From Grant Writing to the Ballot: Janine Ackles Tackles Cumberland County Issues

Peter Pappas: back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas studio with the lovely Laura Musler. Hello, hello. And joining us is Ms. Janene Ackles running for House District forty three. One of these years I might not commit that to memory. So welcome, welcome again. I think this is your third trip around to the cabinet. Second. It's only the second? I thought you were on before. No, you were. No, it's the second. You were on with me at the old studio. Well you were running for you were running for city council, I think? Yeah. Yeah. That was feels like ancient history, don't it? Yeah. So she has set her set higher than city council. Yes, she has. She has. So Well, Janene you're a grant writer by trade. And what's the most unexpected thing you've ever had to write a grant for? Unexpected? I I don't know if that's the right term. Unusual, maybe. honestly, most things are unusual. Nothing's really like just going in and saying, Hey, you know what? We want to feed the hungry. It's never anything like that. It's okay. We want to feed the hungry, but except they have to be purple and they have to wear a head wrap. And all these different you know, so that's what the grants are asking for. Okay, all right so it's not there's nothing that there's nothing that's just normal. It's always gonna be a touchover. So and that's really where the meat of the work comes in, I guess, trying to navigate some very specific parameters. Yeah, I want to have very good. Yeah, yeah. Well I buy plenty of lunches for you, I don't want to hear it. So I bought you lunch this weekend. You you did, thank you very much. I Jaggers well, no, not Jaggers, Will's grill. Well's grill. I'm all over the Will's grill, man. I like their salt and peppery burger. So I want to just get some of this lighter fun stuff out of the way. So look, are you a sweet tea or unsweet person? Okay. Just depends on the day. You could just say half and half, you know. That's what I do. I 'cause the first thing I ask is is it diabetes grade? And when they say yes, I say half and half. What's the best home? meal you've ever made. my cooking's good. So it's not even out. no. Are you a baker or a cooker or like what you're a cooker? I I'm not really a baker. Okay. Like 'cause my best meal is like I I I cook. And some people say I make the best Alfredo sauce they've ever had. But I like my what's the hot roast. So I have a different idea of what I make well. We'll see. But see I do. I have several things that people ask me for. Well, one, I would say chicken salad. No one's ever had chicken salad like mine. Do you put a raisin into? No. Do you put celery in it? I do. See, I don't need that. Well you don't like vegetables. That's just you're an odd bird because of that. Okay. Macalonian cheese. Okay. That optimized. Yeah. Macalonian cheese. So next time you're coming, you're bringing the macalonian cheese. We're gonna have the great cabinet cook-off in here. We need to bunch. We need to bring let' but then let's have all the c the candidates bring their best dish. We'll be like sitting here eating. Yeah, buddy. And everybody asks one might take a salad. Okay. Mayonnaise or mustard. Well I'm just that, don't give me the look if you don't put mustard in it. Okay. It doesn't doesn't do it. You gotta have a little bit. Okay. Great coupon or Heinz? Did you say great? If I don't ask, how am I gonna know? I grew up Greek household. We didn't have Southern potato salad. We had German potato salad. I don't know what that is. Exactly. See? It's good. It's just got a little evil to it. So Gotcha, anyway. Well I'm making fun my mom's potato salad. She sees this gonna kick my butt. So I'm telling the look. Yeah, I bet you will. That's you know, you're always there to help out, you know. So well, Janene, it's no secret. I mean, you ran for this race, you lost by about fifteen points last time. You're committed. And what specifically this time is different? The district, you issues, like what is keeping you fired up here? well There's several things. I mean, you can start with issues, you can start with the conditions. I mean there's there's several things. I mean, where do you want me to start? I mean I'd be here all night, but So your first forty-five days in office, what's the first thing that you try to get on the agenda? The first forty-five days. Okay. So one of the things, if this has not been completed already, I would like to work with other legislators on this moratorium deal. Because I do know if you can get a moratorium, I'm talking about for the data centers, and we can have people have more of the information and get educated about what's going to happen. I'm of the thought that people should be able to say what they want in their community. I think when you are elected, you're there to do what they ask you to do because they've employed you not to do what you want to do. So There may be a community out there that wants it in their community. And I would advocate and say, Yeah, they want it. But when people tell you they don't want it, that's what they don't want. So I would advocate for some type of regulation, moratorium, whatever that would entail legally. Well, at what point though, a is this gonna encumber property rights? Because I can't go to where you live and knock on your door and say, I'm gonna put a farm here or something. So I mean at what point are we able to and companies, whether we like it or not, they are corporations are people. Yeah. Okay. Not that they live and breathe, but they are. so you're essentially talking about infringing on private property rights. But how about people infringing on people's human rights? Okay. if I put something here at my house on this land, and in 20 years, my my neighbors and everybody within twenty miles or however many miles it is of me are all sick because of what I'm doing in my home, then that's a problem. We need to regulate that. I'm not Are there any communities that want the data see and that's the thing. No of any off the top of my head. But I will say this. Let's use Chat GPT to find out if there's any neighborhood. let's use the AI to to investigate the AI. Yeah, that's fair. well I will say this. someone posted maybe Last week or so they were talking about Loudoun County. Virginia Virginia. And I'm from a little bit farther down from there, from the Washington DC area. Okay. And so I know about Loudoun County. what I know is Loudoun County has all of these data centers. But when I did a little research in on it, I think that when they got it, first of all, I don't know that they were fully educated on it. Loudoun County, as you know, have they have a lot of affluent people, a lot of affluent neighborhoods, million dollar homes. And when they're talking to them about tax values and things going up, people that have a lot of money get very excited. So maybe they jumped a gun, got very excited about this because now they are now at a point where they need to make regulations about these data centers because they didn't take in you know consideration what was gonna happen later. So I think that there may be places that want it. But I do think that the ones that have them so far didn't know or were not educated on the issues, just like anything else that happens when they say, Hey, if you eat a carrot this year, you're gonna get cancer. You you understand what I'm saying? It didn't work, but yeah, I gotcha, 'cause I eat carrots too. But a lot of people, you know I don't eat carrots. But what I'm saying to you is that a lot of the times We're not educated on what can happen. And money is just not everything. We have to understand human life. So I don't know. I mean, there are a lot of them out there already. But