Fayetteville Mayor’s Racially Charged Comment and Local Issues Unpacked on Carolina Cabinet

Peter Pappas: Well everybody, welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas in studio with the lovely Laura Mussler Hello, hello. Good to see you this evening. So before we jump in, how was your week? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Now my dad used to say that even if business is good or bad. How is it? Unbelievable. That's right. It is unbelievable. More positive unbelievable. Okay. Some bad things. Family breakfast, getting some old Okay, so I'm cleaning out My old closet. Yeah. I have suits. I don't know if anybody ever remembers Paul Harris. Paul Harris design was in the mall. I have casual corners in the mall. Like 15 and 20 years ago. And so I am pulling out these suits and they all still fit. And most of them are still in excellent energy. That's what happens when the bike is close. Okay. And they're like, I'm like, my God. Is that like nineteen eighties, ninety shoulder pad type of stuff? I mean, is that how No, it was not cat it was it was suits. That's the extent I know of women's clothing. Some of it look like football players, I'd say. No. and all you have to do is take the shoulder pads out. You could put back in. You could put a little bell bow there and put back in when when 'cause it all comes back. Because I'm pulling out like like the the bell bottom pants, but they're like big flowy pants. And I'm like, my god, I paid a lot of money for these and they're back in style. I was like, I have a full new order. So we've unlocked that level of getting older styles come back. Okay. I'm glad I So you I'm glad I invested in my quote. Your win was that you're happy that you invested in Club. I like it. Okay. I signed a new lease for s a new restaurant coming up on Bragg Boulevard. though there should be a new restaurant there. I can't announce what yet, but we should have a new restaurant on Bragg Boulevard next to the it's the old Pizza Hut on Bragg Boulevard. You remember it was Pizza Hut, then it was Mika Cedar for a long time. Okay. but it still looks like an old Pizza Hut. So but I got a win. Three year lease on that one. So Yay me. I don't know yet. the it's like the gentleman is coming off of being like a fair, like he has a bunch of food trucks. So I don't know what kind of fair he's gonna put into his actual restaurant. Okay. So I I'm excited for him. He's he's relocating here from Chicago. He he remarked that it was a little bit not pleasant up there. so from the fan. Like on the fan film, yeah. So well look let's l look over what we're gonna do. We got nine years for two schools to get clean water. it took Spring Lake had a rough week. Mayor Mitch Colvin had a WIDU kerfuffle, I would say, and Middle Creek and Wake County School has some parents pretty pissed off. we're gonna have the cabinet crossfire, and tonight we're have being joined by Janene Ackles, running for a house state house seat. So and that'll be in the subscriber only edition. So let's move on to Gray's Creek. So you know two schools finally got connected, but we shouldn't be celebrating we gotta ask a hard question how many families living around these schools are the drinking from private wells which are contaminated and what is it going to cost to connect them and who's gonna pay for that connection? Cumberland taxpayers or the company whose plant caused this? I mean these schools shut off their fountains in two thousand and seventeen. That took nine years for them to rehook stuff. And I I I believe that DuPont slash Comores should pay for it. I think you should pay for all the houses in Mario King. So did they were they they stubbed out four for future connections. Was that 'cause they ran out of money? Or is that really, you know So I I think the the wisdom, if we can call it that. Right now is that we have two pont chemours in active lawsuits. Now the federal government did f did settle one, but that was a very, very small part of this whole thing. Okay. but I think the I'm a homeowner out there, so I want to I I want to be hooked up for free. So the the money from chemo's is going to be tied up in that lawsuit. So I think the wisdom is that the government is going to pay for the infrastructure and to get it done because we have an active safety hazard to the citizens and then they will get their pound of flesh from Kim Orse. But that's not what the letter to my house says that if I want to be hooked up it's like thirty some odd thousand dollars. Yeah. Yeah, no, thank you. I don't want to be hooked I I do want to be hooked up. You do want to be hooked up. Yeah. But I don't want to pay thirty thousand dollars for it. No, thank you. Why why should I pay? Well I mean look at this. It was the General Assembly allocated eleven point eight million dollars for the construction of these two schools. Seventeen thousand feet, three and a half miles basically of new twelve and sixteen inch water main. That's a I haven't done the math, but that seems like pretty expensive per foot. No keyboard. but that was like you said, twenty seventeen. I think we're gonna have to be patient with chemo's. I