Greg West’s Journey Improving Schools and Running for Cumberland County Commissioner

Peter Pappas: welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappis, in studio on my own, so God help me. with candidate Greg West running for Cumberland County Commission at large. Welcome, sir. Thank you. First time here. Glad to be here. Hopefully it'll be one of many. So we're really happy to see you. now You've got twenty four years on the school board? Yes. How long? Twenty four years. Twenty four years. Six four year terms. Okay. what was one of the last things that happened? Or I mean you're still on it right now, tell me. So what's one of the most surprising things that happened to you in twenty four years of being on the board? COVID. COVID. okay. All right. Fair, fair. Okay. you definitely had to pivot. Yeah. A whole or organization of six thousand employees and fifty thousand students and And take bullets from all sides on that issue. What was okay, so maybe not the some most surprising, but what was your biggest win? What do you think through COVID? Because I know you guys went through hell. I mean, I everybody did. Yeah. But, you know, dealing with kids staying at home, asynchronous learning. And I feel bad for these kids, by the way. Yeah, sure. They don't get even a snow day anymore. Cause y'all gave them laptops. So they get asynchronous learning. They can't they don't have the the experience of the 80s kid waking up early to see the ticker across you know if school's gonna be out, y'all just make go. No, but they don't have makeup days either. So they've got their Saturdays and their weekends and and summers protected like the legislature wants. you know, the honestly the biggest thing for me is I can't recall all the the wins and the battles and the fight, but annually those graduation ceremonies were three thousand of thirty five hundred kids graduate. And that was really the goal the whole time was to see those kids finish that chapter of their life and move on to the next chapter and see the parents and the joy there. So that is a celebration. Last you know, there's sixteen high schools taking their early colleges and the ten traditional high schools and all of that. So we sit through about sixteen graduation ceremonies every June and that's a celebration and that's kind of the highlight every year of of of the service. culmination of all the work, all the trials, all the All the bloodshed all the screamings at and and it makes it makes it worth it because everybody's in a good mood. Yeah. so look, you're a builder, broker by trade. what do you think translates best to county government? Now you're running for a county at large seat. So and people that don't understand at large, I actually somebody asked me the other day, what the hell does that mean? I know. You get elected as if the mayor gets elected. Everybody in the county gets to have you on the ballot. Right. And thankfully I've run at large every time for the Board of Education. So from Steadman to Lyndon to Spring Late, they've seen me on their ballot and hopefully voted for me. So at large just means that county wide, I don't know how what the name comes I guess it distinguishes from the districts. Cumberland County has two county commissioner districts and then two two districts of which five are elected from and then there's two at large positions or countywide. That's all that's on the ballot now. Those two seats are supposed to represent the county as a whole. Correct you know there I don't think I haven't seen too much, I would say, not partisan, but like district politic on our board. Like we're such a we're still a small community, even though we have almost what, three hundred and forty thousand people. That's still small, but it's it's like we still know each other enough that I don't see anybody like district one saying, I only need this in district one. And I'll speak to that because in some areas that's called ward politics. Okay. And the s sometimes the school board members would sometimes say that my school and I was like, Look, they're all all they're all of our schools. You're elected from a district. You serve the whole county. And so that's kinda how I would like to distinguish this. We might some of them might be elected from district two, but our responsibility is to everybody. Yeah. in in my that's the way I look at it. Yeah. Well, even as I ran for district two, I mean I still learned so much about I think i it's a unique thing to run if you really give a damn. You're gonna do the homework and find out a lot more about your community than you ever correct thought. You'd ever imagine. Well, I'm drinking from the fire hose now because I've just been in the narrow but complex world of education and it's the largest budget item for the county and the largest budget item for the state. And it's a a massive, you know, undertaking. But I didn't pay attention to the volunteer fire departments or social services or the sheriff or the libraries or any of Parks and Reg. I haven't really paid attention to that. I know what's going on generally. Yeah. But haven't looked under the hood. And so I'm I'm enjoying that and and hopefully if I'm elected I'll dig in much deeper like I have on education. Well, and I mean you're no stranger to industry. I mean, how long have you been in your career? So