I I don't feel like places like Eastover and things like that, their livelihood is farming. and we already have a lot of bad water here in the county. So why would we want to bring something else here to make it To just be the catalyst to make things even worse. That's my thing. See, that's the perception I think that's that's wrong is that we're not trying to bring it here. What's happening right now is we have people that want to put them here, which is we're attracting commerce, we're asking people to put their businesses here. This particular type of business doesn't have regulation at all, right? Which is why this has hit the damn fan. But at a certain point, if these people have bought their land. And they comply with whatever the city or county is gonna ask them to do, then I mean they have to be allowed. Now they shouldn't be screwing with our water. And there's a state law already that says if they want electric, they gotta bring their own electric infrastructure. Mm-hmm. It's already there. So the last thing comes down to water. And then educating the public. Is there anybody here that doesn't know we have data centers coming? Well, I don't know. I mean, I I'm just thinking like it's been such a highly contested issue. Well I'm gonna say there are people. I went even in the backsides of East Over, there are people that actually live right there on Custer Road who don't even understand or know what the data centers are. And I can say that 'cause I knocked on their doors and asked them about what was coming. You were at that East Over town meeting. So the the lady I was with, that was a friend of mine, she lives across the street from that site. Okay. I I I I carried somebody there. So Okay. Well, I went over there to see all of the sites and see where they were. And I do feel like when things like that come, I understand that there are things about property rights. But I do feel like if things like that come, the community should have a say in whether they come or not. Why should you have a say what I do on my land? I bought my land. I can do whatever I want on it. Sure. But yeah, well why don't you make sure whatever it is you're doing on your land only affects you. your family and kills your family, not everybody. That's what I'm saying. Prove that I'm killing anybody. Okay. Because wait a minute, hold on. Put the gun down. Yeah. I I I'm saying devil's advocate. Because there was a time here that we wouldn't shouldn't be eating eggs because they're giving us cholesterol and we're gonna have heart attacks and die. Well now all of a sudden we find out that if you don't have enough cholesterol, you can get what is Dementia. Dementia and wait, so now eat eggs. Did you just say wait a minute, I can't remember. That's exactly right. I can't remember what that that is. But I'm just saying, so now it's okay, eat eggs. We need cholesterol. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So who says what's causing what right now? Or are so breathing causes cancer, if I can just say that. Breathing, because we're breathing something in. Plastics cause cancer. We're wearing plastic. We're it's please spare me. Mm-hmm. If I bought land and I follow the regulation. I don't really care what your opinion is. Yeah. Thank you. And things do change as science evolves. But I don't I don't think you feel that wait, I'm playing devil's advocate for those of you that don't know me. Well, remember last week with Zach trailer and Carol, you know, Zach kept talking about he mentioned the data centers might the demand might burst. Mm-hmm. And we're like, I don't that's not gonna happen for a very long time. Right. so things can change. You know I don't want there because when they take over the universe again. Yeah, well, you know, when it becomes self aware thirty days after we turn Skynet on, yeah. well it so I do want to mention, didn't city council go to Loudoun County, Virginia? I think Mayor Colvin and Hondrose Was it Loudoun County? I think was, yeah. That's because I keep I keep mispronouncing it London County. Yeah, it's Loudoun. Loudoun County. So but I I I can't remember which county they went to. I did see the reports. And they seemed like they were complimentary about what they saw up there. That somehow they had integrated into the community or had created enough tax base that it made the trouble worth it. Not their words, that's mine. So no, I'm saying yes and probably no. Okay. Because if it was to me, and I don't like I said, I can't speak for anybody, any of the folks. I can just go on just by what I know, and then I know some people that actually live in Lyle Bane County. Okay. that they are now not very happy. with the data centers being there. Yeah, after the fact. It was exciting at first because of the tax breaks and things of that nature. But then you have places that have been promised up, like where is it in Georgia? Can't remember the name of the town that has it right now. And they've it's been three years and they've gotten none of these breaks. So who's to say they really have to give it to you? Say you bring all these data centers here and they've promised us all of the stuff, these Hundred jobs that are not a hundred jobs. No, thirty two jobs. And that and that's what they have. Nobody disputes that's BS as far as like it's only gonna be twenty fifteen or twenty, maybe. Right. And is it worth bringing that? Yeah to it's not gonna be jobs from anybody here in Conway County if they don't bring their own people. And that's it. And that's the whole thing. So what are we benefiting from it? We're bringing their dollars in here. They're bringing new people in here that'll bring their dollars and spend them here in really that. That's what they told you. Maybe. That's why I asked it. I said, Really? That's why I asked you that question. Because I mean, you have to look at the state of Cumberland County, period. Look at us. I mean, we're not in the best financial space. Housing is at I mean, people can't afford housing. You know, what do we make here an hour to even be able to live? Well, I can tell you that, because I look was looking for a job. And the same job that I get hired for here, if I go to Raleigh, I'm getting paid almost twice. But it costs the same amount to live here that it does there. So they think well increase minimum wage. Well, that's the stupidest answer I've ever heard in my entire life. Because you want to know what happens when you increase minimum wage? What happens? Your minimum work goes down. Your minimum work goes down and instead of going down to go get a ninety nine cents hamburger at McDonald's. There's no more things Do they still have those? No, of course not, because they're paying their employees twelve and fifteen dollars an hour. So the cost of living goes up because the corporations are not going to set up that the government doesn't set the cost of living. No, but here in Cumberland County, we have a and I'm so sorry that this is gonna sound horrible, but we don't have a highly ed a large sum, like if you go to RDU, we have a large sum of College graduates, educated specific people. Here in Cumberland County, we just don't have that. And if they are coming out of here and graduating, they're leaving. Because Cumberland County doesn't have anything to offer families or their children. There's no community. There's no parks. There's no goods bus system. There's none of that. Nobody wants to leave here. there's Where are they though? There's only twelve dozen splash pads. Yeah. But they're in places where, you know, I I could go on and on about that one. I'm I'm gonna leave that one alone for just a second. But I wanna go back to what you said about the minimum wage and things like that. I wanna go back to that because here in Cumberland County, I