Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / A Local Candidate Is "Upset". Surprisingly, It’s Not About the Streetcar

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A Local Candidate Is "Upset". Surprisingly, It’s Not About the Streetcar · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: And I just have to say. I was listening to
0:02
Speaker 1: KFB on the way in hearing Scott talk about the
0:05
Speaker 1: rabbits and things in his yard. But he did say
0:08
Speaker 1: something mentioned my name, so I'm gonna I'm going to
0:11
Speaker 1: have to comment about it. And he says, I bite.
0:14
Speaker 1: Now why do what did he say? I bite? He
0:17
Speaker 1: was talking about another sinkhole down south a little bit
0:22
Speaker 1: on corn Husker, but he started talking about the sinkholes
0:25
Speaker 1: that could happen downtown and why in the world would
0:28
Speaker 1: we want to put streetcar rails downtown Omaha when we
0:32
Speaker 1: could potentially have a streetcar. And he says, but if
0:36
Speaker 1: I bring up the streetcar, she bites. I heard him
0:39
Speaker 1: say it, so I will say this. You know, just
0:42
Speaker 1: saying I bite is just promoting that name that I
0:46
Speaker 1: have earned of mean Gene. So stop that, Scott vorhees
0:49
Speaker 1: saying I bite. But listen, we would never build a
0:53
Speaker 1: streetcar out in Millard. We're never going to build a
0:55
Speaker 1: streetcar out in Elkorn. The place where a streetcar needs
0:59
Speaker 1: to be built is where a lot of traffic events, restaurants.
1:03
Speaker 1: It's to help people get in around and out of downtown,
1:07
Speaker 1: and it's a catalyst for economic development. So one of
1:10
Speaker 1: these days we're going to have to have a real
1:13
Speaker 1: debate about the streetcar. But the reason, the reason is
1:16
Speaker 1: we're building it downtown is that's where you need it.
1:19
Speaker 1: It's downtown. The other thing is is the reason there
1:23
Speaker 1: is all this construction right now is exactly that issue,
1:28
Speaker 1: and that is they're doing utility work downtown. We have
1:32
Speaker 1: one hundred, one hundred twenty year old sewers and the
1:35
Speaker 1: last thing we want to do is tear up the road,
1:38
Speaker 1: put rails in, close the roads up, get the streetcar running,
1:42
Speaker 1: and have a water main break or a sewer collapse
1:44
Speaker 1: or a sinkhole downtown. So that, indeed, is why all
1:48
Speaker 1: of this utility work is going on downtown in Midtown
1:51
Speaker 1: right now. Now m UDE is doing a lot more
1:55
Speaker 1: utility work and demanding to do a lot more than
1:58
Speaker 1: we originally had planned, and it's added about two years
2:01
Speaker 1: onto the construction. So I understand the frustration with that,
2:05
Speaker 1: but that's exactly why we are doing it. So Scott
2:08
Speaker 1: Vorhees quit saying that I bite.
2:11
Speaker 2: I'll let you guys know if she bites. I haven't
2:13
Speaker 2: gotten bitten yet. No, No, I've try to keep my distance.
2:16
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of like a cat outside. You
2:19
Speaker 2: just don't want to get too close until you're too
2:21
Speaker 2: familiar with it yet.
2:22
Speaker 1: So nobody's ever said that about me before that I bite.
2:25
Speaker 1: But Peyton, what about this weather too? This is nuts. Yeah,
2:30
Speaker 1: it's like a roller coaster out there. You know, this
2:32
Speaker 1: is honestly, and I will say this many, many times.
2:36
Speaker 1: This is the fifth state I've lived in. I am
2:39
Speaker 1: not from Saint Louis. Now everybody will say that I
2:42
Speaker 1: don't live in Saint Louis either, But I have lived
2:45
Speaker 1: in Illinois, Missouri, the state of Washington, Texas, and now Nebraska.
2:51
Speaker 1: And this weather is the around here. It's so roller
2:55
Speaker 1: coaster in the spring. You just don't know what to anticipate.
2:59
Speaker 1: To go from a negative zero wind chill to one
3:03
Speaker 1: hundred degrees and then back again. It's certainly hard to
3:06
Speaker 1: plan what's going to go on. And I have never
3:09
Speaker 1: with the five states I have lived in, and I
3:13
Speaker 1: was born and raised in Illinois, not Saint Louis. Let's
3:16
Speaker 1: bring it up again, shall we, because we might get
3:19
Speaker 1: another comment about it. I only moved to Saint Louis
3:21
Speaker 1: after I graduated from nursing school. And I was an adult,
3:25
Speaker 1: and I really lived in Saint Louis less than ten
3:27
Speaker 1: years of my entire life, and that was because I
3:30
Speaker 1: worked at Saint Louis you as a nurse. But I've
3:33
Speaker 1: never had allergies like I have here in Nebraska, and
3:35
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that has to do with
3:37
Speaker 1: the wind and the changing weathers. So but I love
3:41
Speaker 1: Nebraska and I love Omaha. One call we had yesterday too,
3:45
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention again that said something about I
3:48
Speaker 1: just still want to be the mayor and said to
3:50
Speaker 1: move on and quit talking about Omaha. And let me
3:54
Speaker 1: tell you, I'm never going to quit talking about Omaha.
