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Speaker 1: I want to welcome to the.
Speaker 2: Program the newly elected, now sworn in and already working
state auditor for North Carolina, Dave Bullock.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, sir. How are you, Pete?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great? Thanks for having me, Yes, sir?
Speaker 1: So do I do I call you?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Is it like auditor Bullock?
Speaker 2: And I know you're probably so just Dave is fine,
but like, is there a title that comes.
Speaker 3: Say, yeah, they called me the auditor, but auditor Dave
is good with me?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: You do what my kids called me?
Speaker 1: I mean, well, and so I'll throw this out there,
just something to think about.
Speaker 2: You don't have to answer right now, but I'm thinking
just like with the UH Labor Commissioner, pictures on the elevators.
Have you thought about maybe mandating your picture on everyone's
checkbooks or maybe at bank branches. I'm just throwing it out.
There could be a marketing tool for you, just you
could just chew it over.
Speaker 3: You know, that's a great idea. I'm with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let me let's start with. First off, what
does the auditor do? I know a lot of people
became aware that the position really even existed when your predecessor,
Beth Wood was the auditor and then you, uh, and
then she she stepped aside after the problems that she had,
She stepped down. Governor Roy Cooper installed another person into
that office. You then ran against that person and beat her.
And so what exactly does the auditor do?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So the auditor, basically, I mean there's three or
four primary functions I like to basically art with where
the watchdog on behalf of taxpayers with respect to fiscal
responsibility across the state of North Carolina. So the bread
and butter is fiscal audits. We also audit information systems
on the flip side of that, or in addition to that,
we do efficiency and effectiveness audits of government as well
as taking a look at program results.
Speaker 2: Is that something that you go through every single jurisdiction,
every municipality all the time, or do you do you
pick and choose or do you is it a complaint
driven process.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a combination there, uppeat. I mean, I've got
a roughly one hundred and sixty person office, So we
have some statue for re mandated audits, Like we just
wrapped up an audit of the Department of Transportee Transportations
cash position. We also wrapped up our portion of the
state financial statement. Have to do the universities, most of
the community colleges. That's sort of bread and butter, and
then it is sort of up to the discretion of
the auditor as to where you go from there. So
we've got some priorities that we're going to put front
and center on behalf of tax payers.
Speaker 2: And you've already talked about one of them very publicly,
the DMV, which I don't know why you would need
to look at them. I mean, my interactions have always
been very quick.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding now.
Speaker 2: I had to I had to drive an hour outside
of Charlotte to get an appointment to get a driver's license, renewal. Yeah,
it's like the whole from So what are you looking
at in the DMV and how long like how long
of a window are you looking at for it to
take to do an audit of that operation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the d m V audit, we are going
to take a look at the finances of the d
m V because I do believe that in all of
the audits really makes a lot of sense, Pete to
come with a set of data to back up your conclusions.
And we want to be able to tell a story.
You know, how are these agencies impactful to North Carolinians?
And we want those audits to be impactful. And the
way those audits can be most impactful is to tell
a story. But we need that data to back it up.
So we're going to do a Florida Ceilant audit of
the DMV and look at effect effectiveness, efficiency and the results.
You know, in twenty eighteen, auditor would actually did an
audit of the DMV and in the recommendations from that
audit were first and foremost that the DMV needed a
system of metrics to measure their effectiveness. To date, they've
never instituted that system of metrics. So we're going to
start there. You know, I had someone tell me one time, well,
I don't know what good a book report is going
to do to help make the DMV better. Well, you know,
a real data driven audit is more than a book report,
and we're going to give solid, common sense recommendations to
both the legislature and the governor own how to fix it.
Speaker 2: Right, because the auditor can't impose a new can't impose
those things onto the DMV. Right, it would have to
be legislative. They'd have the right law, I assume, and
the governor would have to sign it.
Speaker 3: Well, you'd have to have either legislation or you could
have you know, the governor runs the DMV. Yeah, Governor
Stein has said that he won't work across the aisle,
so I'm gonna give him the opportunity.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I will say here's here's one area.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if this would even be part
of your operation, but I could tell you that, Like
when I went to the DMV and I got a license,
I upgraded to the real ID. I had moved into
a house and we weren't it wasn't even a real
address until like the house got built.
