- [Narrator] This is production of PBS Charlotte.

- This week on "Off the Record," get a shot, get a test or get suspended.

Hundreds of local workers who don't follow new COVID rules on the job wind up off the job.

The state forces Union County schools to reverse their no quarantine policy, and black leaders meet with CMS to reverse their falling test scores.

Also, a one year old girl wounded in another teen shootout.

Gun fire between two moving cars on Independence Boulevard.

A state court rejects North Carolina's new voter ID law.

Was it just politics or racism, or maybe a little bit of both?

And at Charlotte City Hall it looks like they're putting the brakes on a new tax for rapid transit until they can get the suburbs on board.

Plus, is Charlotte's airport really busier now than it was before COVID?

And a Charlotte artist gets the okay for his statue of Billy Graham at the U.S. Capitol.

Lots to talk about next on PBS Charlotte.

(upbeat music) And from our PBS Charlotte Studios in historic Plaza Midwood, I'm Jeff Sonier, and we're "Off the Record," talking about the stories you've been talking about this week.

And if you watch the news, read the news, and listen to the news, well, you'll recognize the names and faces around our virtual table.

Tony Mecia from the Charlotte Ledger, Dedrick Russell from WBTV, and Mark Becker from WSOC-TV.

You can also join the conversation at home, just email your questions and comments to OffTheRecord@wtvi.org.

Well, a lot of different stories about a singular subject this week, and that is employee groups, work forces at the county, at one of the local hospitals, who are facing suspensions because they are not following the COVID rules regarding either get a vax or get tested.

We're talking about hundreds of employees that are off the job right now, apparently without pay, and what happens next depends, I guess, on the employers and the employees themselves.

Anybody wanna take first crack on what's happening in Mecklenburg County and also over at Novant?

- Well, let me jump in really quickly.

I think they knew this was coming.

- Yeah.

- I mean you have a large percentage, I know Novant's percentage is like 98% of the staff there have either complied with the vaccines or the testing that they're requiring if you're not vaccinated, but there's always gonna be some who aren't.

And so Novant, and I suspect the county, I haven't spoken with the county folks, but they had to know there would be a certain percentage who aren't.

And it's a business decision, they've made it, and I would be surprised if they backed down.

They may modify it slightly, but I think they knew this was coming, and it's pretty tough.

- Yeah, I mean, I think, Jeff, what we are seeing, we're seeing more and more employers doing this.

Obviously government employers wanna be in the position of saying listen, we're taking the lead, and we want people to follow our lead.

But you know the labor market is so tight, if you just had a few employers that were requiring this and a bunch that weren't, people could just say "Oh forget this, I'm leaving, "I'm gonna find a new job."

It's a good time to look for a job, a lot of vacancies out there.

But as we see more and more employers do this, it's gonna get a little bit harder as they're kind of putting the squeeze on a lot of these workers who just don't wanna take the vaccine.

- Dedrick?

- Yeah, and as Mark was saying, people, employees, should have known this was going to come because after the vaccine has been approved now, so now employers are now saying "Okay, then we have the science on our side "that it has been approved, "so now we have to make it work."

And safety is the top priority because we have seen where hospitals have had to shut down wards because of COVID outbreak there inside hospitals.

And then also hospital workers that sued, have taken their employers to court, but they have lost, thinking that no employer should be able to force us to take on a vaccine.

But we know down in Texas that employees lost that case.

So it was bound to happen because at the end of the day, people say that if you're vaccinated that things will be better, and vaccination is the best way to stomp out COVID-19.

- Yeah, let's clarify, by the way, both policies, Novant and the Mecklenburg County policy, say if you can get the vaccine we'd like that, but if you don't get the vaccine you do have to provide a weekly test, a COVID test.

And the county in particular seems to be taking a particularly hard line on this.

Here's a quote from the county manager, Dena Diorio.

She says "The employees who are in this situation "have put themselves there."

She's talking about those suspended employees whoa re losing a week's work without pay, and it seems to, it's unclear now what happens next, both at the hospital and at Mecklenburg County.

