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RALEIGH Dana Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, knows how to make an exit — with a police escort.
State Sen. Steve Goss, a Democrat and retired Baptist minister from Boone, summoned General Assembly police officers to his legislative office around 10 a.m. Wednesday and asked them to remove Cope, who was escorted out of the office.
Beyond that, Goss and Cope offer differing versions of events.
Goss said that during a meeting two weeks ago with state employees in his district, he commented that Cope had never been to his office. Goss said that prompted Cope and other state employees association officials to schedule a meeting with Goss.
When they met on Wednesday, Goss said, the group began talking about his vote in favor of legislation to shore up the state health plan. Cope and the association have criticized the legislation for imposing higher costs on state employees. Goss said that Cope called him a liar more than once during the meeting.
“I felt like he was becoming verbally abusive in the office,” Goss said. “I'm not sure I got a sentence completed the whole time.”
Cope contends that Goss told constituents in his district that he had never met Cope. Not true, said Cope, and he has photos of the two men talking at the legislative building.
Cope said he never called Goss a liar, but did accuse him of lying when he said that the health plan legislation was the only way to save the health insurance program for state employees, teachers and retirees.
“I said, ‘That's an example of you misleading our members,'” Cope said, “‘You shouldn't be lying to our members.'”
Those comments prompted Goss to call the police, Cope said.
“He went crazy,” Cope said of the lawmaker.
Tony Smith, president of the state employees association, attended the meeting. He described Goss as “upset,” while also saying that Cope interrupted Goss.
“Dana was doing his job standing up for state employees,” said Smith, a Department of Correction maintenance supervisor in Morganton.
Cope has a reputation for moving quickly to confrontation.
After taking the helm of the association in 2000, he used some “shock jock” tactics, as he described them, to get legislators' attention and urge them to improve state employees' pay. Two senators accused him of lying. Another said he was immature. And Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, refused to meet with Cope for about two years.
Cope, 39, said lawmakers weren't used to an advocate for state employees who asks tough questions and holds them accountable.
More recently, and separate from the employees' association, Cope has been leading a high-profile battle with the Wake County school board over its school reassignment plan and, in February, got into a scuffle with a 64-year-old neighbor.
