Latest / Between the Headlines: Columbus / In Studio: Joe Mickens & Roderick Smith PLUS campaign finance and an MSMS teacher goes viral

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In Studio: Joe Mickens & Roderick Smith PLUS campaign finance and an MSMS teacher goes viral · Between the Headlines: Columbus

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Between the Headlines.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: One of our hosts of Between the Headlines is the managing editor of our newsroom.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Typically we try to keep news and opinions separate, but reporters have a unique insight into the workings of local government and their analysis can be helpful for readers and listeners.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: The dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity and our reporting will always reflect that.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: And now Between the Headlines that.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: And now, between the Headlines Today on Between the Headlines, a teacher breaks the gag order and goes public in an effort to stop the steel and ultimate demise of MSMS.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: And all eyes on Highway 45 North.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: As we break down the Ward 6 Republican Forum between Jason Spears and Kim McCarty Davis Plus Leroy Brooks outraises Stephen Jones In a margin of three to one.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Zach and I break down the campaign numbers.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: And, last but not least, you do not want to miss the in-studio interview with candidates from Ward 2.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: Retirement looks different for everyone, so your plan should be built around you.
• 1:34
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• 2:21
  Speaker 4: And now a message from political candidate Bill Strauss.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I want to thank the Commercial Dispatch for this podcast, bringing different views in an open discussion.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I'm Bill Strauss, humbly asking for your vote as next mayor of Columbus.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You deserve transparency and accountability for your tax dollars.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I'm business friendly and charitable.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Vote Bill Strauss Mayor of Columbus 2025.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Paid for by campaign to elect Bill Strauss.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: And now a message from political candidate Jason Spears.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: I am Jason Spears candidate for City Council, Ward 6.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: Over the past 20 years, I faithfully and effectively served our community in many different ways.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: If elected, I will bring structure and strategy to the city's finances, help develop a blueprint to capitalize on the growing economic activity in our city and work to strengthen relationships with Lowndes County officials, the Golden Triangle Development Link and, most importantly, you, the citizens of Columbus.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: I approve this message and, on April 1st, vote Jason Spears for Ward 6, paid for by the campaign to elect Jason Spears.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Vote Jason Spears for Ward 6.
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: Paid for by the campaign to elect Jason Spears.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us today.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: You are listening to Between the Headlines hosted by the raging Razorback and managing editor of the commercial dispatch, woo pig suey, mr Zach Player, and I am David Chisholm.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: First headline today what?
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: would you do with $30,000,?
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: David, I don't think I would spend it locally.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: Look, I'm all about local business, but with that kind of money I might just take the money and run and do something fun.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Well, leroy's trying to win the mayor's race with it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: That's how much, or very nearly how much.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: He got very close to $29,000 in his contributions on his pre-primary election or campaign finance report.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Good chunk of change.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yep, that's compared to Stephen Jones $11,000.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: $3,000 of his came from his own pocket and came from an itemized contribution from his wife.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: Okay, so let's break that down.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: One could easily say that a lack of outside monetary support equals a lack of support in general.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's true.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I think that there's definitely been elections that we've seen, especially on the local level, but even on the state and federal level, where the highest fundraiser did not win.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was on one of those actually, yeah.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't mean to hit you low on that.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: That's all right.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: I didn't realize.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I did so I want to take a look at a couple of things here.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, dollars help, but they don't vote.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, dollars help but they don't vote.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: It's hard to tell the relative strength of a candidate's chances of winning on money alone, for the reasons that we've already talked about.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: But the thing I'm surprised about, when you look at Leroy's contributors he got a good chunk of change from all these Democratic PACs.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Stephen didn't get any PAC money.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I was very surprised to see how anemic his campaign receipts were.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I wasn't surprised to see that Leroy had raised a lot of money.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: We'd heard that already.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: But I thought that that margin was going to be smaller.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: Well, the thing about it is the margin between the two of them.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Right, you have to form a relationship with the do-gooders of society.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Okay, you have to know people.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Now, he knows people, but they're not giving him money, and that matters.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, is he?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: asking that.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: When I saw that I was like is Stephen asking anybody for money?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Is he just think it's going to fall out of the sky?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Because I mean, leroy's clearly asking for people for money because he knows that that's important.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Stephen knows that that's important and so either people are telling him no thanks or he's not asking, and that seems to.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: If people are saying no, that does speak to the strength of his support.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: If he's not asking, that speaks to a naivete that I didn't realize that he still had.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Well, you've got to have money to run a campaign, there's no question about it.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Now, granted, there are some people that are going to read the newspapers and they just have a very crass negative attitude about it and they say, well, let's see who's bought so-and-so.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's just people out there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Let's be real, any campaign money is dirty money.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, that's just the way they see it, as if to say, every politician out there should be fully self-funded.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: Well, if that's the way that it runs, then only the richest of the rich are going to do this kind of work.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And that would be awful.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: But I mean a lot of the candidates do self-fund and that was another thing that I noticed, you know, jason Spears, even though he's in Ward 6, even though he's quote-unquote outraised Kimberly McCarty Davis 2-1, two-thirds of his money is coming out of his own pocket.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Then you look at Ms Davis and all of her money's third party but it's come from out of out of the area, it's come from out of town, out of state.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: So I thought that was a weird dynamic too that can be troubling to some people.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Again, you you've got to go through these forms and and look at the details, see who it is, see what their interests are.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: And there are some entities out there that just like to give money, just to have skin in the game, even though they don't really feel like they're going to get something in return.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, and frankly, it's illegal and morally wrong to make promises.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: If you give this much money, then I'm going to push this particular issue.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: That's not how it works.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people, and maybe this is my naivete.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: A lot of people give to campaigns because they like the guy, yeah, or they want to see the guy win, or the lady.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: A couple of other observations here, going back to the mayor's race.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: You did not see Harry Sanders on Leroy's itemized receipt.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: I was disappointed not to see that.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: That would have been quite the fodder to bring into this studio today, but nope.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Last thing I wanted to talk about on campaign finance, before we move on looking at the expenditures.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Now, everybody up and down the line as I'm looking through these expenditures, it's the standard fare.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Now, you talked about signs, and on the way to the studio today, I stopped and looked at a banner by Shishi O'Neill, and her banner did, in fact, have the disclaimer in the corner that it was paid for by the campaign to elect Laisha O'Neill, however.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: However, if I'm looking correctly at this report, she filed one and it had a bunch of zeros on it All zeros.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: She neither collected nor spent money.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Therefore, one must ask where came these signs from?