think that people overlook a service that we have right here, unless they're cutting it out still, is the NC Works. When you they subsidize you for certain amount of time when you have to when you need to bump up a salary. So if you go from eight dollars to twelve dollars, they help subsidize you for a certain amount of time to get you up and running. So I don't think it's the worst idea because if I can't I can't live off of eight dollars an hour. You're not supposed to. Minimum wage is not made for you to live off of. You should not be living off of minimum wage. Go get an education, learn a trade, do something. See, that's where see, that's where people mess up. Everybody's not gonna go to college. Nope, they don't have to go to college. They can get a trade. They can be a tradesman and and learn something. Okay. So let me ask Don't have children. You know. Pull the grade, baby. Pull them in. I'm just I'm listening to Yeah, that's a really conservative way of thinking. So I'm gonna let you have it. I don't I don't necessarily No, I'm saying I'm gonna let you have that because that's not necessarily how life goes. Because if it did, things would be different. So That's for anybody. For okay, so for able bodied adults, what should they do? Able body adults? If they're able to work, I have no problem with you going to work. But what I'm saying is that you shouldn't be treating me like a slave. You should what I'm saying is if you are paying somebody six and seven dollars an hour and you're expecting all of this. I'm not I'm there I understand that there are some jobs that are skilled jobs. I understand that there are some jobs that you get More for if you've gone to school. But what about those folks right now who've gone to school? They've had to pay maybe student loans back and all that and you're still not paying enough. What'd you go to school for? Well, did I go to school for? Well not you. But what I can tell you. If they went for a liberal arts degree, bummer. Yeah. I mean to school if you went to school to learn plumbing or electrical engineering. But what I'm saying is that it's not a one size fit all not at all. No, not at all. You can't just say, Well, don't have kids or Don't do this and don't do that. You can't say it. You can say it, but yeah. Okay. You can say that, but it's you know that's bilarky because people are going to be people. And I do understand that. But I also think that everybody should be paid a fair wage, whatever that might be. Now, I'm saying if you work I'm if you're working in a factory all day long and you making millions of dollars, how come you can't pay your workers a fair wage. I don't care if they got a high school diploma or not. If they are a part of making you get where you need to get to, you should be paying them a fair wage. But who determines fair? The market. The market. Yeah. The market can the market can definitely determine that. But I think well but when it when the market decides it's beyond fair, they're gonna have Elon Musk create robots that move like humans and further erode jobs. That's why I don't check out my own groceries. Because I want to and I refuse to check out my own groceries. She every time she goes to the grocery store, she's winning. That's exactly because I want if I check up first of all, I don't get an employee discount. I don't work for you. Yeah. And I'm not gonna check out my own groceries. But as soon as I check out my own groceries, I'm taking your job, not you. You so I refuse to check I'll stand in. I'll be like, Are you guys gonna check me out or what? Because when you check out, it might be faster, it might be more convenient for you, but you are taking Somebody's job. Okay. End of story. I mean, that isn't that what convenience is a lot of times. And I I mean I'm not gonna participate in dealing with that. No, no, no. I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, but I'm just saying that that's the difference with convenience. So that's one of the reasons why I'm saying to you there's no one size fit all. And we have to look at these things. And again, he's he said about the fair wages. Well, see, for me, I could certainly get someone to do some things, some work for me. But I refuse to get someone to do work for me if I can't pay them what I know that they're worth. And not only that, if you're working for me, because see, this is what people don't understand. If I come to work every day and I'm getting a paycheck, and I could be the best worker ever. But when I go home and I can't pay my light bill, or I gotta choose between what gets paid or if I'm able to have dinner tonight. That causes another problem. I was there. I've been there and done that. But what I'm trying to tell you is that it's much easier when you have when you can first of all, we do need to learn how to live within our means. That's that is number one. That's my problem with the fair thing. It's like, well, what's fair? Because well, if they make so much money, they're gonna go for the higher apartment and it's gonna be it's gonna elevate the whole market. So that's why I have a problem with the what's fair. I I understand that. I I got you with that. But at the same time, what I am saying to you is we live in Nicomba County here, and we're talking about apartments that cost eleven and twelve hundred dollars. And but they're full, aren't they? they sure are. I have nine hundred and seventy five dollar two bedroom, eight hundred square feet, and I've got fifty to a hundred people applying for every single one of And see that and again, that that goes to their full because that's what the market's bearing right now. That's what they're saying. They weren't worth that. You wouldn't have any you'd have all vacancy. Yeah. no now. I that that's what the market says. Yeah. But what about those who can't even afford it? No, I get it. That's what I'm saying. You have and and no matter what you say about the affordable housing and all of this stuff, there's always gonna be where people just can't afford certain things. And I get that. And I say people should live within their means, but if people trust me, if they're getting that A partner that's nine seventy-five, you say. A lot of times they're not making the money. They're just f trying to figure it out as they go along the way. Or they're choosing not to do something. Or I don't have health care or whatever. Because I gotta have somewhere to live. Wait for Christmas. Well, wait for like January or February and see how many people are coming trying to pay you six months rent a at a time because they're they're getting their tax refund. And instead of treating it like their money that they're getting back as a refund, they're treating it like free money. But they gave the government a loan no interest for a year because they overpaid. So they all of a sudden they're rich and they pay. I mean, you'll see that in the spring. People get their tax tax refunds early and they go spend it. If they're not spending it on rent, then they're they're a fool. You need to have I mean, my thing is that I d I'm not upset with someone doing that because they're thinking about what's to come. That's right. You know what I'm saying? If when you get tax money and You're in your hand. I always tell people that's not free money. That's money that you need to use. I tell people invest your money. Yeah. Take that money and you live the whole year without it. So put it over there. That's right. And I mean I'm with you on that. I I'm I'm totally with you. And stop paying H and R block three and five hundred dollars to do your taxes before please. You can do it for free on IRS dot gov. You can't. Most people have one, two jobs, tops, and a ten ninety nine or something. You can do that online for free and get an