mean I patient. To get the money back. I think we've been very patient with them so far. But But I I just think that there should be no question they see to me, okay, th and this is just me. If I was Camores, I'd have been off the pay for it. Boom, knock it out. But like, hey, we did everything that we could to make it right as soon as we found out that there was a problem. And that mitigates your losses in the future. But the fact that they're fighting everything tells me that they should pay more. It just seems like they don't think they should be held accountable. That's why we have a lawsuit. I mean, but again, I don't think we should wait if public safety is that much of a risk. I think we should, as a community, we need to take care of it. We need to get it done. I do think that we actually get it done, but like I said, I'm not paying thirty thousand dollars because that's too thing to the clean water. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, Let's go from that town's water crisis to another town's whole week falling apart. Spring Lake had two votes that were split three to two in the same seven days. Nice. So what in the hell is going on in Spring Lake? so The thing Spring Lake, I have a hard time talking about Spring Lake because they don't they don't have the luxury of learning another management lesson the hard way after three years of state control. the local government commission had stepped in and took over Spring Lake 'cause they couldn't be left to their own devices. They called their police department down. They did. They sure did. And the man that's running for sheriff now, Troy McDuffie, was the police chief they hired to fix that mess. So I'll give them that. but Maybe the board town board just deliberately wants an economic development guy instead of another career administrator. So from our opinion, if that's what you want, say it and tell the taxpayers, you know, this is what success looks like. So let's use this guy. what what have you seen? Well, Springlake keeps hearing that it's part of Cumberland County, and then why does it so often feel like it's separate services as soon as you get north of Bayville? So are they part of Cumberland County or are they not part of Cumberland County? Thirty dollars a ballot versus four dollars everywhere else is a real number. So the fact that they're not you didn't even say about the board of elections. That was the second three two. So the town board voted three two to get a town manager, and then the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted three two to approve seven voting sites, early voting sites in Cumberland County. But Not the eighth one in Spring Lake. Now, I mean, why was that? I mean Because it costs a lot of money. It's thirty dollars a ballot. That's a lot of money. That's tech care money. Well, how many people? Let's see, what did we have? Twelve hundred. Okay. In twenty twenty two, twelve hundred of Cumberland's forty-five thousand early voters use the Spring Lake site. So thirty dollars a ballot. Two and a half percent. Yep. And it costs four dollars everywhere else everywhere else. her GOP election. And that comes straight from the chair, Linda DeVore. A total site costs thirty five thousand dollars per month. So why would we run it for it's doesn't sense. I mean it makes sense to not run it. According to the mayor though, our residents deserve better than what they got today. Then show up. I agree. I mean instead of complaining about, you know, we lost a site, well you need to work on turning out the vote. That's right. Make this election interesting instead of the same old people and maybe we'll see some change. I personally I have a listing out there on Main Street and town's dead. yeah, there's nothing going on. Well that's everything moved out can't that camera's area. But see, things don't migrate that way unless you have poor piss poor management in the town. I why would I want to get up and uproot my business and move five, ten miles up the road if conditions were right for me as a business here in Spring Lake? So even myself having closed a restaurant out there. But that had to do with the road construction that's now definitely it's taken care of now. It only took them eight years and they said it would take three. Yeah, when they and the thing about it too, that bridge that sincerely splits Spring Lake in two communities, the poorest of the poor and the poor. There is no middle class in Spring Lake. That is true. So feelers out for the mayor of spring late to come on and talk about the voting and all but haven't heard that from so but what mayor did you hear from I did hear from mayor Mitch Colvin so let's talk about is he coming is he coming so no I don't think so but so what what I'm gonna do is let's play the clip okay that has been circulating W I D U and all out to me by someone who was had visited earlier today, the mayor has turned this word into a verb. So he didn't apply it to anybody and called them a coon. But he said that the act so look, the mayor said black people tearing down other black people is something that he calls cooning. Not that black people are