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Well, maybe it's self-funded, but you're still supposed to report that.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: You should Look.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: I need to cast an aspersion on that because that's a violation.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: You have to disclose that, even if the signs are given to you, you have to report that as a donation.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as a donation, as an in-kind donation.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: And we also need to note that there were, I believe, three candidates who didn't file a report and were supposed to.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: That would have been Sequela Clark and Cedric fenster in ward five and tommy smith in ward two.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: They both in contest or they're all three in contested primaries didn't file a report.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: That's against the law and I'm one of these people.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: If you can't if you can't check your boxes like you're supposed to check them, you ought not to be in the race.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But that that's a hot take?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: No, it's, that's not.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Listen.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: If you hide information relating to your campaign financing, what else are you willing to sweep under the rug?
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Those rules are not.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Whatever rules do exist there, they're not enforced.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So there's no other than the honor system.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: And when you've got people who are running for office that don't that, don't file their forms, that's a load of bull and do better.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Well, if they ran for a state office, I can tell you from experience that if you are one day late licking the postage stamp, you're going to get a nice fancy letter from the Ethics Commission with an envelope expecting a $50 fine per day.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: So obviously it's a different kettle of fish here on the local level.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: But again, what else will you sweep under the rug?
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: You have to be not just transparent, but actively transparent with this stuff.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Well, moving on to your little shimmy again.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Republican Forum you had for Ward 6, you had Jason Spears and Kimberly McCarty.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: Davis, fine festive occasion.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: They both arrived early, and so we had some good, interesting small talk and fellowship beforehand, and then, at the appointed hour, we went on the air live by Facebook, and I think they both came out as winners.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Now I know I'm supposed to say that because I'm the Republican chair, kimberly Davis was the better Republican.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, jason Spears was the better candidate, and let me explain what I mean.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Interesting, she painted a picture of Columbus.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: You know this nostalgic picture of, you know, my childhood, where things were fine, and you know this nostalgic picture of, you know, my childhood, where things were fine.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And you know the Democrats, the evil, fiendish Democrats hadn't, you know, taken over the city and allegedly torn it down yet.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: But we're going to restore that.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: We'll make Columbus great again and we're going to do it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: Boy, your definition of a Republican is really going over my head right now.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: So here my critique of her is this, I think, as a campaign tactic, focus them very strongly on that nostalgia, focus them very strongly on the idea that you know Ward 6, we in Ward 6 invest all of this tax money, we built this town.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we built this town.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: We should get our share of that tax money back as an investment.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Never they mind the fact that's not how tax money really works, but that plays well.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Jason's was a little broader.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: It didn't use any sort of coding or any sort of implication that there is an us and a them.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: He did advocate for his ward for certain things, but he stayed away from sort of that.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: You know, columbus used to be this wonderful place and then now that's been taken away and I'm going to, if I'm put on the council, I'm going to help you reclaim it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: So you felt that Jason was more current.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I thought that Jason was.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I think that Jason demonstrated that, while he is a conservative and while he would employ conservative values as a councilman, that it wouldn't matter as much to him what ward something was built in or who directly benefited or where tax money is spent, as long as it was a good idea.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: He seemed to be somebody that recognized a good idea could come from Mickens, a good idea could come from Pierre and if it's a good idea and the numbers support it, I'll vote with it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: He demonstrates more of that willingness and capability than does, for example, the sitting Ward 6 Councilwoman, and I think that Kimberly whether she's really like that or not I think that she did present on some level, sort of a Jackie 2.0 vision of what that seat's supposed to be.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: You are listening to Between the Headlines.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Next on our agenda today the Facebook post by Dr LeVar Pierce.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Well, we've got a couple of things here.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: We've got a Facebook post and we've got the kids weighing in.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: We've got the survey.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: This is big.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: This is underrated stuff here.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Before we came into the studio, which was about an hour ago, that the particular post of which we speak had 153 shares.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: So it's out there, and it's not just local.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: This thing is making its way around the state, which is a beautiful thing, beautiful, beautiful beautiful thing.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Can you break down the post a little bit for us Okay?
