Latest / The Dave Allen Show / 08-03-23 580 Live with Dave Allen: Featuring Doug Cipoletti, Ericke Cage, and Shannon Snodgrass

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08-03-23 580 Live with Dave Allen: Featuring Doug Cipoletti, Ericke Cage, and Shannon Snodgrass · The Dave Allen Show

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If there's not a Parmar store near you now, there will be sin coming
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up on the show. A little bit later on. Charleston City Councilwoman Channon
1:14
Snodgrass is going to stop by the studio. Also, the president of West
1:18
Virginia State University, Eric Cage, will be here as well. Want to
1:21
welcome to my good friend Doug Chippeletti for the West Virginia Virtual Academy. Doug,
1:25
good morning, How are you, sir. I'm doing good, Dave,
1:26
Thanks for having me, Thank you for being here. Welcome back to
1:29
the show. You're becoming quite the regular here man, I mean you're kind
1:32
of getting that that host emeritus type thing. Man. You're you're here a
1:36
lot or the guest I should say not host that hasn't happened yet, not
1:40
yet, not yet, but it will. There we go. It is
1:42
almost back to schooltime. I'm gonna ask a dumb question here because that's what
1:46
I do, is I asked dumb questions. How does it work for a
1:49
virtual academies? Pretty much the same. We start August twenty first, just
1:53
like everybody else. And that's that's the thing we've had you on the show
1:57
to talk about, is that this is the This is just like a regular
2:00
school. It is a regular absolute is a regular school, Yes, And
2:06
so I guess the parents will and the and the students will be going through
2:09
the same angst as kids in other learning environments, because it's like you said,
2:15
it's just a regular school. It is. We have most of our
2:20
students returning to us that were with us at the end of the school year,
2:22
so they have an idea of what to expect. Teachers come back on
2:25
Monday. We have back to school night on the fifteenth for parents, you
2:30
know, just like most schools would have where we go over everything and get
2:32
to meet the staff, get to meet the teachers and so on and so
2:36
forth. So we'll have everything rocking and rolland ready to go first thing Monday
2:39
morning on the twenty first. So for those who, as I said,
2:43
you've been a regular on the show then because you're like fourth or fifth time
2:46
being on the show. But for people that may not have heard your other
2:47
appearance, and Doug explain and basically how the academy works. So, West
2:53
Virginia Virtual Academy is one of the states virtual charter schools. We are tuition
2:59
free. We provide students with everything that they need to be successful, computers,
3:04
textbooks, We even help out with internet if it's needed. And we
3:07
we operate as a public school and we serve kids in all fifty five counties.
3:13
They get to do school at home through a virtual environment. They're taught
3:16
by state certified teachers who live in West Virginia. And you know, it's
3:23
it's basically what families should have experienced during COVID. But didn't we do virtual
3:30
education the right way? Have you had a difficult time in getting certified teachers?
3:35
Because I know that the more again I hate to use that term,
3:37
but but the more conventional brick and mortar schools certainly have We actually haven't.
3:44
I'm going to knock on this desk right here, but We actually just hired
3:46
ten new staff members. Our school is growing. We're adding eleventh grade next
3:51
year, and our enrollment is already up fifty percent from what it was last
3:55
year, and so we've we've added ten new staff members, had some really
4:00
great candidates, and as our school continues to grow, I think we have
4:03
teachers that are very happy working at the school. We have a lot of
4:08
happy parents, we have a lot of happy students, and as that word
4:11
of mouth grows, it's a really good environment I think that we've created at
4:15
the school, and so I think there's enough teachers that are interested in coming
4:18
to work with us that we have dozens of applicants for the various positions.
4:24
Whenever we post them. Now, where did the teachers set up shop?
4:27
Where are they teaching from? They're all virtual? I mean, I'm s
4:30
are they in their home or do they go to a central location, or
4:32
they're all in their home. We do have an office in Canal City,
4:34
and we have empty offices. We have conference rooms, so anytime that a
4:39
teacher would want to come into the office and use that space as their teaching
4:44
environment, they're certainly welcome to do it. But today, no teachers have
4:48
taken us up on that, and they all set up their own little classroom
4:51
at their house, and many of them have whiteboards and things behind them so
4:56
that they're able to show alphabet trees or whatever it might be. And they've
5:00
got document cameras where they can show what's on their desk. So very similar
5:05
to presenting in front of students, just from the comfort of their own home.
5:10
We had a text here somebody said, Canal I actually starts on the
5:13
eighteenth. Okay, Well, we are a statewide virtual school, so our
5:17
calendar is not Canal Counties calendar. Our calendar is a little bit different.
5:24
I think I may have plugged this last time, but one of the things
5:27
that we did was we built in a midwinter break in addition to a spring
5:30
break. There's always this lull sort of at the end of February beginning of
5:34
March, and teachers feel it, kids feel it, and so what we
5:39
did was we built in a full week to sort of bridge that gap and
5:44
give kids and teachers arrest and as far as the other holidays go, that
5:49
students or teachers may get off you know, I mean, yeah, I'm
5:53
thinking off the top of my head. A couple of maybe a Martin lu
5:55
King Day or the couple days before Thanksgiving. How do you how do you
6:00
handle those same kids get off for Christmas Day, kids get off for Thanksgiving.
