September 4, 2025 • 29 mins
Tune in here to this Thursday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by talking aboutthe sudden departure of Tariq Bokhari from his position as Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Jensen outlines Bokhari’s rapid transition—from leaving his Charlotte City Council seat just months ago to taking on a prominent federal role, and now unexpectedly stepping down.
While Bokhari’s official statement emphasizes accomplishments and a desire to return home to support his wife’s political campaign and family, the lack of detailed explanation and his removal from the FTA website have fueled speculation about the true reasons behind his exit.
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With 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 talk eleven, ten and ninety nine three WBT Brett
Jensen here with you on this Thursday night edition of
Breaking with Brett Jensen. As we go up until seven
(00:42):
o'clock tonight. Telephone numbers to get in on the show
seven oh four, five, seven oh eleven, ten, and that
is also the WBT text line, of course, driven by
a Liberty Buick GMC. And make sure you follow me
on ext Brett Underscore Jensen for all the latest and
breaking news in and around the shad area. And if
you follow me on X, then you know what I
(01:03):
have to lead and you can hear my phone right here.
You know what I'm going to lead the show off with.
If you follow me on X, then you know, if
you know, you know, as they like to say. And
it is the sudden departure from the Department or excuse me,
the Federal Transit administration of Tark Percory.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Five months ago.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Tark Percary left gave up his seat as a Charlotte
City Council member in District six to become the number
two number two as the deputy administrator in the Federal
Transit Administration the FTA.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He was traveling the country.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
His wife is now in a primary, which by the way,
ends on Tuesday. Final voting day is Tuesday. But his
wife is it a primary as a Republican, trying to
fill the vacancy left by her husband, the current chair
(02:09):
that Edwin Peacock is in, who was on the show
last night. But Edwin Peacock is running for at large,
which we'll leave District six wide open. If Christopher Cary
wins the primary, then she will then go on to
the general election in November. Right, there's no guarantee she's
(02:33):
going to win the primary, and there's no guarantee that
she's going to win the general election if she does
win the primary. So that has left wide open a
lot of speculation about why Tark McCary is no longer
in DC and what does it mean for him politically
going forward locally now, Tark put out a statement around
(02:59):
three I want to make sure I get the right
time three point thirty six this afternoon talk put out
a statement and I'm just going to read you the
statement in case you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You put it out on.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
X and the reason is I say you know what
I was going to talk about tonight is because I
reposted his story or excuse me, his statement, and the
statement says this. I was brought into the us DOT
in the first wave of this new administration to establish
a new framework, set up processes, and lay out a
(03:32):
game plan for not just the next four years, but
the next generation. During that time, I worked as hard
as I've ever worked, and with a great team, we
achieved some amazing results in just the last five months,
clearing massive grant backups left to us by the last administration,
cleaning up red tape that slowed down projects, establishing an
(03:56):
AI framework for the future, and incentivizing big, beautiful projects
that are safe, family centric, and a good use of
taxpayer dollars. One initiative I'm incredibly proud of jump starting,
is a ten year vision to take the global lead
in autonomous transit driverless cars. The timing is right for
(04:21):
me to hand the baton to the next wave of leaders,
to carry on the amazing work that's underway, and head
back to my beloved North Carolina, where I can focus
on my wife's important campaign, my family and business. Although
five months may seem brief, it felt a lot longer,
(04:42):
and I really loved getting to know some of the
amazing people that care immensely about this country. Seeing our
president and administration at work up close was an amazing honor.
And I am confident that Secretary Duffy, Administrator Mulinio, and
the countless other patriots serving this country with everything they
(05:04):
have are going to continue their amazing work and take
us to the next level. And again, that was posted
at three point thirty six this afternoon. His name and
his biography has been scrubbed from the FTA website. The
FTA released his statement to local media outlet. I believe
(05:29):
WSOC about it, and as soon as I find it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I will tell you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But they released the statement oops, and so basically saying
he's no longer with us, and we wish him well
in the future, we thank him for as we thank
him for his service, and we wish him well.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He's no longer with us.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And you're like, oh, okay, so that is that is
something that.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Is there's a couple of different ways to read that.
You always get.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
This, I mean, we get this in our corporate emails,
and every other person who works in a corporation or
in office because has seen the same emails. We wish
Isaac well in his future endeavors, and you get the
same email sent throughout the office, whether or not Isaac resigned,
(06:29):
or whether or not Isaac was fired, or anybody else.
And obviously I'm using Isaac as an example here. Isaac's
always my example, and so the same email goes out
regardless if he was regardless if he was fired or resigned.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you read his you read his statement, you have
to take him at his word. His wife is going
through a tough campaign. And here's the other question that
I have. They have three kids. So some people are automatically, oh,
(07:10):
he must.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Have been fired. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Why would he quit? Why did he quit? Well, I
know it's been a struggle. I do know it's been
a struggle. You know, she's down here by herself with
three kids, trying to raise three kids while also doing
a campaign for Charlotte City Council. You know, Tark has
(07:33):
been in financial technology, fintech. That's his company, in cooperated
with the company that he sold, that was his company.