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: so I've got it open right here.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to read it.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Her name is Lori LeVar Pierce.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: Brilliant lady, speaks several different languages and teaches at the school.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: She basically breaks it down who the players are, what's been happening, and it really gets salty toward the end of it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: That's what I really enjoy here.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: She says one thing of note that these kids have chosen to separate themselves, that this is not a regular high school.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: She says that teachers are polishing their resumes and are looking into their retirement options.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: She even puts in there that the legislative mood is to close MUW.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: So this is a pretty fiery thing coming from an insider.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: Up until now, the people that I've spoken with at both MUW and MSMS have been very middle of the road, very professional.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Not that this is unprofessional, but they've just been not wanting to take a side for fear of retribution.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: But in an act of valor and courage, this particular woman has stepped up here to the plate, and the word is getting out as a result of it.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I think the student experience is something that has been not entirely ignored but certainly not included in the conversation to the extent that it has been.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Look at this post and a survey of students that it was printed first in the vision, the student newspaper at msms, and we reprinted it, uh, in the dispatch this week.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: That show, you know, a vast, vast majority of the ones of the of the students they're surveyed.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: 93 percent of the ones who took the survey.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: You know, preferred msms at muw, so I got a couple of points here.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: One I totally get the stress that everybody is feeling at MSMS and I felt terrible for them this whole time.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Everybody from the legislature to people at MUW, to people for Tripp and Keith and us we're all talking about it and they're having to go to class and teach and learn in an environment where, you know, third parties are just going at them and I feel bad about that.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I think that the legislature and the other people involved, even if they think that an MSU move is the best, they need to take into consideration that the impact of this conversation being protracted and not having a clear end and being dealt with behind closed doors a lot of times and then, oh, here's a new thing that affects these people and affects these people's lives.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: But, um, well, the start that's go ahead.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry the, the state board of education.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: They open their meeting with a lovely prayer and they they have all this flowery talk about how everything we do may everything we do cause great things to happen for our students.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: It's all about the students, it's not about anything else.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Good grief, you're going to say it's all about the students, but at the same time think these students are too dumb to have their own opinion.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Not consult the students, not listen to them, not bring them in the conversation?
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Maybe have a couple of honorary board members who are students to make things look better than they are, but this I mean I mean seriously, though why was MSMS left out of this conversation?
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: The survey is interesting to me because it affirms what we already knew MSMS does an incredible job, right where it is, despite the obstacles the facilities face and really despite what the you know the public pressure on that place has been for the past couple of years, they continue to do a good job right where they are.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You know MSU the MSU part of this is an identity changer to MSMS.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: For me, the SHS part is an identity destroyer for MSMS, and so here's who that's going to be.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: You know you've got kids across the state who may be applying in three years, four years, five years to MSMS based on the identity it's always had based on the reputation that it's always had, based on the vibe that it's always had, only to arrive to campus to discover that that identity is completely gone.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So this arranged marriage between SOCSD and MSU it's going to wash away MSMS's independent identity completely and I can't see where it doesn't his independent identity completely and I can't see where it doesn't.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Um, I think the athletic component of the msms combination with starkville, october hawk county school district is a real thing.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Especially when you look at that drawing and don't see ball fields on the drawing, I mean they're gonna either, they're still gonna have, though, and if they can get where they're going to bus them across the city.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: I just that's not going to fly.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: But I've got to tell you this you and I talk about this like it's a done deal.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: This has to go to the legislator.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: The legislature within me really believes that if enough people get the word out which is happening that this can be defeated and we can come up with a strategy and a funding idea that will fix the problem, that is, the facilities for MSMS, right here where it is Maintain the school's identity.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: Maintain the identity, save the school, save the university and save Lowndes County and Columbus.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: It can happen.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: You know you got a year, so use the year.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: I say we do, unless they put some kind of crazy thing on the end of a bill, which would be wild but any old how?
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Keep the fight, y'all.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: Keep talking to your lawmakers and let's not let this conversation leave the table unattended.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: All right, well, that's that.
• 21:31
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• 22:41
  Speaker 4: And now the mail.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: We have a message from none other than Robert Johnson IV.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: He says is in order as to why I dropped out of the race and rejoined.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: I thought I could achieve my goals as a private citizen by backing a candidate and pushing my ideas.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: However, after speaking with Councilman Beard and Mr Turner, I realized our ward four councilman options were badly inadequate.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: Mr Turner asked me to stay out of his way.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: Councilman Beard didn't know the boundaries of his own ward.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: He did not even know that Sandfield Cemetery was in his ward.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Ward 4 has been forgotten because of poor leadership, and I am in this to help turn things around.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: That comes from Republican candidate Robert Johnson IV.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: We thank you for listening and sending us that message.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: All right, so now we have guests the candidates for Ward 2.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: Let's bring them in.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Joining us in the studio today two of the three candidates for Ward 2 councilmen.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: We've got the incumbent, pastor Joseph Mickens, and we've got Democratic challenger Roderick Smith.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us in the studio today.
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: Nice to be here.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: All right, and a note I know that Laisha, ms Shishi O'Neill, is also running in this primary.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We reached out to her, invited her.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: She said she'd try her best to be here but work obligations may prohibit her from showing, and that must have been what happened.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: We'll start with you guys and start with a softball.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Let you both answer it.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Start with you, roderick, why are you the best candidate for Ward 2?
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: I feel like I'm the bridge between the youth and our city officials in the city of Columbus youth and our city officials in the city of Columbus.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, kind of explain for me how that, why you feel that way and how you think as a councilman, you're going to use that bridge to accomplish things.
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: Okay, I feel like I can relate to the young people.
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: Being from Columbus, being a young age age 32, I can relate to what they feel needs to happen in Columbus and I can also be their voice where they feel sometimes we don't have that voice in the city of Columbus.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, and you, mr Mickens.
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: Ask the question.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Why do you think you're the best candidate for Ward 2?
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: Well, first of all, in this race, I have more experience than any candidate in the race, whether it's mayor or whichever ward they're running in.
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: In city government, I'm a full-term city councilman.
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: I've been all over the country.
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: I've met peoples terms city councilman.
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: I've been all over the country, I've met peoples.
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: And when you're talking about city government, running city government, one word sticks out experience.
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: Experience is crucial.
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: When you're talking now, Too much is going on now for all these changes to come about.
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: I hear what my colleague is saying with the younger people, but we do have younger peoples on the council.