Speaker 1: You know, and so it took a long time.
Speaker 2: So I had to go in with like a deed
and like, here's the purchase and this property does exist.
And at that point they were like, do you want
to upgrade to real id I said yes, I got
the new photo taken, all of that, and then a
year later I got to go back in for an
in person renewal and I said, well, he sat for
this last year, got my picture taken, upgraded to the
real idea and they said, no, that counts as a
duplicate license.
Speaker 1: It's like, how was that a d How's that a
duplicate license?
Speaker 3: The you just repanted the same story. My wife went through,
Oh really, because she got half she got halfway through.
It took an entire morning off and she's she's a
business person. Took an entire morning off, went through the DMV,
got an appointment and they actually got her in and
she came back home and told me later, you know,
halfway or three quarters the way through, I was thinking,
why in the heck does day want to audit the
D and V. And then they banged her at the
end with oh, yeah, by the way, you're gonna have
to come back next year and do your license in person.
I mean, you're never more bona fide than when you're
getting the real ID. Why not start it from there? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So okay, so you're already aware of that issue, right,
make your wife happy.
Speaker 3: I get that one. Run straight from home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. All right, so you got the DMV.
Speaker 2: Also, let's talk a lot a little bit of what's
going on in western North Carolina. I saw you put
out a statement after the governor did his five executive orders,
which I was happy to see him do that. He
went to Ashville as soon as he took office, did
five executive orders. So what is the role that the
Auditor's office plays in the recovery efforts out in western
North Carolina?
Speaker 3: So it's a good question. Now the legislature, and the
latest piece of legislation from December center Bill three eighty two,
actually mandated that the auditor do a little bit more
than just looking back at what happens to state tax
dollars and has asked the Auditor's office to do more
of a periodic audit. And I liken it to tracking dollars.
And so you know, Governor Stein has set up a
new agency called GROW to handle Western North Carolina. But
we put a team together on January the second, and
we've already begun getting data and we're hoping in the
next week or so to be able to ramp up
a regular reporting feature on the state Auditor's website to
track those dollars. So that hasn't been announced yet, So
I'm giving you a little bit of news there, Pete.
I think it's really important that we don't relive what
happened about three months ago when the head of ENCORE,
the previous agency that ran Eastern North Carolina's disaster money,
appeared in front of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee and
it was the dumpster fire. I mean, thirty five million dollars.
We don't know where it is. Oh and by the way,
we need another two hundred and twenty one million dollars
to finish projects that are in the hopper, you know,
And that's a six year run on that. And I've
committed to keeping track of this stuff so we don't
get to a six year period and we're wondering what
the heck happened to multiple billions of dollars.
Speaker 2: Right, because I think what the leader of that agency.
Now she has been ousted from her position there. But
I think we just lost track of the accounting or something.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, really, I mean you can't make that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: Their entire existence was to keep track of the accounting.
Speaker 2: So this new agency g r O w NC, which
is the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, and
I would submit that this is merely the creation of
this new agency is probably proof that they know that
the rebuild and c or encore was such a colossal
disaster that they can't do that again. And so so far,
I know you say, and you and the Governor said
that you wanted to work together on this.
Speaker 1: So far, how was that? How is that going?
Speaker 3: It's working great. I mean I've had no pushback from
the governor. He and I both committed to work across
the aisles. I feel good about it. As I've said
to agency heads that I've talked to over the last
couple of months since was elected, you know, you ought
to really welcome the state auditor to come in and
give you some advice and give you some look at
the numbers, take to look under your hood. And I
think we can actually be helpful now when there's waste,
fraud and abuse, we're going to put the hammer down peak.
Speaker 2: So let me I got to ask you about the
elections issue that was part of Center Bill three eighty two.