3:56
Speaker 1: First of all, I worked too hard for twelve years
3:58
Speaker 1: as mayor to improve Omaha and get it where it is.
4:01
Speaker 1: I love Omaha, and I love where we're at right now,
4:04
Speaker 1: and I encourage people to call in and ask more
4:06
Speaker 1: questions about Omaha because that's what people care about when
4:09
Speaker 1: they live here. They care about it. But I know
4:11
Speaker 1: our audiences is ranges, is far, and it's not just Omaha. So,
4:15
Speaker 1: as I said in the opening, really anything goes. We
4:18
Speaker 1: could talk about whatever. This week, We're on Friday, We're
4:23
Speaker 1: going to have Senator Brad von Gillern on the show,
4:26
Speaker 1: and he is the legislator from District four, which is
4:29
Speaker 1: out Melcorn. But he is also chair of the Revenue Committee,
4:34
Speaker 1: and because of everything going on in Lincoln, the budget
4:36
Speaker 1: will probably be voted on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
4:40
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a great time to have
4:42
Speaker 1: Senator von Gillern into the studio, so he will be
4:45
Speaker 1: with us on Friday. He's going to be in the studio.
4:47
Speaker 1: We're going to talk a lot about what's going on
4:50
Speaker 1: in Nebraska in the legislature with the budget and getting
4:53
Speaker 1: this budget shortfall settle. So that'll be a good show.
4:57
Speaker 2: Yes, that caller you were talking about yesterday, you're a
5:00
Speaker 2: good mayor, but I don't want a street car. That's
5:02
Speaker 2: why I didn't vote for you. And I think this
5:04
Speaker 2: is a good segue. We got two callers on the line.
5:06
Speaker 2: Let's get to them real quick and in regards to
5:09
Speaker 2: the streetcar, so we can get these out of the way.
5:11
Speaker 2: And then I wanted to ask you about another candidate
5:13
Speaker 2: race that's going on and see some campaign work. But
5:16
Speaker 2: let's get these callers out of the way first. The
5:18
Speaker 2: first one on the line here comes from Adam Adam,
5:21
Speaker 2: You're on news radio eleven ten KFAB with jeanst Author.
5:25
Speaker 3: Good morning, Yeah, thanks for taking McConnell. Good morning.
5:28
Speaker 4: I was calling.
5:29
Speaker 3: I was always interested with the streetcar idea came out
5:32
Speaker 3: of you. I've in other cities in places. Why didn't
5:36
Speaker 3: we build a streetcar from the airport past the stadium
5:41
Speaker 3: into downtown. It seems like that would be a better
5:45
Speaker 3: plan than just right down the.
5:47
Speaker 1: Middle of city, right, you know, thanks for that question.
5:51
Speaker 1: And the reason that we picked the route we did
5:54
Speaker 1: is because we really want to build up downtown, our
5:58
Speaker 1: urban core, downtown and town, bring more businesses in. We
6:02
Speaker 1: have lost over twenty thousand residents in downtown since about
6:06
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. And to bring more business, bring more people,
6:10
Speaker 1: we need to look at the transportation in our urban core,
6:14
Speaker 1: and we need to look at parking. And that's one
6:16
Speaker 1: of the main reasons we move forward with the streetcar,
6:19
Speaker 1: and one of the main reasons the Urban Core Committee
6:22
Speaker 1: out of the Greater Oroma Chamber of Commerce with their
6:24
Speaker 1: number one recommendation to build a streetcar because downtown Omaha
6:28
Speaker 1: right now, half is dedicated to parking, and at any
6:32
Speaker 1: given time half is vacant so we are really exchanging
6:36
Speaker 1: businesses and building and residents and people for parking. So
6:40
Speaker 1: we had to address that issue. It's going to be
6:43
Speaker 1: a catalyst or economic development, and we want that in
6:46
Speaker 1: our urban core. And it already is. It's already successful,
6:49
Speaker 1: and it's a way to bring people in around and
6:52
Speaker 1: out of downtown to reduce the congestion and the need
6:56
Speaker 1: for parking. Now, having said that, you're absolutely right about
7:00
Speaker 1: the airport, and we already applied for and received a
7:04
Speaker 1: grant to do a study to do the second route
7:08
Speaker 1: of the streetcar and actually go up towards the airport.