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: The council is a collective body.
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: In other words, where one might be strong in this area, another one might be strong in another area.
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: So it's not like we're not reaching out to the younger folks.
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: We are, but we're just doing it in a different way.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to dive in on the four-term incumbent part.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: You and I have talked several times.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: There's obviously been court challenges and everything else with this.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: So two questions here.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: As a four-term incumbent, you're running a really hard race.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: You seem pretty worried about this race for being the most experienced person in it.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And two, why is I mean this race has been I mean, objectively uglier than any of the rest of them in a lot of ways, especially in a public perception way.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: So both of those questions why are you so worried about this one and why has this been so ugly?
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: Well, first of all, zach, I beg to differ.
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: I'm not worried.
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: Okay, I say that, you know?
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: I mean, do I think I have some opponent, a valuable opponent, against me?
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: And Mr Smith, yes, I do.
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: I mean, when and take this the right way when mr trump won presidency, nobody saw that.
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: Some didn't see this coming in 2016.
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: So what I'm saying is we are taking nothing for granted, okay.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: Okay, they can be newcomer to the game, whether they got experience or not.
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: I'm not taking mr smith for granted.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm doing everything I can so you're going with that old adage there.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: There's only two ways to run scared and unopposed.
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: Exactly.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 27:41
  Speaker 7: Exactly, exactly.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Mr Mickens, I want to follow up on something you said about your four-term experience.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of people that are worried that the city has not headed the right direction financially.
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: We've got an amphitheater that's unfinished and there's just a lot of things that are causing a lot of angst among people, whether that be drainage issues or weeds growing up through the sidewalks.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: If experience equates goodness in terms of being a council member, where has the attitude gone awry?
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: Good question.
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: I deal with the amphitheater.
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: Well, my address I issued that one of my colleagues brought up at the last debate that I wasn't able to make it to.
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: One of them said that the city, we don't have no money.
• 28:34
  Speaker 7: One of them made that statement, but I just want to address what she made.
• 28:39
  Speaker 7: She didn't make the statement saying that we don't have no money.
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: She was making the statement compared to the other candidate that's running.
• 28:45
  Speaker 7: They're going to do this and they're going to do that.
• 28:47
  Speaker 7: She was saying we don't have money to do all of this Right now.
• 28:50
  Speaker 7: We're sitting on $31 million.
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: Hear what I'm saying.
• 28:53
  Speaker 7: $31 million About $20 million is already allocated out.
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: Okay, so that's going to leave off with $10 million that we got in reserve right now this morning.
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: So what they're telling me?
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we got to pay payroll.
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: That can be some more million, but what I'm saying is, since I've been on the council in 2009 and started running in 2005, I remember when Mr Wade was here.
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: Mr Wade had $6 million in reserve.
• 29:18
  Speaker 7: Jeffrey Ruff ran through it in no time.
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: Y'all know the story.
• 29:21
  Speaker 7: I ain't got to go further.
• 29:21
  Speaker 7: What I'm saying is we have never had this much money in reserve and this council have a great deal to do with this $10 million that we have in reserve right now.
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: First, the amphitheater.
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: We got plans for the amphitheater.
• 29:35
  Speaker 7: We can talk to Region Bank.
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: They agreed to give us a loan and somebody said well what, y'all going to put some more skin in the game?
• 29:43
  Speaker 7: Yes, we're going to put some more skin in the game.
• 29:45
  Speaker 7: If we have to invest another 1.5, the amphitheater, we'll get dead.
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: We'll get done.
• 29:50
  Speaker 7: I ain't gotten flooded five times.
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: Get done.
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: I ain't gotten flooded five times.
• 29:53
  Speaker 7: I'm a lifelong resident of Ward 2.
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: Lifelong I ain't got flooded five times.
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: Did I move?
• 30:01
  Speaker 7: No, I did not.
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: What did I do?
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: I stayed there and fought for the citizen of Ward 2 until we got degraded.
• 30:09
  Speaker 7: We built a ditch on the back of Beach and Taylor.
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: That cost me $100,000.
• 30:13
  Speaker 7: That big concrete ditch I did.
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: That Paving in the city is up to in my street.
• 30:20
  Speaker 7: 71% of the street is paved in my ward.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, so a point of clarification on what Ms Stewart said at the debate.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I was there.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: She said, and I quote we're broke, no we're not broke.
• 30:36
  Speaker 7: We're not broke, we're not broke.
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: I just want to address it somewhat.
• 30:40
  Speaker 7: You can call Jim Briggs and he'll tell you just the same thing.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I've covered the financial status.
• 30:45
  Speaker 7: We are not broke.
• 30:46
  Speaker 7: I know what it is.
• 30:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we're not broke.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, mr Smith, I want to talk about.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: We asked him about the experience question, so I want to turn it to you here.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: You've got limited experience with the city and not any in city government, and there are issues like finances, infrastructure, paving, drainage.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: You know personnel, you know just the general politics of operating on a council like this.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: How, I guess, are you ready to take on those things that you know, maybe go beyond things that you've directly done in your experience?
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: Okay, well, once elected because I'm thinking positively too Once elected, you know I'll sit down, I'll look at the finances and the personnel and we'll just go from there, just take it one day at a time and go through the next and everything of the city government.
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: We'll just improve as we can.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that keeps coming up is the amphitheater.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Do you have a position on that?
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: Once I get there, I'm willing to work with all of my colleagues and all the other city councilmen and whoever the mayor may be, and we'll go from there, come up with a good game plan and we'll go for whatever's best for the city of Columbus.
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: Roderick, is there something that you would have done differently than your predecessors?