coons, that a behavior is cooning. So the real question isn't the word, it's this. Who gets to decide when criticism becomes racial betrayal? Because if a black resident thinks Colvin is wrong on taxes or development or policing or the market house, is that citizenship or is that what he's calling tearing down? Okay, now could you imagine if somebody with no melanin in their skin said that a community of black people was cooning? Mm-hmm. Could you imagine the outrage that would be out there? I would think there would be fighting in the street. So is he tearing down black people by referring to them as that or is he tearing down their behavior? Either way, I don't think it was an appropriate word to use. No. No, I I definitely think he probably maybe regrets that. I think so to prepare for this episode, I did reach out to the mayor. Uhhuh. And I told him that this evening we will be playing that clip and we're gonna discuss it. and I did send him eight questions. Yeah. I said, Look Tell me your side of this before we just put it on. Cause I enough people I think dump on our elected officials that I want to be fair to the people that at least you and I can speak to on a regular we run into the mayor quite a bit and the other elected. So I want to be more than fair to the locals. But he said he rather declined. He politely declined and he said that he would rather have a conversation than just answering the questions one by one. And I agree with that. Okay, so when's when's he coming on to have a I sent him an invite invitation link. He hasn't responded yet, but this all happened this morning, so I'm assuming he's busy doing like mayor stuff, so you know. I'll follow up with him though. Okay. He knows I will. So He's a hell of a top politician. And I mean he's hard as a witch, so I mean my hat is off to him. I really wish he would come on you because I love talking to him. Well and you know this is not me kissing his ass or anybody else's, but the thing is I told him I know you're under a lot of pressure. We can see it. And I definitely think that some of this stuff eventually gets to these guys. Because remember, they're just citizens that have served on these boards. So when you've got people we had Zach Traylor and Carol Olinger on last week, to talk about dear Zach flip flipping the mayor off, which I still think is funny, but I think that's disrespectful. Because I'm twelve years old at heart. Okay. So that's why I think it's funny. but You don't you may not respect a person, but you should respect the office and absolute decorum of the absolute. You know, but I of cour and I told you as soon as I heard that he flipped the mayor off, I text him directly and said, Young man, you did not, you know, like please don't do that. Yeah. but I love me since that yeah. But Carol, you know, she put it out there that she was being threatened to be arrested, and it that was they kind of It she didn't initiate the chant. That's right. Is what got me. She didn't start it, but she did ref she did the what refrain or whatever you call it. Right. and the police said they're gonna escort her out. That's not the threat of arrest. Okay. yeah, look. Why is the police there trying to escort somebody out that spoke? I that that borderlines, no, they didn't say if you don't leave right now we're gonna arrest you because she of course respected the law and left like people are supposed to do. But what would she have done if she said no I have the right to be here? Would she have been arrested? I don't I don't know. And I don't I don't think that Fayetteville is advanced that far in wokeism that we're gonna start arresting old ladies and and walkers. She's not in a walker. She had a walker. she's got some issues, but I don't think she'd have I thought she had well not in a walker, push a walker. You don't sit in a walker, do you? You can. I guess you can roll one. Yeah. our off air our off camera guest over there has given us the the charade of yeah, you can push one. But I I I will say that Carol Ollinger was all of her help issues and stuff like that was her grandchild. Mm-hmm. And she is one top cookie. So if it there was that for anybody that could handle the end of her, but I wouldn't want to see her being wrestled. Yeah, I'd be I think she'd go down with a fight, I think. Yeah. well I'd have her back. So I think my take on this is that Mayor Colvin is not disputing the quote itself and he's drawing a contrast between his show or this show and other outlets coverage at least. He acknowledged that. and it's newsworthy on its own. See to me I think he's at least acknowledging this. Yeah. You mean he could instantly end it and say, you what? I used the wrong word. It was probably a little inappropriate. That was the way I was feeling in that. Yeah, but that's like the first rule of politics. You should never admit it if you're wrong. You just spin it. That is spinning it. That's spinning it and making it go away. That's spinning it off this damn planet. Whatever. I used the wrong word. I I misspoke. Done. Then then you accept responsibility and there's nothing else to discuss after that. When you admit that you've made a mistake, there's nothing else to discuss. What you just said is how I characterize it in my email to him was that I know the stuff is got to be getting to you. Right. It's uncharacteristic of you. So tell me what happened, tell me what happened. And that's I misspoke. I appreciate that he got back with little old us and he will have a conversation. He will have a conversation. He will I'm a hold him to it now. Okay. We got reels and cameras and stuff. You know, yes, you'll be there. He can only come on Monday n he can only come on Monday night. So we gotta get him on. Yeah. Anytime after five. Well you act like I don't have a life. I I Monday's for me and you. The rest they got other girls. I got a vacation. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I got D Tuesday through Sunday. Okay. Okay. So No D has you. Probably she's in charge. I'll give you that. so from the mayor So from the mayor's own microphone and fable to a school board now, a hundred miles up the road, some underlying questions, different arena. When does disagreement stop being legitimate and start being disqualified? Yeah. So I love this story. I So for those of you that are just joining, a father asked to move his own kid to a different class. Didn't ask to fire anybody, didn't ask to change policy, just opt his kid out. This is in Wake County, by the way. He was told no. Then a different speaker at a different moment says the real problem is parents like him and float's moving his kids out instead. you can think Aaron Driver is completely right or completely wrong on the underlying question. But since when do we start talking about punishing kids for what their parents believe? Well, yeah, once we dig it on, dig it. Yeah, But yeah, let's play the clips that we're gonna do. So there are two clips. the first will be from the I'm gonna call her a trans activist, although I have I have tried to find out like if she is truly an activist or if she's just a a concerned grandparent, is what she says. So I'm gonna leave that be. And then I'm gonna play for you the clip that started this all in response to the original. Okay. Okay. Here we go. Yes. know what we're talking about. Well now that you can't see the video up there, hang on. So the teacher showed up, male teacher showed up in a dress. You can't hear it? Crack it up. Okay, so that was what's her name? Katrina Day speaking for I suppose her grandchildren. if we're gonna call that a she, I'm not sure. So I don't wanna I'd hate to misgender that person. I can't really tell by looking. That person I think is identifying as a she. I'm not sure how I'm I would identify them. Well, she's also identifying as somebody that thinks they know what they're talking about and they definitely wants to vilify and punish children because dad has an opinion. Right. So Yeah, we don't punish children. We don't involve children. Let's have dad's response here, okay? All right, there we go. Janene this is the part that confuses me. Why is he in double A C B? She's also pretty similar to the line to this course. statistic parts to solve. When it's a no tentation design or property required because of the thing. Does it feel between the people Down space and choice myself from the room. But that will turn into target. Okay, so when did the NAACP start standing up for trans rights? I thought they were for National Association for the Advancement of Color People, which is a little dated title, but which you know, still I'm I'm not anti-trans, I'm not trans, whatever you want to call me, whatever. But I don't want I want to have the opportunity to say that I don't want my children taught by a trans person. I mean, if you're trans and I can't tell that I don't care, but I don't want my little kids in elementary school asking me why is he dressed up like a woman? don't want to have a conversation. That's my issue with it. It's because six-year-old grandson. Look, I'm sure there's plenty of trans teachers that do great. But the thing is, why do I have to have that conversation with my preschooler or second, first grade, whatever the heck it was? I'm not ready to have the birds and the bees talk. And I'm certainly not ready to have this chop the Snosa Joff talk. And I'm not saying don't teach. I'm saying don't teach my child. Let me have the opportunity to opt my child out and put them somewhere else. According to the activist, you can. You can pay taxes and not and then pay again to get your children to escape public schools. No, no, no, no, no. I'm I I that's what she said. I pay my taxes, my kids can go to public school and I can choose because I'm the parent and I am the ultimate say to not have my child being taught by somebody who is obviously, in my humble opinion, as a mental disorder. Well and why look, if they want to dress up like that at home, whatever, it's fine. But why whatever you do? You know, why do they need the children to be aware of their what gratification does it give that teacher to say, I'm not comfortable in my biological skin and so I'm gonna dress as the opposite sex. Yeah, probably a lot. I have no idea. 