I got my real estate license in ninety four and started selling residential. Mm-hmm. And then got my contractor's license in general contractor's license in O four. Okay. And so I've been a a builder, did residential first and then for the last fifteen since fifteen, so for the last eleven years, I've been doing commercial construction. Okay. Okay. So yeah, I mean I I told somebody last night or Monday night at East Over that I've literally driven off six hundred and fifty square miles of Cumberland County I know all the roads but and when you're in res r Hungary in residential real estate you'll go anywhere to sell anything. That's right. And and by doing that I kinda know most every road and and and what goes there. That helped me a lot in schools too, 'cause I could close my eyes and know what Beaver Dams district looked like or Sunnyside or whatever. So we have eighty seven schools and that's giving me a good foundation for what I hope will be a successful contribution as county commissioner. Yeah, I had a question come in last night. there's a we have a candidate running for school board, that he's a realtor and we know him well. But somebody asked me, Well, what does real estate have to do with the school board? And I'm like, well, good school, good house value. Bad school, no house value. It's very to me it's very very. And and I will make the case and I've made it to many a parent who's come to me every twenty four years about which school district should I live in. I said if your family values education, your child can get a quality education at any of our schools. Absolutely. Because there's great teachers, the curriculum is standardized, there's great teachers in every building and if you care you'll you'll gravitate toward the best teacher. So I I tried to help dispel the myth that everybody's got to go to this school or that school and say, Look, if you care and frankly your kid might stand out more at this school where the there's not as much competition from the same number of people. So you know realtors have to be careful about that. And I know everybody wants just without doing homework, just gravitate toward the easy message. Well the newest one gets the shiny penny the shiny penny in the newer school, but there's great learning and great opportunities in all the school buildings. I've heard you know people have tried to disparage like Smith about You know, trying to relocate Smith, that was a very emotional thing. You know, my take was like, How dare you withhold a twenty first century education from these kids? Let's move the damn thing, let's get it built. However, I also would say, you know, we did pretty well with the school we had there. We we had several leaders come out of there from the many. And I mean sitting mayor and former mayor came out of there. Military leaders. Lots of military, lots of you so medical I believe. Yeah. I mean I feel like out of public education you're gonna get out of it what you put in. Absolutely. And depends what that kid goes home to. You can't send crazy Johnny at seven o'clock and expect well adjusted Johnny at three thirty. No. If you don't carry it over and that's what teachers are d dealing with more than ever, I would say is is education's not as important in many households and there are broken a lot of broken households and struggling households and It's it's tough hustle. It turns into a social issue real quick. Real quick. Well, we're feeding them breakfast, lunch. That's the but again, and I get it, and I I wasn't as sympathetic as I am now, and some people think I'm getting soft, but the it's not the kids' fault, first of all, at all. And if they if their other needs aren't met, education not high on his lift. If he's hungry or tired or sick. Yeah. I well I have people from foreign countries, friends of mine, that they say, Well, my kid didn't like the school lunch today. I says, Well, why did we have to get and I being very devil's advocate, I'm like, Well, why is it our job to feed the kid lunch? 'Cause did you get fed lunch at your school in the Philippines? No. But so it's just a different I know. I feel like if we can help we should. I don't I I don't see a problem with giving school lunch. I'm just No, I know. That's an example, but now it's it's turned into the dental van, it comes by every school. for dental work and but again if the kids got a toothache and is not getting dental care at home they're not gonna be able to learn prepared. So it's just it falls back and and that's a lot of what's driven people out of education because it's not about education per se anymore. It's about taking care of the the the kid that and but it's you gotta do right by the kid. Again, they didn't choose to be born and it's you gotta do right by them. Yeah. No agreed. And you've been there long enough to see so all of your children are graduated out. at this point, right? Well, I got one in college. But yeah, they're all through all all came through K. I didn't say if they're still on your financial responsibility. They're all on my cell plan. Okay, there you go. But but I think that's for life. because you know, it costs more to switch is the cheap book. But yeah, all three came through Cumberland County schools and have done great. And I all three went to North Carolina State University and are doing well. And I've