So him leaving d C because maybe she feels overwhelmed
down here.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Is a possibility.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know, everyone who knows Tark and knows the situation
knows that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Look, he took a pay cut to go to d C.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
You don't think there's money and financial technology really Okay,
So he took a pay cut to go to d C.
So coming back is not out of the realm of possibility,
especially if your wife is here running in a campaign
with three kids that missed their dad. You know, as
(08:23):
they always say, the grass is not always greener, right,
sounds great? Oh my gosh, I'm going to be up
in d C as the number two in charge of
the Federal Transit Administration and you're having to travel all
over the country, like during the week, trying to find
time to sneak back home in Charlotte for a couple
(08:44):
of days, or having your wife and kids come up
to DC for.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
A couple of days. That's tough.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
His wife and kids spent quite a bit of time
up in d C during the summer as he was
getting moved in and working. If they were up in
DC trying to get him settled and allowing him to
spend as much time with their children as he possibly
could before the school started.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So there may be.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
People out there going, Oh, there's no way. He was like, yeah, well,
let me tell you something. You take a pay cut
for a job, you moved six and a half hours
away by car, Your wife and three kids are down
here and she's running for office, and you come back
to Charlotte to increase your pay.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I could see that totally, and especially if you're someone
who's never been away from your children. He's I mean,
think about it. He's always yes at night, you know,
city council whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
But he's local. He's local.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
He might travel once a little bit for work, but
not gone days and a week and you know, eight
days at a time, ten days at a time. So
Tarcbercary's he's no longer in DC, he's coming back to Charlotte.
As a matter of fact, I think he's in Charlotte now.
So anyway, I just wanted to update you and let
you know what I know about that whole situation. Welcome
(10:23):
back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Thursday night.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, so you had the CMS.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Test scores came out yesterday afternoon and it was about
a two hour press conference and there was a lot
of backslapping, and you know, it was almost like a
pet rally, and I get it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It was almost like a pet rally.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And they talked about how they had some of the
biggest jumps in state test scores actually, I think in
the district's history, right, And that's great. But okay, so
let me let me see if I can put it
to you this way. If your goal is to get
(11:08):
ten dollars and you've only got one dollar and you
go up to four dollars, that's a significant jump. Correct, correct,
that's a three hundred percent jump if I'm not a
second and see the three or four, three percent whatever
(11:30):
from one to four, right, one hundercent would be two,
two hundredercent would be three, three hundred percent would be four.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
So you've jumped three hundred percent. That's huge.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Oh my gosh, but you were at bottom, so everything
was going to seem significant. Let's let's let's be honest
here for a second. Very happy that the test scores
went up because we've got a lot of kids, as
county commissioners will be telling you cannot.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Read like a lot, like a lot lot.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Thirty seven thirty eight percent can read at the third
you know, at a proficiency level. Okay, especially I should
say thirty eight percent, thirty eight point nine, whatever it was,
in the black community at CMS can read at grade
level proficient in reading. That's a problem. It's a big
(12:29):
problem considering a third of your students are black. So
it's good that they had the numbers go up, but
they should also you should also understand, and they're extremely
happy that seventy percent of their schools and they had
a lot of schools that jumped from the D and
(12:51):
F levels to either a B or C right DE
or F, you're basically considered a failing school, like that's
what you are.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
A B or C is good, D and F W.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, a third of their schools, one hundred and seventy
five of them, I think took the test scores. A
third of them are still D or F. So while
you should celebrate the biggest increase in district history and
(13:27):
that you were eight tenths of a percentage point higher
than the state average, you also went down in some
of your these were state test scores. Well, in the
national test scores, they stayed level par on one level
math and reading level par in one and just slightly
(13:49):
down in the other. You actually went down in the
other and the cost per student has gone through the
roof over the last four years at CMS through the roof. Meanwhile,
they keep getting all wanting all these extra millions and
millions and millions of dollars. Meanwhile the student level has
(14:10):
remained flat. Even think about this, if one hundred and
fifty seven people every single day moved to our metro area, not,
of course, not all of them are in Charlotte, but
one hundred and fifty seven every day moved to the
metro area in Charlotte. But your student population has stayed
the same. What does that tell you? People don't want
to go to your school district. That's what that tells you.
(14:33):
Your city's getting bigger, but your student population has remained
the same at one hundred and forty two thousand. So
I'm glad CMS school grades went up. They're also still
way behind in terms of where they were pre COVID.
(14:54):
So celebrate all you want. So you dug yourself out
of the holl and now your head. You're still below
sea level, but you're you're not ten feet below sea level.