'Cause it's none of our business. well, okay. They're teachers. Keep your ideological and your personal opinions is teach the children the school the curriculum they don't need to know who you voted for who who you're you're you're screwing who you're want to be when you grow up what they don't need to know any of that they need to know how to read they need to know how to write they need to know how to do arithmetic and then go home and be whomever it is that you please. I agree that's it because I have friends that are trans I have friends that are gay I have friends that are straight I don't care that means nothing to me but don't forced me to have a conversation with the six year old about boys dressing up as girls or who's sleeping with whom or whatever. I want my grandchildren and my children to be children for as long as I want my thirteen year old granddaughter, she's older now, but at thirteen, she had no idea who the Kardashians were. I'm pretty impressed that she's fifteen now. And now she has an idea, but she doesn't know anything about the Kardashians. It's okay if you know about as long as you don't f try to emulate Yes. I want her to she still plays with dollars at 15. I like that. Okay. That that's to me is that's being a kid. I want all the kids to be kids for as long as possible because being a grown-up. So just to be fair, I will be trying to reach out to the parent Aaron Driver, Kelly Wilhelm Wilhelm, sorry, Representative Aaron Paret. she's the North Carolina legislator that is trying to push because of this person in Way County, that she's trying to push legislation that would tell teachers they have to wear the clothes of their biological sex. Some of this is getting out of hand on the regulation. I don't think that's necessary. No. I because it is possible that maybe I was born a man and you can't tell that I'm a woman anymore. Yeah. But I mean if you've made the full transition, then be whoever you are. But I as a parent have the right to opt my child out of it. I had a teacher that did there was an English teacher that didn't speak proper English. So I chose to opt my children out of that stuff. Because why? Because your English teacher doesn't speak proper English. Well I had I had a girl I dated from the country from Newton Grove that she said I'm I'm gonna start teaching and I said, What are you gonna teach? She goes, English. I said, Don't you need to speak it? First she has and I love her to death. That's that's my godson's mom. But you know, she's like she's like you, you know. She she knows how to handle me. So six fast stories before the door closes, time for rapid fire. So let's see. FSU, big in the news, they opened its se almost seventy million dollar teaching college, sixty-nine point three million dollars, four story, seventy-two thousand square feet, College of Education they opened just four days ago, August 20th. It's a dedicated home for teacher preparation programs. And you know what? As far as I remember, FSU, and I can be corrected off camera if somebody knows this. I think Fayetteville Tech or Fayetteville State used to be known as the Fayetteville Normal College. And that that was what that meant at that time, like in the early 1900s, late 1800s, a normal college was for teachers. That was the name. That's right. Okay. So That's kind of cool that it took them what a hundred years, I guess, but now they have they have a building focused on their original mission. I think that's kind of cool. it's teacher shortages aren't gonna be solved by the facilities though. So hopefully I'd like to see that number. What matters in three years? How many teachers did this building put into Cumberland County classrooms? That'd be a good thing. And so the Droughton B Brothers, a local company, is suing Cumberland County. Over the $1.7 million crown policy on Sound District contract awarded to Connecticut-based Metropolitan Interactive. After Drought's originally lower bid was discarded and specs reopened. The county authorized outside council to speak. This is litigation. Nothing here is established. Finding finding all the wrongdoing. Hmm. So forget local versus Connecticut. Was the winning bid actually responsive to the spec or That's the only clean question here. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So another lawsuit. I I feel like I've heard about this through well, I have a Pacific Center Commission board meeting. I'll see I'll ask tomorrow. I'll see what's what. so next up, Governor Stein vetoed the early voting bill. So he vetoed House Bill nine fifty eight on the seventeenth. Well that's that's less than a week ago. shortens the early voting for primaries, second primaries or runoffs from seventeen to ten days, adds random post election performance audits. And House Elections Chair Hugh Blackwell says the House will move on to override. So effective twenty twenty seven, but not this November. So candidates, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You only have to staff those early voting sites for ten days instead of seventeen. That's that's a nice place to I sure is. But w but you know, whatever you think, it's for next year. It doesn't touch November's election. And I still don't