The rules say that if you don't comply for a second week, then you go from suspension to termination.

So any sense of whether this is a, I mean every employee makes their own particular decision, but nobody seems to be backing off on the importance of following those rules right now, these employers.

- Right, I think the county did revise, moderate a little bit their testing requirements, made it a little easier to get, to get, meet those testing requirements, but I don't see them backing down per se.

And I guess the real question is we're starting to see the numbers, the COVID numbers again going back down generally, not just here but around the country, and one wonders if this has, if it's partly due anyway to these mandates being issued around the country and here as well, and more people getting vaccinated, and that may be helping to slow the numbers.

And if that's the case, well then the employers are gonna say "Look, this is working, we're gonna keep it up."

- Dedrick?

- You know, rules are rules.

- Yeah.

- And I can't help to think that we're looking at business, because I believe that when people are looking at where to bring conventions in, where to bring gatherings, then I'm pretty sure that that is going to be at the top of the list.

How safe is the area where I'm going to bring hundreds of people potentially here to have a gathering.

And so if, if they see that the county is being hard on its rules, then that will give, calm some fears in saying that hey, yes, that this (indistinct) have a gathering because we all do not want to go back to a year ago where things were shut down and conventions were canceled and things like that.

And so therefore follow the money because money makes a difference.

- Yeah, and the county again clarifying they're not forcing anyone to get a vaccine, and they're not forcing employees to tell them if the COVID test was positive or negative, they're simply asking them to provide a weekly test.

Not a test result, just proof that they've had the actual test.

Couple of other items in this general area.

The Charlotte Symphony now says that they will require ticket holders to their concerns also to provide the same thing, either a vaccination proof, or a proof of a negative test coming into their concerts.

And at the state fair they're not requiring vaccines, but they are recommending and encouraging vaccines.

So if you want that deep fried Twinkie, I guess you don't have to- - Which is a greater threat to your health.

- (laughing) Yeah, I was gonna say I'm not sure what's gonna make you sicker first, but anyway those are some of the other COVID stories that have popped in the news this week.

On the education front, Union County Schools were in the news last week, back in the news this week, and that stalemate we talked about a week ago regarding the state health department and their no quarantine rules.

Union County did finally back down with that threat of legal pressure.

Dedrick, you wanna take this one first since you cover education for us?

- Yeah, I guess Dr. Mandy Cohen, I guess she has juice.

She sent that letter and things changed.

It didn't take long.

And a lot of parents we have talked to, and they're split.

You have some parents who backed the Union County Public School's stance on eliminating the contact tracing and quarantine and things like that.

And then you have other parents who said that "Hey, I have a child who suffers from asthma," or "I have a child who has another health issue, "and to put my child in that type of danger, "I don't think that's right."

And we had one parent who says "We need an adult in the room "to figure out what is best."

So I am, someone has really, they reversed their standing, and people are pleased with that.

But I guess (indistinct) all plays out.

Is it politics?

Or is it eduction?

It's just surprising to me how adults, how they make decisions and they say it's on behalf of kids, but other people do not think that it's on behalf of kids.

So it's very interesting how people vote going forward.

And I think that going forward, when it comes to elections, and when it comes to choosing your next school board member, I think that a lot of parents and a lot of voters are going to have more questions to add before they (indistinct) another person.

- Yeah.

- I think it took the board all of three minutes, right, to basically convene and say "All right, never mind, "we're gonna go back to doing this."

And at the same time it's three minutes, and it's probably three years worth of fallout when you talk about, as Dedrick already alluded to, the reelection and so forth.

Everything is political, particularly with COVID issue.

It didn't last long, the face off there, but still there's a lot of stuff that will unravel in the next several months or so, I think.

- Dedrick, again.

- Yeah, and I wanted to bring up another point.

You know it's interesting the Union County commissioners, that when it was a vote to vote to have a vote of confidence in the Union County School Board in the direction that the school board was going in, there was no support to, there were not enough votes on the Union County Commissioner Board to have a vote of confidence, that motion failed.

So Union County School Board is getting a lot of attention, and it's split.

