Latest / Between the Headlines: Columbus / In Studio: Colin Krieger PLUS A New City Administration Gets Started

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In Studio: Colin Krieger PLUS A New City Administration Gets Started · 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 2: This week on Between the Headlines, we talk about the inauguration and the inaugural session of the Columbus City Council, and making its way to the forefront of discussion in the public sphere is the issue of panhandling, and we've got people talking about it and we will join that discussion as well.
• 0:33
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• 1:58
  Speaker 2: You are listening to Between the Headlines with the sage of the Deep South and managing editor of the Commercial Dispatch, mr Zach Player, who is back from his trip from Iran and it looks like, sir, that they shortened your curls.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I got my hair cut before I left because I didn't want to be caught looking too terribly bad in the pictures.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but yes, yeah, I was on vacation last week, not in Iran, but did see a drive-in movie with the kids, and that was a first for all of the above.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Oh man, you know, smithville used to have one of those.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I heard about that and my name is David Chisholm.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: We thank you for listening here today.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: We'll start with the inauguration.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I watched the video, wasn't able to attend in person, but I want to start off by saying that Stephanie Jones did a fantastic job of her role in that ceremony.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, his sister, yeah, yeah, she emceed the thing and I thought she did a great job.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Let's break it now.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Let's look at what was said, who said it and what we think is going to be the implication of that.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: What did you notice at the inauguration?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I think, our guest Colin Krieger.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Today he had a lot of good lines in his welcome at the inauguration, talking about Columbus having all the ingredients for success, talking about how, you know, by and large nobody wants this council to fail.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, as far as Stephen's speech it was, you know I want to be a mayor for everybody and you know it was a nice little, you know positive moment to to ring in the new council, the new mayor he talked about the good Lord and he opened by giving credit to his Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: OK, I say to that amen.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: And I say to that amen Without an asterisk, anytime someone does that.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I'm very appreciative of that because I serve the same Lord and Savior.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: But with that said, anytime a politician invokes the good book or the name of the Lord, my muscles get a little bit tight just thinking about it, because to me the things of the church and the things of religion in general are just more sacred than the things of the state and of the city.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: okay, well you can still make faith-based decisions in the secular realm.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And I hope that he does, and I kind of think that he will.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I just I guess my message there is if you're going to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, you must also walk in the steps of Jesus Christ and remain humble.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I hope that Stephen Jones can remain humble and I'm giving him a shot.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I agree with Colin, I'm behind this.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I don't have a choice, but I'm behind this and I don't want anybody to fail, particularly Stephen Jones shaking hands, a whole lot of ceremony, I think uh daughtry videoed like, made a point to video uh, the new mayor gaveling the the meeting out there.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Keith was there to pass the gavel to steven.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: It was just a yeah, uh, a nice little positive moment and steven made a point about three quarters to the meeting, with keith still in the audience.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I believe to say there's a lot of 6-0 votes tonight.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So you know.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Good, good, good.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope that those 6-0 votes continue.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, not necessarily.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: There's a couple of things here.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We talked about the 4-2 problem in the last administration.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I think there's such a thing as a 6-0 problem too, especially if you come in.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Columbus doesn't have that problem.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it could develop that problem.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: You know, you get too many things that you decide in advance behind closed doors and you don't have enough public discussion about it and you just start going hands up 6-0 on everything.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: That is as big or not a bigger problem than the problem that we had in the previous administration.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And here's where the rubber is going to meet the road with Stephen.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: We've talked about that.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: The old Moltke the elder quote before on here that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy survives first contact with the enemy.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: When these council people start peeling off and having their own things to say about something, or those 6-0 votes start turning into 5-1 votes or 4-2 votes or going 6-0 the other way against something that the mayor has recommended, that's when we're going to know what kind of mayor Stephen Jones is going to be.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: As I've said before, stephen is capable of being a good mayor, great mayor, if he stays out of his pride and he avoids the temptation to quash dissent at all costs.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: He's going to have to take it on the chin and he's going to have to be what he says he's going to be, which is somebody who can work with anybody and somebody who wants to be the mayor for all Columbus.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Every once in a while he's going to be wrong.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Every once in a while he's going to.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Or even if he believes very deeply that he's right, he's going to have to acknowledge that there's another side to that argument and that maybe that side is the more popular one or the most most pragmatic one.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: But I think that a really good indicator of how well his administration has gone is going to be if we still have work sessions in four years interesting well, let me put to you this way I see this almost completely as a PR deal, in the sense that if he is able to take the 4-2-3-3-5-1 votes in stride and if he is able to maintain a sense of decorum within that room, that's going to be a positive thing for the city of Columbus, absolutely.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Because these businesses that are coming in, they're looking at us.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Most of the decisions that they make are on sheer numbers okay, Data, demographics, who's going to do what?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: But then they also look at city council.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: They look at the board of supervisors.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Is there craziness going on?
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, that does affect the situation.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Is there discord?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: That just makes us look like we don't know what we're doing.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: That's where the rubber meets the road for me.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Is there going to be professional disagreement and moving on, or is there going to be angst and grudges and things that just put our feet in the mud and make us unable to trudge?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: forward, which goes back to you got to care about branding and you've got to care about image, but you can't major so far into that or bank so far into that, because that's its own sort of dysfunction.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: And that's going to be the balancing act for Stephen that is going to define his administration.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And going back to the work sessions, that's where a lot of this stuff is hashed out for the first time.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And those work sessions were a good thing and even when they didn't go particularly well, they are a good idea and they should continue.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Didn't go particularly well, they are a good idea and they should continue.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And as of right now, you know Stephen has indicated that they probably will.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: But the first time one of those goes haywire against his notion of what is the correct thing to do.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: You know it's going to be.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have one again, or are those work sessions going to continue?