You might only be one football o sea level or
two feet below sea level, because you still got to
get to the area pre pandemic, and whether that's moving
(15:18):
things around and shifting this and moving special ed teachers
to help kids take the test just before the state
test scores or before the state testing which happened.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Okay, okay, I say special AD, but they're called EC.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I guess the technical and politically correctrum is exceptional children.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
The EC teachers, we call them special AD. When I
was at school, it says you how old I am?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But so again, I'm glad the scores are going up,
especially considering that you keep not just doctor Christen Hill,
but her predecessors keep wanting more and more and more
money per student. But yet the scores were staying flat,
and they kept asking for more and more and more
(16:06):
money even though the student population remained flat. So that's
what I wanted to talk about real quick, concerning the
CMS course from yesterday that I didn't get a chance
to get into again, the biggest increase in district history
from one year to the next.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But also.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
You still have thirty percent of your schools which are
D or F, which is.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
A designation given by the state. So that says a lot.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
All right, when we come back, we'll get into a
couple other things. My name is Brett Jensen, and you're
listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen. Welcome back to Breaking
(17:01):
with Brett Jensen.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Here for a few minutes here before we.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Get up until eight o'clock tonight, seven oh four five,
seven eleven ten.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And you just heard a promo about the blood drive.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
By the way, everyone, and we do this every year,
and it is the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive.
And by the way, it kicked off today at ten am.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And the one blood big Red.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Bus was at the dog House earlier today, and so
it was at the dog House earlier today. And so
again if you are if you are indeed prompted to
do this, we would appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And then you heard that you know it would be in.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Rock Hill at Woody's Auto Body and everything else, so
coming up. So appreciate everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Who does that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I did it last year and I have intentions of
doing it again this year. It's always a good cause
for the American Red Cross and local hospitals and everyone
else who.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Needs the blood.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Real quick, real quick, I want to jump into something.
Rocky McGregor, you may not know him, but he used
to be a big wig at novon he's no longer there.
You hear a lot of different reasons why. Most of
them say that he was fired. I don't know if
he was fired from NOVA, but that's that's been the
scuttle buck going around town for a while. He's the
(18:27):
one that worked for CMS as like an independent contract
or whatever for doctor Crystal Hill, who was making you know,
about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, give
or take. And his wife got the five hundred thousand
dollars contract from CMS, and you know whether and he
(18:47):
was involved in the company for his wife's company, and
it's like it's just all kinds of just perceived shadiness.
And then he went and helped recruit and he will say, well,
I should say, allegedly helped recruit to find people to
run against the school board members that voted against his
(19:10):
wife getting that five hundred thousand dollars contract. So he
no longer works at CMS. And so a local media
i'll let did a story on.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Rocky, and Rocky basically said, oh, I'm the victim. I
did nothing wrong. I'm the victim.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Well, school board member Lisa Klein put out a statement
and Lisa said this, you know they're like and one
of the things that he was upset about was that
the school board didn't support Crystal Hill enough. First of all,
they are her boss, period, It's not their job. Their
job is to make sure everything goes right. But I
(19:48):
don't know, maybe this is why he's not a nov
I don't know, but Lisa Kleines, school board member, put
out a statement has said in response to Rocky McGregor's article,
our responsibility as board members is to ask to questions.
That's how we ensure accountability, transparency, and the best outcomes
for our students. Any suggestion that we do not care
about children could not be further from the truth, and furthermore,
(20:11):
is a discussing lie at the highest order. We have
served in education for many years, and moreover, we are parents.
Every question we ask of the superintendent or of a
consulting firm is driven by one thing, making sure our
students and teachers have the resources, support and safe environment
that they need to succeed. Caring about children means digging deep,
(20:35):
making sure taxpayer dollars are well spent, and ensuring decisions
are in the best interest of every student across our district.
That is exactly what we are doing, and I stand
by that commitment and will not change. So that was
Lisa Kline on her statement concerning about Rocky McGregor. All right,
when we come back, I got some more CMS stuff
about weapons as well some more of the transit safety.
(20:57):
I'm Bret Jenson. You're listening to Breaking with Pretjenson. Just
talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT. Brett Jensen
here with you for a few more minutes here on
this Thursday Night of Breaking with Brett Jenson again. Seven
(21:20):
four five sevenh eleven ten is the telephone number, and guys,
that is also the WBT text line, brought to you,
of course by Liberty Buick and gmc okay, So a
couple of things here. I want to play a couple
of different stories here from WBTV, and the first one
is again about the cat's situation.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
They had the meeting yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I didn't get a really chance to talk about I
guess I should say yesterday morning. You know, we had
Charlotte City Council Member Edwin Peacock, the third in here
to talk about a lot of it. You know what's
going on with the transit and safety and stuff like this.
But I really didn't get to talk much about the
transit meeting that took place yesterday morning. So I wanted
you to hear what's going on with the transit meeting
(22:00):
concerning are you actually going to have to pay to
ride the rails and to ride the bus. So here's
the report from WBTV.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Another change in protocols that we implemented about a year
ago related to driver safety right because where an operator
gets assaulted most frequently is trying to enforce fares.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
We now know that little to no fair enforcement may
have played a role leading up to a deadly attack
on the light rail. Over the last twenty four hours,
transportation and city officials shared new details regarding public transit
safety and the events leading up to the deadly stabbing
on the light rail. Twenty three year old Arena Zaroutskott
recently moved to Charlotte after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
(22:47):
Please say she was riding the light rail nearly two
weeks ago when a man sitting nearby stabbed her. Police
charged De Carlos Brown Junior with murder. He is being
held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail. Police say
the attack appeared to be random, and says he did
not interact with Zarutzka before he attacked. A judge ordered
Brown to undergo a competency evaluation. During a meeting last night,
(23:11):
Cat's officials said they don't believe Brown had a valid
ticket for the bus or train he used to get
to the light Row station. There's ticket stations on each
light World platform, or you can buy CATS tickets on
your phone. While they may come at a small price,
it's enough to sometimes lead to violence.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So a driver an operator is there to operate the bus,
not to try to enforce fair So it appears, based
on the video that mister Brown boarded the bus, did
not stop and pay a fair but then moved on
beyond and sat down and road.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
So says that further raises the question, then how would
we work on fair enforcement.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
By having dedicated fair enforcement officers or ticket checkers throughout
the system who are routinely moving throughout the system.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
He says, fair collection and fair evasion strategies are being reviewed.
