'I have... no more answers for my children when they are hungry'

NC FAST might mean going without food, but that's probably not what the coiners of the acronym intended.

North Carolina Families Accessing Services Through Technology, which is being implemented across all 100 counties of North Carolina, is designed to integrate various social services, including food stamps, Medicaid and WorkFirst, creating a kind of "one-stop shop" for clients seeking assistance. The Forsyth County Department of Social Services calls it a "no wrong door" approach.

Beginning in early July complaints began to crop up in Forsyth County about food stamp benefits being held up for current clients applying for reactivation. A number of clients said their benefits had been delayed for months on end, and food pantries and agencies that provide free meals reported an increase in demand that was partially attributable to disruption in food stamp benefits. Those complaints were a reprise of similar concerns expressed in neighboring Guilford County where the program was piloted.

In mid-July Forsyth County Social Services Director Joe Raymond told YES! Weekly that it was "fair to say that all of our staff are trying to learn how to use the new system and there are delays." He added, "I'm unaware any any macro-statistical thing going on here. I'm unaware that any technology glitch is throwing people out of the system."

Since then, people have continued to report ongoing disruption in food-stamp benefits as food pantries plea for donations to address summertime spikes in demand. He also said that a report about staff temporarily closing the office because of an "uproar" was "categorically inaccurate."

Nicole Main, a YES! Weekly reader, wrote in an e-mail yesterday:

My neighbor lost her job in June, she signed up on benefits here in Forsyth County. They told her she was eligible for emergency benefits because of small children in the home. She was supposed to receive those around the 24th of June. Since then, she hasn't gotten any benefits, even the emergency ones. She calls the DSS on a daily basis, her social worker has never returned a call, even though they state their policy is to give you a call within 72 hours. She has left messages for supervisors, and the 72-hour policy doesn't seem to apply to them either. She has went to the food banks, and they limit your visits. With four young kids and no income, and soon, nowhere to turn for food, they are going to be facing some hungry nights.

Main said she drove her neighbor to the Forsyth County Department of Social Services in Winston-Salem, and they encountered a long line of people questioning why their benefits cards had zeroed out.

One lady at the counter said she wanted to talk to someone immediately because she had been waiting months for her benefits. "I have went to every church and food bank possible. I have sold or pawned everything I have ever owned, even my children's things, just to put a bite on the table for them. I have nothing left, nowhere to go, and no more answers for my children when they are hungry. I have been waiting since May. How much longer should I have to wait? I want some answers because I have no more answers to help my kids."

I have a call in to Raymond, and hope to hear back from him this week. Nancy Young, a member of the Forsyth County Board of Social Services said the board is aware of the problem, which she said arose when the local agency started downloading the Medicaid pilot. NC Rep. Evelyn Terry, who is also a member of the social services board, said the problems became apparent in late July.

"That's really when the red flag went up, when it was apparent something had broken down," she said.

Some of the problems might be occurring because of requirements that clients submit complete information to qualify benefits under the new system. Terry said the local department of social service understaffed "to be able to address it adequately and they must check and do due diligence. A person has to bring in the forms that says they've been looking for work and their status hasn't changed, so that the system goes to the next level and doesn't throw up a red flag. At the end of the day that still doesn't feed a hungry child."

Terry said she's struggling to understand why the breakdown has occurred during the conversion to the new system, which was placed under contract in 2008 during the administration of Democratic Gov. Mike Easley.

"People do not need to have to stand in long lines and wait to receive the benefits to which they are eligible to receive," Terry said. "How do you connect that? You've got to have a nexus for the system at the state to connect with the system at the local level. This apparently is not or has not happened. Why? I have absolutely no idea. You've got to have writers of software and users of technology communicating effectively with workers so that the end game turns out to provide the needed services. And I just believe there's a breakdown somewhere; I don't know where it is. I wouldn't dare speculate. We have been getting updated continuously from Joe Raymond regarding some of the issues."

Disruption in food stamp benefits are not limited to Forsyth County, and have also been reported in Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Burlington, Granville County, and Lincoln County.

Young said Raymond and other county social services directors "are in Raleigh meeting with NC FAST trying to figure out what the issues are and what can be done to rectify them. Last time I spoke with him they talked about a plan to have the issues rectified by next week."