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It's going to be.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have one again?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Are those work sessions going to continue?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: And I think that someone who is who he says he is and who I've seen him be, that person who can work with anybody and that person who can be the mayor for all of Columbus.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: He's going to take it on the chin and have the next one, and if we're having work sessions in four years, that's going to be a really good indicator of how well things have gone in his administration.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: I hope he can do it, I hope he can turn the other cheek and I hope the same Lord and Savior that put him in that position will speak to him when he's got his pride out of order.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: As it happens, to all of us.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Yes sir.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Well, happy belated birthday to Miss Ethel Stewart, who is our new vice mayor by unanimous vote.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure is I.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: You had two choices there.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: You had to.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: You only had two incumbents that are back on that council.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and she is the one with the with the most tenure and the most seniority and I, you know, she's got the honor now of being the vice mayor and good luck to her in that.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I think that I think that she'll carry out those duties when they arise with, with, with dignity.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I think so too.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Who is the vice chair of the board of supervisors right now, jeff, I think it is.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: It is Jeff Smith.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So I mean, the only nay saying that one might could do about this would be to say that, well, they should have chosen a Republican to be the vice mayor.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: But I don't, you know, in this case, the way that that thing is set up.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't think it matters, I don't think it matters.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So um, you know, you had, uh, when you know, when Keith was mayor, Mickens was the vice mayor uh, when independent.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So I guess, when Robert was mayor, bill Gavin, uh, was the vice mayor.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: So you know sometimes having that sort of appearance of balance there.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: But you know like I said, ms Stewart is going to.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Anytime that she's put in a position where she has to vice mayor, she's going to handle that with dignity.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: They also reinstalled a board of election commissioners.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you, I've been looking at the city charter and Section 9 calls for a single polling place.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: It does so.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: There's some ambiguity in the language there that me and some folks are looking into into.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I would at least hope that they will have the conversation about getting rid of these.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: 19 polling places that the city has?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It's too many.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: It's too many.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: And then once you have somebody to leave the ballots in a truck that gets towed to North Port, alabama or whatever happened, things can get really sketchy.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And so we have cars nowadays.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: We need a single polling place.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: What say you?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about this before, David.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I think that maybe they have one too many in each ward, but if you've got a single polling place in each ward, you're going to discourage voting in certain wards, and I think that anything that encourages voting is better than something that discourages voting, and that's going to be my position on all things voting related.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you this Did they vote to finish the amphitheater?
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Yet they did not.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: They did not.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Well, he's got 180 days left.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: He does, he does.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: That was a campaign promise.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Now he has a mandate from the people, that's right.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But you know, you notice that he didn't really talk about that anymore after he beat leroy.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So I you know, maybe maybe worth asking him again if his position has changed on that.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: But during that democratic primary campaign, remember it was going to be finished by December.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: So we shall see.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: We shall see.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Let's see here.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Let me turn to page two of my notes.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I see that Pierre Beard has chosen to run against and has qualified.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: He will be running against the incumbent in this court-mandated special election in an attempt to knock down.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Mr Kabir Kareem.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I've said on the record that I think this is an unnecessary hassle for Mr Kareem at this point, but nonetheless we have a campaign with two candidates here seeking that office, and I looked at some of Mr Beard's positions.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: One is a transit plan.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: I guess he wants buses in Columbus of some sort.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: That's something he's been pushing since he was a councilman.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: They're going to finish the Mardi Gras Amtrak down on the coast.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I saw that August 18th.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I saw that.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I saw that I'm gonna ride from mobile to new orleans and I'm gonna stop at every little town along the way.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's my adhd back on track here he says he will also advocate and fight for ms, ms and muw.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Now, on that one I've got a big thumbs down, because to have any voice or any say in that discussion, you need tenure, you need relationships and you need to be able to be taken seriously.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: And I don't know that he can be taken seriously.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Going in there as a new guy, I just don't see it.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I just don't see it.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: What say you?
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Oh well, I mean first of all, have you seen his campaign slogan?
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Oh boy.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: That's my favorite part of all of this Pierre Beard's going to take Columbus higher.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Do we really need more dispensaries in Columbus then?
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I think, look, I think the campaign slogan is hilarious.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Pierre, he's a smart guy and he's reasonably self-aware.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: And that campaign slogan, he's trolling the haters with it and I love it.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: He knows exactly what he's doing and I love it.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: More power to him.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: More power to him.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Now one thing Pierre's not going to beat.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Pierre's not going to beat—Pierre's not going to beat Kabir, especially not in the wake of losing a city election.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: It would be silly to think that you're going to win a state election after you've lost a city election, but you know.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I don't think that— so it's kind of a hell-why-not campaign, yeah yeah, but I mean there is a good reason why and the more I think about it, there's a really good reason why Pierre's running in this.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to lose anything for the effort, other than he will lose the election, but he has everything to gain other than that he's going to build his political profile through the campaign.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: He's staying in the public conversation instead of fading into obscurity.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Imagine if he just kind of went off for a little while and then tried to come back.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: He's staying in front of your face and he's talking about what he believes in, and I think that, well, you know, at first I thought it was desperate, but even with Kabir beating him, ultimately I'm coming around.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: To believe in this is very savvy move on Pierre's part to stay in the public discussion.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: One thing he was talking about was he has a beef with.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I don't have a number for the bill, but there's an anti-panhandling bill out there that will require panhandlers to have a permit, and I want to talk about that because there's been an email circulating about panhandlers.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: And it comes from.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, ms Barbara Bigelow.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Okay, so before we dive into this email, can you give me the nuts and bolts of this and kind of the context of where this email is coming from?
