs of
some of the biggest companies in Charlotte. And then you
have this whole other issue about the contract that some
there was a dispute over among board members about his wife.
(09:30):
So you have all of these sort of factors kind
of swirling together, and I said, well, I think maybe
we need to kind of look at this a little bit,
because it's very unusual. You know, if you have if
you're talking about the city, for example, if you had
Marcus Jones, if one of Marcus Jones' top advisors was
out there, you know, getting involved in political campaigns for
members of city council, that would I think raise some questions,
(09:51):
right because you know, Marcus Jones reports to the city council.
So here, you know, you have the superintendent, Crystal Hill,
who reports the school board, has someone kind of close
to her who's basically helping kind of choose for bosses.
So that struck me as a little bit unusual.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, and on top of that, and we're talking with
Tony Mescia, the founder and executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger,
which is truly and I'm not just saying this is
truly one of my favorite publications here in the Charlotte
metro area that not only is and The person that
we're talking about is Rocky McGregor and who used to
be at Novant. But and you know, depending on who
you believe, he either got laid off or he got fired,
(10:27):
or he resigned whatever, but used to be at Novant
is no longer at Novant. But the fact that he's
on the board of Anna London's community, you know, Charlotte
Works program. She's the one running for District six. He's
on her board, her company board and now is getting
(10:48):
her to run. So you're gonna have at a top
advisor who's on the board of a particular potential Charlotte
School board member. There seems to be eighteen thousand different
ways of conflict of interest here.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, there's certainly, you know, I mean there's certainly a
lot of influence. I think that you know that he
has on the Shoal Executive Leadership Council, you know, has
had you know, they have this Executives in Residence program
where they put executives into CMS to you know, to
help with the operations of CMS. And you know, I
don't I don't think anybody has any problem without using
outside business expertise to come in to help a you know,
(11:21):
a public entity like the school board or the school system.
But it's you know, it's just sort of hard to
know you know who, you know, who is who's running
the show, right, I mean the school board is the
ones who we all elect and so you know, they
they make the decisions, and so I think it's important
to sort of point out, well, who is making the
decisions at the district level and what is there, what
(11:42):
is their level of influence and you know, anytime they
get involved in a in a political campaign, you know,
I think that's worth I think that's worth looking at.
So that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, some or none. In District six, a Democrat said,
you know what, I'm not running after Rocky McGregor is
openly supporting Anna London and you have so I have
another woman and I and I know I mispronounced her name,
but Tony Emil, I don't know if that's how you
pronounce it. She's running a District six as well. But
up in District one, which is the North Mecklenburg section,
Melissa easily even though Charlita Hatch was put up there
(12:16):
also to run against her, uh, with you know, Rocky
McGregor supporting her, she decided to stay in the race,
and you had a chance to talk to him, Lissa,
Why did she decide to stay in the race when
Summer Nune got out of it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Well, I think she is she feels like, you know,
she still has work to do. And she says, listen,
you know, I asked, I asked questions, and you know,
she was elected by the people, so I mean, she
didn't feel like she was going to be you know,
forced out. I mean, I think she said, she told
me she's very proud of her record. I will say
I did talk to Trela Hatch and she also said
she denied that she was recruited by Rocky mcgregorka. This
(12:53):
is something the decision, this decision that she made, and
you know, she you know, has a lifelong CMS connections
that sort of thing, and she did acknowledge that Rocky
McGregor was there at the you know, when she signed
up to run. But you know, she she said, you know,
she's her own person as well. So but I think
I'm less easily. I mean, I think I think she
(13:13):
sort of welcomes the debate and the chance to kind
of you know, get the information out and then see
what the voters want to do.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But it would be foolish to think it's purely by
coincidence that the three women who voted against the contract
of Rocky McGregor's wife for five hundred thousand dollars that
all of a sudden, just purely by coincidence, they were
getting candidates that were maybe not handpicked, but maybe it
was hand picked with Anna London, but at the same
point supported by Rocky McGregor. I don't think it'd be
(13:43):
I think it'd be hard to find that as coincidental.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Well, it does, you know eventually, you know, you get
enough pieces of information and you start to scratch her
head and say, well, what what's the most obvious explanation here?
I mean, you know, I don't think there's a smoking
gun necessarily, but you know, it does. Eventually the pieces
of information start to add up.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And so the other person was District five, and that
was Lisa Kleine. But what what can you tell us
about the opponent of Lisa Kline, the Loan Republican on
the CMS school board, right.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, so her opponent is a retired piecher. I exchanged
some emails with her and Lisa Kline's opponent told me
that she, you know, she has nothing to do with
Rocky McGregor, and she actually thinks she pointed out, she said,
I think Rocky McGregor is trying to knock off people
who ask too many questions and who ask hard questions.
That's what she told me. And she said, I'm not
(14:34):
part of that group. I have nothing to do with him.