6:03
You don't make them, you don't make them go Christmas Eve. No,
6:05
sir, these kids today, these little punk kids. Um so,
6:11
But but it's you follow basically the same, the same holidays and the same
6:15
basically Yeah, okay, um, I was told that you have an event
6:17
coming up with the with the Dirty Birds. We do. We actually have
6:21
two events. We are we're not sponsoring, but we're able to participate.
6:27
So there's an organization it's the National Coalition for Public School Options and there's been
6:31
a big push for public school choice in West Virginia. The Cardinal Institute is
6:35
a big advocate of that. And so the PSO group is actually hosting an
6:41
event next Wednesday, the ninth at the Dirty Birds And if anyone's interested,
6:46
they do have tickets available, they'll be food available with those tickets. Families
6:51
and interested parties can text parents to two one eight seven four eight one four
7:00
nine eight two one eight seven four eight one four nine eight and that'll give
7:06
them a link to get registered and the tickets will be provided, and what
7:10
we're doing is we're just setting up a table. So if anybody out there
7:13
is listening, they live in the Canal Valley and they want to just come
7:15
talk. I will be there. I know of at least two of our
7:18
teachers that will be there as well, so you can come out and meet
7:21
us. And then we will also be doing the same thing at the West
7:26
Virginia State Fair on the sixteenth, so we will have a table where we're
7:30
just trying to make ourselves available so that not just being on a radio.
7:33
You can come meet me. You can talk to me and ask any questions
7:36
that you want answered, and get to know some of our staff members and
7:42
hear a little bit more in person what we're doing. We had a text
7:46
for you here that said, ask mister Chippeletti, where does the Virtual Academy
7:49
get their funding? So we get our funding from the state aid formula.
7:55
So every year there's an appropriation and per student, and they do an October
8:01
count, so the second month enrollment count, and that's where our money comes
8:05
from. I will sort of compliment what we're doing. The things we're able
8:11
to do with those moneies, I think is really great. We stretch it
8:16
very far. We do not have access to local levey funding. So if
8:18
we're serving a kid in Knall County and canall county residents pay those extra fees,
8:22
we don't get any of that money. It's just the secondary State Aid
8:26
formula. And then we do also get federal moneies because we serve, you
8:30
know, certain populations, So there's Title one, two, three four idea
8:35
funding that we get as well when a parent reaches out to you, and
8:39
Dougano, you've and again we're talking with Cippoletti from the West virg Universual Academy,
8:43
and you've been on the show in the past and you've addressed this in
8:46
the past, but again in case people are listening for the first time.
8:48
Who generally send you an email and says I want more information about this.
8:52
Who calls you, Who goes to an event and says, hey, I
8:54
want to talk to you about about my son or daughter. Who who's your
8:58
tip cool? I don't say customers, but who your typical people that reach
9:03
out to you. Honestly, it's it's a wide variety, you know.
9:07
We obviously we have families who have been homeschooling. We have families who have
9:11
been in private school. We have a lot of families who are unhappy with
9:16
their brick and mortar school and are interested in something different. We have families
9:20
who their child thrived during COVID and their county doesn't offer a virtual option.
9:26
And so you know, I'm a big advocate for school choice. I think
9:31
what we do at the Virtual Academy is is wonderful. But I will be
9:35
the first to tell anybody that talks to me, it's not for everybody.
9:37
Right, you know, we're a public school. You're welcome to enroll,
9:41
and if it's not a good fit, we want to make any transition as
9:46
smooth as possible. So honestly, it's any different group that you could imagine,
9:50
that's who we talk to. And I think one of the things that
9:54
we do a little bit differently is anybody that's interested, we view them as
9:58
a customer. Whereas traditional brick and mortars they don't. They just expect the
10:03
kids to come to John Adams Junior out because they live in you know,
10:07
South Hills. We don't view it that way. When a family reaches out,
10:11
they're saying, I want to come to your school, and that mindset
10:16
changes the focus of how we treat our students and how we treat our families.
10:20
And I think it's a good point to bring up their Doug that you
10:24
said that you're an advocate for school choice, because I think sometimes whether people
10:28
are using a virtual academy or their homeschooling their kids, or whatever the case
10:31
may be, if it's anything other than the traditional brick and mortar, there
10:35
is this mindset to people said, well, you know you hate public schools
10:37
and you want to take away from public schools. You you just admitted it.
10:41
You know that this sort of a learning environment is not for every child.
10:46
It's not. And you know, I use myself as a personal example.
10:50
I worked at the Department of Ed for fifteen years and my family chooses
10:54
to homeschool our children. So when somebody calls and they want to ask questions,
11:00
listen, I can talk all day long. And I think that makes
11:03
the conversations a little bit more real because I'm talking to somebody from a Listen.
