Jon Owens

The State Employees Association of North Carolina’s officers for 2013-14 started their second term this week after being re-elected at the 30th Annual SEANC Convention in Greensboro on Sept. 6.

President Sidney M. Sandy of Indian Trail, First Vice President Art Anthony of Raleigh, Second Vice President Stanley Gales of Durham and Betty “B.J.” Jones of Zebulon were chosen by their fellow members to serve another one-year term leading the largest state employees association in the South, with 55,000 members. SEANC officers are elected by members for a one-year term—Oct. 1, 2013 to Sept. 30, 2014.

Sandy is a retired 33-year state employee who served as a maintenance engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation. Anthony is a 25-year state employee and SEANC member and is employed at North Carolina State University as a research specialist. Gales is a maintenance supervisor at Polk Correctional Institution and a 25-year state employee and SEANC member. Jones works as a Medicaid financial analyst and clinical policy contract specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services. She is a 28-year state employee and SEANC member.

Also at the convention, the Employees Political Action Committee (EMPAC), SEANC’s political arm, presented N.C. Reps. Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba) with the Lisa B. Mitchell Legislator of the Year awards. Both Moore and Setzer were instrumental in the fight to protect the State Health Plan and retirement system from harmful changes and went above and beyond in supporting public services and the people who provide them. The award is named in honor of Lisa B. Mitchell, an outstanding and dedicated state employee and SEANC member from Durham. She passed away in 2008 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Each year at the convention, SEANC members from all 100 North Carolina counties donate to a cause that benefits North Carolinians in need. This year, President Sandy selected the SECU Family House in Chapel Hill as the association’s annual community service project. As a result of state employees’ and retirees’ generous donations, the house received nearly $5,000 in cash and hundreds of household goods and grocery items, which replenished their pantry and funded the purchase of items to help families with patients receiving care at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

With the funds collected at the SEANC convention, family house officials purchased a new washing machine, microwave and recliner, and the remaining money will fund more than 70 nights for patients and their families to stay in the house.