She said, I'm somebody who, uh, you know, who asks
hard questions and so, so you know, it does. I
don't have any evidence. I haven't seen anything that suggests
that she's part of this as well, but you know,
it's uh, you know. Then she said she wasn't, so
you know, would take her at her word.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Well, like I said, the fact that you put this
out there and I put on X, I don't know,
like like fifteen miss for You're getting ready to come
on and or fifteen miss for the show started, and
I said, this is a great story, extremely well done
by you, And I wondered, I wondered on Twitter on
the tweet that posted, I wonder how many other media
(15:16):
outlets will try and pick this up because it is
a very important story and the fact that you put
it out there first is absolutely kudos to you, and
that's why I wanted to have you on immediately. So
nice joll, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You know, as you know, it is a complicated story.
There's a lot, you know, it's hard to explain in
a sound bite, It's hard to explain in a headline.
But I think it's an important story, and I mean
it goes to you know, who's who's running the school district.
You know, what are some of the political forces at play.
You know, sometimes the school board doesn't get a lot
of attention. I know obviously, you know, Brett, You've broken
a lot of stories, broken a lot of news on
(15:48):
the school board. But you know, in the media environment
we're in Charlotte, a lot of times, you know, there
are a lot of people paying attention. So you know,
who knows where the story goes from here. But you know,
we'll keep following it. I'm sure you will too.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Real quick to before we get out of here, Tony
Mica the showt Ledger. Tell people how they can sign
up for the Charlotte Ledger.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
You can go to v Charlotte Ledger dot com. Just
trying to do smart local news. We have sort of
a sort of a business orientation sometimes and we also
cover local politics, nonprofits, a little bit of everything, try
and keep it interesting. But yeah, v Charlotte Ledger dot com.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Thanks a lot, Tony Mesicia, the Charlotte Ledger founder and
executive editor. I really do appreciate your time tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Thanks Brett.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
You need Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen. Once again,
I want to thank Tony Mescia of the Charlotte Ledger,
the founder and executive editor of the SHOWT Ledger, for
joining me to talk about the CMS stuff. And again
(17:00):
it's it's not saying that anything is wrong, not saying
that anything is illegal. I'm gonna make that clear, but
the optics of it are horrific. And a lot of
times where there's smoke, there's a big, giant fire. Not always,
(17:24):
but a lot. And the conflict of interest seems it
feels like it goes without question. How you're going to
have the right hand man, an advisor to the superintendent
(17:44):
who is backing at least one, if not two candidates
running for school board against people that voted against his
wife getting a five hundred thousand dollars contract with CMS
and his wife's company. Oh and by the way he
just also happens to be on the board of one
(18:06):
of the women's businesses that he picked. You would have
to be foolish to think that doesn't just look awful
and dirty or whatever you want to call it. Conflict
of interest. There are a million definitions to think that
it doesn't look like that is just stupid or you're
(18:28):
just lying to yourself and lying to the public. And
Anna London's knee deep in this knee deep She's the
CEO of Charlotte Works, and there's a lot of questions
about that as well, and her candidacy to be on
a CMS school board, a lot of questions about that.
And then the person on her board at Charlotte Works
(18:50):
all just happens to be the person backing her, who
also just happens to be the right hand man for
the superintendent, whose wife also just happened to be getting
a five hundred thousand dollars contract, and who is supporting
people that voted against his wife. Really, you don't think
that looks just awful? Again, I am not saying anything
(19:14):
happened that was illegal or anything like that. And by
the way, for the second time in a row, I
want to apologize for us coming back so damn late.
I want to apologize for like, damn near a nine
minute commercial break. That's inexcusable, So thank you, no ten
minute thanks, thanks Isaac. Inexcusable. So anyways, but all that
(19:41):
being said, I don't know. We'll see what happens come
We'll see what happens come November, because again they don't
have primaries in the school board. You could have eighty
seven people on the ballot for one district in theory,
because there aren't primaries come November, just all on the ballot.
(20:03):
And the Anna London situation and the char Leader Hatch situation,
maybe the two Democrats will split the votes and justice
will be served. And if it were two Republicans and
the same thing happened with the Republican, I'd say the
exact same thing. Maybe the two Republicans would split the
(20:25):
vote and the Democrat would get in. Because again, perception
is reality, and if you're not smart enough to realize that,
then you have no business being in the world of politics,
or you have no business being an advisor to anybody
if you don't realize that perception is reality. Just as
CNPD over the last six months about the crime stats
(20:47):
going down, But perception is Charlotte's a dangerous city and
compared in last year in twenty twenty four, Charlotte was
a horrible city. Balleunce wise. I mean, everything's going to
be down compared to last year's stats. During the first
six months, you had fifty nine murders. Last year you
got forty two. Now, well, look we're getting better. We've
(21:10):
only got forty two. Yeah that you're still on pace
for over eighty murders, which which honestly would be a
miracle in the city of Charlotte. If we're under ninety
murders in the city of Charlotte, that's nothing short of
a miracle. But last year, at this time through June thirtieth,
we had fifty nine, which meant you were on pace
(21:31):
for one hundred and eighteen murders. So anything is going
to be down compared to last year anything. So my
point is perception. Ask CMPD about perception. They're constantly talking
about Charlotte is safe. Look at the numbers, Look at
the numbers. It doesn't matter. It's perception because everyone knows
what Charlotte went through in twenty twenty four. Same thing
(21:53):
with Anna London, Charlotte Works, Rocky McGregor, and doctor Crystal Hill.