11:09
We can talk about anything you have questions about. Do I want you
11:11
to come to our school, Absolutely, I think your child would benefit from
11:16
coming to our school. But if you choose not to, I still want
11:20
to talk to you and provide any assistance that I can, because I'm still
11:22
a public servant. The big question you always get, Doug when it comes
11:26
to talking about and again, anything other than a normal or I won't say
11:31
normal, anything other than the traditional brick and mortar school is socialization. You
11:35
know they always bring that up. Yes, and your answer would be so
11:39
last year we heard from a lot of families we did not have enough face
11:43
to face field trips. That was the biggest thing that we heard from families
11:46
whenever we did in person testing, which is required by the state. And
11:50
so this year we are planning quite a few field trips, so we're going
11:56
to have some face to face events in different pockets that we're trying to get
12:01
together. The other thing that we have is a learning coach community, and
12:05
so that community is where we push out information to the parents and you know,
12:11
the we call them learning coaches. And because we've been making such a
12:16
big focus on that, we actually now have families making their own connections and
12:22
organically creating face to face events. For example, we just had a couple
12:28
of families make a connection very publicly in Logan County where a few learning coaches
12:35
are planning a play date might not be the right words, but you know
12:39
they're planning a get together for their kids who are in the similar age group.
12:43
Which is really what we're hoping to establish. Is because we have kids
12:48
in all fifty five counties. If there's a pocket of kids in Putnam County
12:52
that want to get together and play some pickup basketball on Saturday morning, well,
12:56
we're trying to encourage act, you know, activity on that learning coach
13:01
community where the families can do that. They don't need us to plan all
13:05
of the face to face events, just like you know, you probably rode
13:07
the bus home with some of your buddies after school when you you know,
13:11
when you were in school. We're slowly establishing those things. So we're building
13:16
them in from the school level and we're seeing more action from the actual families.
13:22
Douget's always a pleasure to talk to you in the show. It's fascinating
13:24
stuff to me. I mean, this model and how it's going not only
13:28
here but also nationwide. Now again, talk about the event that you're doing
13:30
at go Mark Ballpark with the Dirty Birds. It's actually sponsored by the National
13:33
Cool Listen for public school options. But you're going to be a part of
13:35
it. Correct, We will have a table yea, And so it's August
13:39
ninth. They can text parents to two one eight seven four eight one four
13:43
nine eight And if you can't make it out to the event and you want
13:48
more information on the school or you're interested in enrolling, they can go to
13:52
WVVA dot K twelve dot com. They're welcome to call the office at three
13:58
zero four eight zero seven nine to three seven zero my extensions one thousand and
14:03
one. You can get me personally. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
14:05
We are currently enrolling students. We will continue to enroll students throughout the
14:09
year because we're a public school and we'll take kids whenever they want to come.
14:13
Okay, And that's I'm glad you brought that up because I failed to
14:16
mention that there is not like a deadline or anything like that. It's just
14:20
to you know, you a parents, since their kid to public school,
14:24
and um, whatever the area is, and they decide in November that I
14:28
want to try a different option than you can, they can enroll in November.
14:31
Absolutely. The only the only thing I do tell folks is because we
14:35
have to mail out a computer and text books. You know, if you
14:41
if you try to enroll on the on the eighteenth, I could not let
14:45
you start classes on the twenty first, right because you're not going to have
14:46
your books. Well, you're not going to have your computer, so you
14:50
would actually have to wait. Are there actual books? Are the actual books?
14:52
Yeah? There are, I mean there are. I mean I'm asking
14:56
for any school in general. I mean there are still books, right,
14:58
there are materials material There are materials. Kids still need to come to math
15:01
class with paper and pencil to be able to work out problems. I hate
15:05
man, you know, so on it all right, Doug, we gotta
15:07
leave it here. Man, I appreciate. It's always a pleasure to talk
15:09
with you. Doug Chippeletti, West Virginia Visual Academy. Thanks, ma'am.
15:13
We'll talk again soon. Thank you Dave for having me a gun. Five
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more information, visit Generations PT dot com. This is like the Education Show
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because next we're going to college with Eric Cage, West Virginia State. He
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Jones Member SIPC. The Bosstale Cooper served as our producer today. This is
17:27
like the education show. As I said going into the break, we just
17:30
had gentleman our friend Doug there from the West Virginia Virtual Academy. Now we're
17:34
gonna we're gonna step it up a notch with our good friend, uh Eric
17:38
Cage from West Virginia State. How are you, sir. I'm doing well,
17:41
Dave. Good to see you. I haven't seen you. You have
17:44
been in the studio for a while. Then I'll let y'all campus that often
17:47
is that what it is? They keep you locked down here on a serious
17:49
note, and we got several things with mister Cage I want to talk about.
17:53
There's been a lot of a lot of news this week, and not
17:56
all of it good. You know up in Philippe with Alderson Brothers University that
18:00
you're familiar with, that I feel really badly for everyone involved there, from
18:03
the students to the staff. Has stayed yet or do you have any plans
18:07
to reach out somehow to those students to see if you can get them here
18:11
help them out in some way. We do, and thank you for the
18:15
question, Dave. I certainly echo your sentiments. It is a very challenging
18:18
time for all Theson Brothers, for the students, for the faculty, the
18:22
staff, the alumni, and frankly for the community of Philippi because of higher
18:27
institution of higher education are important parts of the community, so it is a
18:32
significant loss. West Virginia State University has stepped up, as has our other
18:37
colleagues in higher education. We are offering all brought us students expedited review of
18:45
transcripts, and we definitely welcome them to our university. We believe that we
18:52
have a home for them. We're one of the most affordable institutions of higher
18:56
education in the state of West Virginia, and we welcome them with open arms.