Young added, "We've got new cases coming in. We've got a backlog of issues with all kinds of technical stuff. People are aware of it, and they are working diligently to fix the problem."

NC Sen. Earline Parmon (D-Forsyth) said she has sought answers from the NC Department of Health and Human Services about why the disruptions to services continue.

"They're having some problems with the systems connecting," she said. "I've heard from a lot of people whose families were suffering because families weren't able to get [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits."

Parmon suggested that the state-mandated program revert to the old process until the kinks can be worked out through a limited pilot of NC FAST.

"It appears that there is not an urgency to put something in place until they've got it working properly," she said.

I have been attempting to reach Ricky Diaz, public affairs director for the NC Department of Health and Human Services, since yesterday morning. I hope to hear from him soon.

Main said she fears that the next stop for many people whose food benefits have been delayed will be a homeless shelter.

"The DSS is not doing the best they can to make this program work, they are doing the very opposite by hiding and not telling people the truth. They have 72 hours to return a phone call and since July 24, [my neighbor] has not received one call back. The operator even called her social worker on a direct inside line and gave her my neighbor's information directly, and still nothing fixed."

Forsyth County Dems discuss how to rebuild the party

NC Sen.-elect Earline Parmon (left) visits with Judge Denise Hartsfield (center) and Judge Camille Banks Payne before a panel discussion at the Forsyth County Democratic Party headquarters.

North Carolina Democrats face a conundrum: While Democratic trend lines look increasingly favorable for the party with progressive-leaning people moving into the state, a growing Hispanic population and steady urbanization, the Republican Party is ascendant.

After seizing control of the General Assembly in 2010, the Republicans took the governor’s office and lieutenant governor’s office in the recent election, and a conservative Supreme Court judge backed by Republican donors has declined to recuse himself from ruling on controversial redistricting plans Republican lawmakers have used to consolidate control.

Forsyth County Democratic Women hosted a lunchtime panel at party headquarters to discuss how to regroup after such bruising losses. Speakers included NC Sen.-elect Earline Parmon, NC Rep.-elect Evelyn Terry and Forsyth County Democratic Party Chair Susan Campbell, among others.

Judge Denise Hartsfield, a Forsyth County district court judge and the moderator of the discussion set the tone in her characterization of Parmon’s relative power as a freshman senator in the minority party.

“Earline, you’re about to go into a war, for all intents and purposes,” Hartsfield said. “You’ve got to have your war clothes on because you’re going into a war where you are a minority in every sense of that word. Not just because you’re a woman, not just because you’re black, but because you are one of the few Democrats.”  

Terry, who was elected to represent NC House District 71 following the announced retirement of Rep. Larry Womble, said she knows she’ll be at a disadvantage as a Democrat. 

“With a super majority of hateful people, I recognize what the numbers look like,” she said. “We’re going to have to be very vigilant. Obviously, when you look at what we’re facing, just to be able to legislate with this session. The deals are already done.” 

Terry said Democratic lawmakers will have to leverage relationships with constituents to be effective. 

“The reality in my view is that in order to be able to do what we have to do for our constituents here at home and for others who have like minds throughout the state is to be very vigilant with our connectivity,” she said. “We’ve got to communicate. We’ve got to know that you’re there so that when we’re speaking the minority’s point of view and philosophy we can call up the numbers when it’s necessary.” 

Campbell said the party is attempting to build an infrastructure of support for Democratic lawmakers. 

“We’d love to have some watchdog groups,” she said. “We’ve talked about ways to communicate. Like how is, when Earline has issues and Evelyn has issues that they want us to know about, how do we find out? That’s the infrastructure that we want to set up with the communication. How do we get you upset about what they’re upset about so if they want you to make phone calls, then you go make phone calls. If they want you to write letters, then that’s what you’re going to do.” 

The party is also trying to build capacity at its base. 

“Each precinct, you’ve got stuff that you care about together,” Campbell said. “And so as a group, one of the precinct chairs he and his whole precinct were going to go to the school board meetings to talk about the superintendent [search]. As a group that’s an issue that they were going to take up. There are neighborhood issues, there are ward issues, there are things that you guys care about together, and have a little grassroots something going on.” 

