(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Major support for Carolina Business Review provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their family, their finances, and their futures.

High Point University, the premier life skills university focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

And Sonoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and provider of packaging services with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

- Some of those big issues debated last year in the halls of the general assemblies in the Carolinas will now come to fruition and be applied.

So what happens politically this year?

In a moment, we start to unpack the policy that may in fact take place this year and also the new battles around COVID and the workplace.

What happens as employees or employers start to bring employees back into the workplace?

And then later on, she is the mayor of the largest city in both Carolinas, the mayor of Charlotte, Vi Lyles, will join us again, talking about a $250 million racial equity initiative.

It all starts right now.

- [Narrator] Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials, providing the foundation upon which our communities improve and grow.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association.

Visit us at SouthCarolinaBlues.com.

The Duke Endowment, a private foundation enriching communities in the Carolinas through higher education, healthcare, rural churches and children's services.

(upbeat music) On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Anna Beavon Gravely of NCFree, Antjuan Seawright from Blueprint Strategy and special guest Mayor Vi Lyles from the City of Charlotte.

(upbeat music) - Welcome again to our dialogue, we're glad to see both these happy faces, Anna Beavon and Antjuan, welcome again to this dialogue.

And thanks for taking time.

And Beavon, I'm gonna start with you.

So, here we are new legislative sessions, new priorities, or are they?

What do you think is gonna be job one this year for the general assembly and for policy in general, Anna Beavon, I'll start with you.

- Yeah, I think where we stand right now, redistricting, getting that handled, figuring out what the maps are.

If we're gonna keep the maps that were drawn in November, late November, or if we're gonna shift to new maps, that's really top of mind for a lot of people because we can't really let any dust start to settle on our election cycle until we get redistricting.

Should that be the number one topic when we talk about policy that impacts people's lives?

Probably not.

There are probably a lot of things that are leftover from the session that never ended that are gonna be picked up in short sessions.

- In North Carolina.

- Yeah, absolutely, in North Carolina, we continue to go on and on and on.

- Antjuan, what do you think?

- Well, the dates may have changed, but the issues remain the same.

I think the same issues that were an issue five years ago, sadly and consequently are the same issues of today.

The only difference I think this upcoming session of course, redistricting will have big impact on that, but the political environment, I think overall the temperature will determine how aggressive or not so aggressive they deal with the issues.

And make no mistake, quality of life issues are still gonna be the order of the day, whether it's in South Carolina, North Carolina or anywhere.

And I think we can not fool ourselves or hook link ourselves to think that it will not be.

I think the one thing this pandemic has taught us is that access to affordable quality healthcare, and access to broadband and education, those three things have to be top of mind or else the cookie crumbles both in North Carolina and in South Carolina.

- Yeah, Anna Beavon, and you bring up a good point, Antjuan, around the idea of education.

It seems like education is so complex, so wide, so deep, and the pandemic of course has exacerbated that issue.

But this issue of broadband, Anna Beavon, in North Carolina, with 100 counties and so many of them rural, and it's the same for the Palmetto State.

But what we have found out by doing this program and doing research and talking to folks in the know is the bottleneck for broadband is, comes down to simply arranging and agreeing to, for broadband to be able to use the utility poles.

And that's where it stops.

You would think that that would be not easy, but certainly simple to work through, no.

- You would think, I think there's a little bit going on behind, in the background, when we talk about broadband, is that considered a new type of infrastructure?

There are, like, when we talk about infrastructure, we usually think through roads and bridges, but does that now include broadband, because so many people are working at home?

I can't imagine living life without the internet.

I mean, we're doing this show via Zoom.

And so many programs have been done on an educational basis for their audience by Zoom.

And so when we talk through infrastructure and we talk through broadband, I think those two concepts need to be blended together, and I think that the general assembly and their collaborators are trying to come to a consensus on what that looks like.

- Antjuan, in South Carolina, and I may have this statistic wrong, and I know you're gonna know this, but there has been 50, 50% turnover in teachers in the public school systems.

Is that right?

And is that sustainable and what kind of crisis does that spell?

- Well, it's a crisis that I think we all should be saying our prayers about because I don't know about consequential professions and teachers, they prepare the lawyers, the doctors, the politicians, they prepare everyone for whatever the next step in life may be.

But the issue of education, not just around sustaining teachers, it's about the recruitment of teachers and the general assembly and in general assemblies do not get it right on this question of how we pay them and how we ultimately treat them in the classroom, whether it's making sure they have what they need from a safety perspective, as we still metal our way through whatever this pandemic may look like, or just making sure that they have resources to make sure that they can prepare our children to compete in an ever changing global society.