electronic refund. But that's that's just one of my pet peeps having employees. So you you you wait. They can work remotely for the IRS. It's fine. Go H and R block. Yeah, they're not because that's something I do. I just try to get one the other night for another client and I have to wait. What does that require people? I have no idea. But they said they are not giving any EIN numbers because they're understaffed. But didn't some old man say that we're gonna make it thirty five thousand more agents? Yeah, I don't like I said, I don't think he remembers, but All right. So we've talked about affordable housing a little bit. I always like to remind people that affordable housing may not be what you think is affordable or somebody else, but trailer parks were affordable housing for people. And seems like the last fifteen, twenty years our city and county have had a war on having mobile home parks, whether you like them or don't. Somebody needed that mobile home for three hundred fifty to five hundred dollars a month rent to have a family of six. I mean let's tear down. Yeah. I mean I'm sorry, but and I don't advocate, you know, having these trashy mobile home parks, but that was at the at the same point, you're living three hundred dollars a month. It's it's going to be trashy. Yeah. You don't have any extra money to fix it up. It's not it's not ideal. I just said I'm saying why do we have to identify it as being trashy? It may not be it may be just not you know, what I'm saying is that you have to be careful. on the adjectives you use because that tends to give people I call it self-worth for what they are. And just because but if you say they live in a trashy trailer park, what do you think they call you? Well do trailer park trash. They are but no see look But they're not. They're people who can't afford there are trashy trailer parks and there are ones that are well run. Okay. And that's what I think the city and the county they were had a war against was the ones that code enforcement left and right. They weren't fixing Well the trashy ones should be should have something to do with the landlords that aren't doing their job. Not the people that live in them. If you can get a well run trailer park, I and we have I think we have one right there's one over on three one that's beautiful. You go in there it's like almost like a gated community. There's one right there over there right across the river cattail. They've got that all cleaned up nice. It's very nice over there. Rayford Road across from the old cable vision or across well behind it's on Rafe Road going up, you make a left. That neighborhood is all one big trail park and it's it's not in bad shape. It's actually a pretty decent looking place. So no, just because you have a trailer doesn't mean you're that's what I'm saying. We but we often when people live in a trailer or things like that, we often look down on them because if that's the best they can do and they're doing it and they have a place to stay, they're going to work every day and they're doing what they need to do, then in my opinion, You need to be proud of someone because they could be doing other things or they could just have nothing at all. Or I would expect them if they feel kind of in kind of insulted by what I said, do better. Get up out of there then. I I You don't have to sustain the insult. I mean look, I've never ever called somebody to their face, you know, you trailer trash, but we were using again, I was that's what the city county got rid of was the one they did, they did ill ill run and caused a nuisance. I know some on Charmaine Street Down off of the Merkson Road, was next to property we used to have. And the sheriff finally, and you know how bad this had to be for the sheriff to go in and seize the property. I mean, legitimately seized it and raised all the trailer park. I mean, it was bad down there. So anyway. Anyway. So affordable housing definitely. Well, one more thing before you leave. I just want to make sure you guys know I don't know when you're gonna air this, but we are Fri Saturday we are doing the twenty ninth. We are doing another NACA seminar. So we do that. The housing the house say what that is, the National National Association Corporation. Wait a minute. You messed me up. National Association Corporation of America. Okay. But that's the NACA. Yes. And that program is a wonderful program. They don't ask you if you're Republican or Democrat. They just want to know if you can afford some. If you can afford rent, then you're credit worthy with them. They don't look at your credit scores. What they do is they pay your down payments and they pay your closing costs. So a lot of people are not able to, they're stop, they can't get homes because they don't have the means to come up with large down payments. This is something that will stop. And if you're in the city of Fayetteville right now, this is a real good time because of that. program that they have here. And what happens is that that money actually will go to you instead of having to go to a down payment because they pay the down payment. So I tell everybody and anybody, make sure you take advantage of that program. That's one of the things that I'm going to continue bringing to the city. Can you stack the n the NACA with the hometown heroes? Yes. That's what I was saying. Okay. If they take if they do the hometown heroes and they are I guess approve through that that money that they get instead of ha having to go to the I guess to whomever their financial development downhouse it will go to the person because they don't have to pay a down payment because they give you twenty thousand I think it is. It's twenty for regular people and thirty thousand for first responders. Right. Can you imagine that would be a great start to your home. But see this is what I would like to imagine is don't tell them that they can get the money. Tell them that it can go into their house. Well, that's what I mean. So they build generational wealth and equity to finally get themselves out of where they're at. Because so does NACA allow rent payments to count or Yeah, they do. Was it they they allow you. They look at what they look at your income. Okay. And they base everything on your income. versus your credit. Okay. So and you get a little bit more house because the percentage points are going to be probably two points cheaper than conventional. Okay. So that's why. And my thing is that one of the reasons why I'm bringing it here to Fayetteville or I've this is a about the third or fourth time. And then we're going to start just bringing it here quarterly. I just have to work today that we'll be able to bring the program here quarterly. the reason for bringing programs like that here is because we do have some of these neighborhoods that may have had maybe older people live there and they're gone and their children don't want these properties or whatever the case and people want to buy it. When I was in my early twenties, early thirties, I'm gonna put it out. No, I'm kidding. But when I was younger, I wish that I I had come across the program like that. Because that is definitely generational wealth if you are able at that age to own a home. And so many young people aren't ready. for whatever reason because they have to come up with that kind of money and they don't have it. Or their student loans keep them from getting it or whatever. So with hometown heroes, there's a requirement that they take financial literacy classes. What about NACA? How does that NACA they take they do their own with you. Okay. That they are personal with you. They sit down, they plan your budgets and they tell you how to spend your money. Where they are very nice. Because I throw it out I throw out generational wealth and and equity