19:00
And again, it is a bad situation. We've talked about throughout the
19:03
week. I know hobbies spend a lot of time talking about it too.
19:04
Regardless of how you got there, you're there, and it's always the students
19:11
first and foremost, and the staff, you know, because you forget there's
19:12
there's other people besides your students here. But I think it's great that you
19:15
and some of the other universities I knew just about everyone around the state has
19:18
reached out to them and said, hey, what can we do to help
19:22
you? And not just from a financial standpoint, not that night like you're
19:25
pouncing on it, but you're saying, look, we want to help you
19:27
and that's like you said, with the expedited transcripts and things of that nature.
19:30
Transcripts, we're waiving the application fee. But I think the moral of
19:33
the story is, Look, it's a very difficult day for all of them,
19:37
brothers. About what we're seeing is just how unite it the higher education
19:42
community is here in West Virginia. All of our institutions are reaching out because
19:47
we believe in our students, we believe in the people of West Virginia.
19:52
Talk with Eric Cage again, President of West Virginia State University. Moving on,
19:56
Sir, there is talk, but that state may be interested the school
20:00
of Agriculture. Talk about that, Davis. More than talk. You know,
20:03
I am committed as president of West Virginia State University to bring a school
20:10
of agriculture to our institution because you know, we are a land grant institution.
20:14
We are founding us a land grand institution back in eighteen ninety one.
20:17
Agriculture is is part of our heritage, and today we stand as the only
20:22
land grant institution in the United States that does not have a school of agriculture.
20:27
And I believe that we have to change that. We have begun this
20:32
journey. I'm not naive enough to think that it's going to happen overnight.
20:36
But we have begun and we are going to continue the work that is necessary
20:41
to bring a School of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources to our university because
20:48
what you what we all know, David, that there's incredible need in the
20:52
agricultural workforce today just here in West Virginia. There are over twenty two thousand
20:57
forms in our state, over two hundred formers markets. We've had Melntop Beverage,
21:03
which is located in Morgantown, two hundred million dollars facility that just went
21:07
online. That's gonna bring hundreds of jobs, direct jobs and downstream jobs as
21:12
well. Now it's the time to bring a school of Agriculture to West Virginia
21:18
State University, not just because it's part of our heritage, because again,
21:21
there is that need in the community, and we believe that we are positioned
21:25
to help meet that need. So when you say Department of Agriculture, I
21:27
guess your mind just goes back to you know, a long time ago,
21:32
and and there are some similarities between water Department of Agriculture and twenty twenty three
21:37
would look like to you know, nineteen fifties or something. There are some
21:40
similar but it's a total I mean agriculture in general, and I've learned a
21:44
lot of this from from our age Commissioner Kent Leonard and having him on the
21:45
show. It's a high tech world. I mean, it's it's a high
21:49
tech world man very much. And I've had the opportunity to meet with the
21:52
Commissioner of Agriculture here in West Virginia. He's an incredible individual and is committed
21:57
to this world of making sure that we are supporting our farmers and really agriculture
22:04
sector across across the state. But again, you know, you're absolutely right.
22:10
Agriculture has changed over years, but the bottom line is that, um,
22:15
no matter how you slice it, we still continue to need agriculture and
22:21
the agriculture workforce in this state. It's so incredibly important. And the agriculture
22:25
sector is is it's very wide. A lot of people when you when you
22:27
hear agriculture, you think about the farmer who is planning siege and plowing ground,
22:33
and that's a very important part of it. But it's such a wide
22:36
sector. You're also talking about food science, you're talking about natural resources,
22:41
and that's why we want to bring a School of Agriculture to West Virginia State
22:45
University because again, there is an incredible need. We have been engaged in
22:49
agricultural research for over twenty years. We are really bringing forwards and really cutting
22:57
incoming edge innovation when it comes to food sustain sustainability and resiliency. We've recently
23:03
just received a four point five million dollars grant from the US Department of Agriculture
23:08
to begin the work of helping to develop a model that will train the next
23:12
generation of agricultural workers. So we're ready, we have the capability, let's
23:18
get it done. What kind of timeframe were we looking at here? Well,
23:19
again, like I said, I'm not naive enough to think this is
23:22
going to happen overnight. It is a massive undertaking, but I think we're
23:26
probably looking at anyone between three to four years to get this thing up and
23:30
running. Yeah, it's that's generally what it takes for any kind of a
23:32
program, especially one like this talk with Eric Cage of West Virginia State University.
23:36
It seems Eric to downtown Charleston is kind of the place to be for
23:40
higher education these days. We saw the University of Charleston doing some stuff downtown
23:45
now states following suit here. Yes, we announced some time ago that we
23:48
would be opening up a downtown center here in Charleston, the state's capital city.