But Chris, I want to go back to one thing you said about the issue of broadband, because I think broadband is what electricity was to the 20th century, broadband is that for 21st century.

And when broadband, when the conversation around access to the internet started, the internet was called the information super highway.

So when my dear friend, Anna, talks about whether broadband is considered traditional infrastructure in 2021, 2022, absolutely, because we cannot get down the highway without having broadband be accessible.

The trick for North Carolina, South Carolina and states all across the country, it was not only whether is accessible, but whether it's affordable now.

And you can have access to broadband, but if communities like the ones I come from and the ones I grew up in, so many people, I know if the internet is not affordable, it doesn't make a difference, and it doesn't mean a damn thing if it's accessible.

- I don't, it was just 30 seconds on this, Anna Beavon, the idea that North Carolina in the last session committed a billion dollars to broadband.

You've got everyone sitting out of the same page in the hymnal at least.

- Yeah.

- Would you expect in 2022, that broadband will actually get traction about getting deployed?

- Man, that is a really difficult question to ask because I would have said that the maps would have stuck, and we would not be postponing our primary.

So North Carolina politics is a whole different ball game, but with regards to the fact that there has been a very serious commitment to the amount of money that's put behind broadband, it's been a conversation that's been going on in both chambers, by both parties for like a good chunk of this decade.

I think that, that has, I am willing to say that, that is the best likelihood that will happen, It will be a positive outcome.

- All right, that's the last word on that, at least for now, let's, we got about three minutes, so let's shift to employers and COVID, Antjuan, it looks like many large employers now have reached the date of repopulating work sites, not everyone, but a lot have put January or mid January or the first or the 30th.

And in subsequent dates as being the time to bring workers back in, as companies both large and small start to repatriate people into the workforce, two things are emerging, a hybrid work model, whatever that looks like, and then the second part of that is compensation.

How will employment compensation change if you're working remotely as well as in the office?

How do you come down on that?

What do you think is gonna happen here?

- Well, there are some industries to where a hybrid work model does not work.

When you have your real frontline soldiers, there is no such thing as working from home.

They have to be on the front line, blocking and tackling every single day.

What this pandemic has taught us is that the tectonic plates have shifted.

And so, what was will no longer be what is, and I think we, I think the workforce is gonna have to recalibrate itself and make some adjustments along the way.

Here's the tricky part.

I think for all of us to understand is, what does that mean for the working family?

What does that mean for childcare?

What does that mean for two parents system?

What does that mean for the mom who's working two jobs?

Forget about trying to put, forget about trying to make ends meet, putting two ends together, hoping they meet.

And I think that's what large companies are gonna ask themselves, what can we do or what are we gonna have to do to meet our employees where we are?

Because a happy employee is a hardworking employee.

- Anna Beavon.

- Yeah, I definitely think that there is gonna be a larger conversation about what can we do as employers for those people who are coming in and including greater benefits.

And so I think that's the conversation, and necessarily, I would urge that it go away from your pay compensation, but really more on the benefits side of compensation, because really when you're hired, you're hired to do a job, whether it's in five hours or in 15 hours, it's based on the value that you create for your employer.

And so people who choose to stay home or have the option to stay home and only work a couple of days in the office, they're full-time at home, they're still held to a standard of getting a certain job done.

And I think that that's, it's gonna be really interesting to see our businesses shuffle through and try to figure out how do we still maintain that company culture and that energy around a team when we're doing it all virtually, or do we have more happy hours?

Do we spend more time on fun and fulfillment days?

Do we have mandatory family days?

It's, I don't know the answer to that, but I've been listening to a lot of Harvard Business Review idea casts on it, which is, it's been really great to hear.

- Chris, I'll tell you.

So incentive work, intensified work is going to be key.

A lot of companies are gonna save money because they do not have to pay for office space and they do not have to pay the same utility bill-- - Exactly.

- And so forth.

But going back to our early conversation, I think the lynch pin and all of that is gonna be access to the internet, because an employee who does have the ability to work from home, if they do not have access to internet and broadband from home, there is no such thing as tapping in to make certain that the bottom line for the company changes.

- She is now serving her second term as the political CEO of the Carolina's largest region, city state almost, Charlotte Mecklenburg and Charlotte mayor, Vi Lyles, your honor, welcome to the program, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, Chris.

- A major announcement, I would say last, near the end of last year, mayor, with the idea of what's called the mayor's racial equity initiative, and I have to say you were very emotional during the news conference for good reason, but the idea that's Charlotte City and corporate had come together to raise 250 million for some sweeping changes.