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, so this is to Main Street Columbus member businesses and this has been a concern for a long time.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: It's been a concern for at least a couple of years and lots of conversations with Barbara, with City Hall, with business owners, of what exactly to do about the situation.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: To do about the situation, and because you do have a situation a growing number of homeless people, a growing number of panhandlers that you're seeing very visibly downtown and in other places in Columbus, and now you've got this law that okay.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: So now these people have to have a permit or they be hauled off.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And you've got Barber in this email telling people to call 911 if they see any of these people.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: If you have concerns about suspicious-looking characters, call 911.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I have expressed that these people are a detriment to our downtown, that not only are you, our merchants, concerned, but our shoppers as well.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: This is not a positive look for our downtown and it begins with us reporting these individuals to 911 in hopes that we may rid our downtown of them.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Now to be fair, toward the end of the email she does acknowledge that these people have problems.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's done that in the past, when we've done stories about this subject and talked to her, she's done that also.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: It's just you open straight off the bat.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Let's call the cops on them.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: It's just a little jarring.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you this Okay, go ahead.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I am not going to call the cops on a homeless person, I'm just not going to do it.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not either, unless they're actively aggravating or putting someone in.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if they're threatening to harm somebody.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, granted, let's say they're.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: They've got a tent set right up under the Statue of Liberty on Main Street right there.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I think they should move their tent to somewhere else and we should do something to help them out.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And look Barbara, Bigelow and Main Street, Columbus.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They have a very specific thing that they are trying to do and having vagrants and panhandlers around downtown is a detriment, is absolutely a detriment to that mission.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: It's a nuanced conversation.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: It is nuanced, it's layered.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: There's got to be because, all right, just because they're not vagrant downtown, where are they going to be vagrant?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Because you know, all right, well, they go to jail.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: That creates another problem and what's the need?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: You know, do they need?
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Do they need mental services?
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, do they need a job?
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: You know there's.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: there's so many different things to unpack there when they respond when law enforcement or the homeless coalition or the community outreach department.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: When they respond to these people in these situations, they arrive to find not just not somebody who's just bothering people who are better off, they're finding somebody who needs help in some way, like you say yeah, that said, I think even the most bleeding heart among us don't want to be bothered.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Uh, while we're going into coffee house on fifth, yeah, well, I mean, if someone asks me for a loaf of bread, I'm just not going to ask for their permit well, of course not.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Of course not, and nor should you.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And yeah, the permit thing is silly, we'll be right back.
• 21:32
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• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Thanks for rolling with us today.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: We have in the studio now hometown hero realtor and host of the podcast Good for Business, mr Colin Krieger.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Welcome in here today, sir.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me A longtime fan first-time guest, I think.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I've listened to every single episode.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate it yeah, well, uh, I want to just jump in here.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Uh, everybody know you, you work with steven jones uh, yeah your friends with steven jones.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Y'all are practically neighbors.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I think yes, neighbors.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I think you were during the campaign, not very visible, no sign in the yard.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: You weren't really out.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: That's fair, yeah.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you weren't really out front in the campaign at all.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Since he's been elected you've been considerably more visible, you know, given the welcome at the inauguration even.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: So kind of explain the dynamic there from Colin Krieger during his Really Good Friends campaign versus now, how that role has changed, how that visibility has changed and why it was very similar when he ran for council the first time.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: It's not my job to save Columbus.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: It's not my job to give money to a bunch of people and support a bunch of people.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I think people need to win on their own merit in every level of politics.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I have an advantage over most of my friends who are friends with politicians is that I don't have some long-term scheme to get a real estate deal done or do anything.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: I may ask you for a letter for my daughter to go to college one day, but that's about the biggest bag I have.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I haven't had to sign my yard for anybody, including Stephen, didn't get to give Stephen any money.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Figured, he had enough support on his own.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: I'm very proud that he won it on his own.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: As I've talked to you I know you privately, zach, about it.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Now we're on the podcast I've tried to help him a little and support where I could and give him a little advice Over the last few years.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: I usually don't talk to him about politics until after it's already happened, which is unfortunate sometimes, where people this year have accused me like I know you're running his campaign, I'm like man.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: It would look a little different if I was running it.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: It would be a little more positive.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: If I was running it, you know it'd be a little more positive.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: And I've told him like I'd like to talk to you before stuff gets done or you know before, not to influence where it goes, but like at least to help what I think Columbus's biggest challenge is a PR problem.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: You know we've got a lot of good stuff going for you.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: We have challenges like any other city, but I think a lot of things could be explained better.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Well, they're looking for a PR person for the city.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, that'd be a heck of a pay cut, probably for you.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, there's no.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Uh, as much like running for elected office.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: I don't think there's an actual job for me in the that I would like to do, and and you know.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I even told when Joe Dillon was there with Robert Smith and when Joe Dillon was there at the beginning with Keith Gaskin, like I'd chime in every once in a while.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Hey, other cities mentioned when there's a shooting where they're from.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: So you know, if they're not from here, mention them.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Or that they knew each other was a big breakthrough for them to do it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: There was one time a strong-arm robbery right by the W, I'm like.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Mention that they were selling drugs and they knew each other, that it wasn't just some random wild crime.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Well, and I want to kind of go off of that a little bit.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I mean you help with a lot of charity events in town.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: You've really been pushing that, making positivity louder message.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Your friend, mr Jones, in the campaign said that Columbus's biggest problem I'm paraphrasing for it it's an image problem, a branding problem.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: For you, somebody who's been in the media and also you know on the other side of things, selling houses and trying to bring people in to live in Columbus, where is the line between honesty and good brand, positive branding, branding, and where's the dangerous place?