Terry alluded to the disconnect between the demographic trends favorable to Democrats and the Republican ascendancy in state governement. 

“The Democratic Party won seven of 23 targeted districts that the party targeted, but when I looked at the number of folks that we lost in those targeted districts was less than 8,000,” Terry said. “Do you understand what I’m saying? So the reality is we’ve got to get a little more sophisticated about how we do our politics and how we do what we’re doing with people we want to elect into these offices. We have really got to drill down into it. And we have got to learn how to articulate the message that resonates with folks who have dropped out. 

“The powerful in gray suits may have the numbers down there, but we have this great big forum that we can utilize to communicate our message and keep it energized throughout this two-year period,” Terry continued. “We may not win on one vote, or one issue I should say, but we can communicate the message and use every medium that is available to communicate that.” 

Anne Wilson, one of the panelists, urged party members to write letters to the Winston-Salem Journal and the Chronicle to keep issues before the public and encourage people who care about the same things. 

Panelists did not discuss leadership development, but the challenge of succession planning was highlighted by a question by Eric Ellison, a former member of the Forsyth County Board of Elections, about why the county party does not currently have a Young Democrats auxiliary. Campbell said party leaders have been looking for someone to chair the group, which is open to all Democrats under the age of 40. 

Parmon said that in light of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the first bill she plans to file will be to outlaw guns in parks. She also plans to file a bill to make attendance in schools compulsory, and to increase the age at which young people can be charged with a felony from 16 to 18. 

“These are the kinds of issues that everyone should support them because it’s good for Forsyth County and it’s good for North Carolina," she said. "So we do have the issues that should keep people in arms and involved and active. So look for us to come out with bills. And I’m going to go to the media every time they don’t let us hear them in committees. Because that’s what’s going to happen: They will not even allow us to have these bills heard in committees." 

Parmon said Republican members have already drafted a bill to cut the state’s unemployment insurance program. She said the second bill expected from Republican lawmakers would be to require voters to present picture ID before voting. The General Assembly passed a voter ID bill this past year but were unable to muster the votes to override a veto by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. 

“Now, I’m enraged,” Parmon said. “And I’m going to stay positive and professional, but like someone said, ‘Show up, stand up,’ and like Larry Womble said, ‘If necessary, act up.’ It’s coming to the time when we cannot just be prepared talkers and listeners because we’re talking about our very lives.” 

Campbell said she hopes that 2014, a congressional mid-term election will be a reversal of 2010, when Republicans made great strides by mobilizing their base while Democrats were complacent. 

“And you think: Okay, if it happened to us in 2010, it can happen to them in 2014," she said. "People were upset. They were angry and they were upset, and we were going, ‘Oh, we got the president, la-di-da-di-da.’ And we didn’t get out and vote, and they did. So we’ve got to flip that. And that’s our challenge. How do we keep people upset and knowing what’s going on?”

Winston-Salem pastor urges Democrats to vote against marriage amendment

Rev. Paul Lowe re: marriage amendment from Jordan Green2 on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Rep. Earline Parmon provided additional detail about the Republican campaign to persuade her to support the marriage amendment. She said in an interview that at the time the Republicans were attempting to marshal the votes to pass legislation to put the initiative on the ballot, those behind the effort purchased airtime on radio and television urging constituents to call a 1-800 number that forwarded to her home phone. She added that someone told her that about $100,000 was spent in four or five markets across the state to target African-American lawmakers.

Parmon said the decision to not support the legislation was not one she took lightly.

"I did weigh it carefully and after much thought looking into it and dealing with my own morals and values, the politicization of the issue is what let me know that I could not support it," she said.

"It was so many convoluted and it was so political that it didn’t even make sense to do it," she continued. "When you look at civil rights and human rights it’s against the law already for same-sex marriage. I also listened to people who said when we are dealing with the constitution we should really think about what we should put into the constitution, and discrimination is not something we should put in."

Parmon noted that the issue might have been expected create a wedge.

"Generally black Democrats are more morally and socially conservative," she said. "I think this was a smoke screen that was put out there to divide Democrats, black and white. But when all is said and done, it is discrimination."