23:55
We're actually going to be owned Capitol Street, one oh seven Capitol Street,
23:59
the Old Canal Banking in Trust Building. We are currently well under way
24:04
with respect to construction and we expect to have the facility open in time for
24:08
our homecoming in September. But it's really going to be an extension of our
24:14
campus and institute to in downtown Charleston. It's going to be a place where
24:17
we're going to bring people together, connect them or reconnect them with our university.
24:22
It'll be a home for academic programs, specifically our graduate academic programs,
24:27
a space for our alumni to convene. It'll be a place for the public,
24:32
will have opportunities in that space, will providing training, whether it be
24:37
around cybersecurity, whether it be training around art, and the space will also
24:44
again host different community events. We want the public, we want our alum
24:48
we want visitors to our city to come into the space to learn more about
24:53
West Virginia State University and to a joy all that the city of Charleston has
24:57
to work. And I have to say this, like I said that about
25:00
the University of Charleston, because I kind of like this this friendly rivalry between
25:04
yourself and UC President Marty. Rotha had him on the show just a couple
25:07
of weeks ago, and I know I've been in events with you, with
25:10
you guys, and it's that that's good stuff. I mean the fact that
25:12
two of you had the same basic you know, uh plan, what is
25:18
that you want to accomplish? But did you have a little fun along the
25:21
way too? Oh? Absolutely, No. Marty is an excellent leader and
25:25
I'm glad to have a friendship with him, you know. Certainly. You
25:30
see just opened their downtown Innovation Center. And one of the things that I
25:33
think both Marty and I agree with rh honest that we should work to find
25:40
ways to to partners together since we will both be downtown. Charles out of
25:45
text here, says Dave. The film River of Hope, about the founding
25:47
of West Virginia State University, will be screening at the KNA County Library to
25:51
your multifest this Saturday at two o'clock. Powerful story about how a former slave
25:55
Mary Marn's caval and her children helped found the first college for African Americans in
25:59
West Virginia. Texta says it's a powerful story and the film screening is free
26:02
to attend. Absolutely, there's so much history when when you talk about West
26:07
Virginia State University, and again, as I'll share it with you before,
26:10
as I've been on your show, you know, we're proud to be part
26:12
of this community. Over ten thousand alumni live right here in the Kanav Valley,
26:18
so we're very much a part of the fabric of the Kanav Valley.
26:22
And yes, Multi festis coming up and I'll be really honored to have the
26:26
opportunity to speak at the event on Saturday. When do these students come back?
26:32
Can when classes students come back on the fourteenth of this month. We'll
26:36
have faculty returned to campus next week. So we're excited. There's a great
26:41
energy on campus right now as we make our final preparations to begin the opening
26:45
of school. What's what's new on campus a semester or anything new and excited.
26:48
It's always new and exciting, but anything in particular, well, I
26:52
mean, certainly we as I've mentioned in previous interviews, I mean we are
26:56
watching for it with our work to bring our first doctor degree to West Virginia
27:00
State University, and we are well along the way and bringing a doctorate of
27:06
Education to the university. We actually had our site visitors from our crediting body
27:12
on campus this summer and they came back with a very positive recommendation for approval
27:18
of the program. So that is new and I hope when I sit down
27:22
with you this time next year, we'll be able to say that West Virginia
27:23
State University is a doctoral granting university. We're also making some improvements on campus.
27:30
We're adding some sports courts on our campus, and we're, of course,
27:36
as always, making sure that all of our facilities are are up to
27:38
date and ready to receive our students and staff. A lots of good stuff
27:42
going on there, Eric Cage, always a pleasure to have you in the
27:45
show, Sir, thanks a lot, Thank you. Dave. All right,
27:48
it's again Western State President. Eric Cage, twenty four minutes away from
27:52
ten five eighty Life presented a Departed by Husbands Pizza. This moth get a
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zero one zero one. Going back to the Virtual Academy Texas, It's sweetened.
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Families can afford to say I'm sorry, let me start that again.
30:17
It's sweetened families can afford to have someone at home all day and have an
30:19
option for their kids. My kid likes the library and used to be in
30:23
the after school program. The library looks to be going away, and the
30:26
program is already gone. But as long as we have Skype schools and high
30:30
school free agent athletes all as well in all West Virginia, says our wise
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legislature. According to a texture, Texas College campuses in downtown Charleston question mark
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great fit for both incredibly easy decisions should have been done years ago, but
30:45
the next best time is now. Quick quick note here before we get to
30:51
our next guest. Inside the Huddle with Tony Kariti, happening this afternoon at
30:53
the Baltoyota Events Center on Patrick Street, starts at five thirty Dave Weekly.
30:57
We'll be doing hotline from their proceeds and fit the United Way, and I
31:00
actually talked with Margaret O'Neill in the United Way yesterday and there are plenty of
31:04
good tickets available to come on over and hang out with Tony Kariti and talks
31:08
to him out in their football Again. It starts at five thirty. Great
31:11
food there as well. It's all at the ball Toyota Events Center on Patrick
31:15
Street in Charleston. And again, Dave Weekly, we'll be doing hotline from
31:21
there coming up a little bit later. Ron want to welcome in Charleston City
31:23
Councilwoman Shannon Snodgrass. Shannon, good morning, How are you. Good morning,
31:27
Dave, how are you. I'm doing fine. Thank you for being
31:30
here, Councilwoman Snodgrass. It's been a while since we addressed we had anything
31:36
new on the show about the situation involving Charleston police che Ti Hunt. A
31:41
couple of weeks ago. City Attorney Kevin Baker appeared on this show is also
31:45
on Hoppy and the statement was released from the city saying the city investigated the
31:51
allegations that were all aware of at this point and that Chief Hunt received a
31:56
three day suspension and seemingly life goes on, but say not so fast.