So now under that law, you will be in charge
of appointing the members of the Board of Elections, right,
and so, like, how how are you ramping up for
that responsibility?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, first of all, we're making space within
our agency to move the Board of Elections over, so
the Board of Elections. We will be in charge of
managing the budget and sort of those operational issues for
the Board of Elections. My primary responsibility will be to
appoint the state board and the chair of each Board
of Elections, uh, in each North Carolina county.
Speaker 2: Do you get does your office get into the I
don't want to say into the weeds, but are you
getting like into the like the the schedule of list maintenance,
the voter role maintenance issues, you know, because there's there,
I mean, that's I think part of the problem with
the Supreme Court race, for example, is like there it
seems like administrative problems have persisted inside the Board of
Elections for decades. Is that something that now becomes under
your purview.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we believe it will. I had talked about this
on the campaign trail, and that is making those voter
roles more accurate. You know, it seems to me. And
again I've heard from county officials that they're you know,
they need more time whatever. But you know, in between elections,
that's a really good time to go ahead and take
a look at these entries to make sure that we
have all the proper information and to make people make
sure people are properly registered. I mean there's sixty thousand names.
I know that Judge Griffin is got up for question
in front of the Supreme Court. Seems to me that
over a two year period before the midterm, we could
make phone calls, send letters, reach out to all of
those sixty thousand people to make sure that their information
is correct. And I don't think that's too much to ask.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like a common sense approach. We are
at a time you welcome back anytime. We appreciate you
joining us today. Auditor Dave Bullock, Auditor Dave, thanks for
you time, sir, and congratulations on to victory and good
luck to you, sir.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Just getting back from VC had a fantastic
weekend up with President Drong.
Speaker 1: Oh sounds good.
Speaker 2: All right, well, glad you safe travels to you and
glad you glad you got back all right and had
a good time.
Speaker 1: Did you see him dance with the sword?
Speaker 3: I did? That was just the commander's ball. You're having
a good time. Yeah, this has a good time at rallies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no it was.
Speaker 2: It's quite the site. I got a chuckle out of it.
I appreciate your time, sir, thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 1: Us, Yes, sir, all right, take care all right.
Speaker 2: That is the Auditor of North Carolina, Dave Bullock. Here's
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wirel reports. According to FEMA, residents and families receiving hotel
lodging while looking for alternative housing will be allowed to
stay in hotels until May twenty fifth, with checkout on
May twenty sixth. So technically, doesn't that mean that you're
staying until May twenty sixth? If the checkout is on
the twenty sixth, or do you got to be out
at like midnight on the twenty sixth or something that
would be weird. Federal Emergency Management Administration officials announced Sunday
Sunday Sunday that they extend when did transitional sheltering assistance
to families in western North Carolina affected by the hurricane.
According to FEMA, residents and families receiving the lodging, we'll
be allowed to stay now for another what five months?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: In March April May four months.
Speaker 2: So this is another extension after I've lost track, Okay,
I've lost track of how many extensions there have been.
Now I think we're up to five. There may be
maybe six. They but it's better, like this is a
better extension length because the previous ones were always like, okay, okay,
I know it's a blizzard outside. Okay, I know it's like,
you know, twelve degrees, so we'll give you an extra.
Speaker 1: Twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: I know the roads are going to be icy, so
you have forty eight hours, you know, so they can
clear the roads and then you're out, Okay, then go
sleep in a tent next to a river someplace where
you don't even have property anymore because the whole side
of the mount and caved in. Okay, like that's the
way they've been doing it, and now they've at least
extended it for another four months. Josh Stein taking a
victory lab saying this was because you know, he had
implored FEMA to extend it beyond like basically the freaking winter, right,
And look, I'll give him credit absolutely if he's the
reason why people have four more months to you know,
not freeze to death literally on the side of a mountain.
Kudos to Governor Stein absolutely, because the deadline was January
twenty fifth, so this weekend, I guess. And so now
it's been extended to May twenty fifth. Oh and by
the way, there was a phone number. Chuck Edwards, congressman
for the district out there, launched a dedicated phone number
two two three Fix FEMA, and that is to help
constituents that have issues regarding FEMA. So if you need
help or having issues with FEMA, you call two two
three fix FEMA and then his office can engage with
FEMA directly on behalf of your application. Two two three
fix FEMA. All Right, I hope you had a happy
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Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room
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Mountain Express mountainex dot Com Reporting and thanks by the
way to Andy for sending me this story. Financial impacts
to Buncom County's budget from Tropical Storm Helene are beginning
to come into focus, and the outlook is not sunny.