7:12
Speaker 1: And we've also looked at a southern route to add two.
7:15
Speaker 1: And I think when now that we are expanding our
7:17
Speaker 1: arena convention center, you know there's a two hundred million
7:21
Speaker 1: dollar expansion going on now. You can't see it too
7:24
Speaker 1: much if you go down there, if you drive down
7:27
Speaker 1: Tenth Street or go to the ballpark, you really can't
7:28
Speaker 1: see because it's all out back. It's all going east
7:32
Speaker 1: towards the river. But adding a lot more rooms for conventions,
7:37
Speaker 1: a lot more business rooms and rooms that people can
7:39
Speaker 1: hold bigger conventions in there. So wouldn't that be great
7:43
Speaker 1: if we are having a lot bigger conventions that people
7:46
Speaker 1: from out of town could come in, come to the airport,
7:49
Speaker 1: jump on the streetcar and take it right down to say,
7:52
Speaker 1: to tenth and Capital, right there where the hotels are.
7:55
Speaker 1: And so we are already studying that route. The difference
7:59
Speaker 1: is is if we did extend it to the airport
8:04
Speaker 1: to pay for it the way we are paying for
8:06
Speaker 1: it now using the revenue from the economic development would
8:10
Speaker 1: be different because there wouldn't bring it all up through
8:13
Speaker 1: North Omahon to the airport. There isn't that There isn't
8:17
Speaker 1: as much development potential, I will say that. So we'd
8:20
Speaker 1: have to look at another way to fund it, and
8:22
Speaker 1: that's what we're looking at now. Where would the route be,
8:24
Speaker 1: where would the rails be, and how would we fund it?
8:27
Speaker 1: And my goal would always be how would we fund
8:29
Speaker 1: it without having to raise taxes? And this first stretch
8:33
Speaker 1: of the streetcar, it's not going to affect your property taxes,
8:36
Speaker 1: so that's why. But yes, we need to look at
8:40
Speaker 1: other routes for it too. So this is just the
8:42
Speaker 1: initial route of the streetcar, but a north and south
8:45
Speaker 1: route would be perfect.
8:47
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot that can be done and
8:49
Speaker 2: in the Omaha. On Omaha streetcar dot org, you can
8:52
Speaker 2: see a nice map and it shows potential future outlets
8:55
Speaker 2: for expansion. I got one more question in regards to
8:58
Speaker 2: the streetcar here. This comes from Jeff be in the
9:00
Speaker 2: same vein. Jeff, you're on news radio eleven kfa B
9:03
Speaker 2: with Jean Stouth.
9:05
Speaker 1: Good morning, Hey.
9:07
Speaker 5: There, I I'm gonna turn my radio off. I just
9:12
Speaker 5: want to thank you or congratulate you on your new position.
9:16
Speaker 5: I voted for you every time as mayor. But just
9:19
Speaker 5: like you kind of stated that the street car as
9:21
Speaker 5: it came up was just such a such a sore
9:25
Speaker 5: subject because I just personally could never make sense of it.
9:28
Speaker 5: To me, it just seemed like, with like the bike lanes,
9:31
Speaker 5: how we installed those maybe grand ideas, you know, lofty plans,
9:37
Speaker 5: and when you every time I drive down the street
9:40
Speaker 5: and I look at the bike lanes, the unused bike
9:42
Speaker 5: lanes choking the streets, it's just it's just aggravating and
9:46
Speaker 5: the and the street car just seems like it's amplifying
9:49
Speaker 5: that same logic the same people that came up with
9:53
Speaker 5: the plans or using the same criteria. But I don't
9:56
Speaker 5: know if they're using good data. So when it comes
9:58
Speaker 5: to the street car, I'm how many streetcars are going
10:01
Speaker 5: to be moving, how many people are on can get
10:04
Speaker 5: on a streetcar? And how long would it take to
10:07
Speaker 5: go from the beginning of where the streetcar starts to
10:10
Speaker 5: where the end is in Bath Because when I hear
10:14
Speaker 5: about like the congestion and things like that, it just
10:17
Speaker 5: seems like the time that it would take to go,
10:21
Speaker 5: you know, to park your car, how much parking is
10:24
Speaker 5: where they start, you know, is it congested there? And
10:27
Speaker 5: it just seems like it's just a non starter when
10:31
Speaker 5: it comes to people being willing to take that much
10:34
Speaker 5: time to drive to ride a streetcar versus just taking
10:39
Speaker 5: your vehicle down and finding the market space and going
10:42
Speaker 5: home at the end of the night when you're hired,
10:43
Speaker 5: instead of climbing on a streetcar, driving someone we're else,
10:47
Speaker 5: walking to another parking lot and then driving home right.