And some people are saying "Hip, hip, hooray "for the Union County School Board," and other people are saying "What are you thinking, Union County School Board?"

It just shows how split we are in our community.

- Yeah that step back that Union County took, by the way, wasn't a full step back.

They did go back to the quarantining of kids who have close contact with folks who are positive for COVID, but they've shortened the quarantine time.

I think originally it was, what?

- [Jeff And Mark] 14 days.

- Now it's down to seven to 10 days in Union County.

And they're not doing contact tracing anymore, they're gonna provide that information to the state, and let the state handle contact tracing.

So, again, Union County Definitely doing things differently than a lot of other local school boards, although in Gaston County they're also gonna be considering a no mask policy again next week on Monday.

They're required to talk about it every time they take a vote once a month, but Gaston County, that's on their agenda as well.

Mark, you wanna- - I just wanted to say, in their release explaining their decision, the Union County schools underlined at the bottom of the release, "This is not changing our optional mask policy."

So they're not changing that.

They're not backing off and going to a mask mandate.

And they wanted to stress that essentially, sort of saying yes, we cave on this one, but we're not gonna go to a mask mandate.

And they were very emphatic about that.

- And while Union County schools met to talk about their no quarantine policy, CMS had a meeting of its own, this time with the local black political caucus, talking not necessarily about COVID, but about that gap in achievement that COVID's kind of shined a light on, but has been there present and unfortunate for many years, right, Dedrick?

- Absolutely.

You know they had a meeting on Tuesday.

CMS Super Intendant Earnest Winston, school board chair (indistinct), they broke down the plan for the Charlotte Mecklenburg black political caucus, and they wanted to say that what they're going to do in order to help close that achievement gap.

And right out the gate they said they told the caucus that this year effort, that this is not going to close overnight, and they are aware and admit that these gaps existed before the pandemic, and now the pandemic has made things worse.

And so one of the questions the caucus (indistinct) multi-year effort that what about that child sitting (indistinct) who's supposed to graduate next year?

What are you gonna do about that child if this is a multi-year effort?

And so the response was that the super intendant says that effective teaching, (indistinct) sure up our efforts when it comes to teaching, and give every teacher the tools and the resources that he or she that they need in order to help that child be successful, and college and career ready by the end of this school year.

And also they also said that the board, they're going to be spending more time in tackling the achievement gap.

Every time the board meets at a board meeting, at least 50% of meeting time will consist of tackling the achievement gap.

So they're also going to partner with Council of Great City Schools to try to figure out what the district needs to do right now and in the years (indistinct) to make sure that things get better, make sure that little Johnny and little Susie, maybe they get the education that they need so they can be a productive citizen once they get that high school diploma.

- And, Jeff, if I could cut in, the interesting thing here is you'll recall that back this summer this meeting with the black political caucus and CMS, the background of that is you'll recall this funding dispute that the county had with CMS, the black political caucus and a lot of black leaders were kind of siding with the county on that saying listen, CMS isn't doing enough to improve the outcomes for students.

And so it seems like now maybe they're breaking bread and having those conversations, maybe something productive can come of it, but certainly interesting to see the politics of this after this summer, a very contentious summer of how we fund CMS, and where do the different sides line up.

- Dedrick?

- Yeah, and I got reaction from the caucus chair, Stephanie Sneed, about her reaction after the meeting, and she told me that she is still looking for specifics from CMS, that she wasn't 100% pleased with CMS' presentation.

And I asked "Is there a bright spot?

"Is CMS doing all they can do?"

And so she told me that there will be no bright spot until the achievement gap has been closed.

And CMS did promise that they would come back on a regular basis to give updates on what they're doing to see if it is working.

And if it is not working, then they are, they promise that they will tweak and redo some things because they know that time is of the essence.

And also this week Ministers had a press conference as well.

So everybody has to do their part in order to help students achieve.

- Mark, you wanna wrap this up for us?

- Yeah, real quickly.

Listen, this is long haul, right?

And I think, I would hope people who are pushing for this achievement gap to be closed, as they should, recognize that.