got a s the youngest is a sophomore there. Okay. Yeah, so So so it's proof that they can go through if they have support at home, it sounds like they and their peers did great. And again, if education is important that the kids will do well. Absolutely. So I don't wanna spend too much time talking about school board. I you you are I mean, it just, you know, that that that is your background. I mean that is your that is your how you've been kind of galvanized in public service. W did you ever have another public office before? I'm too young. Okay, there you go. family, I think. Did you have mom or dad? N not serving. Mom was a public school teacher for thirty six years. Dad worked civil service at Fort Bragg. my grandfather was on the school board in Sampson County. Okay. but I didn't know that until after I had gotten elected. yeah, no, just they were ch church was important in our family. Snyder Baptist Church grew up there and service of any kind was ingrained in our family and We love this community and I looked up in two thousand and two not to stay on education, but there were nobody on the school board with children in school. Mm-hmm. And so that's kinda said, Aha, I'll run on that platform and I did and got elected and it's about back to that point now where I don't think anybody has children in school. And I get it because older people have time to serve. Most younger people are working and it's you have to give a lot of your time during the day and in the evenings for public service. Yeah, but you it's like what do you want? old lawyer, young doctor? Yeah. You know, so I we need some fresh blood. I think so I have joked with some of the candidates that are running because they were they were in the school system for a long time. I'm like, why do we want you? 'Cause you're just gonna be a company man or woman. Like you we don't need what's been happening. We need some change. And and I am facetious a little bit about that 'cause I I I am friendly with these guys, but I think it's okay to bring some outside. Well W I've served with, you know, Rick Glazer who was a lawyer. Frank Berrigan was a banker. You know, they had a homemakers. you know. So I would prefer a a broader board, just for a breadth of experience and some subject matter expertise. But they The people care about school. That's what they know and they care. So when they retire they they choose to run. So And and I can appreciate that too. I just I think I was really pulling Hatch's leg one day. I like, You're just a company man. I don't you know what I so Well, th everybody knows what they know. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I look I grew up around a bunch of Greeks in restaurants, so that's what I know, okay? So well let's talk about county commission because I mean look, you put your you I mean, hell, if it was a real job you could retire from it and get a pension. Where's your pension on that? I'm rethinking myself. I mean, is there a possible way you can spend all the money you've made being on the school board? and it's not a paid position anyway. Yeah, it's thousand dollars a month. that much? Yeah. Okay. My goodness. How could you all spend that in one place? Exactly. So you did your time. Right. And we thank you for that. I mean that you know, grateful grateful county thanks you, okay. But why? How did Okay, did you check your with your wife first? No, she's mad. Okay, she's mad. I did, but I went against her. okay. So she's not helping me put signs up, house divide going to forums or nothing. Okay. So some couch time in there. But what was your I mean look, I don't think you're one of the guys that runs to put your name on a ballot. I feel like I can identify with you because you probably saw a need and you I always thought I think I can do that better. So what was your why to jump in there? Okay. A I wasn't going to run. But then I said I saw how much one one of your hair, not one of my hairs. Okay. But the I said, you know what? I've learned what government can do and what it can it can't do and what How complicated it really is, and people don't appreciate how complicated state or local government is. So I've got something to offer there. I think I can get elected is a big the other thing too. Having run before and run campaigns, they're hard work, they take money. I think I can do that. I think I've got name recognition. And I liked what the current county commissioners were doing that previous boards of county commissioners had not done, as in root funding the school requests, respecting the board enough to say, hey, this is what you say you need. We're gonna do our dead level best to fund you so you can be responsible for what you were elected to be responsible for. So I've seen the current county commissioners funding this and then being open to the massive capital campaign or the building campaign where we haven't built anything new in twenty years or repaired, significantly repaired or improved any of our facilities in twenty years. And I saw they were willing to do that. And I was like, you know what, I want to be a part of that and continue what Hopefully we started in the end of my school board campaign and continue. So I know we had the study, the same people did the study with the like the red, yellow, green but then they also were the ones that orchestrated the