10:51
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it is hard to understand for a
10:54
Speaker 1: lot of people that haven't been in a city that
10:56
Speaker 1: used a streetcar, But I will tell you we did
10:58
Speaker 1: a lot of studying of other cities that built streetcars
11:02
Speaker 1: before we move forward with this, and the best example
11:05
Speaker 1: I always use is Kansas City because it's our closest neighbor.
11:08
Speaker 1: And there was a lot of complaints, a lot of skepticism.
11:11
Speaker 1: When they were building the streetcar. There was construction, there
11:14
Speaker 1: was businesses being affected negatively, just like it's happening here
11:18
Speaker 1: in Omaha. But it is so wildly successful in Kansas City.
11:23
Speaker 1: Now they're extending it down to country Club Plaza. I
11:26
Speaker 1: know they even looked into it. Could they extend it
11:29
Speaker 1: out to the airport, which is a long way away
11:31
Speaker 1: in Kansas City. But every city that we studied, the
11:35
Speaker 1: projection of the economic development along the route was way
11:40
Speaker 1: surpassed to what they originally anticipated. In ours is two.
11:44
Speaker 1: You know, we first anticipated or estimated that there would
11:48
Speaker 1: be about two billion dollars worth of new development along
11:53
Speaker 1: the streetcar corridor, which we consider three blocks and then
11:58
Speaker 1: six blocks from the where the rails are. Two billion
12:02
Speaker 1: dollars worth of new development within the first fifteen years.
12:06
Speaker 1: When I left office, there was already about one and
12:09
Speaker 1: a half billion, and the rails aren't even in the ground.
12:12
Speaker 1: People are building along the streetcar route anticipating it, and
12:16
Speaker 1: they are building along the route because it's permanent. You
12:19
Speaker 1: don't see people doing a lot of economic development along
12:23
Speaker 1: a bus route because it could change tomorrow. But because
12:26
Speaker 1: the rails are permanent, they know that street car is
12:29
Speaker 1: going to be there. They are building, and they are
12:31
Speaker 1: building fast and furiously from downtown all the way out
12:35
Speaker 1: to where the west terminus right now is thirty eighth Street.
12:39
Speaker 1: But we stopped it. We were going to stop it
12:41
Speaker 1: at forty second. But the Medcenter really wants to extend
12:44
Speaker 1: it all the way to Saddle Creek for a big
12:46
Speaker 1: benefit to them. And so each car, the cars are ordered,
12:51
Speaker 1: we got a pretty good deal on it. Each car
12:53
Speaker 1: will hold anywhere from one hundred and twenty to one
12:55
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people in bicycles too, So I mean,
12:58
Speaker 1: that's a big car. A lot of people asked me
13:01
Speaker 1: in the very beginning, why don't we just buy some
13:03
Speaker 1: more ali the trolleys. Well, Ali, the trolley is no
13:06
Speaker 1: comparison to what a modern streetcar would be. And you know,
13:09
Speaker 1: I've got to bring up the conversation about Warren Buffett,
13:12
Speaker 1: because mister Buffett made a wrote a letter to the
13:15
Speaker 1: Public Pulse and said he did not support the street car. Well,
13:18
Speaker 1: it got on the front page, and of course it did.
13:21
Speaker 1: And I went in and talked to Warren Buffett in
13:23
Speaker 1: his office, and he's delightful if people don't know him personally.
13:28
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, I buy, I buy, I
13:30
Speaker 1: buy trains and railroads. And he said, that's mass transportation.
13:34
Speaker 1: And he said streetcars just don't work for mass transportation.
13:38
Speaker 1: And I said, but we're not using it for mass transportation.
13:41
Speaker 1: We're really using it to get you in and around
13:44
Speaker 1: and out of downtown and for a catalyst for economic development.
13:47
Speaker 1: So it depends on what's going on too, about how
13:50
Speaker 1: those will run and how long it will take. But
13:53
Speaker 1: I'd say about an average of twenty minutes for the
13:55
Speaker 1: whole route. But again, if you live in west Omaha
13:58
Speaker 1: like I do, the city is, for example, is going
14:01
Speaker 1: to buy the three garages right now that are at Midtown.
14:04
Speaker 1: So what I could do from west Omaha, because I
14:07
Speaker 1: live in Millard, drive to wards downtown like I'm going
14:10
Speaker 1: to a ballgame, park my car at very low cost
14:13
Speaker 1: at the city owned garages at Midtown, hop on the
14:16
Speaker 1: street car. It's free, there's no charge, and I could
14:19
Speaker 1: do whatever I want. I could go down to the ballpark.
