Latest / Between the Headlines: Columbus / Where is MUW President Nora Miller in MSMS Talks?

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Where is MUW President Nora Miller in MSMS Talks? · 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 opinion separate, but reporters have a unique insight into the workings of local government and their analysis can be helpful for readers and listeners.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: The Dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity and our reporting will always reflect that.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: And now Between the Headlines.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Today on Between the Headlines Jackson's latest assault on MSMS, the integrity of the former Kerr-McGee Superfund site off of 14th Avenue and what in the devil's hell is happening in Ward 2.
• 0:55
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• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And now a word from a political sponsor.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: I want to thank the Commercial Dispatch for this podcast, bringing different views in an open discussion.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: I'm Bill Strauss, humbly asking for your vote as next mayor of Columbus.
• 2:02
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• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Now let's start the show.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: David Jackson is back and they're after MSMS and it looks like they're.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It looks like maybe the fix is in for them to move it to MSU.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: With this new request for proposals, only those two institutions and offered an opportunity to submit a proposal to house the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences in the future.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: What are you thinking?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: David.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Well, the legislature is going to do what the legislature always does, and in this particular case, there are a couple of villains that I would enjoy calling out right from the get-go.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: There are a couple of villains that I would enjoy calling out right from the get go, the first one being the gentleman from District 43, republican representative and chair of the Education House Committee, rob Roberson.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: He's definitely behind this and I do not doubt that director Don Cook, who was fired last year or was it two years ago from MSMS A couple years ago.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: yeah, he's been very yeah, he's been vocal in Jackson.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I suppose he's probably behind it somehow Can't prove it, but that is my opinion.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: But we've been here before.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And the issue at hand moving MSMS from a well-established site it's been there since 87.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Since 87 to a place that is bigger with lots more places to get in trouble.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Think about it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I feel full disclosure.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I've got a kid in MSMS and I feel like he's safe there.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: You know, if he hops the fence, what's he going to do?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Is he going to go to Fuqua's grocer and buy something there?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's definitely.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you definitely have to be a lot more creative if you hop the fence at MUW, and that's sort of one of the points that I wanted to discuss is, say, msms goes to MSU.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Msu is going to be a good steward of that school, I have no doubt.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I have no doubt that they're going to put appropriate policies into place, appropriate safety measures into place.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: But all it takes, like you said, is for one to hop the fence.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So just one can cause a national news nightmare for that university.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And I just don't know if you know, just playing the numbers, because it is such a bigger place, there's a lot more to get in trouble with, there's a lot more temptation, and you are going to have those kids jump the fence on occasion.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: So do you want that to turn into a?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Do you want that to be a small issue, or a probably small issue, or do you want that to potentially be a big issue for what they find on the other side of the fence?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I can tell you firsthand that the faculty and staff at MSMS do absolutely everything they can to make sure that their students walk the straight and narrow.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Not that they always do, but they do what they can.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: What's interesting to me is a single school, a single university was mentioned in this, Not Ole Miss not Southern Miss.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: MUW.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: There's two MUW and MSU, yeah, but the writing's on the wall.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: They're looking to move it out of MUW and I can tell you that Trip Harston was very, very animated yesterday in his presentation to the Republican women.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: He was absolutely livid and it's going to be a rough thing to navigate through here.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Tripp believes that the fix is in and, as was expressed in the opinion page by the editorial staff at the dispatch, this recommendation, no, this demand letter, if you want to call it, that was written in maroon ink and so we're really only looking at Mississippi State.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean OK yes, I agree with you on that.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And look no further than the deadline.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Frankly, they've got what two weeks to put this thing together?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I guess sort of had three weeks from the time that the request for proposals was issued.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's rushed.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: February 25th is how long these two universities have to create a proposal, submit a proposal to the Mississippi Department of Education.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: That's going to have all of these things in it, and so I want to turn some of these questions around.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: On MDE, you look at the request for proposals.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: They're talking about expanding MSMS.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: They're talking about residence halls and how they're going to improve the residence life.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: All right, well, right back at you, mde, that question is for you.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: What are you going to do about that?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: The funding for these schools comes from the legislature through MDE to MSMS.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: That's how they get it done.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: So why are they asking MUW and MSU how are you going to do this thing that they're actually responsible for?