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: Just looking at the issues that we've spoken about already, or maybe is there other issues that you're seeing, specific to your ward, that you think need to take on a new direction?
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: Well, one thing I wish what could have been done and I'm not just going to say it's one person I wish the council, in the mayor, could have had a better relationship.
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: I'm not saying it was one councilman or the other councilman or, in particular, the mayor.
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: As leaders of Columbus, no matter who it is, whether we black, white, blue, orange, green or purple we got to work together and not only just the city leaders.
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: The county leaders got to work with the city leaders also because, at the end of the day, Columbus is the biggest city or town in Lyons County.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Columbus is the biggest city or town in Lyles County.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Well, councilman Mickens, to his point, you guys haven't gotten along with the mayor and we've discussed why on the record before the communication issues and different things, or certain employees for that matter.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: And so right now you're standing with Stephen in this race for mayor, but there are three other candidates running.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Say you're reelected into Ward 2 and Stephen isn't the mayor.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Does the next four years look like the last four years?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Looked like the last four years?
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: have, if you go back to 2021, the first after the mayor came in, he did his three-month assessment.
• 34:02
  Speaker 7: So the mayor did his three-month assessment in September of 2021, and he did it at Lyons Hill, and the statement he made there that day was that Jones and Mickens should not have been unopposed.
• 34:14
  Speaker 7: I'm going to make sure that they have somebody running against them the next turn.
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: What I'm saying is he came in on the wrong footnote.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 34:24
  Speaker 7: He came in might as well say, threatening the two councilmen, that we're going to run somebody against them.
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: That's where we're at right now.
• 34:30
  Speaker 7: So what I'm saying is Gasson is not the issue.
• 34:39
  Speaker 7: Okay, mail gassing is not the issue.
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: My answer to your question for you is if Stephen don't come back, whichever mail, come back and take this the right way.
• 34:49
  Speaker 7: It will be an improvement for what we got.
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: Yes, we're going to work with the next mail.
• 34:54
  Speaker 7: If it's Mr Leach, we're going to work with the next mayor.
• 34:55
  Speaker 7: If it's Mr Leach, we're going to work with him.
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: We don't run the day-to-day and people are getting confused.
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: We don't run the day-to-day operation.
• 35:01
  Speaker 7: That's the mayor.
• 35:02
  Speaker 7: A lot of issues that we were fighting with if we had had somebody there with a mindset.
• 35:07
  Speaker 7: But what I'm saying is, when you put somebody inexperienced in these positions, that's what you get.
• 35:14
  Speaker 7: He was not prepared for mayor.
• 35:17
  Speaker 7: He was not a politician.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: Well, let's say, we get Leroy Brooks in there, who's a very experienced politician.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Y'all aren't getting along Well they're not.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: Well look.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: He's also said y'all, we need to clean house.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: And in his colorful way, he's basically said that he would be in favor of a whole new slate of candidates.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: So is he also starting on the wrong foot?
• 35:43
  Speaker 7: Yes, he is, but I'll tell you this, Mr Chilton, you learn from your mistake.
• 35:50
  Speaker 7: But do the city have to suffer because the council is not doing what they're supposed to do?
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: This time we're putting the city before the council.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: So whoever wins, mel, is there ways y'all could have done that better?
• 36:05
  Speaker 7: Monday morning quarterback.
• 36:06
  Speaker 7: Zach, I mean, you always can look at things that happen.
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: You could have done different or done better.
• 36:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, there's some things that I should have did and some things that I shouldn't have done.
• 36:13
  Speaker 7: I agree with that.
• 36:14
  Speaker 7: What?
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: are some things that I should have did and some things that I shouldn't have done.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I agree with that.
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: What are some things you shouldn't have done?
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: You think I mean some of the issues.
• 36:21
  Speaker 7: The Pros Park issue that we tried to invest $4.4 million in.
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: The mayor vetoed it.
• 36:26
  Speaker 7: So after he vetoed it it failed.
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: We voted it down again.
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: Then he started a petition.
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: Then he couldn't get the $1, hundred signature so he got shot down again.
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: In between that, if I had to do over, I would have went to him and said let's talk, let's talk, let's talk.
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: We better than this, we better than this, let's see what we can do.
• 36:51
  Speaker 7: Some of the things, as a senior elected official, I could have stepped up to the plate a little bit more.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, well now, roderick, you're involved in the youth sports, you're involved in rec.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: You're deeply invested, personally, into Probst Park and the city's park system.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Should the city have borrowed $3 million to improve that park?
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: I would say yeah, because Pros Park and this may be a little biased, because I was raised in Pros Park through the ballpark system so improving Pros Park, I do feel like it was something that should have been done.
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: Also, on that same note, I feel like if the county and the city would have been together, it would have been a different outlook on the whole entire situation of parking recreation.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more with that statement in the sense that really and truly, what you had was a duplicate effort between the county and the city.
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: You know multiple out Now look, I also played a lot when I was a child at Probst Park, but I also have sense enough to know that that thing floods a lot and if you put expensive turf out there and it gets wet and starts floating up, you've got a mess bigger than the amphitheater.
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: So you know again, I'm on the very, very unpopular side of that particular issue.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: I've always said we need to just sell that thing to public outcry.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: But then Stephen Jones.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: He said man, you can't do that, who's going to buy it?
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: It's down there as it is.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: So well, roderick uh you?
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: um, I don't, how familiar are you with the new parks plan, the parks plan that neil schaefer put together for the city and the county, and how familiar are you with it?
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: And, uh, what do you think about it?
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: oh Well, I hadn't, you know, familiarized myself with it a whole lot just yet.
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: I have been, you know, watching the news and reading up on some of it.
