Livingpower For all who have made a living and now wish to make a life
North Carolina
Retired
Governmental
Employees’
Association
NCRGEA Board of Directors
Linda S. Suggs, Morrisville,
President (Dist. 8)
V. Vann Langston, Raleigh,
Vice President (Dist. 8)
Clifton B. Metcalf, Lake Junaluska,
Treasurer (Dist. 1)
Martha Sue Hall, Albemarle
Secretary (Dist. 6)
District Directors
District 1
Edward J. Sheary, Weaverville
District 2
Charles K. Beck, Lenoir
Linda K. Story, Granite Falls
District 3
Larry F. Kepley, Lexington
Ben L. Neal, Clemmons
District 4
Alice L. Bordsen, Mebane
Thomas W. Lane, Butner
District 5
Irene B. Pollard, Farmville
Tony E. Perry, Camden
District 6
Evelyn C. Gerdes, Charlotte
District 7
Beverly D. Stewart, Whispering Pines
N. Frank Lewis, Lillington
District 8
George B. Chapman, Raleigh
Suzanne P. Merrill, Raleigh
Michele Nelson, Raleigh,
Director-at-Large
District 9
Melissa E. Bartlett, Carolina Beach
Michael R. Taylor, Emerald Isle
Volume 36, Number 1 January-February 2020
President’s Message
The new year is upon us! For me, each new year brings a sense
of hope. It is a time for new beginnings, and for renewed energy to
As government retirees, we dedicated our careers to serve our
communities and our state. We worked hard to keep NC safe and
beautiful, to educate our children, and to provide health care to
our neediest citizens. Our retirees helped recruit businesses to
NC that provide jobs for our citizens and strengthen our economy.
We staffed our government agencies to keep vital services available
to NC citizens. Often, folks don’t really think about the many
services state employees provide, but without our current and retired
state employees, NC would not have the reputation and standard
of living that make us so attractive to businesses and people
moving to NC from other states.
The late President Harry S. Truman once said, “It is amazing
what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
We government retirees lived this, day in, day out, throughout our
service in government. We gave, often unseen and unknown to
the very people we helped, without asking for much in return.
The time has now come that we must ask for what we rightfully
earned from our service to our communities and state. Our local
government retirees continue to lose pension value every year. In
fact, local government retirees have received less than one percent
this is that the performance requirements to allow an adjustment
were never modernized for a post Great Recession world.
For our retired state government workers and retired teachers,
our quality of life was taken for granted by lawmakers and the
executive branch last year. What was an inadequate bonus was
vetoed at the eleventh hour by Gov. Cooper, so the little bit of relief
we hoped was coming never came. We understand that that small
bonus was a small part of a much larger bill with other issues, but
it was still disappointing to see it disappear after we had worked
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