and homes and I don't think most people they don't they're not gonna understand that. Well, I think that's and and that's just it. I think people that's something that we don't we didn't learn that in school. And that may be something that needs to be taught when we're talking about finances and things like that. Those are things I mean, I my son, when he came out of high school, he know how to write a check. Well, checks aren't really a thing anymore. But He had to have some. He's in the Navy. And so, you know. And and it was funny because he was like, No, how do I write a check? And I thought it was hilarious. But then I thought about it, I was like, Well what are they really teaching? The children as far as finance, education, you know. So you know, E equals C square. That's gonna apply that's gonna help them at some point, more than balancing a checkbook. So I'm still at number two, Aylora. so healthcare access, what's one concrete change you push for and why Raleigh? Healthcare access. well because I'm here in Cumberland County and my area is predominantly mostly I got a little bit of city, but mostly rural. Rural access. Because rural people that are in rural areas tend to have a harder time. Well, Council Mayor. I think we talked about this before. Just a little bit. But it's a passion of mine because you have to remember when you're talking about even the rural ac access, even talking about, you know, i this nine one one deal. You gotta look at what it's gonna what it really is gonna cost. Who really has the capability to make sure because I told someone this isn't healthcare what I'm about to tell you. This is about just access to emergency services, period. I remember it's been years ago and I lived in a double wide so I wasn't a trash person. At the time this was years ago. My children were small. Okay. And someone was there was a shootout next door. I called the sheriff's office. Mm-hmm. They took them next to the traffic people. No, I'm just joking. Laura. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody be shooting. Yeah. Yeah. Well they were they were shooting down there because you gotta re realize in those rural areas like that, there's nobody down there. Right. So there's like cops and robbers all the time down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm laying on the floor with my children on the phone with the sheriff's office. And they're like, Somebody's coming. I said, When are they coming? Because all you could hear was boom, boom, boom, me and my kids laying on the floor. It took them twenty seven minutes to get to my home. Those people were long gone and all of that stuff. And my thing is that twenty seven minutes for an emergency call to come and I lived in the county at this time, I was in Deep Sea of Creek. We have to be very intentional how we're doing these this nine one one deal. Well, but when you call nine one one, do they pick up right away? They picked up, but look at how long it took. But that's a service department problem. They didn't have the they didn't have the people. So you said. But it's still access. And it's the same thing. Even with think about somebody in the ambulance. Living down there is thirty minutes from Cape Fear. Yeah, that's what I mean. We were talking about this last time. It's like, well, don't live where there's no people. I mean that's crazy. I know. Somebody's gonna live someplace, I know, but hold on, but with choices come consequences. If you choose to live out in the country somewhere, then you accept the responsibility that you are not next to a hospital. Mm-hmm. I mean I think the I think the point that we would make is I'm not saying that they don't deserve care, they don't but you have to accept the fact that I have peace, I get to see the stars. I don't have to listen to my next door neighbors be on it. And I know that each other. And I know that if an emergency happens and I get injured, I have to drive way over there to the hospital. Well, see, the the problem is not the fact that you've got a driveway over there. It's the ambulance services getting to them in time. Because my thing is that's the difference between life and death. And I'm sorry, their lives matter too. You know, and so just to say, because you live way out there, you shouldn't have access I'm not saying you shouldn't have access to I mean there's there's a there's always it's kinda like school districts. Somebody's always like people complain like, Well, my neighbor goes to this school and I go to the other one. Well, the line's gotta be someplace. You you do have to have a line and I don't I don't have I don't have a problem with you wanting to live out a little farther or whatever the case is. All I'm just saying is that you should still Because I don't wanna live in the hustle and bustle in the middle of the city and I wanna live the so would you propose that just an ambulance be standing by sitting there waiting for something to happen out in the house? That is not what I'm saying. All right, so what what are you saying? What is it? Mess to it. If you've got how d how does that how does that work? Okay, so you have you have fire trucks. Mm-hmm. Why don't we have ambulances in some of those fire trucks? And fi some of the fire stations. Or even people trying to even get to now, right now, a lot of people this past year lost their medical care. Many people. Okay. And so they don't even have access to get care. So why can't we have a mobile unit that goes down there? I'm working on that actually as we speak with some volunteer doctors where it's not gonna cost or come from the budget. So you have to be able to make sure. You are serving all of your people in the county, not just one set. And that's the whole thing that most of my rural people have issues with. They always feel like they're being left out because they live in the country or in rural areas where of course everything happens for the city. And I don't have a problem with that. But even the fire department, our volunteer fire department. Out in the county. So even if there's a fire, the volunteers gotta get called and they've all got to to the fire department and then they dispatch. So it's even longer too. So that that is you accept that responsibility when you move out. I think most importantly if we say we need to increase access, then we need to make sure you're asking for votes. So we want to make sure that you know what you want. That's right. And that's I just want to get to the point. So to you it looks like mobile units. Yes. Which mobile units, what, like for preventive care or urgent care type? Preventive care. Yeah. Okay. All right. So some kind of outreach from Cape Your Valley system, maybe? Because when you mention ambulances and fire stations, you're dealing with fire stations that are incorporated individually. Usually the volunteer stations are their own corporate entities. They don't share space with Cape because Cape Fear Valley EMS is whole other thing. Right. No, they're not the same. No, I agree with you. I don't know if that's by just they each like their own territory or is that statutorily separate. I think it has something to do with whether they're municipal or not. Okay. Okay. Because So what what bills or what policies would you try to introduce when if you were to get to Raleigh to fix this? Because you're gonna have to figure out how to pay for it too. Right. But see, this is the whole thing. We have to look, like you said, our budget. Do we even want to talk about that? What budget are we talking about? The state budget. North Carolina budget. Okay. What about it? At this point. They finally passed one. It's only been three years. I don't know what you're what you you aggro that. I mean they passed it. Really? So tell me what you want to say, okay. So my issue with the budget? Yes. Okay. So When I look at this budget, I think Cumberland County, along with Fayetteville, they asked for about, I think it was about 129 million, something like that. Somewhere in there. Give or take. So yeah, I'm just I'm not gonna say the exact numbers, but let me just let me give you a little summary of how I feel about this budget, okay? So Our two universities, not mad at all. You were just talking about how the money continues. Yeah. Fail state got one and Methodist got something from I guess they're the medical school? Yeah, the medical school. Yes. They got stuff. And then I'm and I'm not upset that the maintenance here for because you have to maintain your vehicles. Not upset with that. But where's the money for any infrastructure? Where's the are you still talking state budget or are you talking about the state budget that comes to us. Well, I'm talking about the Cumberland County budget. 