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: But you know, once I'm elected, you know I'll dig deeper into it.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, councilman Mickens, you talked about unforced errors a while ago.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I want to revisit two.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: One for which you've apologized publicly.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Something that Leroy Brooks, in his mayoral campaign, has hit you over the head with over and over again and other people have criticized you for, was your handling of Kenny Weigel in that meeting when y'all were trying to hire somebody who will become his replacement, and also the the issues with Susan Wilder in the arguing over that grant and whether to apply for it.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Talk me through kind of Monday morning quarterback that for me and tell me if you think it's something that may hurt you.
• 40:01
  Speaker 7: Well, you called me pastor when you began, so let me be that pastor right now.
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: Okay, the word says if a person asks you to forgive them, peter said should I forgive them three times?
• 40:16
  Speaker 7: No, jesus said 70 times three.
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: In other words, if Austin asks, he do it.
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: So once I apologize, I put that behind me.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, and it was done.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: That's what.
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: I'm asking it was done in the public opinion.
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: My colleague on the council, mrs DeCicco, and Mr Green they appalled me that evening Said I look at you different.
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: What you did you showed me who you really are.
• 40:38
  Speaker 7: Most people wouldn't have came back and apologized Not in a public setting.
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: It happened in a public setting.
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: So it's happened in a public setting.
• 40:46
  Speaker 7: So I apologize to him.
• 40:46
  Speaker 7: And you're talking about the Mr Weigel.
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: Mr Weigel, and I want you to know something now Kenny Weigel, I don't think is a better inspector.
• 40:52
  Speaker 7: It had nothing to do with him personally.
• 40:54
  Speaker 7: Right, okay, it's not a better inspector in the state of Mississippi than Kenny.
• 40:59
  Speaker 7: Kenny know his job.
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: I wish we could keep Kenny there for a long time with the illness with his wife.
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: I begged him don't leave right now, because he needed the insurance.
• 41:07
  Speaker 7: I said stay on, kenny, because you need the insurance for your wife and I think she is doing better now.
• 41:12
  Speaker 7: Now the other issue with Ms Wilder.
• 41:15
  Speaker 7: I think I chaired the meeting that day and, if I'm not correct and what I said was it didn't happen, we are not going to vote to rescind it.
• 41:26
  Speaker 7: My opinion I said I don't have no vote this morning, but my opinion is to just let it ride, let it come back.
• 41:31
  Speaker 7: Did I not say that that morning?
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: That's what I said, so with her.
• 41:36
  Speaker 7: What happened with that was the mayor went around the back door and he put Ms Wilder in a bad position.
• 41:45
  Speaker 7: Not the council, Mayor Gaskin did that.
• 41:48
  Speaker 7: He put her in a bad position to be in to choose between him and the council.
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: You don't put your employees in that position Because the vote had been passed and once it gets in the minutes, we operate with the minutes.
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: We don't operate on what Mickham said or what I think, Jones or Beard or Ms Stewart or Mr Green or Mr Seacole or Mayor Gaskin.
• 42:09
  Speaker 7: We operate when we call Ms Mitchell, Can you read the men's back and the men state they were voted down.
• 42:15
  Speaker 7: So once it got voted down, then the mayor did not have the authority to override that motion and that's what he did and he put her in a bad position.
• 42:24
  Speaker 7: We love Ms Wilder man.
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: This is one of the most gifted ladies that we could have got for a grant writer.
• 42:28
  Speaker 7: This lady worked for President Bush.
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: I mean, she'd been all up in DC working.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Well, do you think she's very happy in her spot right now?
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Now, let me say I don't know the answer to this question.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I haven't talked to her about it.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Do you think she's very happy in her position right now that she's had a couple of public dressing downs and a dressing down and executive session from you guys?
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: Well, executive session didn't really come as a dressing down.
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: I'm limited to say what happened.
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: Well, she came out of that thing crying.
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: Oh, you're talking about that day, yeah.
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: Well, I'm talking about the last time when she, after it had passed by a couple weeks Well, females can be a little there was no harsh words said to her.
• 43:09
  Speaker 7: I'll put it to you like that.
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: There was no harsh words said to her.
• 43:12
  Speaker 7: The word was directed to Mr Gasson.
• 43:14
  Speaker 7: She just got full and was upset and she just wanted the whole thing.
• 43:17
  Speaker 7: The lady never been in this type of situation before.
• 43:20
  Speaker 7: She wasn't used to that type of pressure on her.
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying, but I think she's going to stay with us.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Despite the fact that she's worked for a president, she's good and we want her to stay with us, okay.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Roderick, do you see any mishaps in the way that the current council has been handling personnel and do you have anything in your background or perhaps in your career that might make you better fit to handle personnel issues and staff and things of that nature?
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: Well, the first thing, I mean you got to be able to know how to talk to people.
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: I mean we all—.
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: Do you think Ms Wilder was—well, you weren't there.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: I won't ask you that.
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: Go ahead.
• 43:58
  Speaker 6: I mean we all—at the end of the day, we all adults.
• 44:02
  Speaker 6: I mean we have to treat each other as such.
• 44:05
  Speaker 6: I mean we have to treat each other as such, like just because a police officer come up to us or come up to me and I'm the city councilman, I mean I can't belittle them.
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: I mean just because I'm their boss, I mean it's the right way and the wrong way to do everything.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Leaving like the recreation and the youth space, and thinking about the city in broader terms.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: What are three things that you would like to see the city do?
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: What are three initiatives that you would like to propose as a councilman if you're elected?
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: Well, the first one is public safety.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: Public safety we need to help recruit and retain our you know police department firefighters, because every day, you know, there's competitors out here trying to get our qualified firefighters and police officers from the city of Columbus, and one reason for that is money.