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: And I think that that's the question that MUW and MSU need to be asking of MDE in regards to expanding MSMS and getting better dorms for MSMS.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: That campus isn't like it is because MSMS didn't want it to be any better.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Msms didn't want it to be any better.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: It's like it is because the residence hall and the campus are like.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: It is because the state has not funded improvements there at any reasonable level since the thing opened nearly 40 years ago.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Well for sure.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: But when you look at this and getting back to Rob Robertson, what is Starkville-Octobie Haas School District looking to do?
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, they're looking to build another high school and what would be fair would be for them to do it just like Lowndes and just like everybody else and that is, put up the bond money locally make it happen.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: No, I expect they're looking to push forth a big bill that'll write a big fat check that will fund not only the new high school in Octavia Hawk County but also this newfangled facility that they're supposedly going to put MSMS on.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Ok, mississippi State University has very little to gain from this.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Columbus has everything to lose.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Everything to lose.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Now answer me this you think about the name change that happened at MUW?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Fire and Fury absolutely descended upon the campus of Mississippi University for Women.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Over that name change, the alumni got together.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Well, what about now?
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Where is the outrage?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean I'm glad you brought that up, david, because here's the deal who are the voices?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Right now?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: The outrage is there and the outrage is local.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I believe that they are outraged, they are scared, they are worried and they want to know what to do.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And right now, who are the voices leading the charge?
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: In that?
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: You've got County Supervisor Tripp Hurston and Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin, and they're out front and they're loud and they're advocating for both MUW and MSMS, keeping both of those campuses here, growing them, investing in them.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: They're defining what those institutions mean to the community.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: They are doing that, but they should be a secondary voice in this.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: My question is where is Nora Miller in that and why isn't she the loudest voice in?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: the room.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: If I were her, I would not even send in a proposal.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: It's a joke, it's politics, okay, well then you're playing their game their way, david, and because, see, here's the thing If you're Nora Miller, your responsibility, in my view, is to be not not let Keith and Trip do your job for you here, but to be out there and to be a loud, ferocious advocate for MSMS and for MUW.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Because you know, we covered the issue extensively last year and we won't get into all the details of the bills and stuff that came but the legislature made a play for MSMS and made a play for consolidating MUW into MSU last year.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: We know this, she knows this, everybody knows this.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: And yet and look in fairness to her, she may be doing a lot of things behind the scenes, she may be doing a lot of fighting behind the scenes, but the impact of that isn't being felt and we can't see it.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: She needs to get a whole lot more conspicuous, at minimum, and she needs to get a whole lot louder.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: She needs to be showing the legislature right now, through her leadership and through her personality, through her presence, the same thing that the alumni showed her when she tried to change the name, which is, I'm going to be a bigger problem than you're willing to deal with If you come over here and try to take this.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be loud, I'm at the very minimum, I'm going to strike out swinging and from the outside, looking in, it looks like she's standing there watching pitches, and this is why I think that is.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I think that the higher level, or at least at least Nora and maybe some others in the administration there, believe that MSMS and MUW and the futures thereof are independent issues, and they're not.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: They are not independent issues.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: As MSMS goes, so goes MUW, and it seems like everybody that cares recognizes that, except for, apparently, nora Miller, and she's got to get on that same page.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: She's got to recognize that reality that, yeah, you do submit a proposal because you don't sit out of any of this fight.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: You get out front.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: You have marches, you have community events.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Voice needs to be the voice that is operating, with the likes of Tripp and Keith and others behind you, pushing back at Rob, pushing back at the legislature.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: But you're not seeing that.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: You're seeing Nothing, nothing of any substance, nothing of any conspicuousness that is coming out of there, from her office, to try to save that place.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And I just want to say you know, it's dead wrong to think that those are independent issues.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Well, dr Miller, if you're listening today, I hope that you'll join us on the show.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: We will certainly.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I believe that the town of Columbus definitely, definitely has your back on this, and I would encourage you to be bold.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Meanwhile, I have a quick public service announcement that I would put in here, and that is the phone number for Speaker of the House, mr Jason White is 601-359-3300.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And Lieutenant Governor Dilbert Hoseman 601-359-3200.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: One thing that you brought up earlier and I want to explore that a little more is you know you were talking about the idea that legislative appropriations, like state money, would help fund the school bill in Starkville.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: And you know I had a conversation with Rob Robertson the other day and he seems to be on board with trying to get.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: His primary objective for the legislative session is getting legislative money and a legislative appropriation to help Starkville High School build a new campus in addition to their local money that they would raise.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And this is with or with.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: It seems to be with or without MSMS.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: If MSMS is involved, great, which that's his primary goal, but if it's not, he's still looking for, he's still looking for state money to build a high school campus in a local municipality, and it's going to be, if he succeeds, it's going to be the second time they've done that.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Partnership Middle School, the sixth and seventh grade campus.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It was built in part with legislative money.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Is that fair, dave?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Well, who are we, Zach?