'Cause I can't answer for the other counties right now. I'm just talking about Cumberland County and I'm talking about where's the money associated. Let me give you a good You mentioned vehicles. Vehicles for a sheriff's department? Vehicles, I think just the vehicle vehicles for maybe the emergency vehicles. Okay. Because they have some type of place where they do and probably I wanna say maybe the police cars and stuff like that, their garage from what I saw. Okay. but and and I'm not upset about it. Don't get me wrong. I mean so did they not give the sheriff or whoever money to replace the vehicles or t just tell me how that got to your radar. Well, I studied the budget and I saw that they gave the money. So I don't know to what department. It doesn't say what department, it just says the maintenance. So I'm assuming. Main maintenance on their defense. I think Sheriff's Department would be under their budget anyway. It wouldn't be in the general. It would be detailed on the sheriff's anyway. But anyway, my problem with the budget is so my thing is that I want you to look at all the rural towns. They got something. They got a band aid over the boo boo to me. a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, I can't even hardly run my household with that. And you're talking about money from the county at large back to the municipalities. It's the s well, it's from the state budget. This is not the county budget I'm talking about. Okay. I'm talking about the state budget that that was allocated from our state representatives. The money allocated from the state guys down to the county that was handed out to the what municipalities found. Those guys. Right. So Okay. Okay. So and I love the God remainder. I love it. But I'm not understanding ninety thousand dollars for what is it, a pickleball or a cricket court, whatever it is. They don't have a two hundred and fifty people there anyway. So what are you saying? So you're and I don't have any problem with you bringing recreation, except for the people aren't being served. But what do the people of Godwin want? Well, for one thing, they're working on their water system. Okay. And then there's a lot of infrastructure to be done. And if you're telling me you're only gonna give me fifty thousand dollars towards the infrastructure, but you're giving me ninety thousand dollars for a pickleball court. What are you saying? Each person in Godwin is w worth what? Ten dollars? I don't know. That's what I'm trying to tell you. But what did Godwin ask for versus what they received? Do they know to ask for it? They did. They asked for they they and I understand that Godwin mayor has been more active with our commission. So and I've heard look, my favorite part running for office was that side of town with those small towns. I love you know, and you learn a lot. You learn a lot from them. but I'm thinking about, you know. I'll mention, let me mention this municipality. And y'all can take it any way you want to. And I'm just gonna say what I'm gonna be good. yeah, I'm just gonna say what I got to say. Now, Spring Lake is not my place. You know what I'm saying? You missed the first like two lines of our show earlier about Spring Lake. Go ahead. Why In Tarnation did Spring Lake get zero? When I say zero, they got absolutely nothing. And still took away their floating place, you know? And I will tell you just like this, and I don't care who hears what I'm gonna say, it might not be nice, but I'm just gonna say what I gotta say. So What kind of city? First of all, what's the majority of the people in Spring Lake? I'd say the majority of the population is black. Okay. And low income. I know that. Okay. So let's talk about leadership. Yeah. What's the mayor? Is she a black woman? Yeah. That's two strikes already. And what's the third big one? Are are you looking to maybe tell me or for me to tell you that I think Spring Lake should be paved over and reabsorbed into the county? No, I think that Spring Lake should have gotten their money. And they should have done what they needed to do for Spring Lake because they are just as important as anybody else. But as you can always see, municipalities that are often underserved, which I forgot that's one of those words they don't like, but it's the truth. They've had a leadership problem out there for longer than just our current mayor. she's I don't think she's a leadership problem. It's it's she's not the problem. But I don't want to make this about her because that's not my fight. That's not about no it's not about her. It's just that that town. It's the town has had some issues has been a magnet for irresponsibility, money laundering, d drag. I get that holy crap, the stuff that's happened out there. I do get that. But however, what I'm saying to you is that the current leadership, to me, she's done a great job. And I've seen some of the things that she has done. But what I'm saying to you I just want you to see the correlation of what I was trying to get to you. Why Spring Lake didn't get any money versus some of these smaller towns. And I have no problem with the smaller towns getting money. And Stedman. Stedman, out of all the small towns, my question is Stedman got like 250,000. Woo woo woo. Another band-aid over the boo-boo. Because we all know Stedman's not happy right now. Because people woke up in Stedman and found out. That the liquor law that they weren't told about was repealed. And my thing is that that's another thing to me about you have to go to your residence when you're gonna change the trajectory of your community. And that's an issue for me. We gotta go in there and talk to the people. What if those people, and many of them said they did not want it changed? And I'm not here to say whether it was right or wrong. I'm saying, what did the people want? We'll never know. Because you didn't go down there and ask them you didn't go down there and ask them, but they didn't show up and tell you. At what point do people become responsible for their own I get that? Like how many people attend their board meetings? I mean, did it happen in the okay, so did the town board of Stedman properly notify their citizens? When I get a rezoning notice, everybody around me gets a card, right? And this what I'm saying to you is that somewhere in there, people weren't notified. And And whatever and I receive that notification because just because you say you weren't notified doesn't mean you weren't notified. Well, some people gotta they start taking responsibility. Listen, I'm all about responsibility. I am about that. But my thing, like I said to me, is as an elected official, period, we have to be more engaged in our communities. We have to make sure they know the things. That are gonna be happening, that's gonna happen in their community. And if if I don't tell you, and I'm not saying