ORIGINAL POST: A prominent Winston-Salem pastor charged today that the marriage amendment is a “device” to divide black voters, while a longtime state lawmaker said Republicans courted her and Rep. Larry Womble to try to obtain their support to put the initiative on the ballot.

The Rev. Paul Lowe, pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church, asked members of the audience at a Democratic “meet the candidates” event at the church today to vote against the amendment, which will appear on the primary ballot on May 8.

“I believe personally that this is a device that is being used to divide us,” Lowe said. “And certainly we as Democrats do not need to be divided on this particular amendment. It’s already illegal for couples of the same sex to get married in North Carolina at this time. Let’s do not put this on our plate at this time. Let’s deal with the issues at hand. We’re concerned about seniors. We’re concerned about children. We’re concerned about all Americans being treated fairly.”

The audience at the Democratic event was predominantly African American, but also included a large number of whites, reflecting the demographic makeup of the Democratic-leaning state legislative districts in Forsyth County.

Rep. Earline Parmon, who currently represents NC House District 72 and is running for NC Senate District 32, said she was “targeted by Republican dollars” for her stance on “women, civil and human rights.”

“They spent approximately $100,000 in this county trying to influence me to vote… for the proposition of Amendment One,” Parmon said. “In the middle of the night, they called me and Rep. Womble into a meeting to proposition us. When I refused their offer I became their target. And that’s okay. I’m a big girl. And I can stand up to that.”

Parmon did not explain how the GOP spent money targeting her. (I left an phone message for her after the event seeking clarification.)

Ed Hanes Jr., who is seeking to replace Parmon in District 72, renewed a call for Democratic voters to reject the marriage amendment, which is also known as Amendment One.

“Why can’t we stand against discrimination, against writing discrimination into our state constitution?” he asked. “Amendment One – it doesn’t just discriminate against individuals; it discriminates against families. Folks, it is a wedge issue that was put in place to divide our community, to divide our churches, to create another Ohio 2004 situation that resulted in a divided African-American community that resulted in George W. Bush getting four more years in office. It’s an amendment put in place to ensure that we stay not focused on what our ultimate goal needs to be, and that is ensuring that our president, Barack Hussein Obama, is reelected this year.”

(Previously: 1, 2)

Highlights



Earline Parmon, NC Senate District 32 candidate:

“I’m running because this is one of the most crucial elections that we’ve faced in a long time. As you know, Rep. Womble had initially decided to run for Senate, and after his accident he had to reconsider. And after much discussion and deliberation we talked about how it would impact Forsyth County not to have an experienced policymaker in Raleigh. I decided to not run for District 72 and run for the Senate. As you know, with the redistricting the Senate the present majority double-bunked women, threw women out of their seats, and so it’s a very large and difficult district, but I’m up to the task. But the reason I say this election is very critical for Forsyth County is, we are one of the few counties that could possibly have five new representatives. And what does that mean for Forsyth County? It will mean that we will have representatives, but not necessarily representation. And why do I say that? Because there is an institutional and systemic process in place that determines what happens and how much you get to participate in decision-making. With new representatives we will be low on the totem pole.”

“We passed the ‘castle doctrine law’ in this last session, the same thing as ‘stand your ground.’ They picked up pieces of the Georgia and Florida law and simply placed it in legislation, and it became North Carolina law. I fought vigorously against that law. I spoke out against that law. And I will continue to do so. But you must have standing to be able to make a difference. Currently the voter ID bill is number-one priority for [the Republicans] to overturn the governor’s veto. And I tell you people: If you are not aware of how different things can happen in the twinkling of an eye, if you are not knowledgeable of how it can go into a subcommittee a chicken and come out a frog – I’m serious. A bill can go in one way and they can put it in a subcommittee and it’s totally different. You need experience there to make sure at least you can have good information and you’re gonna have someone to stand up for that.”



James Taylor Jr., NC Senate District 32 candidate:

“This particular race is being framed around the term ‘experience.’ … We voted for President Barack Obama not because he was the most experience legislator or the most experienced person in Washington, DC, but because we thought he was the candidate who could take us from the days of yesterday to the days of tomorrow. If we wanted the most experienced candidate, everyone in this room would have went with John McCain. But we didn’t go with John McCain because you wanted a fresh voice.”