14:21
Speaker 1: I could go to the Creighton game. I could go
14:23
Speaker 1: out to dinner, to a bar whatever and then come back,
14:26
Speaker 1: get in my car and go home. And that's the
14:28
Speaker 1: benefit really of us using the street car. But I
14:31
Speaker 1: will tell you all the cities that we looked at,
14:34
Speaker 1: the streetcar was a big advantage, and once it was
14:37
Speaker 1: there and people learned how to use it, they loved it.
14:40
Speaker 2: Well, Warren Buffett could be dropped off at the front
14:43
Speaker 2: door with a motorcade and get the entire street shut
14:45
Speaker 2: down if he really wanted to go somewhere.
14:47
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean, And I told him,
14:49
Speaker 1: he said he did need to use it. I told him,
14:51
Speaker 1: I said, he said, I just wrote a letter to
14:53
Speaker 1: the public Pulse. And I said, mister Buffett, you write
14:55
Speaker 1: a letter to the Pufflay Pulse.
14:57
Speaker 5: It's gonna get on.
14:57
Speaker 1: The front page of the World Herald. But you know,
15:00
Speaker 1: I mean, a bright, brilliant man. I love Warren Buffett.
15:03
Speaker 1: I mean, he's great to talk to and obviously very
15:06
Speaker 1: very smart. But he just had it in his mind
15:08
Speaker 1: that we were going to try to use this for
15:10
Speaker 1: mass transportation. What I will tell you is it will
15:13
Speaker 1: never go out to Elkhorn, it will never go to Millard.
15:16
Speaker 1: It's just it's not needed to go out that direction.
15:19
Speaker 1: And where in the world would we put it. We
15:21
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about light rail, and that's a potential.
15:24
Speaker 1: If we did any light rail out west or maybe
15:27
Speaker 1: even onto Lincoln, it would probably go down Center Street.
15:31
Speaker 1: But that is something that is a huge expense and
15:34
Speaker 1: it's something that has been talked about. Though.
15:36
Speaker 2: Okay, let's move on here. We got a different topic.
15:38
Speaker 2: Enough of the street car.
15:41
Speaker 1: Here we go.
15:42
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay. This email comes from Cindy. Okay, this is
15:47
Speaker 2: this is what she says. I recently viewed a TV
15:49
Speaker 2: commercial from a Nebraska candidate for Congress, Denise Powell, and
15:52
Speaker 2: this exact commercial she used the exact phrase pod, I'm
15:57
Speaker 2: p O two times.
15:59
Speaker 1: She didn't say, she didn't say pod. We all know
16:01
Speaker 1: the word, yeah, we all know.
16:03
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts about the use of this language
16:05
Speaker 2: in an ad campaign, especially by a woman claiming to
16:08
Speaker 2: be worried about her family's future. My personal opinion is
16:11
Speaker 2: that it is irresponsible, opinionated in a huge turnoff as
16:14
Speaker 2: a voter.
16:15
Speaker 1: Well, I would agree with you on that one. I
16:17
Speaker 1: heard that commercial for the first time yesterday, and you know,
16:21
Speaker 1: I was in four campaigns and I was very very
16:24
Speaker 1: careful about how I presented myself in a commercial in
16:29
Speaker 1: what I said, and when I saw that commercial, it
16:32
Speaker 1: was to me it was cringeworthy. I would not use
16:36
Speaker 1: that word. Like I said, she doesn't use the word pod.
16:39
Speaker 1: She uses the word that I don't like to use
16:41
Speaker 1: in public. Some people use it all the time. It's
16:44
Speaker 1: not that offensive to some, but I felt like it was.
16:47
Speaker 1: And she starts out with saying I am pod and
16:50
Speaker 1: then she finishes it at the end. This is a
16:53
Speaker 1: congressional candidate that is using that, and I think her
16:57
Speaker 1: message could have been much better expressed, especially on a
17:02
Speaker 1: TV commercial that we anticipate we will see over and
17:05
Speaker 1: over then using that word. I agree with you on
17:08
Speaker 1: that one. Is there, it's crude.
17:09
Speaker 2: Is there any context in which that would be more okay?
17:13
Speaker 2: As far as the campaign goes.
17:15
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, you might be out
17:17
Speaker 1: in a debate, or you might be doing a town
17:19
Speaker 1: hall that you get a little annoyed or aggravated, and
17:24
Speaker 1: that word may slip. I tell you I've done. I've
17:28
Speaker 1: brought this up before, but I did over seventy five
17:30
Speaker 1: town hall meetings and they weren't all the most pleasant.
17:33
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been yelled at every issue and called
17:37
Speaker 1: just about everything. But I'd never respond using that word.