school closure thing. So and you were on the board for a long time. So I'm not gonna blame you for this, but I'm gonna ask you, so how did we get so far? What was it, eight hundred? What give me a hundred eight hundred million in in deferred maintenance. But those were categories into high priority all the way down to low priority, like you know, grass or grass or paint or or or dirt, you know, whatever. But, you know, three hundred and some million was major repairs. And that's what we went to the county commissioners and said, hey, look, we've got to take care of these. It's not that we were kicking the can down the road or being negligent. It's just that when we'd asked for it, it wa wasn't provided capital money. There's two buckets of money. One's your operating money, and that has to be spent annually on mostly of ninety percent of our budget's people. Yeah. So when we'd asked for capital repairs, the money wasn't there. We got a s a set amount every year. And the big fallacy also is the education lottery. People think that was the be all end all. We just got a report by and the state the Dave Bolick just finished an audit for the first time in a long time. Cumberland County got eight eight million over the last twenty years. Forty four million a year. Mm mm. It doesn't cover HVAC or a new roof at one of our schools. So For all those reasons, we've just not we've put b put band-aids on it. And so an outside firm of consultants and engineers that weren't they were objective and not from here and and aren't biased, you know, ranked everything down to you know, ADA on the ADA on the restrooms and and very costly accessibility. Yeah. And and it was awesome to read. So but they had the database to then make the recommendations. they knew the system well enough and were still impartial to make the hard recommendations to close these schools and there's eight or nine that we're gonna close to attain five million a year in annualized savings and then you've got your HVAC technicians are looking after seventy five schools instead of eighty five schools. Yeah. The same because we've got a shrinking pool of mechanics And technicians. Well, we had the one public resignation from the bus the bus mechanic, which was that was tough to work. It was tough. And he spoke from the heart and God bless him as a superintendent, met with him, you know, later that week and you know and the superintendent, that's really his role to run. You know, the a board is our role is really to hire and fire the superintendent and then set policy. And the public I think forgets that they do. You know, well so you know, with county commission, you know, it's the county manager. you know, and everything happens under the county manager's umbrella, you know, or city manager, you know, so you're only so much your board can do. Supposed to do. Supposed to. So let's so county commission you're running for now, in your experience on school board, how many times in those twenty years do you feel like you got a full budget from county commission? It was always and very antagonistic. I mean, with Rick Glazier, going back to him, he orchestrated the funding formula. We had a great CFO, Ricky Lopes, and the the spirit then back then with some of the county commissioners was l let's avoid the haggling every year. Let's come up with a form formula. Sure. And so it set. As the co county prospers, the school system will get a the same relative percentage. Okay. But that went away after, you know, four or eight years, a couple of cycles, that went away because the county needed more for what they wanted to do. And we increasingly got a lower percentage of the overall property tax bay it used to be about half and now it's about forty percent, I think. that the school system gets of the county ad valorum tax. So we're trying to get back to a formula so that it it is more predictable because that's I mean It takes the contention away. Well right and they need the county needs predictability and the school system needs predictability. That's the whole point of a budget. So I think we maybe we can get to that, but I don't remember the the question. So you r so you really think it was you never really met a full budget during your time. Well or it was me we would be conditioned to ask for two million when we needed four or six and we just said, well let's ask for two to avoid a fight. Okay. Two million more. So the county, most of the time I was on the board has been in the giving the county eighty or or ninety million. Just for background, our budget this year is six hundred seventy million. Mm-hmm. You know, seventy five percent of that comes from the state. it's really the state school system. And then the counties kick in what they can extra. Mm-hmm. Because the state money comes with a whole lot of restrictions. You can only spend it on this, this, and this, and most of it's personnel. Mm-hmm. The county money is allows us to give a supplement, which is a kicker or bonus to all the employees to make it more attractive to work here if we choose to do that, or we can spend it other ways. So the county now is up to a hundred and ten million was the the latest ask, and we got it. Well a hundred and ten million. So pretty significant because it's been in the eighties and nineties the whole time I've been on the board. and then we