Let me start with a big picture.

In five years, mayor, how do you know that, that will be a success?

- Well, thanks for that question because it is all about change that we're trying to make.

And my idea of the definition of success is that we see a change in the disparities of healthcare because we've produced more people of color providing services to all of our community.

My idea would be that we create a workforce in Charlotte, where as we grow, we have people that live here ready to take the new jobs and new opportunities that are going to occur in the future.

So I want to see the lessening of disparities in healthcare and employment.

I also want to see our young people succeed.

In this job, you have to think not just about today, but you have to think 10 years out and 20 years out for the generations, Charlotte's been fortunate to have a leadership to build strong foundations.

I think this is our time for my generation to build this foundation for those in the future.

And that's what success will be.

- Anna Beavon.

- Yeah, early on the show, we talked a little bit about the shuffling of, or the great resignation when people are leaving work or they're working from home.

How have you seen that impacted specifically in uptown, where it's a lot of people?

- Well, one of the things that we are very fortunate in Charlotte is to have great business relationships that work very closely with the people that live here.

So we are, we have headquarters in our Center City, Honeywell, Truist, Bank of America, and all of these folks have major employment in the Center City, Wells Fargo, and particularly in the university area, we're building up campus for Centene in the university area.

So our employment hubs, Ballantine University Center City, Arrowwood, Westinghouse, all require people to get to work.

And when I think about what's going to be happening, we've had the conversation about, do we do see people coming back in waves?

How does it impact transit?

How does it impact small businesses?

I don't think that we have a firm answer yet.

Every business and corporation in our Center City is creating a workforce plan, and they're doing it based upon their culture and their needs.

And I think the thing that I admire most about their planning is the flexibility to keep people coming in, to determine who's going to be available, who can come in, and if there is some obstacle or challenge to people getting there, how do we help with transportation, bus transportation?

How do we ensure that government is doing our part to make it easy for people to come back?

A lot of this is just about vaccination, and the CDC guidelines say, get vaccinated and then let's get back to what the new normal is going to be.

- Antjuan.

- Madam mayor, in yoga we're taught three things, we're taught to make adjustments, be flexible and to be intentional with every breath, and your role as the political CEO of Charlotte, as Chris laid out, what does the future of Charlotte look like knowing that gentrification, affordable housing, access to the internet, education, human infrastructure investments are not going to be not only critical but consequential?

What does the future of the queen city looked like ran by a queen that I know?

- Well, you were being very kind, Antjuan.

Antjuan and I grew up in the same city, Columbia, South Carolina, and I was fortunate enough to get to Charlotte, but he's fortunate enough to stay in Columbia and DC and all other places.

So what does Charlotte future look like?

I think we all are using the best data that we have, the best thinking that we have, but we know that Charlotte it's over 800,000 people, we're expecting to grow an additional 200,000 people in the next decade.

So that's the size of City of Greensboro, Asheville, just think about putting it right down in the middle of our city with that growth.

So what we have to do is focus on what kind of quality of life is necessary for an additional 200,000 people.

So we've adopted a comprehensive land use plan, what we call our 2040 plan that allows for more density, and we're trying to figure out affordability for housing, gentrification, displacement, all of that.

The second thing that we're working on is a transformational mobility plan.

We all know climate change is real, and I want to say that because we've seen the impact of weather incidents in North Carolina over 40 plus incidents this past year, and just look at what's happening across the country.

So we believe that we can impact climate change most by changing government's role in transportation, creating real access to a reliable and consistent public transportation system, which means a rail trail line, being constructed, getting more vehicles off the road, dealing with congestion in a way to make it easier using technology, to get people through and through the city.

But our whole focus is making sure that we have affordable housing, we have an adequate transportation system because we believe that that's how we can contribute to quality of life.

- Mayor, we've talked around it, but you've also mentioned the idea of not just the transplanted Charlotte, the 13.5 billion dollar, but the plan in 2040, the plan 2030, how do you, Charlotte has been typically, for decades, Charlotte was you went to a handful of folks and you got stuff done, Charlotte is much more decentralized now, much more expansive.

How do you include everyone around the table on all of these issues that any single one is going to be, could be incendiary?

But I mean, how do you bring to bear your best talents to make sure everyone is heard, but also, but the best ideas bubble up to the top?

- I mentioned the idea of leadership and its foundation.

Charlotte has had the fortune to think about this as our role in the region to be a two-state solution to many things.

And so that didn't start with me.