A Cat's officials say having a full staffed private security
force is a priority. They say they're entering into their
first ever mutual aid agreement with CMPD. This would allow
security to resolve issues not on cats property.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I know it's a novel idea to actually want people
to pay to use the public transit system, being the
light rail or the buses. I know, call me crazy.
I mean, it's not like any other city in America
makes their passengers actually have to pay for tickets. Like
who knew, right, but maybe like, oh well, we'll have
people on. Well, like I said, you know, Peacock said yesterday.
(24:44):
Currently the system is they get on and they don't
want to pay. You can't make them pay, really really Okay,
So that's what we're doing now, got it. Got everything's
free in the city. Might as well be Mondami up
in New York City, right all right now. The second
report concerned CMS, and this is a very scary and
(25:06):
troubling report from WBTV.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
They were the only one to have it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Caroline Hicks, nice job getting the mom to speak that
brought her and her husband brought the two knives to
Pallisades High School last week on the opening day of school,
as well as having a.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Gun on school grounds.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Caroline Hicks got the only interview with him but listen
to what this woman had to say about the scanners,
because it wasn't the scanners that found the knives.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
This morning, a mother accused of bringing weapons to a
Charlotte high school is sharing her side of the story.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
We told you last week, two parents brought weapons to
Palisades High School in southwest Mecklenburg County. Wbtv's Caroline Hicks
has the interview you will only see on WBTV.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Regina Mungen. It says her son as a junior at
Palisades High School. She says she and her husband went
to Palisades on the first day of school concerned about
the shooting that took place a week prior, when CMS
claimed a juvenile fired a shot into an empty office.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
We walked in with no problem. Nobody stopped us, flagged us,
said anything to us. They said good morning, We said
good morning, and we walked in.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Mundon says that was around nine to twenty in the
morning on the first day of school. She says, while
she and her husband waited in the office for the
assistant principle, that's when they realized.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
My husband had his work pocket knife and I also
had my work pocket knife. I was intending to go
to work after.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
She says, this is an example of what the pocket
knife looked like. Muncheon was surprised they had gotten through security.
She says she waited up to forty five minutes to
tell the assistant principle about the mistake.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
When I explained that my husband had his pocket knife
and nobody had stopped him, nobody flagged him. Her words
to me Verbatim was, well, the eve off system won't
pick up on a knife less than seven inches? Are
you serious? So in that moment, I'm like, so, how
(27:04):
many weapons have actually gotten into the school.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
According to Mungdon, it wasn't until another thirty minutes after
that meeting, she and her husband were escorted out with
the pocket knives still on.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
Them, and I asked the officer. I was like, so,
did we do something wrong? Like is everything okay? And
he looked at me. He said, I'm going to keep
it one hundred with you. You can't have a weapon
on school grounds. And the officer was already standing next
to me and proceeded to arrest me.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Court records also report a handgun on the property that
belonged to Mudjon. Records don't say where it was found.
We asked her about those reports stating there was a gun.
Speaker 7 (27:45):
My answer to that is I never had a firearm
one me, nor did I attempt to bring a firearm
into the building at any point in time.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
Mungden and her husband, Miguel Williams, say they have no
criminal records. They were from jail after they signed a
written promise to appear in court. Charlotte Mecknburg Schools addressed
the incident the same day it happened.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
Without safety and security, our students, staff and community cannot
thrive and we will not allow behaviors of this nature
to disrupt our purpose and the right that all students
and staff have to learn and work in a safe environment.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
If you were trying to protect the kids, the system
would have picked it up immediately. If you were trying
to protect the kids, then you would have taken action immediately.
When we study to you, you did not know anything
until we were trying to be transparent and disclose this
information to you.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Mungjen says they do understand that they made a mistake,
but it was never intentional. In the CMS handbook, it
states no guns, explosives, or any other weapons are permitted
to be brought onto the school grounds. Caroline Hicks WBTV
on your side, and.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We did reach out to CMS asking the following questions,
how was CMS alerted about the pocket knives, did Munchon
and Williams get through security without the knives being detected?
If they were not detected, why and is this common?