32:01
Well, let me let me start by making it. First of all,
32:04
thanks for having out, but you know, I want to make clear this
32:07
was probably the worst kept secret in city Hall and in the city for well
32:14
over now fifteen months. I knew about it, probably a year ago.
32:16
But I want to make clear the reason I couldn't speak about it until after
32:22
it's because the woman had not spoken out. Chief's hunt had not spoken out,
32:27
and to be fair to both, that was not my call to make.
32:31
So once the woman, Miss Harless, spoke on the scoop squad and
32:37
told her story, then to me, the cat was out of the bag,
32:42
and I felt, as an elected official, a duty to bring that
32:47
fourth to the city and to the City Council to say, hey, what
32:52
have we done about this? I want an outside investigation. We've all heard
32:55
about it for a year now. Everybody in the room had heard about it,
32:59
but nothing had ever been mentioned talked about anything from city or out.
33:05
So that's why I spoke up on the City council floor several weeks ago and
33:09
asked for an outside investigation. And until that was made public did the city
33:15
speak out. Well, what they're going to say, and what Kevin Baker
33:19
said on the show Council in the SIDS is that this was a personnel issue.
33:22
You would not agree with that, absolutely not, and ask any uniform
33:27
officer. And the reason is it's not a private matter. This was a
33:30
public figure. He's our top cop, he's our police chief. This is
33:35
not an HR matter when it involves a member of the public. And let's
33:39
say they kept it an HR that way, nobody would even know this had
33:44
occurred until the female spoke out. So why would the public not be knowledgeable
33:50
that their police chief had been investigated and suspended? Why is that not public
33:54
information? He is our top cop and we have one hundred and fifty some
34:00
their officers that report to Chief Hunt. So the reason it's not an HR
34:04
matter is because they don't have any jurisdiction over his civil service rank or certification.
34:12
They can't punish him from that standpoint. All they did was punish him
34:16
from an employee standpoint, I presume. And let's talk about that three day
34:22
suspension. There's another person that got a three day suspension for a TikTok dance.
34:27
We're talking about our police chaps that used public resources. His phone to
34:31
send over forty pictures, emails, text messaging, then brought a female into
34:37
his city hall. And if you listen to Kevin Baker, our city attorney,
34:43
he said, I did the investigation along with the HR director, who
34:47
by the way, is no longer there and was gone about a week after
34:52
this investigation, so we can't ask him questions. But Kevin Baker agreed that
34:57
after he interviewed Miss Harleys and then spoke to Chief Hunt, their stories corroborated,
35:04
so he was finished. Let's let's stop with that. Well, if
35:08
you listen to her allegations, would that not maybe proceed to a criminal investigation?
35:15
Why would the city attorney take that upon themselves to keep that within and
35:22
why not why not send this out to an investigation, to an outside investigation.
35:28
Why not so they could talk to other officers, to other things that
35:31
may have occurred, perhaps as a cover up up to this. You know,
35:37
nobody talked to anybody else. That was it. That was end of
35:39
the story. That evidence, and there's been no evidence. Let's talk about
35:43
the HR investigation. Kevin Bakers said he didn't he looked at miss Harless,
35:49
he didn't accept any of the evidence that she wanted to give them. He
35:53
just skimmed through her phone. So what evidence did they even look at or
36:00
keep or I don't know, um, but just because they did their HR
36:05
investigation, then they took it to the mayor, who we have yet to
36:07
hear from. This is the mayor's appointee as a police chief. She is
36:14
the mayor of the City of Charleston. This is her police chief with this
36:16
outlandish You know now they agree that it occurred, and she is yet to
36:22
say anything. Well and um, and and the problem for me, Well
36:28
and sir, and I will say that you know, she's the mayor.
36:30
I don't know what her thinking is on this. And she'll be on on
36:35
this show Monday. I mean, it's her normal segment on Mayor Monday,
36:37
so I can ask her at that time if she'd like to comment. I'm
36:42
not so, I don't know that she will, don't know that she will,
36:44
but I certainly would be willing to ask the question when she's on the
36:47
show on Monday. And again we're talking with the Charleston City Councilman Channon Son
36:51
aggression. You know, I don't want to put words in your mouth,
36:52
but I'm thinking that the administration is handling the Tykoon situation. And please uh
36:59
correct me if if I'm wrong, and I'm only basing this on our previous
37:04
conversations, you feel you feel, and if if I'm outline, you tell
37:07
me you feel that the handling of this situation by the administration is a symptom
37:13
of a much bigger problem. And you said this before, with transparency within
37:19
this administration, absolutely, and you've summarized that fairly well. I'm as an
37:25
elected official, I felt like that's why I brought it up on City Council
37:30
floor. We have to have transparency. I think this was hidden. This
37:32
was a secret investigation. Had the woman not come forward, no one would
37:37
have ever known about this. And now that we do, I think we
37:40
need to backtrack and it has to be somebody from the outside to go in
37:44
and look at potentially things that could have been destroyed that are no longer at
37:49
city Hall. You know, I've been told not by two, two or
37:52
three officers, but probably more like eight or ten things that occurred up until
37:58
you know, because even they no A, there was an investigation. B.