I'm gonna knock on everybody's door, knock, knock, knock, hey, guess what? That's not what I'm saying. But as a someone that's supposed to represent me, I need you every now and then. Can we have a town hall? Can you just say, hey, we're gonna have, we're going down the town hall tonight, and everybody in this area, we're gonna have a meeting. Those are the things I'm talking about. That's stuff that we're missing across the whole county. Many, there are a few people, and I have seen where they are very involved in their communities. But that's a missing piece that we have. We're not involved enough in our communities. We get up there. I'm saying electeds, period. I'm not saying a person. I'm saying electeds. We have to be able to get out here. We need to be more involved. We need to hear what our citizens are really saying because that is. An issue. Where do you see failure with that? I mean look I I will tell you that one thing that I admire about this your your opponent with them not that's their name because that's your segment. This is your segment is I see her attending all of these town the the she's out in all of these outer communities and stuff like that at the town hall, at the 'cause I've actually attended them with them and I'm like, when do you ever rep? Because she maybe she's present but maybe nothing gets done. But I have seen you at a lot of stuff too. Yes. you know, you you do show up. So it's I don't think it's a slight on either one of y'all. I think I do But I've heard you say that before about your opponent and I'm like I I just have the perception of that. Okay. So let me ask you this question. which one of her underserved communities does she go to? Because she certainly doesn't go. She's never been she's never been past the Popeyes on Cedar Creek Road. I mean not Popeye, excuse me. Bojangles. I guess four or that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's Bojangles. So and and what I'm saying to you is that you have to be able to show up in all your communities. Let me tell you something. I don't give a dag on who you are. I go to white churches, black churches, green churches. I don't care. I show up and walk in there because you know what? When I represent you, I represent you. It isn't about what party I'm in. It's not about if I'm black, if I'm white. If you have a grievance and you all elected me into office, I have an obligation to serve you. And I'm what I'm saying is that there are things that have happened and I just don't feel like there's enough aggressiveness to take care of matters in the area. Are you talking about maybe a community watch meeting? What where are you saying that? your opponent's not showing up. It could be a community watch meeting. It can be for k for instance, when when we went down, I don't know if you were there or not, I don't think you were there. When Gray's Creek had this big huge thing about incorporation. I did not. Okay. I was there. She wasn't there. But a lot of people said, well, we know she supports. But here's the thing. If you're not opening your mouth and you're not showing up to say whether you support or not. How do I really know you support? I don't think she is session. No. She was not in session. Sometimes it is a limitation. No, no, I get it for that. And I and I hear what you're saying. And the way I would think that they would say she supports would be that she's probably had discussions with the people of that board or whatever. I I I don't know. I just I think that we have to be more intentional about the things we support or we don't support. And we have to be able to represent our people. Because my thing is If we're not representing our people, if we're not, if if our folks are telling us this is what we need and this is what we want, and we still just give them whatever we want to give them, then why am I sitting behind this desk for you to represent you? I'm representing what I want to do. So and that's the issue I have. I have heard this type of saber rattling before from lots of people we have in office. I think our senator's one of them, that would say, This person doesn't show up and this person this. Well, I was really just talking in general. I I understand. And that one thing I was specific about. No, and that's why I wanted to know, like, where where is she where is our current representative not showing? Because I don't think it's a matter of poverty or racial mix. I just think it's those are the places everywhere all the time. I get it. But those are the places that have not seen her. Okay. And that's that's my issue. Those are places that have not seen her. And my thing is, and I've I've had a con conversation with her about. Have you ever been down here or why aren't you showing up in these places? And she doesn't seem it's just like it I'm not gonna say she doesn't. It's not a defense. It's just like, look, I think part of running for office, a lot of people, and this is not you because your experience and you get this, a lot of people run for these offices and they don't know what the hell it is they don't know. And they don't understand the stresses of being in these offices, like the mayor broke down and called, you know, used his verb, you know. So, you know, I think eventually you get if you're doing the job, when you if you get the job, you're gonna miss a couple of things. No, and and I don't I'm not saying like I I'm not saying that you're gonna be in every single place because there's no way you can be in two places. No, no, you make it sound you wanna say my name three times and pop up like Candyman every year. Especially not you. Okay, see, but But what I'm saying is I that's not what I'm saying. Okay. But I am saying that If I'm not there, which you're not gonna be at everything because you do there are times when you're in session. But these times that I was talking about, there was no session and I checked. All that's You know what I'm saying? So there was no session. I f the first night East Over had a community watch meeting. And I did. I I I called her out. I did right there on Facebook. And the next day she showed up to the meeting. But my thing is that you can't There there are things that you just can't do. If your constituent and I'm standing there, if your constituent who puts you in office comes to you and asks you why you can't get involved in something local, and you turn around and tell them you don't do local stuff, but just the week before you did the Stedman bill. Those are the kind of things that's an inconsistency. I don't want to call it a lie. I and see, I don't want I don't want to defend that behavior either. But what I'm saying, okay. So I'll just want on this to make to keep you from having to answer for real for real. I don't want to put you on the spot with that. But this is but what I'm saying to you is that those are inconsistencies and answers. And my thing is that just be accountable to people. If you did it, you did it. If you didn't, you didn't. And that's where I'm at. And my thing is that when I get in office, I need you to hold me accountable. I'm not going to have a problem. If I did something, I need to explain why I did something. Take this for example, the nine one one situation. Okay. The city and county have been piss and contest over that for nineteen years. Okay. Enough is enough. Now, Chairman Devier went to the to our delegation. Delegation. Yeah. So they went to the delegation and said, Guys, we need to decide on this because they had set the city. So did he go to the whole delegation or did he just go to one person? Not their not his problem. Okay. yeah, I know yeah, I know I've been alleged that I misrepresented or whatever. No, I'm not even talking about that. We're talking about a person that doesn't show up to a session. But what I'm saying is that the others in the delegation. How often they have meetings together? I don't know how often they have meetings. So I think it's bi weekly. Every other week they're meeting. So there's no there's no excuse for anybody being in that delegation and not knowing it unless they willfully didn't want to know. But Forget that. So I can't answer whether they knew or not for real. No, I know what I really can't. Yeah. And see I that's what I'm saying. I can't. You both kinda get the same inside baseball different. But here's the thing. When when your opponent's job to know you should make point to know. Well, when your opponent says she doesn't get involved with local stuff. