This week on the SEANC View Podcast, we check in with Past President Charles Johnson. Charles served as SEANC President from 2010 to 2012. He also served on the State Health Plan Board of Trustees and on statewide boards for the pension system and criminal justice. He retired from state service, primarily in prisons, where he rose from an entry-level correctional officer to Associate Warden.

Charles details how he fought against passing exploding health care costs onto state employees and retirees while on the Plan board. He also discusses his career in prisons, the changing state workforce, the vacancy crisis, and his strategies for retaining employees during his time in leadership.

We also discuss early voting turnout for the March 3 Primary Election, and key races that are hotly contested.

This week, SEANC First Vice President Emily Jones joined the team during Board of Governors week to discuss the growing staffing crisis across prisons and probation & parole, the use of lapse salaries, and the toll underfunding takes on morale and public safety.

Emily shares frontline experiences — from inmate confrontations to challenges in community supervision — while the team also touches on mental health, homelessness, law enforcement benefits, and broader public concerns raised by recent policy debates.

This week, we sit down with Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes to discuss urgent challenges facing North Carolina prisons.

The wide-ranging interview includes discussion of chronic staffing shortages and retention, the use of lapse salary to cover operating costs, rising medical and facility expenses, and safety priorities such as body cams, drone detection, and fire prevention. 

In this episode, we interview Sam Watts, executive director of the state retirement system, about a recent board vote and what it could mean for cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for retirees.

Sam explains the system’s funding history, the role of employer and employee contributions, how past policy choices created unfunded liabilities, and the board’s proposal to use investment gains above a 6.5% threshold to help fund future COLAs — possibly as early as 2027.

The conversation breaks down complex policy choices, timelines, and trade-offs for retirees, employers, and the General Assembly.

The SEANC team discusses the recent winter storm and recognizes essential state workers who kept services running. We also address the Retirement System board meeting and the push for a COLA amid growing unfunded liability, staffing shortfalls that threaten SNAP funding and other services, UNC Chapel Hill administrative cuts, a reminder about early voting, and other local and cultural updates.

Hosts Jonathan Owens, Ardis Watkins, Suzanne Beasley, and Sammy Cline discuss an approaching Arctic storm, personal memories of snow, and practical safety advice while thanking essential state workers who keep roads, hospitals, and prisons running during extreme weather.

The episode pivots to a deep dive on the state employee vacancy crisis and the DAVE Report on lapsed salary funds: how frozen positions, underfunding, and turnover harm services from DMV to prisons and universities, and why lawmakers should act.

North Carolina Department of Public Safety Deputy Secretary William “Billy” Lassiter explains how the Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention serves youth through court counseling, community programs, detention centers, and youth development facilities, while addressing complex needs such as mental health and educational deficits.

He details urgent challenges — roughly 40% facility vacancy rates, rising youth involvement with firearms, reliance on lapsed salary funds for staffing and safety campaigns, and the need for consistent funding to keep youth safe and on track to rejoin their communities.

This episode examines a report from State Auditor Dave Boliek on over $1 billion in lapsed salary dollars and the vacancy crisis facing North Carolina agencies, with discussion about potential job cuts, recruitment, and the impact on public services.

Guest Junior Hulen, statewide chairman of EMPAC, explains how employees can get involved politically, how endorsements and interviews are decided, the plan for boots-on-the-ground organizing in 2026, and the importance of engaging younger and bipartisan members to protect state workers and services.

In this first episode of 2026, we are joined by SEANC president Wendell Powell for a conversation about what 2026 holds for state employees and retirees: rising health premiums, stalled COLAs for retirees, staffing shortages in prisons and other agencies, and strategies for political engagement and member advocacy.

On this year-end episode of the SEANC View podcast, the hosts recap five top state stories from 2025: leadership changes in Raleigh, government efficiency efforts, ongoing recovery after Hurricane Helene, steep state health-plan premium increases, and the failure to pass a state budget with no raises or COLAs.

The conversation examines how these issues impact state employees and communities, the roles of contracts and transparency in driving up costs, and what to expect as policymakers enter the short session and the new year.