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Are we the red-headed stepchild?
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, Mr Robertson has the prerogative and the ability to request state funds, but I'm sitting here looking at Starkville and I see that Starkville is a college town.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: They're doing well in many, many different areas.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: We need that money over here.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: And so where's Andy Boyd?
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Where's Dana McLean?
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: What's Kabir saying about it?
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: I want money over here for our schools too.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: If it's going to be like that, Point blank.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Well, and I mean and you've got examples within the last decade last year, cmsd $36 million bond for renovations.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: No state appropriation coming for that Lowndes County School District a decade ago tens of millions of dollars that built gobs and gobs of facilities.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of world's finest chocolate right there.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I bet y'all had to sell a bunch of those candy bars.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: It's a problem Believe me.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: So you think that's unfair?
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I know it's unfair.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: In fact it should be illegal.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know about that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: First of all, a disclaimer.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: David has to offer his disclaimers occasionally for being involved with the Lowndes County Republican Party.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I need to offer a disclaimer here that all three of my children go to the Starkbach-Tibau Consolidated School District and my wife teaches at the high school there.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: But objectively, I think you look at return on investment Return on investment.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: what I can tell you is that, financially, I am a cheapskate.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: When it comes to government funds, I don't want anybody with their hand in the cookie jar.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I don't even like the Department of Education to start with, but when it comes to spending tax dollars, it needs to go to the kids, not to a bureaucrat, not to a pet project, not to some organization other than what is going to ensure the best for the future of Mississippi, and for me it's the kids.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Not just in your neck of the woods, but over here too.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, let's talk.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Kids, not just in your neck of the woods, but over here too.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's talk about what the partnership school is and to kind of give a little bit of context.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: The partnership school, yes, it is a local middle school in the Starkville-Octoball Consolidated School District.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Fact.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: However, the partnership element of that and what justified the legislative appropriation, from my understanding, is they use that as a lab for their college of education, for their faculty, to do research, for their teachers to get experiential learning in the classroom without having to leave, you know, their own campus.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: So it's part of the curriculum of the college of education.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That's putting teachers presumably all over the state, maybe even all over the country.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: And then you've got research that comes from that.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Supposedly that makes a difference statewide.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So that's why I'm talking about return on investment.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Where you go here is you look at the partnership school and you see that.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And I don't have those metrics.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I don't, I've asked for them, I'm still in the process of getting them.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I don't have those metrics?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I don't, I've asked for them.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Uh, I'm still in the process of getting them, so I don't have those to read here.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: But how many teachers have graduated from msu use the partnership school as part of their curriculum and are now teaching elsewhere in mississippi?
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: How?
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: many teachers have graduated from muw.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I don't see why we need a brick and mortar facility to make this happen.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: It it's a lot of money.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: It's going to steel and concrete, but it's there and I don't know I mean there's more than just the building there potentially how many teachers are graduating from there and going across the state, how much research can and or is coming out of that partnership school that can apply and enhance teaching and learning across the state?
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: If they can show that those numbers are adequate, then I think that that makes this ask relevant and I don't have a problem with it.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: However, if they can't, if they can't show those numbers, if they can't prove the concept, then I think that that's evidence against them for doing this.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I think that that's a cautionary tale, for okay, well, if you can't show it with the partnership school, then why would we do this again?