get a little bit of federal money, mostly for child nutrition and and stuff like that. So it's mostly a state school system. But that local money is the most flexible money that we that we can do what we want to do with to try to move the needle, if that makes sense. Gotcha. Well, so are there on the county commission, I know there's like the fire commissioner, is there a liaison for school board? There's not formally one, but I've volunteered to to be that and and that's one of my campaign things. Obviously, you know, public safety. keeping the education system stronger, helping to get stronger and then keeping the tax rate as low as we can without cutting essential services is kind of my platform. I got you. Okay, so your why for running was I want to make my wife mad and continue running. So that's the unintended consequence. But but you know, in a nutshell to to finish hopefully what I've started on the school board and and get some of these big projects done. Because heck, I'm a builder and a general contractor and we've kind of been sitting We have done the the last schools we built was New Century Middle and New Century Elementary out by Gillis Hill Road. Yeah. And then that followed the Jack Bridge. How long was that? Those those were the I broke I did the shovel in two thousand and four on those. And then we did maybe Grace Creek Middle right there in two thousand and five. But Jack Brick was built right when I got on the board and I've been on the board twenty four years. So it's already it's already a quarter century old. Yeah. Yeah. Well everybody and it seems new, but it's Yeah, we all say the new school and it's not. No, so that was, you know, took three schools to relieve the three thousand kids that were at Southview, you know, Grace Creek and and Jack Brid. All the growth was in the west and south part of the county, but now Cape Fear is blowing up as well and and Pine Forest is is experiencing a rebirth up top. And don't have children in school, but I know where the housing is going. Exactly. I know where people want to live. Exactly. so all right. We have tier one schools. I and we're gonna get off school I promise we're gonna get off schools. We have tier one schools. We're the poorest of the poor. Mm-hmm. We need industry to feed the tax base to boost the schools. Right. But we need good schools to bring the industry to afford the schools. A chicken or the egg. Pretty much. So what what do you see as your role on the commission? How are you how can you help that along? Well, and again I guess I guess I'm asking, how are you gonna what can you do job wise, economic development wise? What do you see as an opportunity? Well I haven't really been in the weeds on what our economic development strategy is. But from thirty thousand feet, I don't know who we're wanna be or who we're trying to go after or what we wanna be. And and w in one of my videos, just for the audience, I've got a YouTube page and I've got ten videos on it now. I've got two more that gonna release I try to release one every every Tuesday evening. But I'll use Johnston County for an example, two counties north of here. And they chose to go after the pharmaceutical industry. And they can't keep up. I mean it's just and then you get the critical mass, the the engineers that know how to do it, you get a critical mass of employees and we've got to look beyond for and capitalize on Fort Bragg, and then you look at you know, Honey Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama and what they've done there to complement their military sector and grow. So I just I don't I think we just kinda take what comes and say no to half of And Sanderson Farms and and whatever. And you know, data centers are are clearly on the radar now and we've we should have been talking about that two years ago and setting the parameters on which we would ex welcome them to our community. Did have people a couple of years ago looking to locate? Does it go that far back though? Yeah, but they've been in construction for a decade. Yeah. You know, so it was not a secret that they were being built elsewhere and it would stand a reason. We just were behind the curve. We're reacting. And I use the analogy playing defense instead of playing offense. And so that's the kind of mindset I hope to bring. And let's, you know, let's establish some focus groups and and re identif or re establish what we want to be who we're going after. And then let's go get You know, whether it's you pharmaceutic's too late for pharmaceutical because they're two miles two counties up by ninety five, but we've got ninety five. And Fort Bragg, we need to do more than just take the Amazon win and the Walmart Distribution Center win twenty years ago and and all. So that's kind of the mindset I'll bring. I don't have the answers. And I used this in a forum the other night. Any candidate to a new position who acts like they've got all the answers isn't being genuine or they're, you know, they're feeding you a line. Yeah. The sound bites because and you know, many of the sixteen school board members were throwing out stuff that I like, You don't know what you don't know. And you know, God bless you. And I may have sounded the same way when I ran for the first time. But, you know, people who are challengers have to throw stones or otherwise you're s you're