CMS did send us a response. The district wrote, in part,
quote thank you for your inquiry. We will share your
questions with our safety team to see if they have
(29:20):
any additional information to share that was not covered at
our briefings during the first week of school end.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Quote again, nice job by Caroline Hicks. There was some
very troubling information coming from that parent. All right, that's
going to do it for us tonight. Look forward to
doing this all over again tomorrow. 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 talk eleven, ten and ninety nine three WBT Brett
Jensen here with you on this Thursday night edition of
Breaking with Brett Jensen. As we go up until seven
(00:42):
o'clock tonight. Telephone numbers to get in on the show
seven oh four, five, seven oh eleven, ten, and that
is also the WBT text line, of course, driven by
a Liberty Buick GMC. And make sure you follow me
on ext Brett Underscore Jensen for all the latest and
breaking news in and around the shad area. And if
you follow me on X, then you know what I
(01:03):
have to lead and you can hear my phone right here.
You know what I'm going to lead the show off with.
If you follow me on X, then you know, if
you know, you know, as they like to say. And
it is the sudden departure from the Department or excuse me,
the Federal Transit administration of Tark Percory.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Five months ago.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Tark Percary left gave up his seat as a Charlotte
City Council member in District six to become the number
two number two as the deputy administrator in the Federal
Transit Administration the FTA.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He was traveling the country.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
His wife is now in a primary, which by the way,
ends on Tuesday. Final voting day is Tuesday. But his
wife is it a primary as a Republican, trying to
fill the vacancy left by her husband, the current chair
(02:09):
that Edwin Peacock is in, who was on the show
last night. But Edwin Peacock is running for at large,
which we'll leave District six wide open. If Christopher Cary
wins the primary, then she will then go on to
the general election in November. Right, there's no guarantee she's
(02:33):
going to win the primary, and there's no guarantee that
she's going to win the general election if she does
win the primary. So that has left wide open a
lot of speculation about why Tark McCary is no longer
in DC and what does it mean for him politically
going forward locally now, Tark put out a statement around
(02:59):
three I want to make sure I get the right
time three point thirty six this afternoon talk put out
a statement and I'm just going to read you the
statement in case you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You put it out on.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
X and the reason is I say you know what
I was going to talk about tonight is because I
reposted his story or excuse me, his statement, and the
statement says this. I was brought into the us DOT
in the first wave of this new administration to establish
a new framework, set up processes, and lay out a
(03:32):
game plan for not just the next four years, but
the next generation. During that time, I worked as hard
as I've ever worked, and with a great team, we
achieved some amazing results in just the last five months,
clearing massive grant backups left to us by the last administration,
cleaning up red tape that slowed down projects, establishing an
(03:56):
AI framework for the future, and incentivizing big, beautiful projects
that are safe, family centric, and a good use of
taxpayer dollars. One initiative I'm incredibly proud of jump starting,
is a ten year vision to take the global lead
in autonomous transit driverless cars. The timing is right for
(04:21):
me to hand the baton to the next wave of leaders,
to carry on the amazing work that's underway, and head
back to my beloved North Carolina, where I can focus
on my wife's important campaign, my family and business. Although
five months may seem brief, it felt a lot longer,
(04:42):
and I really loved getting to know some of the
amazing people that care immensely about this country. Seeing our
president and administration at work up close was an amazing honor.
And I am confident that Secretary Duffy, Administrator Mulinio, and
the countless other patriots serving this country with everything they
(05:04):
have are going to continue their amazing work and take
us to the next level. And again, that was posted
at three point thirty six this afternoon. His name and
his biography has been scrubbed from the FTA website. The
FTA released his statement to local media outlet. I believe
(05:29):
WSOC about it, and as soon as I find it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I will tell you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But they released the statement oops, and so basically saying
he's no longer with us, and we wish him well
in the future, we thank him for as we thank
him for his service, and we wish him well.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He's no longer with us.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And you're like, oh, okay, so that is that is
something that.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Is there's a couple of different ways to read that.
You always get.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
This, I mean, we get this in our corporate emails,
and every other person who works in a corporation or
in office because has seen the same emails. We wish
Isaac well in his future endeavors, and you get the
same email sent throughout the office, whether or not Isaac resigned,
(06:29):
or whether or not Isaac was fired, or anybody else.
And obviously I'm using Isaac as an example here. Isaac's
always my example, and so the same email goes out
regardless if he was regardless if he was fired or resigned.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And you read his you read his statement, you have
to take him at his word. His wife is going
through a tough campaign. And here's the other question that
I have. They have three kids. So some people are automatically, oh,
(07:10):
he must.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Have been fired. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Why would he quit? Why did he quit? Well, I
know it's been a struggle. I do know it's been
a struggle. You know, she's down here by herself with
three kids, trying to raise three kids while also doing
a campaign for Charlotte City Council. You know, Tark has
(07:33):
been in financial technology, fintech. That's his company, in cooperated
with the company that he sold, that was his company.
So him leaving d C because maybe she feels overwhelmed
down here.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Is a possibility.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know, everyone who knows Tark and knows the situation
knows that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Look, he took a pay cut to go to d C.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
You don't think there's money and financial technology really Okay,
So he took a pay cut to go to d C.