understand why he would veto I understand the Democrats stance on the early voting. They're they're gonna tell me it limits access and stuff like that, and we can get into that. But random post performance election audits. What's wrong with that? Not a thing. He's just I think he's just upset about the seventeen days to ten days. But I mean if you can't get the vote in ten days, what the heck are you doing? It's the most important thing that you can possibly do, but that's just my opinion. But anyway. Tell me about Cradom. I will tell you because that's my story, Freedom, Fradum, whatever it is. We told you last week this was stalled. The hemp Freedom Bill HB three twenty-eight is still stalled. The House delayed its vote until November after dueling pressure campaigns. Stein has publicly questioned the bill's public safety claims and floated a regulation against THC market instead. So a clean statewide ban closes real locals, convenience stores exploit today. But a blanket ban wipes out the legal industry and its jobs over products that most other states just regulate. Don't we were told to watch this one? It's still sitting there, and now it's November's problem, not an August. Lucky us. Let's just pick that can down the road. yeah. Hey, we're good at anything, we can do that. So let's see, national debt. Yay, we reached a a milestone. We're now over forty trillion in debt. Make sure this thing's muted so I don't have to hear myself. See? I heard myself. There we go. Okay. So forty trillion in debt. That's a lot of guacamole. let's see, thirty-two points it don't matter. Thirty two trillion is held by the public, seven point seven trillion is intergovernmental, whatever the hell that means. more than double the nineteen trillion when Trump first took office in January twenty seventeen. Damn, they're going all the way back to seventeen. Yeah. Didn't he have another term in the middle there? There was somebody wasn't there somebody else? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't I can't remember, I'm pretty sure he can't either. Reuters calculates roughly eleven point six trillion added during Trump's two terms, only eight trillion under Biden. So so six years of Trump so far, he's done eleven point six, but Biden did eight in four. So I I don't know if they're I don't think that's helping them the way they thought it would help. That's not the flex that they thought they had. but look, we used to call ourselves a party of balanced budgets. we we Republican people. Forty trillion dollars says they're drunk. Spend our money. They are totally public. They are on some cratum. Kratom. Whatever. The good stuff. Yeah, whatever you hear. Okay. here in Holt Mill rewriting the plan that governs twenty-five thousand four hundred acres and roughly twenty three hundred tax parcels. The first public input session is set for October twenty-eighth from noon to seven PM at parks and recreation. Property property owners can get a postcard to remind you two weeks out. A living land use plan that resi that residents can actually shape beats letting rezoning fights happen case by case with no framework. A plan this broad drafted mostly before residents ever see a postcard can lock in decisions before the public shows up. So mark your calendars now. October twenty eighth is when Hope Milks decides what it looks like for the next decade. So and this goes to elections. It starts with showing up for elections. There's an election every year. If you live in this in this municipality especially, every year we have local and then we have national. So there's no excuse for not knowing there's an election. Right. Number two, the people that are showing up and bitching at the town of Hope Mills or City of Fayetteville, wherever, and you have absolutely you need to show up and make your voice heard. The time to get involved is now with that land use plan. Not after they adopt it. Because nobody shows up and then, well, you guys weren't here. You know, so only twelve percent of Cumberland County shows up for their votes anyway. So twelve percent are deciding what you're going to be doing with the land. So if you don't show up, then don't complain. Don't complain. Don't complain. I don't want to hear. I'm gonna s that's why I don't like the anonymous posting on Facebook because I want to be able to look their names up and see did they even vote? Are they even registered? We should we should put some bets on what's what. So well, that's the live block. Here's what's behind the door. The Democrat trying to unseat Cumberland's own state representative sits down with me tonight. And of course, well and us, us, okay. Sorry. Well I wrote this for me. I d you I'm here. You're here now. So but look, you know, you know that I love all people, including our guest coming up. But you know, if there's something I don't like, I'm gonna tell her, and she knows that. Then I'm going to shut up and let her answer that. So that is what the show is for. It's free. It takes four seconds. Like the page, follow us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, newsletters at the website. The doors are open. See you in there.