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and people have asked me like why don't you post more negative stuff?
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: I said we'll pray for my poor FedEx driver who who left my box on the sidewalk a few months ago and you know, basically heard from every FedEx rep in the state when I complained about it.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: It's not my job to put out even even practical bad and I just want to put put out good news because I think there's enough people putting out everything.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: I think, stephen, as you may be implicating, blamed the media.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: It's not the media's fault.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I always like to.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: This is my line.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I go into it pretty quick.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: For the last 10 years we've averaged being the 12th or 13th largest city in Mississippi.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: We've averaged between the 11th and 13th crime rate in Mississippi, but we have third or fourth biggest daily paper, the third or fourth TV station and the biggest weekly paper that focuses almost exclusively on crime that I used to run.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: So you hear about stuff that happens here.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Right, you know what I?
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: mean.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: But shouldn't you?
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I mean Absolutely.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: You need to hear about it and I think a good example like talking negative is the we're going into too many details.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: But during the campaign we had the, especially the last few weeks, you had the grant come up and the grant from what everyone said including I don't talk to Catherine DiCicco, but like everybody on the council was surprised by what came up that night.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: It wasn't quite what they had talked about in the work session and it was a bad PR for Stephen Jones.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: It was bad for a lot of people.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: The whole four to two narrative kept going and then two weeks later it was cleared up a little that it was kind of sloppy and messy and if I had had that opportunity now and you're saying I'm mayor I would have stopped and been like or the council that voted against it that night I would have been like hey, this, this is staring at this, Keith.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: like not blaming people, but explain why you voted against it, as opposed to read it in the paper tomorrow.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Like, not from a PR guy standpoint, not the best comment.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Right, and you're talking about when?
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: That's what he told the councilwoman.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that read in the paper tomorrow was for the chicane thing on Military Road but like same thing it could have.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: He could have paused and I think he knows that he could have paused in the moment and explained that a little bit Like hey, you know that we just talked about this for hours before this meeting, but you know she was.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I think she may have been trying to bring it up in public, but you know that's a, you know that's something.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: I wish every politician was super polished and out there and all.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: And I think Stephen's sincere in a lot of things.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I think one of the things that Stephen Jones does and it's unintentionally is he comes across negative when he's not really intending to be negative, like maybe it's a communication thing.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Do you think he's going to be able to overcome that and do you think that?
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I know you're not his spokesperson, but do you think that he will be able to do the PR that's necessary from the mayoral standpoint?
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: I sure hope so.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: You know he hasn't been largely behind the scenes and somewhat quiet in a lot of respects before the election and he does like going to check on potholes and fix stuff, you know anybody who knows him can tell you that he may be overwhelmed with that, you know, at some point.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: So I hope he can.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I mean I hope I all the time.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Like I tell people, like I said I wish every politician was super polished.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: But on the flip side I also believe, especially day one, keith Gaskin wanted everything better for Columbus.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: You can tell the energy right now, everybody on that council, they're givers, they really really do want things to get better.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: And you know, sometimes it's hard to communicate that in the moment.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: You know I've spoken in public since I was a baby.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Hard to communicate that in the moment.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: You know I've spoken in public since I was a baby, so it may be easier for me to think like, oh, you can give me 10 minutes notice and I'll go speak publicly or whatever.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: But not everybody has and sometimes you have to, especially when you're the mayor.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: You've got to have a plan ahead of time to talk to everybody.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to be said about private speaking.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Whereas Stephen Jones is frankly not a good public speaker, he might be a good private speaker.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: We absolutely yes.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: And a lot of times that makes up all the difference in the world.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: I want to call attention to what you said at the inauguration.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I thought this was just fantastic.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to say it was fantastic.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: You said the people want you to succeed, even the critics.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to watch you suffer for the next four years.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: I think the harshest critics, who are a lot of our- good friends of mine, um, want things to change.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: You know they do, and and I don't think we have this abject horrible situation where everything's falling apart.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: I just think there's enough people bringing up the bad stuff that I can be like, hey, we have this good stuff too, cause perception is reality, uh and, and especially in real estate.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: So, like in real estate, I've gotten a blank stare from 100% of the people that I brought up.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: That real estate was up 10, 10% in Columbus and 5% in Starkville last year, and they just go no, you must be in Caledonia.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: I'm like, no, the city of Columbus.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: And they're like, no, I mean realtors too that just don't believe we can win.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: And you know, when you look around the rest of the state, at cities our size, they're falling apart.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess that goes back to the question I was asking before how do you?
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Because I think it's very important to be honest about yourself as a community and I think that one of the things that I find probably most endearing about Columbus is, you know, its willingness to be honest about itself.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Where other communities I won't name names, but other communities maybe aren't so willing to do that.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I think that's a positive thing.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: We talk about positive and negative stories.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I reject the notion that there are positive and negative stories, but I think that a quote-unquote negative story done the right way, is a positive thing for the community.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: So I mean, where is that?
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Where is that line between honesty and branding?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Where is that place where you say you talked in your speech about Columbus has all of the ingredients to to to really to really do something, to make things better, to improve in the way that so many people always cry out, that we want to improve as a citizenry, we want to improve as a government, we want to improve as just a city generally.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: You say all those ingredients are there.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I tend to agree with you.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: How do you bring those ingredients together?
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: And what is the line between?
