Today was sadly my last day with Ashley Perkinson! Over the course of the last two weeks I’ve had a wonderful time experiencing her day to day life, as well as getting to know her as a person.
Today, it was Advocacy Day for a women lawyer’s group that Mrs. Perkinson heads up. It was nice to see the perspective of other women in the field of law, and I was able to consult with them about the various options within it. I consulted with a family lawyer at length, and she was absolutely lovely! In addition, we sat in on a bunch of committee meetings and a house session as well. All in all, it was a relatively uneventful day in the grand scheme of things, yet it was one that I wouldn’t trade for the world! I will truly miss being downtown every day, as it is such a great place to be. I’ll also miss the company as well 🙂
Today was yet another jam-packed day at the Legislative Buildings! Yet again, it was multiple meetings starting at around 9:30 AM. Our only break was the committee house meeting that occurred around 11, which was rather important as it addressed the piece of legislation that the occupational therapists were pushing for yesterday. Fortunately, it passed through the house with a favorable referral- which expedites the process of the legislative grind. It was once again very cool to see the immediate impact of the lobbying work, and I am sure that the OT’s were very pleased to hear the news! Once it passed the house, it has to go to Senate Rules, and then it will probably be referred to a bunch of separate committees. It takes quite a long time for a bill to become law… and yes, it is exactly like the “I’m Just A Bill” song provided to us by Schoolhouse Rock. After, my lovely boss and I grabbed a bite to eat at Centro. We had a great conversation about almost anything one could think about, and it was a great experience getting to know her as a person as well as a working individual. Next, we had a meeting about HB967, which is a suicide prevention bill within K-12 public schools. There is some unnecessary holdup by certain Senators still, but I could never see why someone would be opposed to a bill put into effect to save kid’s lives. But that’s just my humble opinion…. oh well. That’s all for today!
It seems that I can only go a few hours without making some sort of erreur fatale, as Madame Jones would say. This morning’s doozy was pulling into an employees only parking lot, and guess what? I needed one of those scan things to get in. If you assumed that I did not have one, as I am not a state government employee, you were correct. My only options were to go straight through the bar looming directly in front of me, or try my best to back out and reverse up the one-way street. The better option was to not immediately wreck my car, and taking a calculated risk, I decided to back out. This very, very, very nice lady helped guide me and my car (physically and spiritually) to safety, and to my job right on time.
On what actually happened today, this was for sure the most action packed days by far! It was the Advocacy Day for Occupational Therapists of NC, and my day from 9:00 am-3:00 pm was almost entirely spent on my feet. One of my main jobs was leading a gaggle of OT’S between buildings, up flights of stairs, and into elevator in order for them to met with their local representatives. We bounced from meeting to meeting, and if I tallied correctly, we attended seven total! That is definitely a lot for one day! I definitely was a busy gal all day, but it was interesting to see the fruition of the lobbying work that Ashley does. She isn’t anything like the money-hungry, devil-horned monster lobbyists of the NRA one imagines – her job consists of standing up for those who can’t. What she does is all for underrepresented people, and if someone meets her for even a minute, they’ll know that she truly cares for them and loves what she does.
Day five was sure different from the rest! First of all, Ivan and I were assigned to work together at the NCDOT (North Carolina Department of Transportation) on this day, as Mondays are slow around the legislative office. This is because technically, our NC Senate and House operate part-time, so the first time they come in on Mondays is around 6 or 7 pm! Wow, it would sure be awesome to have that same system at CA…. oh well.
We first started our day at 10am, which was a plus from the get-go. We then met with one of our two hosts, Deans Eatman. He is a youngblood in his department, as he is only 23 and he absolutely refuses to be referred to as “Sir”. He also doesn’t wear socks, which Ivan found quite strange. We spent a while in his office, asking questions about the department, the budget, and all sorts of other juicy gossip of that nature. Deans then declared that he was hungry, as he hadn’t eaten breakfast, and off to our first meal we went! Ivan got just apple juice, I got just iced coffee, and Deans got a nice biscuit.
After our lovely repose in the coffee shop, Ivan and I sat down with Mrs. Joy Hicks for the first time. Her job is quite numbers heavy, and some of the terms she threw around (expenditure, contractionary, fiscal, discretionary) made me glad that I took Econ with RJ! We spoke for about an hour, and then we all went out to lunch!
After lunch, Deans took Ivan and I over to the LOB (Legislative Office Building), where there were a couple protests going on within the building. Quite a few brave citizens took to the office of their representatives to exercise their first amendment rights, and by the noise level, most definitely their loudest voices too.
All in all, it was a very interesting and rewarding day! I enjoyed spending time with our new friends over at the DOT, and of course also with Ivan.
Ivan sans Apple Juice!Five points if you spot the zipties!
Not much can be said for the fourth day of my Work Experience program! Ivan and I were tasked with visiting the State Library downtown, as we were both with lobbyists this past week. We visited the State library in order to research our upcoming visit at the North Carolina Department of Transportation on Monday, and we learned quite a few things. For example, the NCDOT was originally called the State Highway Commission when it was founded in 1915. Also, the budget is quite large: $4.7 billion each year! 48.5% of the budget is allocated to maintenance and construction. After our time at the library, Ivan and I grabbed a bite to eat. It was nice to catch up with him, as we had been in the same building all week yet we hadn’t really seen one another!