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I think what you've said lends credit to the idea that the local leadership here in Lowndes County really needs to step up and be a part of the conversation.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I don't hear any of this coming out of city council or, for that matter, out of our county officials, so it's a conversation that's worthy to have.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And I think it needs to be continued, but we got to win this battle at hand.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Keep MSMS right here in the good old, friendly city.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: And if you want to do that, everybody, all the way up to the top, needs to be loud and proud and ferocious about it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Now, second headline of the day the Kerr-McGee Superfund site.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Let me get this right.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It's the site.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: It's off of 14th Avenue, kind of near Bates Tire, and the complaint is that we can't accept grant money, regardless of the terms.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: We can't accept it to get this place developed because it's polluted and it's going to make it sick and it's going to kill us and it's going to make our eyes glow in the dark.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Tell me what's going on at Kerr-McGee.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you know there's been a lot going on at Kerr-McGee over the last several years and, to be clear, former Kerr-McGee, they've not been here for a long time.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Who has been here is the Greenfield Trust and their tens of millions of dollars that they've spent on cleaning up the site in conjunction and under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: We've got two local leaders.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: We've got two council people who are actively standing against grants that could directly or tangentially help redevelop that site, because they're saying that nothing should be done there because it's dirty.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, and we're talking about Ethel Stewart and Pierre Beard, correct?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Councilwoman Stewart and Councilman Pierre Beard, and I get it, they're scared.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of history there.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Are they?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: scared though I think so I don't think that they're being saboteurs here.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I think that it's the you know giving them the benefit of the doubt.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I think, because I interviewed them both.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I've talked to them both about this issue and there's genuine sincerity in their concern over this.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing they're blocking grants.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: They're talking about not accepting money for grants that would, you know, build a community center on part of this property, or rec center they're talking about we don't need to put anything on there.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Ethel Stewart says plant a tree there, see if it lives and then we'll talk.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: But the EPA and Greenfield Trust have been working on for years mitigating the contamination there and testing the soil yep and they have declared.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: They have declared that parts of this site are developable.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Now they have declared that some of this site never will be, that they've contained it but it's never going to be developable.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Nothing's ever going to go on this undevelopable land.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: And so to stoke the fear that none of this work has been valid, that this is still dirty and this land will still kill you and if you send, if we build a rec center there and you send, your kids there they're going to get cancer.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's responsible because it's legislating from your gut and there's so much good information that's available.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Epa and Greenfield Trust have been having meetings for years status updates on the cleanup, letting people know what's going on, and they're doing this.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: You know sort of the group that liaises between the Greenfield Trust and the public is the Memphis Town Community Action Group and they are experts in their respective field.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: And we're talking about creosote OK, we're not talking about nuclear radiation that takes over 100 years to decay.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I went out there on the way here and I walked up to the fence and I looked around.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: It looked clean, it smelled clean, it was clean.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Well, if the money was right, I would eat chicken spaghetti off the ground out there.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: It's not a problem.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's your choice.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: My point is that the EPA has said it, so therefore you can believe it, and I don't think that you and I can say what is and what isn't.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: But their information is there to know and they've declared it clean.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: There is a distrust of this community action group, pierre.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Mistrust them, ms Stewart, mistrust them.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: They've said as much.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: But here's the problem.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: The CAG did not declare the community action group.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: The CAG did not declare any of these sites, mitigated or not mitigated.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: They didn't make those declarations.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: They're not going out on a limb and saying you can eat off this ground.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: The EPA is saying you can develop on the pine yard, so why don't they do it?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: The bottom line is, we need the money.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: If there is any ward in Mississippi that needs federal dollars, it is that ward over there you know Pierre talks about.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, it looks so beautiful since I've been in office.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: It looks like a war zone and it needs to be developed.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: And I will tell you this, the people out there that are paranoid and I don't say that disparagingly, I know it's people got sick.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: It was a big deal Right happened.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: That's real.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: But, yes, a lot of these people who are paranoid are the same people you see driving around wearing a mask with no one else in the vehicle.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, we need the money and I I really think that pierre uh and miss ethel stewart need to, uh, use their energy for good and talk the place up, because it's a lot different than it was 20 years ago out there.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Leadership asks questions to the right people and they don't get on Facebook and spew out rumors that are based on their gut feeling about something.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Very good, third headline Are you ready?
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's rock and roll with it.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: We're looking at Mickens again.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: I wish we were not looking at him, but we are.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: It's not just Mickens.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Ward 2 is wild.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: If you're into that sort of thing.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: It is a problem and help me out here.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: What I'm seeing is that, mickens, he challenged the residency requirements of his primary opponents and he was thereafter shot down by the Democrat committee in his assertion that they were not living there.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: And let me ask you, zach, were you at that hearing?