It's not gonna change overnight, but they're keeping the pressure on just to make sure that the school board doesn't forget that they've got this issue.

But I don't think it's gonna change in the next year.

It's gonna have to be several years.

And as for that kid who's graduating next year, just do the best you can, I think, with them, right?

- Yeah, back to, just quickly to Tony's point.

A lot of folks saw that as a win for the school board when they weren't forced to come up with a plan to get their budget allocation this year, but ultimately the pressure that was put on by the black political caucus and county leaders apparently is having an effect in terms of, again, opening the doors, keeping the conversation going, and letting them know that this is something that is expected of them now whether they get their funding or not.

So good point there.

Tony, good discussion on this one.

By the way, CMS, lets give credit where credit's due.

Mask policy from day one.

They've had minimal, I don't wanna say they've had none, but compared to a lot of other school systems, they've done quite well in the COVID area.

Not too many clusters, not a lot of infections.

Pretty much business as usual in the school every day, and that's good news for parents and kids and the community as a whole.

So kudos to our friends over at CMS for that.

I know CMS has dealt from the beginning of this school year with teen violence, and while this next story isn't necessarily CMS related, it's another example of what used to be such a foreign thing.

What used to be related to movies and action scenes, this is real life now.

Mark, what was going on out on Independence Boulevard this week?

- Well you had a shoot out between two people in two cars.

You had a 19 year old driving with a 15 year old in the car, and a one year old child in the car, and another car pulls up alongside police say, and they start shooting at each other.

And what's troubling here, of course, is that the one year old was hit.

Was hit in the head actually, and is in the hospital.

I told, spoke with her mother, and she'll be okay, but it was a serious situation.

Now at the same time, what is equally troubling, I think, is that you have a 19 year old who police say fired a shot that actually hurt that little girl, who is, by the way, his daughter.

And a 15 year old in the car, who was also hit.

But police say he was also shouting, so you talk about the schools and the violence, and I don't know this 15 year old or where he, but he's presumably in school somewhere, and police have talked about this violence in the schools, and we just had our fifth gun found at West Charlotte high school since the school year began.

And you talk about the guns being, turning up at schools, and then what happens is these fights in schools spill over to the community, and you had that three year old boy killed a couple weeks ago by something that had started with a school fight.

So it all is connected.

You can't separate schools from the communities and the teenagers, and the guns.

Yes, we got a problem.

- It's a culture shift.

I mean we've talked about this before, I don't know how you can, I don't know how you change the culture that leads people in this direction in the first place, right Dedrick?

- Yeah, it does.

And you know I had a conversation with two seniors, two CMS seniors, and they told me that because of the, they believe that because of the remote learning and students not being in school that this lead to a rise in students not having things to do, and maybe possibly joining gangs since there were no after school programs and students weren't in school.

That they believe that some of the people that they know, that that gave them opportunity to associate with people who were heading down the wrong path, and they believe that that's one of the reasons why now when everybody's back together again, things that they were doing, and who they associated with while school was out, now it's playing out because they are just now associating themselves with people who are up to no good.

- Yeah, it's one of those stories we keep talking about.

We wish we didn't have to keep talking about, but as long as it's there it's hard to ignore, and you just wonder when do we hit that tipping point that we talk about a lot where everybody gets concerned enough to move that culture, or change those minds.

But, yeah, sad story this week, and sad story overall I suppose.

At city hall, transit tax kind of on the back burner right now.

Tony, you talked with the mayor pro tem about what I guess you could consider a delay in moving forward on this particular thing for now at least.

- Yeah, I mean you'll recall the timeline of this, the Gant committee, former Mayor Harvey Gant chaired this commission looking at how do we get more transit?

How do we get more sidewalks, bike lanes?

They came out last December and said "Okay, here's the way to do it.

"You increase the sales tax by one percentage point, "you put it on the ballot in 2021."

They had cost estimates at the time of this eight billion to 12 billion, and they said here's how you accomplish it.

The problem was they rolled that out, and now things are getting pushed back a little bit.