you're saying the incumbents are doing well. I think sometimes these guys think they're playing house of cards when they can barely play a game of checkers. I you know, I'm sorry. Some of these guys they try to act like they're gonna you know I'm like, dude, you this is not the potholes are not partisan. Just figure out how to fill the damn things. so economic development, you know, we we have the PFAS issue that's on County Commission's radar now. We have w Robert Van Giens has been on quoted as saying that he's got like half a billion dollars in development, but no infrastructure to bring it. So well what what role does County Commission have in providing some of that well and again I don't know all the back history on on this, but I've heard we've we punted on Countywide Water, you know, a long time ago when when Arnett through the years and harding just like we punted on ninety five coming through town and and so maybe bad decisions were made decades ago, but we can't be living in the past. But it boggles my mind that we knew nine years ago about PFAS and two of our elementary schools were put on bottled water and yellow crime scene tape was put on the water fountains. And it's just this year that they're back on public water nine years later. And I read it only took twelve million dollars To run those lines out there. Two years and twelve million. Yeah. I mean, so that you know, where was the leadership seven and six and you know, eight years ago? I don't know the inside baseball, but I'll tell you this much. In 24, Senator McGuinness called myself and a bunch of other the Republican candidates at that time. He said, Y'all need to get out to Grace Creek today. Yes, sir. So we went to the press conference that wasn't announced except that morning. Okay. And majority of the then elected Democrat folks were all taking credit for it. And Senator I've never seen Senator McGuinness get up and start yelling saying y'all voted against this. And I don't know exactly what how that worked, but I'd never known him to be a liar either. So he was very vocal that it had been blocked. Well it was wrapped up in another bill. I that's all I think maybe that's he I that's what I don't know. I'm sure that's the case usually because they will if it was a standalone bill. Nobody would have voted again from here would have voted. So but yeah, he's factually out of it. Unfortunately they play politics with our kids. Right. And and health and all that. So that's the ugly side of of you know how it gets done in in Washington. Unf or fortunately and this is my first time running with a Republican next to my name. And I'll be honest with you, that's a game changer too, because I've been a school board is nonpartisan, so it was Greg West on the ballot, not Greg West, you know, with Republican under it. And so that's going to eliminate some people who voted for me in the past voted for me now. Simply because, yeah. Right. And I I hate that. But l local there's very little place for where loc party party politics should come into local decisions. Mm-hmm. It's about, like you said, the kids or or getting it done here locally. And so the party rhetoric that we hear in R Raleigh and Washington really doesn't have a place here. So I hope people look beyond the R After my name, and I'm gonna say that at a forum tonight that I hope you'll look past look at my service and my heart, not the letter behind my name. Yeah, I well, I hope so. I mean, look, we want you to be judged on your substance and what you can do. You think? You know, I'm well but I know, but look, you I remember at Cliff D. L. L Early vote site, you had several of the Republicans kind of lined up on the rope line, that rope line of death as the people come around. And they were making progress. I remember Simone Pemberton and and god Leonard Bryant. They were talking to people and people were engaged. And then they got to me, hey how you doing, you know, whatever. And then they get down to a few down and there's a guy with the Trump thing in fr in their face totally ruined right what we were doing. All the goodwill that it just happened. All the goodwill. And it's like look, we need to let people know that Conservative the Republican is a conservative party. We have good values. We want your kids to be safe. We do generally believe the go in the church and the family. And we there's a lot of good stuff. We are not your enemy. We are your friendly neighborhood Republicans here. Totally. You know, but we need to get the message out to put the And I helped. make the motions to make it get on the table so we could vote up or down on it. But it wasn't about closing schools. It was about getting resources, getting those kids in better buildings, newer buildings, and spending money in neighborhoods that haven't seen a lot of money in a long time. But that's being spun that I'm picking on predominantly black neighborhoods. Yeah. And it's not. It's you're making the decision that nobody wants to make. Right. And and this is the thing. We've elected you To be, whether you are or not going in, we hope you get to be this way when you're in office, the subject matter expert. Right. You know where the where the proverbial bodies are at. And I want you to make the decision. Now, I did ask a question Monday night, I believe, of somebody I was talking about, the