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I was not.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: We had a reporter there, but it had coverage.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm wondering what evidence he had that he threw in there to say, hey, these people really don't live here.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Well, frankly, it doesn't really matter, because he was ruled against.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: The Democratic Party ruled against him and well, it's a loser's argument to start with, is it not?
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Well, yes, and I certainly want to get into that.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: But the second part of this now is that.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So Mickens did challenge the residency of both of his opponents in Ward 2.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: That's Laisha Mishishi O'Neill and Roderick Smith.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: He lost.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Evidently there was a discussion outside between Mickens and O'Neill outside the courthouse after that hearing.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Oh boy.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Mickens and O'Neill outside the courthouse after that hearing.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Oh boy, ms Shishi has claimed and filed a police report from that altercation discussion whatever you want to call it, altercation in quotey fingers.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, that he threatened her and she filed a police report on it and a couple of things on that.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: She has not publicly stated if there was a true threat there, which you know.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: All she's publicly stated so far is that he said, uh, this ain't over.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: But if there was a real legitimate threat then she had every right to file that report.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Um, and I hope they investigated and if there's enough there to prosecute, prosecute it but.
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: If there wasn't.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: If this is what we know based on what we know, david, she's got to get a thicker skin.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: She can't—you know.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: If she's a legitimate candidate to win this race and she's possibly going to be a council member, then you can't run to the police and file a report every time somebody says something to you that you don't like.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of that if you're a council person.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I think that anybody on the council who's ever served on the council could tell her that For sure.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: She can't run the police every time somebody walks up to her and says this ain't over being some type of threat or some type of loud ogre in public that needs to be dealt with, talking about, you know, somebody being escorted out of the Trotter and all this kind of stuff.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: What gets lost in the mix is actual issues and actual topics.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Absolutely correct and you know Mickens should run on his record.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: In his vision he lost the hearing over residency.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: So you know that doesn't need to be part of the campaign anymore.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: If I were him, I would never talk about that again.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, look at it, if, if I'm doing my job in an elected office and I'm doing a good job.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I may still getied, but I'm not going to be worried about the people in the primary.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got a race to run and David Mickens has the longest record of anybody up there.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: What I'm saying to you is the fact that he challenged their residency and lost, obviously because he did not have appropriate evidence says to me that maybe Leroy was right in his point in that video that we won't go back into, but basically said that hey, he's running scared.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: So we've got to elevate the conversation we do.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: We do, and the record and the vision is how you do that.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: But of course there's an old saying that there's only two ways to run, and that's scared and unopposed.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's what Mickens is tapping into.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: But when you are campaigning and if he continues to campaign on the fact that these two people don't actually live on the ward and they're not viable candidates, if that's his front foot of his campaign or any part of his campaign, he's casting doubt on the integrity of the election.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I don't like that.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: If it's coming from Democrats, I don't like.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: If it's coming from Republicans, I don't like it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: If it's coming on the local, state or national level, you have a record to run on as long as you've been there.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: You should have a vision by now.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Run on those things and leave the rest of it out of it.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I couldn't agree more on that one and I predict this day.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Put it on the record that there will be a runoff in that particular primary.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I can see it coming.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: One last thing I'd like to bring up is in the Ward 5 race, mr Bob Raymond, your boy, yeah, he listened to his opponent, ms Mary Beth Jeter, speak at the Republican Women's Club just yesterday and while he was listening he said you know, she sounds like a really qualified and well-spoken and well-meaning candidate.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: And he stepped up to the microphone and said y'all, I withdraw from this race.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: And so for Ward 5, ms Mary Beth Jeter will advance to the general and go against the winner of the Democratic primary in that particular area.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: So that's the latest what else we got.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: I think that'll do it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Appreciate you, david.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I just want to give a shout out to our listeners.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: I want to thank you for listening to this show.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: I want to thank the dispatch once again and I hope that you will not only listen and not only encourage others to listen, but also be a part of the conversation.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: If you think I'm full of baloney or if you disagree with something that Zach said, please email us.
• 30:56
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• 31:00
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• 31:01
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• 31:02
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• 31:04
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• 31:07
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• 31:10
  Speaker 2: We thank you once again.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: So, signing off from Catfish Alley here in historic downtown Columbus, my name is David Chisholm, your host is Zach Player, and thanks again.