So coming back is not out of the realm of possibility,
especially if your wife is here running in a campaign
with three kids that missed their dad. You know, as
(08:23):
they always say, the grass is not always greener, right,
sounds great? Oh my gosh, I'm going to be up
in d C as the number two in charge of
the Federal Transit Administration and you're having to travel all
over the country, like during the week, trying to find
time to sneak back home in Charlotte for a couple
(08:44):
of days, or having your wife and kids come up
to DC for.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
A couple of days. That's tough.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
His wife and kids spent quite a bit of time
up in d C during the summer as he was
getting moved in and working. If they were up in
DC trying to get him settled and allowing him to
spend as much time with their children as he possibly
could before the school started.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So there may be.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
People out there going, Oh, there's no way. He was like, yeah, well,
let me tell you something. You take a pay cut
for a job, you moved six and a half hours
away by car, Your wife and three kids are down
here and she's running for office, and you come back
to Charlotte to increase your pay.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I could see that totally, and especially if you're someone
who's never been away from your children. He's I mean,
think about it. He's always yes at night, you know,
city council whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
But he's local. He's local.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
He might travel once a little bit for work, but
not gone days and a week and you know, eight
days at a time, ten days at a time. So
Tarcbercary's he's no longer in DC, he's coming back to Charlotte.
As a matter of fact, I think he's in Charlotte now.
So anyway, I just wanted to update you and let
you know what I know about that whole situation. Welcome
(10:23):
back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Thursday night.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, so you had the CMS.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Test scores came out yesterday afternoon and it was about
a two hour press conference and there was a lot
of backslapping, and you know, it was almost like a
pet rally, and I get it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It was almost like a pet rally.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And they talked about how they had some of the
biggest jumps in state test scores actually, I think in
the district's history, right, And that's great. But okay, so
let me let me see if I can put it
to you this way. If your goal is to get
(11:08):
ten dollars and you've only got one dollar and you
go up to four dollars, that's a significant jump. Correct, correct,
that's a three hundred percent jump if I'm not a
second and see the three or four, three percent whatever
(11:30):
from one to four, right, one hundercent would be two,
two hundredercent would be three, three hundred percent would be four.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
So you've jumped three hundred percent. That's huge.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Oh my gosh, but you were at bottom, so everything
was going to seem significant. Let's let's let's be honest
here for a second. Very happy that the test scores
went up because we've got a lot of kids, as
county commissioners will be telling you cannot.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Read like a lot, like a lot lot.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Thirty seven thirty eight percent can read at the third
you know, at a proficiency level. Okay, especially I should
say thirty eight percent, thirty eight point nine, whatever it was,
in the black community at CMS can read at grade
level proficient in reading. That's a problem. It's a big
(12:29):
problem considering a third of your students are black. So
it's good that they had the numbers go up, but
they should also you should also understand, and they're extremely
happy that seventy percent of their schools and they had
a lot of schools that jumped from the D and
(12:51):
F levels to either a B or C right DE
or F, you're basically considered a failing school, like that's
what you are.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
A B or C is good, D and F W.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, a third of their schools, one hundred and seventy
five of them, I think took the test scores. A
third of them are still D or F. So while
you should celebrate the biggest increase in district history and
(13:27):
that you were eight tenths of a percentage point higher
than the state average, you also went down in some
of your these were state test scores. Well, in the
national test scores, they stayed level par on one level
math and reading level par in one and just slightly
(13:49):
down in the other. You actually went down in the
other and the cost per student has gone through the
roof over the last four years at CMS through the roof. Meanwhile,
they keep getting all wanting all these extra millions and
millions and millions of dollars. Meanwhile the student level has
(14:10):
remained flat. Even think about this, if one hundred and
fifty seven people every single day moved to our metro area, not,
of course, not all of them are in Charlotte, but
one hundred and fifty seven every day moved to the
metro area in Charlotte. But your student population has stayed
the same. What does that tell you? People don't want
to go to your school district. That's what that tells you.
(14:33):
Your city's getting bigger, but your student population has remained
the same at one hundred and forty two thousand. So
I'm glad CMS school grades went up. They're also still
way behind in terms of where they were pre COVID.
(14:54):
So celebrate all you want. So you dug yourself out
of the holl and now your head. You're still below
sea level, but you're you're not ten feet below sea level.
You might only be one football o sea level or
two feet below sea level, because you still got to
get to the area pre pandemic, and whether that's moving
(15:18):
things around and shifting this and moving special ed teachers
to help kids take the test just before the state
test scores or before the state testing which happened.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Okay, okay, I say special AD, but they're called EC.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I guess the technical and politically correctrum is exceptional children.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
The EC teachers, we call them special AD. When I
was at school, it says you how old I am?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But so again, I'm glad the scores are going up,
especially considering that you keep not just doctor Christen Hill,
but her predecessors keep wanting more and more and more
money per student. But yet the scores were staying flat,
and they kept asking for more and more and more
(16:06):
money even though the student population remained flat. So that's
what I wanted to talk about real quick, concerning the
CMS course from yesterday that I didn't get a chance
to get into again, the biggest increase in district history
from one year to the next.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But also.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
You still have thirty percent of your schools which are
D or F, which is.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
A designation given by the state. So that says a lot.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
All right, when we come back, we'll get into a
couple other things. My name is Brett Jensen, and you're
listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen. Welcome back to Breaking
(17:01):
with Brett Jensen.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Here for a few minutes here before we.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Get up until eight o'clock tonight, seven oh four five,
seven eleven ten.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
And you just heard a promo about the blood drive.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
By the way, everyone, and we do this every year,
and it is the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive.
