The House Oversight Committee held its third hearing to reset expectations of state agencies on April 3 with Treasurer Brad Briner and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

Treasurer: Briner seeks better investment returns and lower health care costs

Briner told members of the committee that the Department of the State Treasurer’s primary responsibility is to “manage the balance sheet of the state,” managing “the state’s assets and liabilities.” He cited the state’s AAA bond rating as a sign of success, just as the budget director and the controller did in their earlier appearances before the committee.

Pension investment management and the State Health Plan stood out as two areas where the Treasurer has been falling short. Briner said he aims to hit the target 6.5% annual return for pension investments. If the fund had managed that in recent years, he said, it would have eliminated the pension system’s $16 billion unfunded liability.  He added that the state should be at least average among state pension plans.

The State Health Plan should deliver health care outcomes that are valued that the state can afford. “We’re not doing that right now.” As a result, State Health Plan could have $507 million deficit in 2026.

He reported that the unclaimed property division exceeded its goal of sending out more than $100 million a year and hopes a 12-week partnership with OpenAI will help find the rightful owners of more unclaimed funds.

Members had questions for Briner on his modernization proposal including the plan to move from sole fiduciary to an investment committee with appointments from the governor and legislative leaders along with the Treasurer himself. The modernization plan would also allow investments in cryptocurrencies and more flexibility across asset classes.

Briner pushed back on a suggestion that the state has room to borrow more noting the unfunded liabilities for the retiree health benefits and pensions bring the total obligation of the state to $52 billion.

On a more positive note, Rep. Dean Arp (R-Union) and Briner highlighted the state’s reduction in bonded debt over the past 13 years from $6 billion to $2 billion. Rep. Tim Reeder (R-Pitt) asked Briner for details on pilot programs to encourage state employees on the State Health Plan to seek low-cost care.

Secretary of State: Responsible for records

The Secretary of State’s office is where businesses and charities go to register, renew, and file annual reports. It’s where lobbyists and notaries do the same. The office also registers securities, land records, and advance health care directives. Marshall said the General Assembly has entrusted her office with such a wide variety because “we’re pretty good database managers.”

Members asked Marshall about areas that fall under the Secretary of State that are obsolete and could be statutorily removed, including the membership campgrounds, phone sales registration and bonding, cable television, franchises. While not weighing in on the value of legislation, Marshall noted that there are only a handful invention developers registered in the state.

In an otherwise cordial session, Marshall’s statement that a lack of space led to staff working in remote or hybrid roles drew a skeptical response. She also indicated that working remotely is a quiet way to provide people by allowing them to cut commuting cost. Marshall’s comment about productivity of remote workers suggested that some of them are in the agency’s call center. Members are seeking more details.  

The House Oversight Committee will hold its third hearing in a series asking fundamental questions of agency secretaries and directors April 3 at 9 a.m.

The committee will hear first from Treasurer Brad Briner, then Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

Co-Chair Harry Warren (R-Rowan) said, “Our members set the stage for this hearing series with thoughtful questions in the first two meetings. We look forward to carrying those through to each agency, giving us the opportunity to reset how we think about agencies and what they do.”

The House Oversight Committee continued to probe the core functions of state agencies on March 13. Information technology, human resources, and other enterprise-wide services took center stage in the morning. State Controller Nels Roseland discussed his agency’s central role in payments to vendors and employees.

DIT: “End of life” technology is a cybersecurity risk

Department of Secretary Teena Piccione said the has security vulnerabilities because “a lot of technology is end of life.”  Co-Chair Jake Johnson (R-Polk) emphasized the importance of cybersecurity, saying, “It is very unlikely that an enemy combatant is going to storm the Outer Banks. I think it is very likely that every day we will see a foreign actor try to compromise North Carolina through a cyberattack.”

Piccione also emphasized DIT’s role in providing universal access to high-speed internet with satellite, cellular coverage, and fiber lines.

OSHR: It takes six months for state government to hire somebody

Committee members were surprised to hear State HR Director Staci Meyer declare, “It takes 182 days to hire an employee in state government.” Meyer pointed to the complicated application for state employment, and committee members pressed her on lapsed salaries from chronic position openings and the time it takes to reclassify newly opened positions.

Meyer said the State Personnel Act needs to be modernized. Until the governor approves them, however, she could not offer specific statutory changes for legislators to consider or rule changes that OSHR might pursue.

DOA: Currently underutilized office space and historically underutilized businesses

Secretary-designee Gabriel Esparza described DOA’s role as the business manager of state operations. He aims for the department to do its work quickly, efficiently, and on-budget.  