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Hey, let's be honest about who we are and where we're trying to go, and let's also focus on the positive things that we are in the process.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that uh, David will maybe stand up and applaud at this.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: The government is not the answer.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Um, I think we have here here.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest, like one of the biggest holes we have right now in the success of our city.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Is we Not the link's fault, it's not EMCC's fault, it's not the vocational tech stuff.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: But I have spoken three different times at Columbus High School on career day Started with hey, y'all shouldn't be realtors, You're too young.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: Do you know that you can go to EMCC for a year, year and a half, and make 80 grand a year?
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Not a single teacher, not a single student had any grasp of that.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: They may have been told that there may be a fly flyer on the wall there, but they don't know it.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: And the link has said you know, MCC, you're not doing a good enough job.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: You know MCC is having a hard time getting involved in schools.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: Even the county schools aren't doing a phenomenal job with it.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: Well, the world created Forge.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: Individual people said Forge comes together, encouraged getting this thing.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: They're going into the schools and doing it.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: Should some of one of these government entities or sub entities under the link's not a government entity thought of that?
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, but the fact that we don't have as much vocational training in the schools or sending the kids out there?
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: I think the number is 30, 32% of people who work the factories live in the Golden Triangle, and then 30% split up among the counties, which is just an embarrassingly low number.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: You can build as many factories as you want you know, if the people aren't working there.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: That being said, man, a lot of our business, a lot of our gas stations, a lot of our houses are only here.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I'm only here because enough of those factories were built and that the city is successful enough because of that.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Well, not to roll a live grenade into this conversation and to acknowledge that we're three white guys sitting at a table.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Race relations and race division in Columbus specifically, it comes up a lot.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: It came up a lot during the campaign.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: People talk about it.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: How much of that is driving Columbus's politics and maybe its challenges, and how do you think that should be addressed and dealt with?
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: I mean it's a tough fight over years and you've you've got an elected city council.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: You mean stephen jones dad and rusty and rusty green's dad couldn't go to school together.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: So it's not something that is thousands a year old.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Harry sanders is a racist and it was five years ago Check on my watch and he backed it up after he had a chance to do it.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: Generally speaking, a lot of that stuff, when you come into the greater discord of the world, really has more to do with class than it does with race.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Like you cross the county line over in Alabama and a lot of people don't like white poor people and the city is somewhat naturally segregated geographically.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: You've got a quote wrong side of the tracks, bad side of the tracks.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: One misconception that I see more so on the white community side than the black community side, and we have overlapping communities.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: You've got arts community, news community, all this other stuff is that all the African-American politicians are on the same side.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Politicians are on the same side and if this election didn't show it, nothing will but like.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: There are big divisions and you know, not everybody's holding hands and super happy every single week and not every vote has to go just along racial lines.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: You know, when Keith came into office, mickens and the two white councilmen voted lock and step for about six, eight, for about five council meetings and then, once everything kind of broke apart, then it started going the other direction.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: So you know the solution for that man.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: That's such a huge question on what you do.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: What I mean is is suspicion of the other.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: How big of a factor is that in?
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: You know, everybody's sitting around wanting essentially the same thing a better.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: Columbus a better city.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: But if you think you have the answer and the other people are the problem, regardless of who's doing that, I mean, how do you address that?
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: How do you attack that in an effective way that brings people to the table and just doesn't leave victims?
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: lying around.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: I mean this without kissing y'all's butt.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: I think podcasts help, I think discussions help.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: I think people going to events together help.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: There are many events that I've helped with charity stuff that just happen to be all white folks or happen to be all black folks and it's a little odd for me, coming from New Orleans, where it was a little better, you know the race relations thing.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: But then as an adult when I go back and look at it, I was probably headed on with rose-colored glasses.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: You know, like I mean, one of the Supreme Court justices went to my high school.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: She's pretty conservative and David Duke was in my neighborhood.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: You know like this is, it's everywhere, and obviously Facebook during COVID and stuff really brought out some of the worst of those discussions, but it's getting people in the same room and talking.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: I'm glad the Crate Foundation is being a little more community, like more active down here.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: I think they have an event coming up in July but like Crate up in Northeast Mississippi has made some headway with that, literally just by having nonprofit leaders in the same room, you know to have discussions as far as an organized plan to fix it or get through it.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: You know we're in the deep South.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Like I remember, when I moved here, caledonia was still on federal probation, like you know, I didn't know till probably a month after my kids started at heritage that I looked at the name of the school.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, that's what it was.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, like that's the blissful ignorance I had about it and that is, you know, it's in people's memories and there's defensiveness on both sides of like, oh, you're not.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: And then I think if people like you know you have a different reaction to public facing Stephen Jones than private Stephen Jones, you know, and that's probably with the whole community.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: You know I saw multiple comments and I will unfriend people who are negative or I won't block people on Facebook, but I posted that Ms Ethel became the thing.
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: There were multiple negative comments that were like typical Columbus.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: I'm like what are you talking about?
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: It was a six.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: Well, what are you talking about?
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: It was a six over.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Well, what do you think about that pick?
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I know there was some discussion with Jason getting on there, but they usually lead towards an elder statesman, so it was going to be Rusty or Ethel.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Rusty or Ethel, yeah.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's just a tradition in most of Mississippi.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: It's like you've served some time.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: You get on there as get on there.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: As far as the vice mayor, you know it depends how much the mayor travels or if Stephen gets hit by a bus or something.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: You know the council kind of has the power anyway.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, her vote has the same amount of weight, whether she's the vice mayor or not.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and you know I can tell you I see it more so in Starkville politics.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: But, like you know, there's local business people and Lowndes County would be a good example too.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: There's local business people that have a lot more influence than on the council, than the council.