“We need to fill jobs in our community and there are four ways that we can do that in my first four years in office. First of all, we’ll focus on reducing our dependency on foreign oil and foreign fuels. We’ll focus on conversion from fuel to natural gas, to electricity, to hybrid. We were able to pull it off in the city council. I went to Washington, DC. I had a meeting with one of our US senators. We talked this thing over. If we are able to reduce our costs and switch over to electricity, natural gas, we can reduce two thirds of the cost. That two thirds of the cost that we’re saving can go towards the highway trust fund. It can go towards the highway fund to create jobs for roadway projects in our communities.

“Secondly, we come up with a concept we call ‘pathways to employment.’ We want to make sure we’re putting people to work. The unemployment rate, we talked about that. But I tell you: North Carolina is on the verge of owing $3 billion to the federal government. We have to find a way to reduce our unemployment insurance fund. We’ll do it through ‘pathways to employment.’ We’ll take a look at putting the underemployed, the chronically unemployed and our seniors back to work. We’ll do it by putting our recently graduated back to work. And we’ll come up with a six-to-eight-week program where we look at the pilot payments. And if you’re not familiar with pilot payments, that means payments in lieu of taxes. You have local entities who pay payments in lieu of taxes. You take a small portion of that and those people who employers seem to think can’t get the job done we allow them to go through a paid internship program where when they got the opportunity to prove themselves to employers if they get employed we’re reducing the unemployment insurance fund. If they do not get employed what we’re doing is we’re allowing them to build their resumes and become more effective for the future.

“We all know that in North Carolina if you go to Wal-Mart, anywhere, you see ‘made in China,’ ‘made in Japan.’ We want to have a ‘North Carolina made’ program where I would pay 10, 15 cents more for a particular product if I knew it was made in North Carolina. We want to make sure we are establishing our companies, not only in the region, not only in the world, but in the state of North Carolina we have good jobs, we have good companies who make good products. When we do that, we retain our existing jobs. We also make sure we’re bringing more jobs to Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

“Now, the last thing is the investment in the life sciences. Somebody mentioned earlier that about promoting the life sciences. It’s important that we do that. Biotechnology in the state of North Carolina has created… 500 companies and well over 220,000 jobs. We have to continue our allocation for the life sciences.”



Wilbert Banks, NC Senate District 32 candidate:

“We are subsidizing the oil companies [by] $4 billion a year. So you’re not really paying $4 a gallon. You’re paying more like $6 a gallon. I would introduce a bill to stop the subsidizing because we don’t need to do that. Beyond that, I would introduce a bill to roll back some of the taxes. Let’s say we rolled back 50 cents and you have $3.50 a gallon. Are you satisfied with that? Probably not. Okay. Maybe we can find somehow to go back another 30 cents. That’s puts you at $3.20 a gallon. Are you satisfied with that? I wouldn’t be. Now people, this is where you all come into the picture because you have more power than you think you do. If you remember the example, the credit card companies tried to charge us excess fees for using the credit cards. You got together and said, ‘No, we’re not going to do this.’ Those companies are supposed to be bigger than you are. Are they? No. You told them: ‘We’re not going to pay these fees regardless to what.’ And the companies backed down.”



Everette Witherspoon, NC House District 71 candidate:

“One person in particular invited me to the hospital and he told me that I better run. The person’s name was state Rep. Larry Womble. And he told me: ‘When you get into Raleigh you better do three things. You better speak up. You better stand up. And if necessary, you better act up.’ That’s what I plan to do.”



Evelyn Terry, NC House District 71 candidate:

“I have a stellar reputation for in this community for community service. I am not running for self; I am running for service. When you provided service to multiple citizens throughout your tenure, then the idea of being able to serve in the state legislature is just one more step toward being a servant of the people.”



Elisabeth Motsinger, 5th Congressional District candidate:

“My opponent, Ms. [Virginia] Foxx, has a war chest of $1.5 million before she’s begun. I’m not going to be able to match that. I’m not going to be able to be another Goliath to that Goliath. My interest is in being as good a David as I possibly can up against Ms. Foxx.”