In an example of how a single office can be pulled in different directions, Rep. Dean Arp (R-Union) questioned Esparza on the statutory requirement for agencies and local governments to “have a verifiable ten percent (10%) goal for participation by minority businesses in the total value” of building projects (G.S. 143-128.2). In his response, however, Esparza focused on the statewide uniform certification of historically underutilized businesses program (G.S. 143-128.4, G.S. 143-48.4), which he described as an outreach and education effort.

Rep. Mike Schietzelt (R-Wake) and Rep. Zech Hawkins (D-Durham) asked Esparza about under-utilized office space, particularly in the Triangle. Esparza offered selling the property and returning money to the taxpayer or making it available to local governments or nonprofits.

OSC: Responsible for the state’s “checkbook”

State Controller Nels Roseland cited the state’s AAA bond rating as evidence of financial strength. He said North Carolinians can have confidence in part because of his office’s record of paying the state’s bills and employees and its public reporting of the state’s financial condition.

Roseland pointed to Open Budget data available through DIT’s Government Data Analytics Center (GDAC) as an example of transparency, but Rep. Schietzelt asked if the State Controller’s Office could help provide transaction-level information online, like a check register.

Roseland reaffirmed for Rep. Allen Chesser (R-Nash) that his office only approves checks for funds appropriated by the General Assembly.

Up Next

The Oversight Committee will not meet March 20, but will resume its sessions with state agencies on March 27.

Members of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery sought reassurance that home repair and reconstruction in the western part of the state would be better run than it has been in the east.

Deputy Secretary for Community Recovery Stephanie McGarrah and Jonathan Krebs, western recovery advisor for Gov. Josh Stein, described how their proposed action plan incorporates lessons from earlier storms in North Carolina and other states.

Krebs assured members that “as long we do what we say we were going to do in that action plan, HUD will reimburse those costs at 100%.” The General Assembly had not directed any of the $1.1 billion appropriated in 2024 to housing because that answer was not clear. They were also hesitant to give any more money to the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR), which was responsible for home repairs and reconstruction in the east.

Chairman Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) was emphatic about the failure of NCORR and the need for the GrowNC response to Helene to do better with its $1.4 billion in federal funds. He was glad to hear that McGarrah would be in Western Norh Carolina regularly and many of the staff hired by her Division of Community Revitalization would live and work in the region.

Sen. Tim Moffit (R-Polk), Sen. Steve Jarvis (R-Davidson, Davie), Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) worried about higher costs from excessive local, state, and federal regulation. They insisted that people should not be forced from land that may have been in their family for generations.

Rep. Pless also expressed concern that the action plan directs $53 million to build new affordable housing and workforce housing instead of replacing or repairing homes damaged by the Helene.

In his closing comments, Krebs offered three statutory changes that could help. First, the state could offer an affidavit to help resolve properties with multiple heirs, as in Texas. Second, a Florida law provides a model to speed permits and inspections. Third would be to ensure agencies have “prepositioned contracts” with vendors to respond rapidly in an emergency.

After reminding Krebs and McGarrah that “failure is not an option,” Chairman Jones reiterated, “We’re counting on you, but more importantly, folks in the west are counting on you.”

The House Oversight Committee kicked off a comprehensive agenda of basic questions for state agencies on February 27.

Up first were the Department of Revenue Secretary-designee McKinley Wooten, Jr., and State Budget Director Kristin Walker in the morning hearing, and Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins in the afternoon.

DOR: Measuring customer service in speed

Department of Revenue Secretary-designee McKinley Wooten said the agency aims to deliver refunds as quickly as possible. Co-Chair Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) emphasized that that also meant collecting taxes with minimal inconvenience. Wooten touted the department’s customer service and said it measures satisfaction through customer surveys.

Upon questioning from Rep. Brian Echevarria (R-Cabarrus), Wooten distanced DOR under his administration from its strategic plan for the 2023-25 biennium. “That was the strategic plan from the last administration that we will update for this new that we have not done yet,” Wooten said, adding that “it was DEI practices that were encouraged, and there was not a DEI program that was created in the department.” He also pointed out that the agency does not use diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards in hiring and does not require DEI training.  

OSBM: Accountability for agency spending and outcomes

State Budget Director Kristin Walker said OSBM’s primary task is to maintain a balanced budget for state government. She spoke in broad terms about how the office accomplishes this task.

On the accountability front, every agency either uses OSBM internal auditors or OSBM training for its own internal auditors. Beyond that is a “coalition of the willing” who seek program evaluations through OSBM. For itself, OSBM has an internal dashboard for individual performance.