And by the way, it kicked off today at ten am.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And the one blood big Red.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Bus was at the dog House earlier today, and so
it was at the dog House earlier today. And so
again if you are if you are indeed prompted to
do this, we would appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And then you heard that you know it would be in.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Rock Hill at Woody's Auto Body and everything else, so
coming up. So appreciate everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Who does that.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I did it last year and I have intentions of
doing it again this year. It's always a good cause
for the American Red Cross and local hospitals and everyone
else who.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Needs the blood.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Real quick, real quick, I want to jump into something.
Rocky McGregor, you may not know him, but he used
to be a big wig at novon he's no longer there.
You hear a lot of different reasons why. Most of
them say that he was fired. I don't know if
he was fired from NOVA, but that's that's been the
scuttle buck going around town for a while. He's the
(18:27):
one that worked for CMS as like an independent contract
or whatever for doctor Crystal Hill, who was making you know,
about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, give
or take. And his wife got the five hundred thousand
dollars contract from CMS, and you know whether and he
(18:47):
was involved in the company for his wife's company, and
it's like it's just all kinds of just perceived shadiness.
And then he went and helped recruit and he will say, well,
I should say, allegedly helped recruit to find people to
run against the school board members that voted against his
(19:10):
wife getting that five hundred thousand dollars contract. So he
no longer works at CMS. And so a local media
i'll let did a story on.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Rocky, and Rocky basically said, oh, I'm the victim. I
did nothing wrong. I'm the victim.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Well, school board member Lisa Klein put out a statement
and Lisa said this, you know they're like and one
of the things that he was upset about was that
the school board didn't support Crystal Hill enough. First of all,
they are her boss, period, It's not their job. Their
job is to make sure everything goes right. But I
(19:48):
don't know, maybe this is why he's not a nov
I don't know, but Lisa Kleines, school board member, put
out a statement has said in response to Rocky McGregor's article,
our responsibility as board members is to ask to questions.
That's how we ensure accountability, transparency, and the best outcomes
for our students. Any suggestion that we do not care
about children could not be further from the truth, and furthermore,
(20:11):
is a discussing lie at the highest order. We have
served in education for many years, and moreover, we are parents.
Every question we ask of the superintendent or of a
consulting firm is driven by one thing, making sure our
students and teachers have the resources, support and safe environment
that they need to succeed. Caring about children means digging deep,
(20:35):
making sure taxpayer dollars are well spent, and ensuring decisions
are in the best interest of every student across our district.
That is exactly what we are doing, and I stand
by that commitment and will not change. So that was
Lisa Kline on her statement concerning about Rocky McGregor. All right,
when we come back, I got some more CMS stuff
about weapons as well some more of the transit safety.
(20:57):
I'm Bret Jenson. You're listening to Breaking with Pretjenson. Just
talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT. Brett Jensen
here with you for a few more minutes here on
this Thursday Night of Breaking with Brett Jenson again. Seven
(21:20):
four five sevenh eleven ten is the telephone number, and guys,
that is also the WBT text line, brought to you,
of course by Liberty Buick and gmc okay, So a
couple of things here. I want to play a couple
of different stories here from WBTV, and the first one
is again about the cat's situation.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
They had the meeting yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I didn't get a really chance to talk about I
guess I should say yesterday morning. You know, we had
Charlotte City Council Member Edwin Peacock, the third in here
to talk about a lot of it. You know what's
going on with the transit and safety and stuff like this.
But I really didn't get to talk much about the
transit meeting that took place yesterday morning. So I wanted
you to hear what's going on with the transit meeting
(22:00):
concerning are you actually going to have to pay to
ride the rails and to ride the bus. So here's
the report from WBTV.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Another change in protocols that we implemented about a year
ago related to driver safety right because where an operator
gets assaulted most frequently is trying to enforce fares.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
We now know that little to no fair enforcement may
have played a role leading up to a deadly attack
on the light rail. Over the last twenty four hours,
transportation and city officials shared new details regarding public transit
safety and the events leading up to the deadly stabbing
on the light rail. Twenty three year old Arena Zaroutskott
recently moved to Charlotte after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
(22:47):
Please say she was riding the light rail nearly two
weeks ago when a man sitting nearby stabbed her. Police
charged De Carlos Brown Junior with murder. He is being
held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail. Police say
the attack appeared to be random, and says he did
not interact with Zarutzka before he attacked. A judge ordered
Brown to undergo a competency evaluation. During a meeting last night,
(23:11):
Cat's officials said they don't believe Brown had a valid
ticket for the bus or train he used to get
to the light Row station. There's ticket stations on each
light World platform, or you can buy CATS tickets on
your phone. While they may come at a small price,
it's enough to sometimes lead to violence.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
So a driver an operator is there to operate the bus,
not to try to enforce fair So it appears, based
on the video that mister Brown boarded the bus, did
not stop and pay a fair but then moved on
beyond and sat down and road.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
So says that further raises the question, then how would
we work on fair enforcement.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
By having dedicated fair enforcement officers or ticket checkers throughout
the system who are routinely moving throughout the system.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
He says, fair collection and fair evasion strategies are being reviewed.