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: You know a little less in the city here, but and it's not overbearing, but I'm just saying like there's some powerful people in both cities that are, you know, about pulling strings, but you know they want something done that gets done.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: What'd you think about Tuesday on the whole, that that looked like a campfire meeting man.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Looked like a campfire meeting man.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: Well, you've got to remember again, I went to go visit Steven.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: He was pulling out a thing and I don't know.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: I know Roderick a little, I don't know Greg.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: I talked to Rusty a decent amount, but I know Vaughn from being on boards.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: But they did have a day and a half of talking to each other before they were counsel.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, there was nothing nefarious, yeah, yeah.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Well, nothing controversial on that agenda either.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so just wait and then, like there's always going to be power positioning and other sort of stuff on on any council.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: Um, I'm excited about Jason Spears being in there.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Just cause it.
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: Whether any financial stuff looks sketchy or not which some of that is reality over the last 20 years and some of that is branding over the last 20 years he's going to be there checking the books and I know Jason is not a big fan of borrowing money.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: So when I moved to town and this may be getting some unlikes on Facebook I used to tell people I'm socially liberal Leave me alone Like 1991.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: Libertarian, leave me alone, not the modern movement, and I said fiscally conservative on a local level, but we live in Mississippi.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: Twenty-five percent of people live in poverty.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: It's higher in Columbus and Lowndes County.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: Twenty-six percent of people their primary source income is from the government.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: That's half and that includes Lowndes County Works for the sheriff's department, works for the government.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: That's a lot of money reliant on some of the cuts that are happening on a national level and that's something that I fear and, as a realtor, not a pitch wise, but like the national average for USDA and FHA loans and VA loans, government backed loans 8 to 10%.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: It's cutting close to 60% in Lowndes County.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: It's higher in the counties around us other than in Starkville, like that's a big deal.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: That means we essentially have a pretty low income, you know.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: That's the reason we're.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: None of us, including Starkville, will have a Red Lobster or Sam's Club or Target anytime soon, you know.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: Now look, I said Target.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: I'm getting in trouble.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Now Tupelo's getting a Target.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: Tupelo's you know, for as much as my wife and three teenage daughters complained about us not having a Target, we got a whole lot of Target stuff in my house and a lot of Target boxes They'd figure out a way.
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: And now, at least now you know, after five years ago, when they fixed the internet sales tax, like you know, like Kevin Stafford said at the meeting, like we got $1.2 million coming from the internet sales tax, I think that was honestly a big burden, probably for three or four years before the state got that figured out, especially in Columbus, on how much money they were losing.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that of the 30 some odd million that they've got in existing debt right now, over 80% of that is old road paving debt.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and they were.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: I mean some of that, I do agree, but every county does the.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: You know it's paving on election year thing.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: That's set.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: It's literally set in asphalt.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: It's literally set in asphalt.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: It's not set in stone.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: And they've made some progress on that.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: I was very critical when I was the media.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: I'm like, do they really just take the six wards and just split it up when Ward 5, not just in Stevens defense, but two of the wards are 48% of the roads?
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: Right, it's crazy.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Or that could be 47.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know how the number changes.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Kevin told me like every year it changes.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: I'm like, how does it?
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: Is it roads?
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: And uh, I'm a fan.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: Uh, going back to the libertarian thing is that we have too many roads.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: I do think we have too many roads in most of the County jurisdictions here where you have blacktop roads leading to three people's houses.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: But, um, you know, I like nice roads and I don't want potholes in them.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't realize this and it wasn't, uh, steven who said I believe it was Keith, keith Gaskin Um, I was.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: I brought the whole Remax team or team went down to new Orleans once and I mean like they stopped outside of a hotel and looked at the roads where there are three foot craters on every street, and to me it was just like, and Keith said he's like, you know, you went to bed.
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: You joke about it, you went to the bed of sounds of gunfire every night and you couldn't drive 50 miles an hour on any city street because the car would get destroyed.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: And it's never changed.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: So my perspective of here is that it's still just magical, like oh, the roads are all right.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: They're not that bad.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I'm very defensive on Facebook not of the city or the county or anybody of when you blame somebody for something like a pothole or a traffic circle that you blame the right person or you call and at least let them know, because I do have people who are like one of them was mad at Keith about a pothole and I'm like, did you call him?
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: Did you tell anybody?
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: Did you do anything?
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: And part of the reason I know so many politicians is I may have complained about 9-1-1 this morning to Trip Harston.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: He's on a boat somewhere and I'm like I had an issue with 9-1-1.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: It wasn't a great experience.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: It could have been better.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: If you don't speak out, they don't know.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: And our town and county is the king of the squeaky nail gets hammered or rusty door or whatever happens.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: Like the people who complain, like they don't know If nobody else shows up to tell them that you're angry about something.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Or if you get 50 people in that room and say I, you know if the parade's a good example and something.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: I probably disagreed with the council of giving $5,000 for the parade.
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: I think the kids at Columbus high getting to be deserved it.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: You know if they, if they if they went to be and y'all have been complaining the school's bad for so long.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: They got good.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: You can't criticize that.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: They threw a parade.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: I don't know why it cost $5,000 to do it, but I'm also a guy who runs events for a cost of nothing all the time.