You had some push back from those northern towns.

There's some matinations in Raleigh, how do we get this on ballot going through Raleigh?

And now, when you talk to city leaders now, they say they don't have a timeline.

I think they would like to get it on the ballot in 2022, but they haven't really approached Raleigh.

I talked to Senator Phil Berger's office, the majority, or the senate leader.

He said they haven't really put force a lobbying effort, and so it seems they're kind of regrouping a little bit, working with regional partners, working with these other counties that also have interests in bus rapid transit and other things like that, trying to get them on board.

And then have been trying to build support.

They had an economic development study that said exactly how much this will help the region.

So they're regrouping, I think, a little bit, and it's been a little bit delayed, and so we'll see what that timeline ends up being, but it's certainly nowhere close.

- Yeah, you do get the sense that they did not anticipate the pushback that they are getting now, and having to deal with now, right?

- Yeah, I think that's part of it is that the northern towns feel as what's in it for us?

We're gonna increase our sales taxes, and we're not gonna see any benefit because Norfolk Southern won't let the rail line be used to reach Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius.

I mean there's a lot of questions about that, and I think they're frankly under the surface.

I think there are some political realities too, and Mecklenburg County is pretty solidly Democratic, something like 16 out of 17 members of the state legislative delegation are Democrats.

The city council, county commission dominated by Democrats overwhelmingly, but the people making decisions in Raleigh are all Republicans.

And so while they all talk a very nice game, there's this reality of why should we help these Democrats in Mecklenburg County tax people?

So there's some of that too, I think, which you don't really hear a lot about, but I think it's there.

- Another transportation story coming out of the city this week.

Good news I guess coming out of the airport with passenger numbers back to where they were pre-COVID.

Good news I guess, unless you're flying.

I know, Mark, you just got back from some air travel, what's it like out at Douglas airport versus other airports?

- It's busy.

It's busy.

I don't wanna brag here, but I've traveled some of the bigger airports in the country, and actually overseas, and Charlotte's airport, again, we're in a, kind of a special position here, because a lot of our flights are short haul flights, right?

You have connections domestically.

The international travel, the U.S. just opened up international travel to vaccinated foreigners in Europe.

So the international travel, those numbers of flights have gone way down, but we're flying from here to Louisville, Kentucky, and to Kansas City, and Phoenix and those flights are going.

And planes are full, the airport here is full.

And I was at O'Hare airport a few months ago, and it was just one day or two, but it wasn't as buys as Charlotte was.

Obviously they were a bigger airport, but yeah, we're busy.

- Dedrick?

- Yeah, and a good airport, and that's what leaders want because a lot of people they choose and pick and choose business if there's a good vibrant, and a good, easy accessible airport.

And so leaders are probably saying yes, we want a busy airport because a buys airport equals to them more business, and more eyes on Charlotte as people make their connections and things like that.

So busy is good, and hopefully busy will translate into more business coming to Charlotte and people coming to Charlotte.

Maybe our airport can be the place where they can say "Hey, let's do business with Charlotte."

- Yeah, busy is good unless you're in line to get through security, I suppose, then not so good.

- Just get there two to three hours early, right?

- Yeah.

Hey, as usual, out of time before we're out of topics.

A couple things, the voter ID law that was nixed by the courts this week, the legislature goes back to the drawing board on that, so that's another topic that we'll talk about again probably in the not to distant future.

And the Billy Graham statue replacing the statue of former governor Charles Aycock in the U.S. Capitol.

That design was approved this week.

A Charlotte artist is doing the statue.

Billy Graham will be holding a Bible in one hand.

There'll be Bible verses on the base of the statue, but another local hero, I guess you'd say, icon, if you will, will be part of that hall of statues at the U.S. Capitol very soon.

We're out of time, folks.

Again, good discussion.

Thanks gang for joining us this week.

At home, always thank you for being with us.

And if you wanna comment on what we talked about today, good or bad, send those comments or questions to OffTheRecord@wtvi.org.

Again, appreciate you being here this week, and we'll see you next time on "Off The Record."

(upbeat music)