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I would think that judging by how Chairman Devier went to the delegation and requested somebody cut the baby in half. Somebody figure this out. Mm-hmm. I think that was more that your opponent's not going to get involved with the decision to come to her. You know what I mean? Like that would be get involved with the local. To me again, that's putting a bit But see now that's putting a band aid over the blue boo again. Because either you do or you don't. Because if you didn't want to c become involved in that, what you should have done is is is at least giving the person an explanation. This was one of your voters that voted for you to be an option coulda shoulda. I wasn't and I'm not and what I'm saying is that I'm not I need you to understand I don't have anything personal against her. I know she's a sweet little old woman to me. So it's not did did we not talk like two years ago about this? But I am running I'm running for these rural places that seem not to have the voice that they would like to have. Okay. And I feel like in a time like this, we've got the data center issues. Right now we've got the P5 issues. I'm bringing DEQ in to speak with some of my people in Grace Creek and Cedar Creek right now because we gotta do some cleanup because they didn't get any more, they didn't get any more funding. So we need to talk about some things that need to happen. But my thing is we have to have people that will advocate for those who can't articulate to the powers that be. And that's what I do. I don't mind. I don't I don't care who you are. If it's gotta be something that needs to be done for my community, that's what I'm here to do. And that's what I have done. I don't care about the fights you get in. I I'll come, I don't care who it is. And you've seen me in action. I don't mind. I don't care what seats you fit in. I don't care how far you are. But my thing is that when you get people to show up, which I am able to do, I can bring people together and I can get them to show up and ask for the things they need. I don't have to be their spokesperson because I tell them all I'm here to do is to gather you up and get you what you need. You need someone from your actual community to speak for you because that's what's going to move the needle. Not some person that's standing up there and everybody is like, she wants political fame. I only want political fame because I could care less. You know why I'm here? I'm here to help my community. I'm here for people that can't fight for themselves. Because I don't mind being the aggressor and fighting. And if you've never seen you toss the bird on nobody Exactly. And I won't. I won't. I still you know that that's a whole different story altogether. But I will say, my children, even as grown as they are right now, if they ever flip the bird at any elected official or even grown person, that's something that we have to really, really talk about because I just really want you to know you're number one. That's okay. Just let it go. The middle one. Yeah. Yeah, the middle one. Yeah, you but I don't think that I I just I don't think that's I say that because I've seen you fired up, I've seen you in rooms, and you yeah, you get there's emotion behind where you're coming from, but it's always pretty right on the mark. I'm not gonna do it unlike that. Pretty much, yeah. Well, you're always gonna have your your your take on stuff, and that's what you do. You're just an antagonist anyway. But sometimes you know up most of the time. Yeah. But But I don't mind it and I don't mind speaking up for people. And this is what I'm saying right now with the things that we have going on. I just really believe we need someone that's a little bit more aggressive about moving and making things happen. Not that she's written off or anything. No, I just think that sometimes that's why I believe in term limits, because I think that at some point in time, you hit a plateau. And then after that, you're just sitting in a chair. Whether I mean you might be able to do something here and there. But the reason why some of the stuff in this county, and and I don't care who hears what I say, the reason why some of the stuff in the county, period, when I say the county, it's everybody, all cities, municipalities, and everything. So no one thinks I'm talking about them, period, is because people sit in seats too long. And how are things gonna change if the same person is looking through the same lens all Tell the voters and stop putting the same people in over and over just because. Well, the voter people have to come out and vote. Yeah. And the I heard you say something earlier. People screaming the loudest are some of the ones that don't vote. And I laugh because the very thing you said, I'm always asking people their name. Because when you come to me and you complaining, mm-hmm and I look you up and you haven't voted, we don't have anything to talk about. Yeah. I don't care if you vote. You don't represent people that don't vote. No, I represent I represent everybody. But what I'm saying is that how can you complain about who's sitting in office if you won't vote? That's what I'm saying. No, if you have an issue, you're a human being to me. And I'm always gonna fight for you as a human being. But you can't make sure everybody understood. But you don't want to deal with when people come to you and they're always screaming about this and screaming about that. My first question is usually to them. Well, did you vote? Yeah. Because that's the only way you're gonna change things. You you talk about, well, let's get rid of this one, let's get rid of this mayor, let's get rid of this ch chief commissioner or whatever. But if you all talk first of all, you're not thinking the alternative, number one. Number two, you don't a lot of times it's just for to be contrary. Right. They just want to do it because well, it's not the same. I mean, I and I get that, but if you're not again, if you're not voting, then What's it all trust? Because my thing is that you can't change one policy, one anything, if you don't vote and you don't show up. And I tell people that all the time. You want me to fight for you, but if you're not gonna show up, then what am I fighting for, Tron? Because this is something you want, you know? And so that that that's me. And I'm passionate about people, and you ought to know that about making sure people get the things that they need. So that's just me. Well. Keep the passion up. You've definitely got a lot of it. I've seen that. But where do people go to find you? Website and all that good stuff for the campaign? You can find me at electacles.com. And I'm also on Facebook, Jamie Ackles for North Carolina House forty-three. You can reach me at nine one three two six five three five, or you can email me at electackles@gmail.com I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody because I'm sure you'll reach out after this one. Absolutely. Well, for Laura Mussler I'm Peter Pappas. Argue better, Cumberland County. The cabinet is now closed.