Walker reported that OSBM has complied with “mandatory” Office of State Human Resources DEI trainings and aims to hire the best and brightest for all positions.

DMV: Preparing for new leadership

A day after he announced he would not try to keep his job, DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin faced another round of grilling over issues that have plagued his tenure—questionable decisions on operating practices, wait-time measures, contracting, and legislative requests. To the frustration of more than one member, Goodwin reiterated his desire for DMV to be as efficient as the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).

Rep. Grant Campbell (R-Cabarrus) asked if the problem at DMV was about work culture. Though Goodwin addressed leadership in his response and stated a reluctance to “disparage” staff, he did not seem to view work culture as a reflection of agency leadership.

Channeling the frustration of other legislators and many other people across North Carolina, Co-Chair Jake Johnson (R-Polk) suggested moving DMV from the Department of Transportation. “The reality is it’s not getting better,” he said. “We’ve got a stack of archived emails that … folks are not happy. I think it’s time we look at some drastic changes.”

DOT: Helene and measures

After the fireworks of DMV, Hopkins and committee members spoke mostly about the damage from Helene and DOT’s work to get western North Carolina moving again. Among the highlights was the reopening of I-40 to Tennessee, at reduced capacity and speeds.

Hopkins listed statistical measures and methods the agency uses to gauge public opinion of DOT’s work.

Up Next

The House Oversight Committee will continue to ask state agencies about their key results for North Carolina in its next hearing, Thursday, March 13.

Article One, Section 35, of the North Carolina constitution states, “A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.”  That is precisely what the House Oversight Committee aims to do by asking the fundamental purpose of each state agency and how it fulfills that purpose.

How can the General Assembly, as the board of directors for each state agency, set a direction for the agency and measure the agency’s performance?

The simple answer is “oversight.” The House Oversight Committee will seek more specific answers in these hearings.

The committee exists to ensure agencies are doing the right things the right way; that they are being effective and efficient. This is a nearly impossible task for government. State agencies do not have profits and losses to help guide their decisions. By law, they are mandated to supply their services, and, in some cases, the citizen is mandated to use their services, often without an alternative. While the price an agency pays for a good or service may be set in a more-or-less competitive process, the price it charges to users of its service is set by the legislature.

With prices, profits, and losses, agencies would know whether people liked the services and goods available and if the processes to provide those services and goods were efficient enough to continue as a concern in the future. Lost customers, departing workers, or lower profits would likely prompt a re-evaluation of government’s efforts. Without those, the legislature and state agencies need to specify the societal goal desired, then decide what tasks government can and ought to undertake to achieve that goal, how to go about those tasks, and measure whether those tasks really are contributing to the goal as expected. If the goal is not being achieved, the agency and legislature need to evaluate whether the problem was a poorly defined goal, choosing the wrong task to achieve the goal, or doing the task the wrong way.

The committee intends to call each agency secretary and director and ask them three questions:

• What is better about North Carolina if the agency does its job well?
• What measure does the agency use to know if it is successful?
• What programs and activities help the agency achieve its core outcome?

The House Oversight Committee will continue its series of hearings asking fundamental questions of agency secretaries and directors March 13 at 9 a.m.

The committee will hear first from Department of Information Technology Secretary-designee Teena Piccione, Office of State Human Resources Director Staci Meyer, and Department of Administration Secretary-designee Gabriel Esparza.

State Controller Nels Roseland, rescheduled from February 26, will testify in the afternoon.

“We learned a lot during our first Oversight hearing. As we drill down to the one primary mission of each agency, we want to hear how that makes a difference for our citizens,” Co-Chair Jake Johnson (R-Polk) said.

Members of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery will resume questioning Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Stephanie McGarrah of the Division of Community Revitalization and Governor Stein’s Recovery Advisor Jonathan Krebs on Hurricane Helene recovery in a hearing Thursday, March 6 at 9 a.m.

This will be a follow-up hearing from January when McGarrah and Krebs had their testimony cut short due to time constraints. They will be expected to provide further details on what they have learned from the failings of the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency and outline GROW NC’s plans for Helene recovery.

“We have to make sure that the new agency in charge of Helene recovery does not repeat the mistakes of its predecessor. We want to set the GROW NC staff up for success from the get-go. We want to work together, but we want them to know that we’re paying attention.” said Co-Chair Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus). “To those in Western North Carolina who have lost homes, businesses, or loved ones, we haven’t forgotten you, and we want the area to come back even better and stronger than before Helene.”