school board. Do you think that they lost their nerve by r kind of pulling back on some of the closures? So unfortunately, I think that emotion and public o opinion comes in when it's not a rational decision. We need to stick with what you guys come up with. Yeah, I mean we do because but we worked through it. I mean the consultants weren't from here and Beaver Dam didn't make any sense because it's fourteen miles. The bus ride would have been s crazy and it's an ace it's the only A elementary school we got. And so we decided to leave Beaver Dam alone. And then Massie Hill again is graduating a hundred percent of its kids and it's a gym, but we we're gonna close we didn't need two classical high schools, so we're gonna close Reed Ross because E. Smith so there's a whole bunch of dominoes. Mm-hmm. It's not as cut and dry as people want to make it out to be. It is all interlocked and dominoes. And but that's the deep thinking that I hope I can bring and I can, you know, close my eyes and see how it all plays out. And so I look forward to more complex issues at the county level being able to bring that same process to and yeah, they're emotional, but at the end of the day, it it's what's best for the children. And you know what? Those kids at at Manchester. We moved the the pr the superintendent made a chess move over the summer and moved the principal from Manchester, which w closed, to WT Brown, where most of the Manchester kids were gonna go. And they showed up on the first day of school and I guarantee you they're feeling loved and having a great year. Okay. But it's the adults that have more problem than the change until they fear the unknown to it. Fear the unknown. And I I tried to read the reassignment pattern. I was like Holy crap, this is a complicated and w look, this is simple around here compared to Wake County or some other growing counties. They have twenty six schools get reassigned every year. Moving their lines are fluid. Ours are pretty set in stone around here. Although, you know, once we get through with some of this building, we'll probably have to move some lines to balance all the schools out and then we'll be good to go with seventy six schools, I think, or seventy five schools. We just need to then balance keep balanced. Well we need And I can hopefully whether it's Parks and Rec or or some of the other issues around here, we could do the same thing. Everything that's going wrong. What's going right? Who's got it right? Ha what has the commission done, in your opinion, very well in the last year or two? And what can we do better? Well, I mean again not to harp on Everybody knows everybody, so you're not gonna insult them too bad, but go ahead. public education in a meaningful, significant way, both in the physical buildings and in the in the money that we can use to pay our people. And our retention rate, they they believed the elected board entrusted us instead of second guessing us. And our we started the year with only 40 vacancies out of six thousand, well, three thousand five hundred classroom teachers, only 40 vacant. It was always in the 80s or 90s because we've paying more our retention it stayed up or recruitment worked better and also that's huge. I mean I've I think our fire the fire safety piece out there at Tom Starling Road is a is national is a national leader in fire safety and swift water. Yeah. So I've been to events out there. th the rural fire department's impressed the heck out of me. They're the the fabric of those communities. Mm-hmm. So I think that's going well. I don't know much about the social services, health department end, you know, the whole crown piece and the downtown performing arts piece. You don't want me to say if you would agree or disagree with them canceling that. But that's that's gonna that's some heavy lifting. It's gonna have to be some hard decisions, much like the school decisions I've had to make, some merit measured construction related and financially related decisions, and quality of life decisions. One of the videos I made on my YouTube page was if we'd have been keeping that up much like the schools. If we'd have kept our performing arts center up for the last two decades, we wouldn't have had the debacle downtown and it'd be state of art. And we'd have had the last twenty years of use of it. Right. Good use. Well, but you're you're a con you're a contractor. I mean, look, at a certain point the building is going to approach its end of its useful life. So I mean the building's what, sixty years old? Yeah, I graduated there. did you walk across the stage there. Well, hey, but it was my dad took me to wrestling there, so that yeah, Arena Elvis, I said it when I joke, I said this hasn't been updated since Elvis left the building. There you go. That's right. Well, and it hasn't. But I mean, sixty years old building's a six year old building. At a certain point, what do you want to do with it? You can only put so many layers of lipstick on the big. But here's what I'll tell you. Look at the little theater and the transformation, the Cape Feet Regional Theater it's gonna have. I contend the building had good bones. If you look at the floor slope And and you could blow out the stage out the back and upgrade that and the balcony piece and it's adequate sized for our community. The restrooms and the front