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: But everybody was kind of excited and the kids were of recognition.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: But if that vote, if everybody knew that vote was coming, and you get 50 people in the room to argue against it, then it might go down.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: It doesn't always work, you know at least.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: But when a lot of people call one council person or call one mayor and bother them a lot, a lot of things get changed that way.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: That's also sometimes where you see, like weird obscured laws and rules come up Right.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: I can tell you, with the MSMS debacle, when I went down, the difference between phone calls and talking to some of the representatives down there in person was exponential.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: A lot of them had no idea what was going on.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I want to cut in here.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: You sell houses in Columbus, you sell houses in Starkville.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: You're somewhat ingrained in both communities and you've got a child that graduated from MSMS and another one who's going.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Where does MSMS need to be?
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: If it's not in Columbus I have to be pragmatic and you all know me off the mic I try to be very pragmatic and fair, almost to a fault Probably should be in a grassy field in Madison, mississippi, and it would be a new $100 million building.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: Geographically I'm a big fan of place, but in the same respect that people are like, oh, you can't find any good help in Columbus People in Starkville say that too and then you go to Harvey's and you go to Zachary's and you see these amazing employees and you're like, ok, well, there is a way to get help.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: And that's how I feel about that that if we're going to make the argument that MSMS should be fixed and changed, moving it 20 miles down the road and spending the money it's not saving any money.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: It should be centrally located, because a lot of PAs now that I'm trying to advertise for MSMS, a lot of people from the coast don't.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: It's just too far for them.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: It's not centrally located.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: It's a tough call to do that, because the biggest beauty that I've realized learning this it's essentially since Jermaine McConnell, right before him, 12, 13 years ago, to a fault, the Mississippi Department of Education has absolutely ignored MSMS.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: That's the beautiful part about it, like the vote before them.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: The fix, the despicable fix of them just passing this thing without even talking about it was that an 18-month name change from, like the Tupelo District, becoming a District of Innovation to a District of whatever.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: It took them 18 months to look at their pack and it took them six weeks to do this.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: And that's the best part about the campus.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: The beauty of it is the grass is tall and they've been left alone.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: The best teachers in the country have been left alone to teach kids and help them, and I'm a little worried.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: The more money gets involved, the more there then it becomes more of a government, more of a regulated situation, and especially in the fervor right now you know, right now, at every level and this is whether you like it or not, it is a conservative mindset is they're taking the money from the federal government, cutting it down, putting the bearing on the state, and then they can shrug their shoulders and say, oh, the state didn't do this, including the Department of Education.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: There may be a day where they start calling for no Mississippi Department of Education.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: It may be a day where they start calling for no Mississippi Department of Education.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: It may be next year, but right now the preeminent thought from Delbert and everybody down is that we have too many.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: One of the perceived as the dumbest states in the country has too many colleges and too many high schools, and we may agree with that until they consolidate.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: The last standing ones is Columbus and Lowndes County.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine the rage there?
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: If you want to talk about race relations.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: That would be crazy, but they think we have too many schools.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong, I don't know.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: I the first time my kids started MSMS, I really I was like every school should be this way.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: To your point.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Speaker Jason White reported to the Magnolia Tribune that he is expecting one big quote, bold and uncomfortable end quote bill, and in that bill you could potentially see mandatory consolidation of school districts and I'm sitting there looking at that thinking that's going to be the Trojan horse to rip MSMS out of here.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: Well, there was a you know the Speaker of the House.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Last year they had a plan on a three districts MSMS like schools, you know and get rid of the residential part of it.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: The residential part's magic.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: My daughter's headed up to Ole Miss.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: God forgive everyone in our area, but she is not the least worried about living at a you know dorm or whatever, and that's just an advantage that not everybody's going to have.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: Now in the Northeast that's pretty common for schools like that.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the W is on the top of the chopping block because the dirty part was said out loud.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Slim had the best laid column about it in the middle of that where they said they want to get rid of two of the African-American colleges or historically black colleges.
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: Well, you can't do that.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: First You've got to get rid of the W and let state take it.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: I know that from everyone I've talked to.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: State was resistant, didn't care about MSMS at first.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: But when they were kind of told like you're getting the W, they're like you know, we'll try to help, but they really they just got kind of slapped on the wrist, which was you know.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: They lost several million in funding this year.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I've got a question for you.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Just and I know that, and I mean this with due respect just give you an opportunity to speak about this in a mic.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: I know you get this question some over the years and I know that it's a question that grates you because we've talked about it privately, but you're a realtor.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: You're a philanthropist and a brander.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know that sometimes people ask you or assume that those two things, that that the philanthropy feeds the the other one, and that's the point.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: How do you respond to that?
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: Oh, like saying that, like I'm only doing it to get stuff.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're only doing it for the house, it's OK.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: They can say it all they want, the people that know me.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: The vast majority of the stuff I do, that I'm involved with, isn't on Facebook and doesn't have a logo on it.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: The Mississippi Real Estate Commission is part of that fault, because realtors aren't allowed to advertise anything unless, specifically, they put REMAX partners or whatever brokerage they're with on every single thing.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: You know we had parties for years at my house before I was a realtor.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: It didn't say the packet on there, I get it.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: People are usually suspicious of that because that's how they'd be.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: People are cynical.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah and honestly before.
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: If you would like to go back a year and a half before I was on WCBI doing stuff, you're going to have a hard time finding a selfie of me or a picture of me.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: I made my business taking pictures of other people.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: I'll tell everybody where it's from.
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: They can look it up and do it themselves.
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: But Gary Vaynerchuk's a big popular guy here at our only Web 3.0 studio in Mississippi.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: Josh knows is a big fan of him.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: He's a personal development guy.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: I got to meet him right before I got into real estate and he said I see you posting all this good stuff about the community.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: If you just take pictures of other people instead of pictures of yourself and promote them, things will work out.