17:41
Speaker 1: Are those other words that you don't want to use
17:43
Speaker 1: in public are never on the air. I just think
17:46
Speaker 1: it sounds a little crude, and I cringed when I
17:49
Speaker 1: heard it.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, last question here, This comes from Pat. Following
17:55
Speaker 2: the last mayor's race, we learned that your chief of
17:57
Speaker 2: staff was lifelong buddies with Mayor Ewing.
17:59
Speaker 1: Who are him?
18:00
Speaker 2: It seems reasonable to ask about a possibility of conflict
18:03
Speaker 2: of interest on his part during the election. Do you
18:06
Speaker 2: have any comments on that?
18:08
Speaker 1: You know, I kind of want to not really, Okay,
18:10
Speaker 1: I kind of want to avoid it because but I
18:12
Speaker 1: will tell you. Tom Warren, I've known him for years.
18:16
Speaker 1: He was chief of police in the city of Omaha.
18:20
Speaker 1: I did appoint Tom Warren. He was with the Urban League.
18:23
Speaker 1: I did appoint him to the Mecca Board. I knew him.
18:25
Speaker 1: I thought he would be a good representation on the
18:28
Speaker 1: Mecca Board, and he accepted that. I had Marty Beelick
18:32
Speaker 1: as my chief of staff for eight years. Marty Bilick
18:36
Speaker 1: is a great person. If you don't know him, he
18:38
Speaker 1: was worked with Tim Dunning with the Sheriff's Department, he
18:41
Speaker 1: was deputy sheriff, and he did a great job for me,
18:46
Speaker 1: and he had brought in that knowledge of law enforcement
18:49
Speaker 1: and crime that helped me a lot. When Marty decided
18:53
Speaker 1: not to come back for my third term, we were
18:56
Speaker 1: talking in my office and we were thinking who could
18:59
Speaker 1: fill that role that Marty did and had a background
19:01
Speaker 1: in law enforcement and would able to help me with
19:04
Speaker 1: those issues, and we all thought, well Tom Warren, So
19:07
Speaker 1: I asked ing. He thought about it just for about
19:09
Speaker 1: a day and agreed to come on. So he was
19:11
Speaker 1: with me for four years. There is no doubt that
19:14
Speaker 1: him and John Ewing knew each other a long time ago.
19:19
Speaker 1: I think they went to grade school together, and so
19:22
Speaker 1: he did the new mayor, Mary Ewing ask him to
19:26
Speaker 1: stay on. Other than that, you know, Tom Warren did
19:31
Speaker 1: notify me the day after the election and told me
19:34
Speaker 1: that he was going to be Mary Ewing's chief of staff.
19:38
Speaker 1: So that decision you'd have to really ask Tom about.
19:42
Speaker 1: I don't really see a conflict of interest present, nothing
19:46
Speaker 1: that I could prove anyway, So that's just kind of
19:50
Speaker 1: how it happened. He worked. I thought he worked very
19:52
Speaker 1: well for me. I was surprised because you know, and
19:56
Speaker 1: I've said this before. Maybe in business, when a new lead,
20:00
Speaker 1: a new president, or a new CEO comes on, maybe
20:03
Speaker 1: in business, do you keep your same staff because their experience,
20:07
Speaker 1: they know what they're doing. But not in politics, that
20:11
Speaker 1: just doesn't happen. It would be like Donald Trump keeping
20:15
Speaker 1: all of Biden's staff. I mean, when I became mayor,
20:18
Speaker 1: Mayor Subtle staff was gone and I was able to
20:22
Speaker 1: hire the everyone, I mean, all the directors, every person
20:27
Speaker 1: in my office I was able to hire, with the
20:29
Speaker 1: exception directors of Bob Stuby in public Works, he's been
20:33
Speaker 1: in the city since two thousand and five and chiefh
20:35
Speaker 1: Mater that it was Mayor Subtle that appointed chiesh Mater.
20:39
Speaker 1: But everybody else I appointed, I interviewed, I made sure
20:42
Speaker 1: that they agreed with excuse me, with what our focus
20:46
Speaker 1: and what our vision was. But Mayor ew And kept
20:49
Speaker 1: everybody on. And that really is unprecedented for something like
20:53
Speaker 1: that to happen. Now, are they good, Yeah, they're really good.
20:56
Speaker 1: I mean all those directors are great, all the staff
20:58
Speaker 1: in the Mayor's office are good. But it is highly
21:01
Speaker 1: unusual and highly unprecedented that that happens. That before we
21:04
Speaker 1: get into more calls. I wanted to address something. It
21:09
Speaker 1: was in the Midlands Voices in the Omaha World Herald,
21:12
Speaker 1: and that happened on Sunday, and it was by Nebraska
21:15
Speaker 1: State Senator Kathleen Cauf, and I want to talk about
21:18
Speaker 1: a little bit of what she said in her article.