About seven months into the fiscal year, which ends June thirtieth,
county leadership is projecting revenues will be anywhere from fifteen
to twenty five or almost twenty six million less than projected,
So they are looking at a budget gap of somewhere
between fifteen to twenty six million dollars. Their general fund
is four hundred forty million, that's their budget for forty
By comparison, Mecklenburg County is somewhere in the neighborhood of
about two and a half billion, okay, So Bunkhom County
working with about a fifth of the size of the
budget that Mecklenberg runs on, and they're looking at it
up to a twenty six almost million dollar budget shortfall.
So to balance the budget, county staff is proposing four
percent cuts in most departments and a four percent cut
in K twelve education. They're cutting education in Bunkhom County, which,
by the way, they have a long history out there
of like underfunding education to the point where like I
think the state came in and gave like special tax
authority or something to Yeah, and it's not a consolidated system.
So you've got the Astville City schools, you've got the
Bunkhom County schools. But the Bunkham County Commission is democrat controlled.
I think it's actually completely democrat at this point. And
so they are they're looking at massive cuts. Why because
of the hurricane. County Manager Avrol Pinder already imposed a
hiring freeze across across all departments except for nine to
one to one services, resulting at about two million dollars
in salary savings for eighty nine vacancies. So they just
haven't hired for the vacant positions. Again, this is mountainex
dot Com. Mountain Express is the uh. It's sort of
the it's like the old creative loafing here in Charlotte
before it got shut down. Mountain Express mountain x dot com.
It's a piece by Greg Parlier or Parlor Parley a
p R l I E R. Parliar Parly a anyway.
Budget director for Buncome County, John Hudson said the county
can save a total of four point two million in
salaries and benefits, the county's largest spending category. No filled
positions are going to be eliminated in the proposal. They're
also looking to defer maintenance, which means like, yeah, we're
supposed to be maintaining these things that we have, so
we're just going to put off the maintenance and hope
stuff doesn't break the problem with deferring maintenance is that
stuff breaks, and the longer you don't maintain it, the
chances increase that it's not going to live as long
as it otherwise would, and so it's a short term
gain for a long term loss. They're also going to
be deferring energy efficiency upgrades, and so I'm assuming that
means like solar panels, they're not going to be they're
very green out there, very very very they're green new
dealers out there, So maybe they're not going to be
doing some of that stuff because it's expensive. Deferring information
technology infrastructure upgrades, cuts at the animal shelter, and reductions
in library programming. No, who's going to who's going to
hire the trands to read to the kindergarteners, Hudson found.
Hudson is the budget director, found about two and a
half million in savings from trimming programs or services in
public health, social work services, justice services, economic development and
economics services. Story goes on to say that the county's
projected revenue losses come primarily in four areas high unemployment,
which could mean many can't afford to pay property taxes.
There's also a sharp decline in permits for new single
family home construction. There's been a drop in the occupancy
tax receipts. In other words, people staying at hotels. So please,
if you are considering, you know, a weekend getaway or whatever,
please consider going to western North Carolina and going to
some of these places to help them survive. This is
not the peak of tourist season right now, but they
lost a lot of money and a lot of tourism
revenue has been lost, and that's what that region runs on, tourism.
They've also had a decline in the sales tax receipts
because once again, people not going to visit means not
a lot of sales. In October, Buncom County's unemployment rate
went up to ten point four percent. That is the
highest in the state now. A month prior to the hurricane,
it was the lowest in the state. So that's the
kind of devastation that they are looking at. This is
a long term problem. The county savings account, known as
the fund Balance, was used last fiscal year to balance
the budget for the first time in more than twenty years.
So this is what happens when you run structural deficits
and you start raiding your your reserves to pay for
ongoing operating expenses.