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: In the aggregate, you'll win.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: I yeah, the better the town does, the better it is for me, um, but you know that's going to be part of any single thing ever, even if you show up at events.
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: You know, and I'm sure there's critics, but you know if you sit down with me or I can help you with your charity, let me know.
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: Like it's not, I'm not dishing that much money out.
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: You know the two biggest checks I write a year to the if the Chamber of Commerce wants money for like all the events and I said, but other than that, they're $200 checks.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: You know, if there's an event at Zachary's, I'm giving as much money as anybody, but it's a lot of $200 and $300 checks, a lot of cookies.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: If you catch me and your kids selling cookies I'll try to buy them all.
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: But you know I'm addicted to that spirit and so is my wife of like I call it given the perfect Christmas gift, even if everybody doesn't know, or that feeling of helping somebody like that and at some point, probably during covet, it switched to where I could raise more money.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: If I'm involved as opposed to you, know I I've said it publicly.
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: On the wcbi thing, I've written a letter to y'all two years ago about the.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Columbus hero volunteer thing.
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: Vaughn's a great example y'all two years ago about the Columbus hero volunteer thing.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: Vaughn's a great example.
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: In the council I can name 30 people who do more volunteer stuff than I do, who don't get credit for it at all, and they're just phenomenal group of people and I have told y'all.
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: Y'all could take me off the list if you want, because you can only win so many cool awards and it doesn't help your ego, it doesn't help your business, it doesn't do anything.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: If you're not, if you don't believe you're not doing stuff because you want to do it, it's not going to work.
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: The worst post ever you're going to see and you'll never find one of me which is hashtag blessed.
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: I managed to fit in four hours at the homeless coalition today, like when you see that you like it, you might be liking it with your middle finger subconsciously, but people have to learn that on their own whether they want to do it, and I've been.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: I've been in a lot of dark rooms and bad situations trying to help people and the thing that turned, especially with Zachary's and stuff, is probably more people are coming to me because of they're like I see you doing that.
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: So I definitely get 10 to one phone calls of I see you do all this good stuff.
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: Can you help me?
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: Versus, I see all this good stuff.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Can you help me?
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Versus, I see all this good stuff.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Do you want to sell my house?
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Well, um, do you, um?
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: If you could wave a wand and change one thing in Columbus permanently?
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: for the better.
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: What would it be, man, I don't know.
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: You know I don't want to say people have a negative thing about.
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: Um man, that's just tough right now.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: I'd love for the w to be a brand new campus and ms ms be beautiful.
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: For a purely selfish thing for my kids.
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: Um, man, I don't know.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: Part of it probably goes down to the race relations.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: For 95 of people, there's nothing there.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: They just don't know, they just don't go out in public and and part of that has been my defensiveness of the of the four to situation where there's like oh, they're all black folks and they like each other and they're voting the same way.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: It's not.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: You know, there's there's there's factions in every group of white folks and black folks and everything else.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: And you know, I'm trying as hard as I can.
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: I've tried before to get the this isn't a wish but to get the council.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: The council right now is very supportive of the link and I think Stephen's trying to mend that relationship.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Anything you want to add that we hadn't discussed, I can't think of it.
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: Man, I really would like people to start going to council meetings and supervisors meetings.
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: Just stop in and meet these folks.
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: And there's plenty of public events, especially in this honeymoon period, this first six weeks.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: They are all going to show up to everything.
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: You honeymoon period, this first six weeks, they are all going to show up to everything you can get to them.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: That is such a neat fact.
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: My dad was exceptional at it in New Orleans.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: I knew every mayor that was in New Orleans.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: We had no money, but like he would go and shake Ray Nagin's hand or Mark Morial's hand when I was a little kid, that's amazing.
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: That's a great feature that we have here.
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: Starkville, too, like most college town mayors aren't all that approachable.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: You can find Lynn.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, make a bad comment on her Facebook.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: You'll meet her.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: Like, she'll call you to correct it.
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: She's a big fan as am I about correcting.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: This is why you don't understand why it?
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: Happened and I like that.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: Community leaders too, and get involved in some of the charities and volunteer organizations in town.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: Our United Way.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: What Renee Sanders is doing at United Way I mean they're the fastest growing United Way in the country Like they are just blowing up.
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: She's an effective public speaker.
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: She's good at recruiting, but like if you need some volunteering hours.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: And keeping that thing together when others are closing down.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: Yes, so yeah, and it's going to be more than ever you know, it's a big challenge.
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: A lot of VISTA cuts and that sort of stuff.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to Between the Headlines.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: We've been pleased to have our friend in the studio today, mr Colin Krueger.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you for listening.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: Let's look to the mail today.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: We've got a comment coming in in response to my visit to Juneteenth, none other than Mr Slim Smith, who says Wonderful, of course.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow you'll be talking about black people trapped on the Democratic plantation and how white taxpayers are sick of providing for quote free stuff.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: End quote for lazy black people whose problems are quote real or imagined Good.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: God.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: June 10th is one day.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Who are you the other 364 days?
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I would respond to that, but I think he's already got me all figured out.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, what can I say?
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening, slim.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: And that will do it for today.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: We want to thank our listeners.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: We want to thank our sponsors.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: We want to thank Josh Gillis for allowing us to use his studio.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: That's where we sign off from Hist historic downtown Columbus Catfish Alley Studios.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: If you'd like to participate in the discussion, be sure to email us tips at cdispatchcom or reach out to me on social media, facebook or X at dchism00.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: You guys keep it friendly and in this studio we'll do our best to keep it real.
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: Opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers.
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: No-transcript.