With a new gubernatorial administration comes the opportunity to take a fresh look at state agencies, why they exist, and what they do. Over the coming months, the House Oversight Committee will call on agency secretaries and directors to answer the question: “Does the agency make life in North Carolina better?”

The committee will hold a set of hearings in its February 27 meeting. At 10:30 a.m., Secretary-designee of Revenue McKinley Wooten, Jr., State Controller Nels Roseland, State Budget Director Kristin Walker, and Treasurer Brad Briner will explain what their agencies do and how they can help with accountability measures for others.

Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins and DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin will begin their testimony at 1:00 p.m.

“Government efficiency starts with defining the job of government in practical terms,” Co-Chair Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) said.

Co-Chair Jake Johnson (R-Polk) added, “It’s a fair question to ask every agency: How do we know our spending on an agency has any impact, good or bad, on the people of North Carolina?”

“Government should exist for the people,” Co-Chair Harry Warren (R-Rowan) said. “Our committee members want to assess where things stand and what can be accomplished.”

Hurricane Helene destroyed many a town’s buildings, infrastructure, homes, and normal way of life in Western North Carolina, but it couldn’t wash away the community spirit of the people who make up those towns. That spirit was on display as business owners gathered to describe the storm’s impact on their communities at a recent event in Swannanoa sponsored by local chambers of commerce.

“Business is the heartbeat of a community,” Meredith Ellison told attendees. “It is what is makes people come and go.” As co-owner of Swannanoa-based Quility.

When Ellison graduated from the University of Alabama in 2001, she and her boyfriend Brandon were “two kids who didn’t know what to do with themselves.” They landed in Asheville because it was a city that combined the unique cultures of the mountains and the South.

Meredith finished graduate school, and she and Brandon started a family. Securing their roots to the place, in 2009, they launched the company that eventually became Quility with born-and-bred Asheville native Casey Watkins.

Quility, which provides technology to support insurance agents, is just steps away from the former church turned community center that hosted the event. In the immediate aftermath of Helene, the facility had served as a community hub for food distribution and communication.

Ellison believes that Quility’s culture can change the world and create a ripple effect. That ripple effect was evident in Swannanoa before Hurricane Helene and in its aftermath. “We understand that we’re part of a community, and we ask, ‘What is our responsibility in the world?’” Ellison said.

She gave a number of examples. She used to drop her car off on the way to work to get an oil change. One co-worker would walk to the gas station to grab candy for the office then go to the barber shop for a haircut. Another could easily take her pet to the vet. And everyone could walk to lunch from their office.

All that is gone now. All those businesses were damaged or destroyed during the storm. The veterinarian was able to open an office 20 minutes down the road, but his business is down 50 percent, Ellison said.

Ellison is confident that the town will recover stronger and Quility will do its part. “We want to do this for the future of Swannanoa. We’re inspired to build back here.”

That same ripple effect is especially true in the tourism industry.

Sandi Boyer, executive director of the North Carolina Youth Camp Association discussed the far reaches of tourism into the area’s economies during the panel. North Carolina is home to more than 200 overnight camps—160 of those in the mountains.

Every camp in Western North Carolina was touched by the storm in some way, Boyer said. But the impact of a camp extends beyond its grounds. Nearby towns with their restaurants, hotels, shops, and activities play host to parents. Teachers work summers at camps. College students come to work and return to live after graduation. Campers also grow up and choose to raise their own families in North Carolina.

Boyer worries there may not be anything to return to: “We’re losing a whole generation of people that love and take care of Western North Carolina.”

But she believes most of the camps should reopen this summer. “There are camps in the mountains that have been open for more than 100 years,” she said. “This industry is resilient.”

Boone Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Jackson reflected on the complexity of the recovery and how everything is tied together.

“It’s not just a black and white issue. It’s not, a business is closed; a business is open. It’s not, a community is closed or open. It’s all about the little details that matter when one disruption occurs in a community, let alone when an entire region is disrupted,” he said. “There is an interconnectedness amongst this entire region that has been pushed to the test here in these last several months.”.

In 2019, Ellison and her fellow Quility co-founders purchased the site of the former Beacon Blanket Mill to build a bike park and outdoor space for the community. The land is central to town history. The mill employed thousands of residents in its twentieth century heyday, but it has been a vacant lot since a fire destroyed the factory in 2003.  

Ellison wants to invest back in the community so that people want to “move here, bring jobs, eat, play, feel inspired here.”

She recognizes that rebuilding the town won’t be done in a day, a week, a month. It will take years. “This is long-term recovery,” Ellison said. “How can we take ground today? You keep your head down and keep working. Then you pick your head up, and there you are.”