• 45:10
  Speaker 6: The second thing that I'm going to work for and work hard at is getting the city leaders and the county leaders to come unified.
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: That's going to be my first thing.
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: I do because, like I said at the forum, the city of Columbus and Lowndes County cannot grow further than they are now unless both the city councils and the supervisors come together and put the ego aside and do what's best for the city of Columbus and Lowndes County.
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: Okay, well, part of Columbus and the Lyons County.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, part of that is the Golden Triangle Development Link and your opponent here, the incumbent, has a viewpoint of the link and the link's participation in the city and value to the city.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: The CEO of the link, Joe Max Higgins, has been on this podcast and has adamantly disagreed with him on that.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: I want to give you an opportunity to speak to why you feel the way you feel about that, Councilman Miggins.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: But I want to ask you, Mr Smith, what do you think the city's relationship with the link should be and what value do you think the link adds to the city specifically?
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: I think the link uh adds a significant value to the city.
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: Um, but again, we have to sit down as leaders and stakeholders and come to some type of common ground.
• 46:41
  Speaker 6: Uh, it's our right to agree, to disagree and you know, with different personalities and stuff, like, we're not going to always agree together, I mean on every issue.
• 46:51
  Speaker 6: Sometimes I mean you're going to disagree, but we have to, at the end of the day, come to some kind of agreement for what's best for the city at that time.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, councilman Mickens.
• 47:09
  Speaker 7: I love Joe Mack.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: I'm sure he loves you too.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I love you.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I mean you have called into question the value of that contract and the value of what the link provides the city.
• 47:24
  Speaker 7: First let me go on record saying that Joe McHiggins is one of the greatest minds ever come through Mississippi.
• 47:31
  Speaker 7: He have done a lot for Lowndes County.
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: Matter of fact, he put beside the $40 million that we got back in what the 90s for selling the horse builder.
• 47:42
  Speaker 7: Joe McHiggins had put Lowndes County on the map with the job, the industry that he had brought pack cars, service store, airway store, aluminum coming out there.
• 47:52
  Speaker 7: Now I would love to have a relationship with Joe McHiggins that the supervisor have, but we don't.
• 48:00
  Speaker 7: But we being hold to something, zach, now I'm a councilman.
• 48:04
  Speaker 7: My responsibility is to be a good advocate for the refund, to source it, how they're being spent.
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: It's my job to question how that money is being spent Right and nobody's questioning the validity of you questioning that.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just asking you what does the link need to do to provide more value to the city?
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: What we need to do.
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: Mr Higgin needs to forget about 05 and 07.
• 48:34
  Speaker 7: When Jeffrey Ruff and the council did not invest in that first $100,000, that has been over the city head ever since.
• 48:43
  Speaker 7: I've been sitting at a meeting with Mr Higgin trying to talk.
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: What can we do to get in on some of these projects?
• 48:48
  Speaker 7: We couldn't even get in on aluminum.
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: If we could have got 10%.
• 48:53
  Speaker 7: Do you know the revenue that would have brought?
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: into the city.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: So you're saying that the city asked to invest in that project and the link turned you down?
• 49:02
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to say they turned them down.
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: What I'm saying we didn't get a seat at the table in it.
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: I would say that Now I would go even further.
• 49:10
  Speaker 7: If you go over to West Point with service I mean with Yokohama ask Rob Bobo what the city get from Yokohama every month.
• 49:20
  Speaker 7: 40% out of Yokohama, 40%.
• 49:23
  Speaker 7: Check it out.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: That's what they get, but they put in 40%.
• 49:27
  Speaker 7: That's what I'm saying.
• 49:28
  Speaker 7: Well, he ain't giving us the opportunity to put in now?
• 49:30
  Speaker 7: Oh, he has an opportunity to put in Switching the subject drastically here.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: One more thing that I want to ask you both and I really I hate that Ms O'Neill didn't show up, because this has been an allegation that she has raised Absentee balloting in Ward 2.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: What does that really look like, mickens?
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Do you have a stack of ballots that you're going and asking people to just sign their name?
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: You'll fill them out later and you'll send them in, not, so what does your absentee ballot?
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask you the same question, mr Smith what does your absentee balloting strategy look like?
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: I know in 2017 that you got a lot of them and it helped you win that race.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: You may not win re-election without the absentee margin that you got in 2017.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: That's just math.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Who's doing it?
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: How's it being done?
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Are you paying anybody to do it?
• 50:24
  Speaker 7: I'm asking you straight up, doc, that's illegal to pay anybody to get absentee.
• 50:29
  Speaker 7: I love my grandkids.
• 50:31
  Speaker 7: I got three beautiful grandkids out in Houston, texas.
• 50:34
  Speaker 7: I love my wife.
• 50:35
  Speaker 7: So no, I'm not paying nobody to get no absentee.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, alright.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: So in 2017, the last time you had an opponent, you were losing on election day.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: You lost at the ballot box.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: He got you by three votes 180 to 177.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: That's correct, and you got him 178 to 15 on absentees, okay, okay.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: So what happened there for that to happen and how does your absentee strategy this time?
• 51:05
  Speaker 7: look different than it did eight years ago.
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: I haven't nothing.
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: First, the strategy hasn't nothing changed.
• 51:08
  Speaker 7: I mean, are we saying we're going to disenfranchise people from voting?
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 51:12
  Speaker 7: Because they're senior citizens.
• 51:13
  Speaker 7: No, not at all, and they're not able to leave their house, so they don't have a right to vote.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I think they have a right, but they like you a lot better than they like your opponents historically.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: So why is that?
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Let me ask the question that way.
• 51:28
  Speaker 7: Well, you have to understand, Zach, that I'm the first minority to win Ward 2.