Speaker 1: This is what happens.
Speaker 2: You start siphoning out this money and then when disaster hits,
you don't have the money.
Speaker 1: All right, If you're listening to this show, you know.
Speaker 2: I try to keep up with all sorts of current events,
and I know you do too, And you've probably heard
me say get your news from multiple sources.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is
why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an
app and it's a website and it combines news from
around the world in one place, so you can compare
coverage and verify information. You can check it out at
check dot ground, dot news slash Pete I put the
link in the podcast description too. I started using ground
News a few months ago and more recently chose to
work with them as an affiliate because it lets me
see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The
blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by
the left and the right.
Speaker 1: See for yourself.
Speaker 2: Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that
link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I
use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.
Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. So talking about disaster In fact, the name
of this piece that was written by Gary Pierce over
talking about politics dot com. Gary Pierce is a Democrat
strategist guy, and he started this website along with Carter
Wren who was a Republican strategist guy, and they started
this website talking about politics. They don't really post a
lot in the recent couple of years to my knowledge,
but anyway, he had a piece early about a week
ago called Disaster Duty and he says climate change where
this is going. Climate change has changed governor's jobs. They
now must be masters of disasters floods, fires, hurricanes, and
winter storms. Okay, look, I suspect that Gary was using
the master of disaster because it was a you know,
kind of turn of phrase from like, you know, Rocky
the Rocky movie Apollo Creed the master of disaster, right,
I was one of his I think that was one
of his names. So maybe that's what he was just
using that for. But nobody expects the governor of any state,
or the president or any leader, any elected leader to
be or anybody really to be a master of disaster
unless you're like blowing stuff up, right then maybe like
al Qaeda. Okay, yes, masters of disaster stuff like that. Okay,
But if you are elected to a position to he
spawned to disasters, See, that's part of the gig, that's
the job. You have all of these resources at your disposal,
and you asked for the job to marshall said resources
in the wake of disasters. So no, it is not
something that I expect you to master the climate or
master a disaster. I do expect you to be competent,
to be competent in the response. Unlike my good friend
Ray former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who showed time
and again, through multiple hurricanes and the COVID disaster that
he is not competent as the quote master of disaster,
as the governor who's charged with responding to these types
of disasters. He okay, he goes on to say, he
talks about, of course, you know Donald Trump. He quotes
former Governor Jim Hunt, who after Hurricanes Floyd, which devastated
eastern North Carolina. By the way, my sister who was
living in Wilmington at the time, lost her apartment, her car,
and her job, all of them were destroyed. So that
was actually the very first news report that I was
ever on WBT with. I interviewed her and that got
part of the news, became part of the newscast. Here
just a little bit of personal history there. So I
am aware. But Governor Hunt said his advice to Governor's
two words, take charge. You've got to get out there
and see firsthand. It gives you a real knowledge of
the extent of the disaster. So this is not new
This is not climate change. This is you know, we
have a state agency. We have these tools and this
equipment to go help people after that's your primary core mission.
You don't have to be a master of it. He says,
while wildfire's ravage California. You know, Trump is more likely
to attack governors than to help them. It'll take superhuman
patience and persistence for Governor Stein in the state's congressional delegation,
especially Senator Tom Tillis to get help from a Trump
White House when disasters hit, as they inevitably will, maybe
Trump will toss us a few rolls of paper tels
Pierce just cannot help himself. Just can't help himself this
kind of snide remark, because what is he talking about.
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Donald Trump went there
to boost morale. Get a look at the scene on
the ground, and then he's out there handing out stuff
as every politician does. Are they actually helping? No? Did
Kamala Harris actually help by putting like a toothbrush in
a bag during the one of the relief Hurricane Helene
relief efforts.
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Did she really help?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: But you go, you make a present, You make your
presence known. If you take an adversarial, combative posture with
the president, you should expect a similar thing in return.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying all right.
Speaker 2: That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. I could not do the show without your
support and the support of the businesses that advertise on
the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too
and tell them you heard it here. You can also
become a patron at my Patreon page or go to
dpecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening,
and don't break anything while I'm gone.