The fact that Krista Hill maybe didn't know about this.
So it's two things. Either Christa Hill didn't know about
this and I would be furious, or she did know
about this and I would be furious. Hey, let's just
we just want to you know, we're just here to
(22:15):
try and get along and help the kids. Oh and
by the way, just make sure sort of like a
anyone who didn't vote for my wife getting a five
hundred thousand dollars contract, I'm going to try and get
out of here. I'm just saying, but not saying anything illegal. Nothing.
(22:37):
Nothing seems to be illegal or anything like that. So
I'm not saying there was, but it just looks horrible
and it looks like there's eighty seven thousand ways this
might be a conflict of interest. And if you don't
think that's reality, then then you honestly don't have a
(22:58):
grasp on reality. Welcome back to Breaking with Bret Jensen
(23:20):
on this Monday night, seven oh four, five, seven oh
eleven ten. All right, so I'm gonna geek out on
you guys a little bit like I used to do.
Back in my old sports days. I don't know why,
but for the first time in about six seven years.
And believe me, what I'm about to say is gonna
(23:41):
sound like a total geek, and I get it. But
I have watched with intent every single Sharlotut Hornet Similargue
game in Las Vegas because I wanted to see what
their four draft picks were gonna do. And I wanted
(24:01):
to see how Konker Nipple, the player that they took
number four overall out of Duke, if he was going
to be able to, you know, get a shot off,
be this And I'll grant it. I get it. They're
going against rookies and second year players who's in the
summer league, cookies and second year players, and a lot
of the players are either going to be overseas because
(24:21):
they're not going to make the NBA, or they're gonna
be in the minor leagues the G League as they
call it, or they're gonna be working at Burger King, Right,
I get it. But these are still very athletic people,
good enough to be on an NBA summer roster, like
an NFL training camp roster. These are still better than
(24:47):
ninety eight percent of the people that are playing college
ninety nine percent of the people playing college. And the
Charlotte Hornets won the Summer League championship last night, and
they were blowing teams out. I mean they were beating
them like a fool. But more than that, more than that,
(25:07):
kN k Nipple, the player out of Duke that they
drafted number four overall, he got Summer League MVP. Summer
League MVP. Now there's like two or three different summer
leagues that go on in the country. This one was
in Las Vegas, and that's the one that the Hornets
go to every year. And they won the championship last night.
(25:29):
And telling you what, there, there's there's reason to be excited.
And what I mean by excited don't expect fifty wins,
but I mean with some of the trades that they
made and some of the freges signings, there's no reason.
(25:51):
Like right now, I will tell you this, look, gambling
is legal in North Carolina, and I love the fact
that they like that. I think the over under for
the Charlotte Horns is something like twenty eight twenty eight
wins and like fifty four losses. I think is like
what Vegas has them at somewhere around and there. I
(26:12):
don't see how they're not higher than that. They got
guys who can flat out shoot for the first time
in about fifteen years, actually maybe even longer than since
before the Hornets moved to New Orleans it became the
New Orleans Pelicans. That's how long it's been since they've
(26:33):
had people who could actually shoot a lot of people.
These these people can flat out shoot. And while they
may lose games, and they may only win thirty five games,
they're going to be exciting to watch. I'm and I
tell you what a lot of the national media they're
getting high on the Hornets right now. They're lacking these
(26:53):
draft picks. I saw something earlier today outgoing how the
Hornets may have actually have wound up having the the
actual best draft in the entire NBA this past year
because of the four people they selected. So I'm I'm
looking forward to it that starts in October, starts in October.
All right, everyone that's going to do it for us
(27:15):
tonight again. Thanks to Tony Mescia, the founder and executive
editor of the Charlotte Ledger, for joining us. Make sure
you go check out the Charlotte Observer dot com or
excuse me, not the Charlotte Sserver. I want to make
sure I say that, do not check out the Charlotte
was the Charlotte Ledger dot com. Go check him out there,
executive editor of the Charlotte Ledger, for a great story
he did on CMS. All right, everyone, so until tomorrow.
(27:35):
My name is Brett Jenson, and you have been listening
to Breaking with Brett Jenson
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