38:02
No one knew on a top ranks that should know that their chief was
38:08
no longer in charge for three days, didn't know. How do you suspend
38:13
the police chief and no one know. I also talked to a couple of
38:16
folks that presented foyas to the city Freedom of Information, asking where's the communication
38:23
to whom it went to? You know, who did he turn in his
38:27
firearm to? And he's bad? Their response was there's no communication available,
38:32
not that they wouldn't give it, it's just not available. Who knew he
38:37
was suspended? That's a big deal. There's certain things that can only go
38:40
through the police chief. So I think there are things that I'm not going
38:46
to impugne folks that trust me. But that's why I think there needs to
38:51
be an outside investigation. I think this is one time, and I hate
38:54
to say it. I'm a female, and I never want to say that
38:58
the cover up is worse than the crime, especially when it involves a woman.
39:02
But in this particular case, I think it has to be looked at
39:07
their statement and you want to say it's within HR, but yet you come
39:10
out and talk about it. You avoid that. Now you can't give us
39:15
half the stuff from HR, but then say the other stuff we really want
39:17
to know, we can have you gave us the stuff that you want to
39:21
tell us the public. It's ridiculous. And besides that, if people listen
39:27
to this and truly understood because it was our top cop, our police chief,
39:32
this woman, regardless of their encounter on Facebook or with the wife or
39:37
text messaging or whatever. But to tell me that a state trooper and an
39:45
FBI agent shows up at your place of work and you're not there, and
39:51
then they go all the way to Marmett and say it's everybody and that's listening
39:57
to your show needs to listen and watch the video ring doorbell of Jenny Harless
40:02
that she has made public to anybody who wants to see it. The city
40:07
Hall had an opportunity to see it and say they opened the door, and
40:10
the FBI agent goes, ma'am, you're not in any trouble, You've done
40:15
nothing wrong. Well, my next question would be, then why are you
40:19
here? Yeah? I mean I think that would Yeah, I mean,
40:24
I'm a I'm a I'm a panic type personality. Anyway, they show up
40:29
at my door, my immediate thing is, oh my god, what happened
40:31
to my family? Yeah, that's that's bad news. Um, but you
40:36
know, so so was this special consideration. UM. Kevin Baker in our
40:42
city attorneys said he spoke out to to quote the FBI. He's told a
40:46
few council people to whom he spoke to. I can tell you that there's
40:51
a very close relationship, UM, and did that get special consideration because of
40:57
who he is? I think that's unfair error to any of us as private
41:01
citizens, when we would not be offered that. I can tell you I
41:06
don't have an FBI agent's name in my phone that I can dial up and
41:09
say, hey, need some help. You ask any law enforcement officer that's
41:14
listening, and probably most attorneys, FBI and a state trooper does not automatically
41:21
go to someone's house over a texting or a Facebook controversy. First of all,
41:25
we'd have to have enormous amount of agents if that's in their jurisdiction.
41:30
First thing they'll tell you is, well, Miss Harless said on her podcast,
41:35
and I'm putting words in her mouth. She said, I called the
41:37
FBI one eight hundred number, and they told me they don't have time for
41:43
this, that you need to call your local police department. So you tell
41:46
me about this. This again a three day suspension. That's a fireable offense.
41:52
First of all, what occurred, So a three day suspension, and
41:57
now we don't we've got more questions than we do. You have answers now,
42:00
And the biggest thing is he is a uniform officer that's subject to professional
42:07
standards. That way everything is equitably anytime there's a violation, the punishment is
42:14
leveled across the board. He's not been brought before professional standards. I think
42:19
that's at a minimum. And now he couldn't do it within CPD because he's
42:22
over that. When you bring this up, and I know you have,
42:25
and it's been addressed to city Council, and I'll say this and we'll go
42:29
to break, and if you can hang on, I'll continue this after the
42:30
break. But when you have talked to and you've gone either in a public
42:37
setting or however to the city, and you have addressed these concerns, which
42:40
I know you have, what has been your response about some of the things
42:45
that you said. I've gotten zero response, any phone calls from the mayor
42:50
city attorney. You know. That's why I addressed it on the floor because
42:54
I felt like everybody in the room knew the story, and we just want
42:58
to know what had been done, because at the time I spoke on the
43:00
floor for six or eight minutes, there was nothing that had been made public
43:07
for us, even as city council people, that there was even an investigation,
43:10
or you know, we all knew about it. But there's a lot
43:15
of council members. I think some of them have gotten kind of a bad
43:17
rap that nobody else is concerned. But Shannon Snodgrass, that's not true.