of the house could be changed and the back of the house could be blown out. So yes, but then you go to New York City and look at the historic theaters and and memorial auditorium in Raleigh and stuff like that. So I I'm pushing back on you a little bit by that because you can you can keep it modern and current, but you can't wait too long or it's past and and st Structural de deficits may happen. We have an active lawsuit. I mean, the the the downtown was a di was not a diversion, but it was a a solution to the ADA lawsuit was hey, let us still be in the theater in the arena and then we're gonna open this brand new shiny thing and now we have to just close it. So anyway, I don't want you to step in too many bag of snakes without worry about it. I mean it is what it is, but we just gotta work our way out of it. Yeah, absolutely. Well, unfortunately it's gonna cost us more Well, but I if you look at de w what I'd heard too was the Performing Arts Center had gotten watered down to basically a glorified convention space with flat floor, which is not D Pack in Raleigh or a Performing Arts Center, it's a convention space. No government project especially gets better with age. Please Because nothing gets cheaper and and the new board coming in is gonna add their own flavor to it, which is what happened with the event center. Right. It was ten years No, it's a political hot political hot potato. You gotta get after it. I don't know what the merits are of having a a certain point where you have to say you're locked in, you gotta finish it as we planned. Or you know, but anyway it's But a a a current board can't bind a future board. Well, that's true. So that's always one of the fundamentals, you know, we always heard. So you've got to get it done in twenty four months, it sounds like. So okay. Well, campaigns don't run on pretty face alone. You need money and you need volunteers. So where can people find you? So I've got a website. It's real easy. I've got a short name, it's votegregwest.com. VoteGregWest dot com and you can click a box to volunteer to work a poll, host an event, although it's getting a little bit late for that. And there's obviously seven different places with donate buttons on it. and you can give by check or give online right through one of the apps. Okay and that's not too late for that guys. It's it's I guess it's safe to say, I mean these campaigns are getting to where there need to be to a successful one county wide with multimedia is six figures. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's expensive. People don't believe that, but nothing's everything's more expensive than it's ever been. Absolutely. And only going up. Well, people, you know, we still have that ideal, I think, of the Norman Rockwell citizen getting up and saying, you know, speaking on behalf of his community and the citizen politician. Yes, we do still live here, but marketing costs money. Well and getting your message out. And the apathetic voter, I mean, people go to the polls and have no clue on the down ballot stuff and and school board was about last behind they set for so school and w soil and water. County commissioner's not much further up than school board. So And how much is the school board of the whole county commission budget? Like seventy percent? it's it's half, forty or fifty. But it's ha yeah, it's half of the county's budget. Right. And so but the so getting your message out in any way possible is necessary to get the or because it there's a lot of uninformed voters out there and then apathetic voters or Maybe one of the same. I think I I think uninformed is more apathetic wouldn't even come to the poll. Right. But you don't want them to. If they're not informed, you don't want to You don't well, unfortunately, I think a lot of people are making decisions on what's handed to them at the poll. so you gotta have a better. It's tough to cover. And some people I'm working with said if you've if we do it right, you won't need poll workers out there at the last minute. I I I wish that was I I wish I could with confidence say that, but I'm not gonna tell you. So as we get out of here. Volunteers, please volunteer. So so Greg, one last shot on our way out. What would you like people watching to know taken away from this episode today? What do you want them to know about you or your campaign or I I appreciate the opportunity to reiterate that I was born here right down the road at Cape Fear Valley Hospital, grew up through our public schools. chose to move back here, raise my family, start a business, love the community through faith, through Board of Education, and through all the other connections I've made. And I just wanna continue serving with a servant's heart, helping make good decisions for the benefit of the county and the the people that come behind us make our kids wanna move back here and stay here and grow the grow the economy to the benefit of everyone. So I think that's A good summary and I appreciate the opportunity to share it. Sounds good. Well, thank you for coming. And everybody, thank you for watching. You can go to our website, the Carolinacabinet.com, for all of our shows. it takes four seconds to follow, like, click, whatever, and then you'll have all of our episodes coming to you. So for the cabinet, I'm Peter Pappas. Y'all have a good day. Thank you.