“I believe that we have to have an economy that’s fair for all people. And right now we don’t have that economy. Right now, half of all citizens – all of the citizens of the United States – are either low income or poverty. That’s not an equitable economy at all. We have to support education – in particular, public education because public education is the one way that all people get an opportunity to become successful, and to become involved, engaged citizens.”



Dr. Bruce Peller, 5th Congressional District candidate:

“In my fifties I married a powerful Hispanic woman who is beautiful and wonderful in many ways. But the fact is – she’s a dentist – she experiences ethnic discrimination on a regular basis. And so, in turn, my own passions have evolved and I will fight for the DREAM Act and I will stand against the marriage amendment.

“I stand before you today unexpectedly fighting for my own dignity because of my gender. My opponent, Elisabeth Motsinger, has chosen to build a central thesis of her candidacy around her gender. She keeps repeating in this race against Virginia Foxx it is highly unlikely male can challenge her successfully and that’s it’s a woman’s turn. My name is Bruce Gary Peller, and today I’m going to tell you why I believe that I’m the person you want to send to run against Virginia Foxx in November. Within the Democratic Party, as it should be everywhere, our principles charge us with responsibility to judge our candidates as human beings. I judge people by the content of their hearts, not their religion, the color of their skin, their country of origin or their gender.”

Photos by Cheryl Green

Terry files for Womble NC House seat

Evelyn Terry, a Democrat who formerly represented the Southeast Ward on Winston-Salem City Council, has filed for NC House District 71, which is currently represented by Larry Womble.

Womble was critically injured in a car accident in December. Legislative staffers at the NC General Assembly said last week that Rep. Earline Parmon, who represents District 72, is expected to make an announcement on behalf of Womble regarding the election at an unspecified time. Meanwhile, Everette Witherspoon, has said that he plans to file for the District 71 seat on Tuesday, but was not ready to make an official announcement. Witherspoon has served on the Forsyth County Commission since 2010.

Everette Witherspoon to run for Womble seat in NC House

Everette Witherspoon, a Democratic Forsyth County commissioner, said he plans to file for the NC House District 71 seat currently held by Rep. Larry Womble, who was critically injured in a car accident in December.

“Representative Womble was all about social justice,” Witherspoon said. “It’s going to take a special person to fill his shoes.”

Witherspoon remarked in the atrium outside of commission chambers before a briefing this afternoon that he believes he holds the right political credentials on social justice to effectively win support among voters considering his background in social work.

Womble has represented District 71 since 1995. He served as the Southeast Ward representative on Winston-Salem City Council from 1981 to 1993. A staffer at Womble’s office said Rep. Earline Parmon plans to make an official announcement related to Womble and the election. The staffer said she could not specify the time the announcement was expected. Parmon could not be reached immediately for comment.

Witherspoon said he has heard that Evelyn Terry, also a Democrat, is also considering running for the seat. Terry told a group of progressive Democrats in Winston-Salem last week that she is thinking about running for elected office. She could not be reached immediately to confirm any possible plans. Terry also served as representative of the Southeast Ward, but was defeated by James Taylor Jr. in 2009. Taylor has announced plans to run for NC Senate District 32.

Taylor, Terry headed for runoff in Southeast Ward race — UPDATE

Democratic incumbent Evelyn Terry and challenger James Taylor will participate in a runoff for the Southeast Ward seat on the Winston-Salem City Council after neither candidate was able to garner more than 40 percent of the ballots cast in the municipal primary on Tuesday.

Terry, who was first elected to the city council in 2005, received 160 votes or 36 percent of the total votes cast, while Taylor received 150 votes or 34 percent of the votes in the municipal primary. Jimmy Boyd,a retired Winston-Salem police supervisor, received 136 votes or 30 percent of the total votes cast on Tuesday.

According to local election law, a candidate must receive 40 percent or more of the vote to avoid a runoff. The two candidates receiving the most votes are eligible for the runoff election.

Taylor said he plans on meeting with Boyd today to ask for his support in the runoff election, which will be held Oct. 6.

"I thought that Jimmy and Evelyn were both formidable opponents," Taylor said. "I'm grateful to still be in the race."