43:22
You know, I'm the first one that spoke up, but there are a
43:27
lot of very concern matter of fact, I know that Beth Kern's who's city
43:30
council person on the West Side. She's going to introduce a resolution now even
43:36
though I ask for one. We're going to ask for a resolution to be
43:38
placed on the agenda to be voted on for an outside investigation. And I
43:43
know that that has several co sponsors along with myself, So we hope to
43:47
introduce that on Monday. It's going to be a lively city council medium because
43:52
there's a lot going on to money. Hey Shannon, can you hold on
43:53
one second. I do want to continue this, but I do need to
43:55
take a break. Can you hold on with its just one second? Absolutely
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We've got to Charleston City council Woman Shannon Snodgrass, so with a shann,
46:36
I appreciate you holding during the break. I have a couple of texts
46:37
here and I get some other things I want to get to before we let
46:39
you go. Texas. Please ask Missus Snodgrass is if the President of the
46:45
City Council, BENKEI separately, has reached to her and the rest of the
46:47
city council about this. If not, please ask Missus Snodgrass why she thinks
46:51
the president of the council has not taking any steps to address what's happening.
46:55
Well, absolutely, she has none. She is not even mentioned anything about
47:02
it, either prior to or now afterwards. And I've you know, I
47:07
guess she has her own reasons for doing it. But there's the same reason
47:09
I guess that most administration hasn't reached out or said anything further. They're just
47:15
going to say it's an hr matter, so they hope that it's shut and
47:17
closed and that's the end of the story. And it can't be. It
47:21
just can't be. The public should be outraged by this. Texas. Sounds
47:27
like the mayor and administration did their jobs. I was like city council and
47:30
local journalists dropped the ball a year ago and failed to announce a report on
47:32
the fact that our police chief had been suspended for three days. Why did
47:37
it take Miss Snodgrass fifteen months to mention that our police chief had been suspended
47:39
might be a personnel issue, but it's still public knowledge. Stop playing politics
47:44
and blaming the mayor when you did nothing a year ago. Well as I
47:46
started the show, I guess that text or missed that first part. No,
47:51
the reason I even brought it up on council floors because no one even
47:54
knew that there was an investigation into the allegation. No one knew. So
48:00
the top ranking Charleston City Police officers didn't know their chief was suspended. So
48:07
you can bet that city council members didn't know that he had gotten suspended.
48:10
The public didn't The media didn't know. The media certainly didn't know that.
48:15
I got to defend the media on this one, you know. No,
48:19
that's why we asked. That's why we asked, where's the investigation? Where's
48:22
the where? What? All? Right? I got? Let me ask
48:25
you a couple of questions because we're running out of time here. You and
48:28
I talked last week about the culture surrounded the Charleston Police Department. You're concerned
48:32
about the culture overall. Absolutely. You know I've been a big proponent of
48:37
law enforcement. I think you've known that. I've been on your show talking
48:40
about it. Um council Member Adam Noff and I put forth three or four
48:45
bills trying to get an increase in salaries to you know, to beef up
48:50
our police department. We've been, on average during the whole Goodwin administration on
48:54
the average about eighteen to twenty officers short. We're currently eighteen or so short.
49:00
Where the minute that they can we have a very bad morale. This
49:07
is added to the morale. I'm very close with our law enforcement. This
49:10
has been a black eye to all of our law enforcement. They are held
49:15
now to a separate standard. If they do the exact same thing, they're
49:20
sent to professional standards and probably will be fired. We again, they have
49:24
been fired through the professional standards for less egregious events. Chief Hunt got to
49:34
go through HR and the mayor who appointed him got to decide that three day
49:37
suspension. Totally unfair that our law enforcement uniform officers of which he is gets
49:45
to be held to a separate standard. When I tell you this is affected
49:49
our morale of all of our law enforcement officers, Ask any of them on
49:53
the street all right before we go. This totally unrelated because they only got
49:57
about forty five seconds or Monday night, City Council is going to hear a
50:00
report about another proposed needle exchange program in the city. Public hearing held last
50:04
week. Where where are you on the subject? You know, you know,
50:07
I've been a very strong proponent of against any type of needle syringe service
50:14
type situation from when they had it at the Health Department under the Jones administration.
50:19
Was very active in that, mainly because there was no protocol, there
50:22
was no it was just a needle giveaway. And then we worked a couple
50:30
of years ago and fortunately the state kind of took the bull by the horns
50:34
and did a much tighter harm reduction program which included syringe services. You know,
50:42
I have to thirty seconds, Shanna, go ahead, Okay, I'm
50:45
I'm I'm a no on that. I think that Health write provides that service.
50:49
I've spoken to them and they're not inundated and cannot provide the service.
50:54
So why do we open up another one if the other one's not even used
50:59
to? All Right, we gotta leave it there. Charles's City Counciloman channonsan
51:04
aggress always a pleasure. I appreciate you being on. We'll talk soon.
51:06
Thanks a lot, Thank you, sir, phone calls to five eighty Lives,
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but a service of Biggley Pigley Wiggily texting service provided by Fruit Pharmac,
51:12
your hometown family pharmacy. Five eighty Live present parted by your hometown baseball team,
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51:22
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51:27
you then till that have fun, Love somebody