21:21
Speaker 1: I like Senator Cauf. I think she's very smart, she's
21:25
Speaker 1: very conservative, she's doing a good job. But she did
21:28
Speaker 1: say a few things in this article that I have
21:31
Speaker 1: an issue with because I don't think it's accurate at all.
21:34
Speaker 1: And so, first of all, I want to say that
21:37
Speaker 1: the Nebraska legislature now is having a real time of
21:41
Speaker 1: it because there is a big budget shortfall and that
21:44
Speaker 1: budget is going to be voted on either Wednesday or
21:46
Speaker 1: Thursday this week. That's why I mentioned earlier that I'm
21:50
Speaker 1: going to have Senator von Gilleran on on Friday. He
21:52
Speaker 1: is chair of Revenue Committee, and it is so important
21:56
Speaker 1: that this budget gets approved and that the budget gets back. Now.
22:01
Speaker 1: The one thing that Senator Kyuth did say, and this
22:03
Speaker 1: is about property taxes, and I think we all know
22:06
Speaker 1: that the number one issue with the governor is to
22:09
Speaker 1: keep property taxes lower or get them lower. The number
22:12
Speaker 1: one issue with citizens of the state in Nebraska and
22:16
Speaker 1: in Omaha is property taxes and high property tax values
22:20
Speaker 1: and what they are paying. And what Senator Kyuf is
22:23
Speaker 1: saying in her article, in fact the headline which she
22:26
Speaker 1: didn't write, but it says, Nebraska's budget is broken and
22:30
Speaker 1: let's take our next steps to fix it. I agree
22:33
Speaker 1: with that. But the property tax levy is local. It
22:37
Speaker 1: is not done by the State of Nebraska. And now
22:40
Speaker 1: what she is saying in her article is that we
22:44
Speaker 1: need to decrease spending. And she what she is saying
22:48
Speaker 1: is that local property taxing entities like the City of Omaha,
22:53
Speaker 1: like the school districts like the nrds like Douglas County,
22:57
Speaker 1: are spending more money than they bring in. And what
23:01
Speaker 1: she says in this budget then is that we are
23:04
Speaker 1: spending more than we bring in and then the state
23:08
Speaker 1: has to make up the difference between the revenues they
23:11
Speaker 1: gained from property taxes and their expenditures. Let me clarify
23:16
Speaker 1: this because she also goes on and says you need
23:19
Speaker 1: to understand how things currently work in the system. And
23:23
Speaker 1: she will say that the local authorities like schools and towns,
23:28
Speaker 1: meaning cities too. She says in this article, they set
23:31
Speaker 1: their budget and then they established the levy rates to
23:35
Speaker 1: raise the money through property taxes. That is not accurate.
23:39
Speaker 1: Now it might be for the school districts, because you know,
23:42
Speaker 1: I was on the Millard School Board for eleven years.
23:45
Speaker 1: When I was on the Millard School Board, the difference
23:48
Speaker 1: between the local property taxes and state aid was about
23:51
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty. Then it really changed with the state
23:54
Speaker 1: that they wanted the schools more reliance on property taxes
23:58
Speaker 1: and less on state aid. Now they're saying school districts,
24:02
Speaker 1: you got to cut back on your property tax. She's
24:04
Speaker 1: saying the same. She's grouping the City of Omaha in
24:07
Speaker 1: with that too, and that's not correct. That is not
24:10
Speaker 1: how the City of Omaha does the budget. Now, I
24:12
Speaker 1: did the budget for twelve years. Mary Eweing is going
24:15
Speaker 1: to be working on the twenty seven budget soon. And
24:18
Speaker 1: what we do with the City of Omaha is we
24:20
Speaker 1: will first get an estimate of all of our revenues
24:24
Speaker 1: that are coming in. And the primary revenue that we
24:28
Speaker 1: have with the City of Omaha is not property taxes.
24:30
Speaker 1: The primary revenue that we have with the City of
24:33
Speaker 1: Omaha's budget is sales tax. We have more sales tax
24:37
Speaker 1: coming in than we have property tax, so it goes
24:40
Speaker 1: sales tax, property tax, and then restaurant tax. Those are
24:44
Speaker 1: our three main sources of revenue. And there are others.
24:47
Speaker 1: I mean, there's licenses, permits, there's sewer use fees, there's
24:51
Speaker 1: bond sales. All of that goes into what our budget is.