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: When I won it in 09, a minority have never held that seat.
• 51:38
  Speaker 7: So I came into a new era, a new territory, so the people just felt close to me.
• 51:45
  Speaker 7: You think that's still the case?
• 51:47
  Speaker 7: Oh, yes, I got my supporters Okay, I got my supporters.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: What about you, Mr Smith?
• 51:53
  Speaker 6: Well how you ask Councilman Meekins about it?
• 51:58
  Speaker 6: When I received a phone call about the same thing, saying he's going around picking up that seat ballot, I told the person that called me I'm not going to deal, I'm not worrying about it.
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: I got my game plan, my strategy.
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: Do I have people getting out, getting absentees?
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: No, but we do have a game plan on people that's working or going to be out of town.
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: So we're getting them up there if they're going to be out of town and however the absentee fall, that's how they fall.
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: But I just feel like the good Lord is going to be on my side.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: You challenged their residency.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: You lost in front of the party executive committee.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: You took it all the way to the circuit court and lost again.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Now you told me on the record.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: We had it in the paper.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: You said you know I still think I was right, but I'm going to run my campaign.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: How did it affect your ground game to have those challenges during the time you needed to be running for office?
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Like, do you feel like that affected your ground game?
• 53:00
  Speaker 7: Well, that was part of the strategy from the committee.
• 53:03
  Speaker 7: I knew it.
• 53:04
  Speaker 7: I know the chair of that committee.
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: I know them.
• 53:08
  Speaker 5: well, I know them well and I know how they operate.
• 53:12
  Speaker 7: That was the strategy get me over here, so I don't be out here.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Why'd you fall for it?
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Why'd you take the ballot I?
• 53:17
  Speaker 7: didn't fall for it.
• 53:18
  Speaker 7: I want you to understand.
• 53:19
  Speaker 7: I didn't fall for it.
• 53:20
  Speaker 7: Okay, I believe what I was saying was true.
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: Okay, and I stand for what is right.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Did you lose weeks of your campaign trying to get them off the ballot?
• 53:30
  Speaker 7: My answer to you is like this.
• 53:31
  Speaker 7: You said I lost in the court.
• 53:32
  Speaker 7: I'm getting back to my past story now.
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: Jesus lost in the court Now.
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: Jesus never loses.
• 53:41
  Speaker 7: I said he lost in the court.
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: Let's be clear.
• 53:44
  Speaker 7: In the court.
• 53:44
  Speaker 7: Huh, they found him guilty in the court.
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: Okay, be clear.
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: In the court, huh, they found him guilty in the court.
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: Okay, okay, hear what I'm saying now.
• 53:49
  Speaker 7: They found him guilty and the penalty was death.
• 53:52
  Speaker 7: Okay, huh.
• 53:53
  Speaker 7: But, early Sunday morning, mickens.
• 53:56
  Speaker 7: Rose so late Tuesday night.
• 53:57
  Speaker 7: No late Tuesday night, mickens will be victorious.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: Let me ask you this why is Kareem the Pharisee and why is he after you?
• 54:07
  Speaker 7: to start with, Well, that's another conversation.
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: All right, should we close it?
• 54:14
  Speaker 7: You get him up here and then me and him will talk about that.
• 54:18
  Speaker 7: Okay, all right, fair enough.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: One question that I meant to shift over to you and didn't and I think, out of fairness, I definitely want to.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: I asked him what three initiatives he would bring forth.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: What are your first three motions, your first three initiatives, if you're re-elected for this time?
• 54:36
  Speaker 7: he was right on his number one, public safety.
• 54:38
  Speaker 7: You know, we brought in, I think, one of the best, chief daltrey.
• 54:42
  Speaker 7: I want you to understand something here.
• 54:44
  Speaker 7: He was the chief of police over the state of Mississippi.
• 54:48
  Speaker 7: This council hired him.
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: Okay, we hired him.
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: He was the chief of police over all the cities in the state of Mississippi.
• 54:58
  Speaker 7: We brought him here the year before he came.
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: The homicide was at 13.
• 55:03
  Speaker 7: Had 13 homicide Last year, being cut it down to about four or five, and out of them four or five, he has caught three of them.
• 55:11
  Speaker 7: So the process is working.
• 55:14
  Speaker 7: Infrastructure trying to bring new jobs in we're paving 71% of the streets are being paved, most and all the wards now I think in Ward 4, about 80% have been paved.
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: The infrastructure is great.
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: The drainage problem the water being flooded out in these clumbers we have rectified that problem, but we're still going to continue to do better.
• 55:34
  Speaker 7: But I think we're on the right track.
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: All about the money.
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: Huh, all about the money.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, anything either one of y'all want to add before we go.
• 55:50
  Speaker 6: I just want to remind all the constituents of ward two that when you wake up tuesday morning at seven o'clock, make sure you go out to the east columbus gym or the fairview elementary school and vote for roderick smith for ward two, city councilman and vote for Roderick Smith award to city council.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm just incredibly thankful that both of you guys have come on the show today.
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: It's been a wild ride.
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: Thank you to the listeners.
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: You've been listening to Between the Headlines.
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: What are you doing?
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: Be sure to like share and rate Get out of here.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and don't forget to join our conversation.
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: Send your comments to tips at cdispatchcom.
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: Again, that is tips at cdispatchcom.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: Or you can follow me on Facebook or X at the Chisholm 00.
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: Signing off from Catfish Alley Studio in historic downtown Columbus.
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: Your host has been Zach Player and I am David Chisholm, so until next time, y'all keep it friendly and we will keep it real.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: Opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers and not necessarily those of the Commercial Dispatch.