A Cat's officials say having a full staffed private security
force is a priority. They say they're entering into their
first ever mutual aid agreement with CMPD. This would allow
security to resolve issues not on cats property.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I know it's a novel idea to actually want people
to pay to use the public transit system, being the
light rail or the buses. I know, call me crazy.
I mean, it's not like any other city in America
makes their passengers actually have to pay for tickets. Like
who knew, right, but maybe like, oh well, we'll have
people on. Well, like I said, you know, Peacock said yesterday.
(24:44):
Currently the system is they get on and they don't
want to pay. You can't make them pay, really really Okay,
So that's what we're doing now, got it. Got everything's
free in the city. Might as well be Mondami up
in New York City, right all right now. The second
report concerned CMS, and this is a very scary and
(25:06):
troubling report from WBTV.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
They were the only one to have it.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Caroline Hicks, nice job getting the mom to speak that
brought her and her husband brought the two knives to
Pallisades High School last week on the opening day of school,
as well as having a.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Gun on school grounds.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Caroline Hicks got the only interview with him but listen
to what this woman had to say about the scanners,
because it wasn't the scanners that found the knives.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
This morning, a mother accused of bringing weapons to a
Charlotte high school is sharing her side of the story.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
We told you last week, two parents brought weapons to
Palisades High School in southwest Mecklenburg County. Wbtv's Caroline Hicks
has the interview you will only see on WBTV.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Regina Mungen. It says her son as a junior at
Palisades High School. She says she and her husband went
to Palisades on the first day of school concerned about
the shooting that took place a week prior, when CMS
claimed a juvenile fired a shot into an empty office.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
We walked in with no problem. Nobody stopped us, flagged us,
said anything to us. They said good morning, We said
good morning, and we walked in.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Mundon says that was around nine to twenty in the
morning on the first day of school. She says, while
she and her husband waited in the office for the
assistant principle, that's when they realized.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
My husband had his work pocket knife and I also
had my work pocket knife. I was intending to go
to work after.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
She says, this is an example of what the pocket
knife looked like. Muncheon was surprised they had gotten through security.
She says she waited up to forty five minutes to
tell the assistant principle about the mistake.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
When I explained that my husband had his pocket knife
and nobody had stopped him, nobody flagged him. Her words
to me Verbatim was, well, the eve off system won't
pick up on a knife less than seven inches? Are
you serious? So in that moment, I'm like, so, how
(27:04):
many weapons have actually gotten into the school.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
According to Mungdon, it wasn't until another thirty minutes after
that meeting, she and her husband were escorted out with
the pocket knives still on.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
Them, and I asked the officer. I was like, so,
did we do something wrong? Like is everything okay? And
he looked at me. He said, I'm going to keep
it one hundred with you. You can't have a weapon
on school grounds. And the officer was already standing next
to me and proceeded to arrest me.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Court records also report a handgun on the property that
belonged to Mudjon. Records don't say where it was found.
We asked her about those reports stating there was a gun.
Speaker 7 (27:45):
My answer to that is I never had a firearm
one me, nor did I attempt to bring a firearm
into the building at any point in time.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
Mungden and her husband, Miguel Williams, say they have no
criminal records. They were from jail after they signed a
written promise to appear in court. Charlotte Mecknburg Schools addressed
the incident the same day it happened.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
Without safety and security, our students, staff and community cannot
thrive and we will not allow behaviors of this nature
to disrupt our purpose and the right that all students
and staff have to learn and work in a safe environment.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
If you were trying to protect the kids, the system
would have picked it up immediately. If you were trying
to protect the kids, then you would have taken action immediately.
When we study to you, you did not know anything
until we were trying to be transparent and disclose this
information to you.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Mungjen says they do understand that they made a mistake,
but it was never intentional. In the CMS handbook, it
states no guns, explosives, or any other weapons are permitted
to be brought onto the school grounds. Caroline Hicks WBTV
on your side, and.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We did reach out to CMS asking the following questions,
how was CMS alerted about the pocket knives, did Munchon
and Williams get through security without the knives being detected?
If they were not detected, why and is this common?
CMS did send us a response. The district wrote, in part,
quote thank you for your inquiry. We will share your
questions with our safety team to see if they have
(29:20):
any additional information to share that was not covered at
our briefings during the first week of school end.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Quote again, nice job by Caroline Hicks. There was some
very troubling information coming from that parent. All right, that's
going to do it for us tonight. Look forward to
doing this all over again tomorrow. My name is Brett Jenson,
and you have been listening to Breaking with Brett Jenson.
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