I mean, when we talk about the metropolitan transit commission, that was formed by Pat McCorey, it includes all of the mayors inside of our county, but even beyond that, we've done planning across the state line in South Carolina, as well as in our surrounding counties.

Today, when I go to a transit commission meeting all of the mayors in the communities of a county surrounding us, Gastonia, Concord, Annapolis, they participate in those meetings because we realized that Charlotte is only as successful as the places surrounding us.

Not everyone can live in Charlotte, we've made 200,000 people, but think about Lincolnton, think about Gastonia, think about Cabarrus.

All of these places are growing.

So we are working really hard to build opportunities, to have unified discussions around very difficult topics and to create options for people and the way that they want to live and the opportunity to get jobs everywhere.

So we have the regional alliance, we have, we've used our cog, they have worked on our transit plan being connect Charlotte.

It's all about building out something that works regionally.

I always tell people, Charlotte is only as successful as the places that surround us.

And that's really important to understand as a guiding principle.

- Anna Beavon.

- So, going back to Chris's question and sort of expanding a little bit, how have you seen collaboration change, whether it's positive or negative pre-COVID to post-COVID?

You're in a unique position to be able to experience being mayor in both seasons.

So how have you seen that change?

- Well, I think pre-COVID, we were on a really good place to continue to have both regional engagement and local engagement and building relationships in Washington and Raleigh.

And we were able to go and drive someplace and just walk the halls and do things like that.

With COVID that completely changed.

And it took, I think, a while for us to get our footing on virtual meetings and how to conduct virtual meetings and how to trust that dialogue, that so much of it is dependent upon building a good relationship.

So I think the challenge has been the relationship building in a virtual environment is tougher.

You have to be much more deliberate.

And again, I think that we will have to continue to figure out how to bring people together and how to communicate in a way that everybody understands, but feels like they own the decision-making.

I think that is our biggest challenge post-COVID.

I know that many of us recognize in this country, we've seen a strategic effort on divisiveness, but as I tell people in our community, it doesn't matter your political affiliation, if you're a resident of this region, what really matters are we helping people be successful and in all walks of life and in every opportunity that we can.

And I truly believe that we can make that happen if we focus on a new method of collaboration post-COVID working with our business community, working with our regional governments and organizations and nonprofits that support us.

It's really a belief that you have to have when you're the mayor of Charlotte, and I think a mayor of any community.

- Antjuan, we have about two minutes.

- Mayor Lyles, mayors are the nerve center, they are the main artery in the community.

So how do you, as a mayor, deal with trying to convince your colleagues and your region that some of the things you need to do are in investment not in expense.

In particular, as we see funds come down for infrastructure, we see jobs, economic development become even more competitive and we're now competing in an ever-changing global society, is no longer competing with our neighbors and our friends to the left or to the right?

- Well, it's an interesting question.

We were fortunate enough to have the secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, as well as vice president Harris, come to our city.

I want you to know that I think that the administration is sending a message across the country, that they have approved the infrastructure plan and that they're very serious about it.

And setting goals for electric vehicles and mass transit and bridges and roads.

So I think that we have to continue to focus on, if we are sending money into Washington and they are going to have money come into communities, cities, and states, that we have to take full advantage of that.

We don't want to look at 20 years out and say, why didn't we do more?

What I want to say is 20 years out to say, we did as much as possible.

And that's what I believe working with the administration is important because we need to have that money come back where local decisions can be made about how, what the best utilization is for the people that live in our communities.

- So it's not, mayor, it's not literally 30 seconds less, it's not if we get those funds, it's rather when we get those funds.

- That's exactly right, when we get them and how we have the decision-making authority to use them.

- Okay, mayor, thank you.

We are out of time and of course didn't unpack anything about the arts, would love to have gone into, racial equity initiative a little bit deeper.

Maybe you're glad to maybe not have to talk about arts right now, but thank you for joining us.

Thanks for your leadership, best of luck going forward, of course, all eyes in the region will be watching which way Charlotte goes.

- Thank you very much for having me.

- Thank you, mayor.

Antjuan, always nice to see you, a happy new year.

Change the world there brother, 'cause you're doing it and we're so proud of you.

- Thank you, man, thank you.

- Anna Beavon, as well to you, thank you, and best of luck going forward.

Thank you for watching our program.

- Thanks.

- If you have any questions or comments or you'd like to watch past episodes, it's pretty easy, CarolinaBusinessReview.org.

Until next week, I'm Chris William happy weekend, stay healthy, good night.

- [Narrator] Major funding for Carolina Business Review provided by High Point University, Martin Marietta, colonial life, The Duke Endowment, Sonoco, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

And by viewers like you, thank you.

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