Fortunately, day three started off less rocky than every other day thus far! Third time is a charm, I guess! The day that followed was most definitely the least eventful of all of them. The first order of business was to hop into a legislative meeting, house-specific, to discuss the new budget once again. In this particular session and bill, there are no amendments allowed to be made. This was an action instituted by the majority party, and the meeting ran very long as to voiced anger and concerns by the minority party. In total, we sat in the meeting for about 3 hours, and then the UNC student interning for Mrs. Perkinson and I were given the blessing to go out for lunch. We went to an adorable restaurant called Centro, which is owned by the same family that runs Dos Taquitos. It was delicious, and then we headed back to the LOB (Legislative Office Building) for more meetings. When we met up with Mrs. Perkinson once again, she regretted to inform us that the session from earlier STILL hadn’t been completed. The session was supposed to take less than 2 hours, but it was running on 4.5! We had plans to meet with Representative Grier Martin, but we obviously couldn’t as he was in session at that time. We then talked to one of Mrs. Perkinson’s colleagues before being allowed to leave around 3pm, as there wasn’t much else to do.
Much like yesterday, the second installment of Ava’s work experience did not cometh too easy. I arrived right on time- five minutes early, I might add- but what do ya know? Every single parking lot, deck, and garage was either completely full, or only government employees. Even my desperate attempts at finding a parallel parking spot came to no fruition- the longest time allotment I could find was two hours! I ended up illegally parking by a church, relying on the power of God (and my proximity to one of His institutions) to not get towed. Oh, the trials and tribulations of finding a spot in downtown Raleigh!
After that debacle, I ended up being a bit late, but Mrs. Perkinson assured me that it was more than fine. That morning, we consulted with Senator Barringer of Wake County about funding and referrals for the Tammy Lynn Center, TLC being one of Mrs. Perkinson’s employees. It was very interesting to be in “the room where it happens”, in this case, seeing a lobbyist consulting with a Senator to push a client’s agenda. I haven’t gotten a taste of this until now, and this sort of meeting seemed like the very crux of a lobbyist’s position.
I had told Mrs. Perkinson about my early morning driving debacle and she kindly allowed me to move my car, and directed me to a ~ less risky ~ spot. After this, we went to a very interesting meeting about the implementation of four new charter schools within Mecklenberg County in a variety of townships, redistricting of schools, and parental allowance (or lack thereof) in enrollment. The back-and-forth between some of the senators was quite heated… to say the least. The pinnacle of the argument was that redistricting and allowing for newer schools in pre-existing wealthy areas had inklings of Brown vs. Board of Education, and this comment certainly sent some of the other members of the committee reeling. My personal feelings aside on the bill, the “I’s” had it.
We next ate a hearty meal at the Planet Cafe once again, and then we went to a second meeting on the same topic, and it went very quickly compared to the previous one as many of the senators served on both.
My day ended here, and I fortunately found my way back to my car expeditiously and safely!
My day in Downtown Raleigh in a lobbyist’s high-heeled pumps started off on the wrong foot- pun intended. I was a bit early, and I walked into what I thought was the right building, ready to seize the day… only to realize that I had entered the wrong legislative building! Fortunately, my mishap was not life-altering: the right building was only about 400 feet to my right, and I still managed to arrive right on time.
I met Mrs. Ashley Perkinson in the quad area/greenspace of the main legislative building for the first time. We sat down and chatted for a while about what were going to be the main events of our time together, and her job within the complex system that is state legislature. She is a lobbyist with a focus in advocacy for underrepresented groups, which I admire very much. She also commended our luck for my arrival on such a hallowed day: just last night, the North Carolina budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year was announced. As one could imagine, the Senators and Representatives that comprise of the NC Congress had much to say about the cuts, re-allocations, and new funding all together. We still had about an hour to kill before the 10 am committee session, and Mrs. Perkinson had some letters of thanks to deliver to various senators and representatives for their help passing one of her bills that she was strongly advocating for, which happened to be better suicide prevention aid, resources, and accessibility for teens. In this time, we also scheduled many meetings for tomorrow!
After this, we waited outside the main chamber in which the discourse would be held for about 30 minutes before the doors were opened. I couldn’t help but notice how strikingly similar the shuffle inside the doors towards the seating area was to the students at CA slowly making their way into the lunchroom… but I digress! The next three hours or so were filled with members of the house and senate speaking on the various budget augmentations and contractions, and they spoke on everything from school safety to the need for cleaner drinking water produced from Falls Lake. I took copious notes, as did almost everyone else in the room! After these discussions, there was a questioning period that I would consider to be the most interesting component of this particular activity. The questions were mostly unfiltered with the intention to clear up, gain further knowledge, or even discredit certain parts of the budget, and the latter most certainly made for the most entertaining for the viewer.
After this, we had a late lunch with one of Mrs. Perkinson’s co-workers that happens to be a close confidant at the Planet Cafe, and we discussed everything from their typical daily schedule to what is usually debated about within Speech and Debate. I enjoyed my day of getting acclimated to one of the more important moments in legislature, and also getting to know Mrs. Perkinson!