24:55
Speaker 1: We get make an estimate of what those revenues are
24:58
Speaker 1: going to be, and then what I did is I
25:00
Speaker 1: sat with every single city department and I assume, Mary
25:03
Speaker 1: you going will do the same and help the departments develop
25:07
Speaker 1: their budget based on the revenue estimates that we have.
25:11
Speaker 1: We never come up and do a whole budget and
25:14
Speaker 1: then come back and say, Okay, now we've got to
25:16
Speaker 1: set the property text and we're going to raise it
25:18
Speaker 1: to fund this budget. This is what her article says,
25:21
Speaker 1: and that is not the truth. That is not how
25:23
Speaker 1: we do it. My goal with every single budget that
25:26
Speaker 1: I did was we have our estimates of what our
25:29
Speaker 1: revenues will be for the next year. But my goal
25:32
Speaker 1: always was and if we can lower the levee, we will.
25:36
Speaker 1: And we went through every single department, whether it was planning, library,
25:40
Speaker 1: public works, line by line, really line by line with
25:45
Speaker 1: the department director, even fire and police. We went by
25:48
Speaker 1: it line by line to say is this really accurate?
25:51
Speaker 1: Is this what you need? Is this funding your department appropriately?
25:55
Speaker 1: Now when she says in her article that we really
25:58
Speaker 1: need to reduce our spending, and she will say over
26:00
Speaker 1: and over, we do. Don't have a revenue problem, we
26:03
Speaker 1: have a spending problem. The city of Omaha is two
26:06
Speaker 1: thirds of the general fund budget is fire and police,
26:10
Speaker 1: two thirds of the general fund budget, and for employees
26:14
Speaker 1: it's about seventy two or seventy four percent, I would
26:17
Speaker 1: say of the entire general fund is for employees and benefits.
26:22
Speaker 1: So then where do you cut? Is my question. And
26:26
Speaker 1: if you are saying, well, you need to cut your budget,
26:29
Speaker 1: you need to cut your spending, well, then that would
26:31
Speaker 1: mean do we cut the police department? Do we cut
26:34
Speaker 1: the fire department? You know, and you've got to keep
26:37
Speaker 1: in mind too that police, fire, and then a big
26:41
Speaker 1: civilian are unions. They are public employee unions, and we
26:44
Speaker 1: could debate that or talk about that in another show.
26:47
Speaker 1: Is there still a need for public employee unions? But
26:50
Speaker 1: they are under contract and you're obligated to pay what
26:54
Speaker 1: is in that labor contract. And so with seventy four
26:58
Speaker 1: percent of the City of Omaha general fund budget going
27:01
Speaker 1: to personnel and fire and police. The police budget is
27:04
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixteen million, the fire budget's one hundred
27:07
Speaker 1: and forty one million. Those are huge budgets. But if
27:10
Speaker 1: they're saying cut your budget, where do you cut with personnel?
27:14
Speaker 1: Do you cut public works and not have enough to
27:16
Speaker 1: plow snow and fill potholes?
27:18
Speaker 2: You know how people feel about that exactly.
27:20
Speaker 1: I mean, do you shut down your swimming pools? Do
27:22
Speaker 1: you shut down your library? I mean, it's where do
27:25
Speaker 1: you cut? And I think I tried to be as
27:27
Speaker 1: fiscally conservative as I could be. I did lower our
27:31
Speaker 1: levee five times when I was mayor lowered the levee.
27:35
Speaker 1: But again keep this in mind, the City of Omaha
27:38
Speaker 1: is only twenty two percent of your entire property tax bill.
27:42
Speaker 1: So when I lowered the levee a few pennies, it's
27:46
Speaker 1: lowering the levee of twenty two percent of your entire bill,
27:49
Speaker 1: So you don't see a big benefit in your pocket.
27:52
Speaker 1: The school districts, again are sixty two sixty three percent
27:56
Speaker 1: of your total property tax bill. If you really want
27:59
Speaker 1: to see those property taxes go down, You've got to
28:02
Speaker 1: look at all the taxing entities. So to say that
28:06
Speaker 1: that we come up with this budget and we're spending
28:09
Speaker 1: too much, and then we go back to the state
28:12
Speaker 1: and say, well, we're going to raise a levey and
28:14
Speaker 1: now you need to give a state aid to make
28:16
Speaker 1: up the difference. That's not true with cities. We have
28:19
Speaker 1: not received state aid from the cities in decades. Unless
28:22
Speaker 1: you want to consider the gas tax. But still the
28:25
Speaker 1: gas tax, we get money back on the gas tax,
28:28
Speaker 1: but it's from people in Omaha buying gas and it
28:32
Speaker 1: goes to the state. Now the sales tax also, sales
28:35
Speaker 1: tax in Nebraska are in Omaha seven percent, the state
28:38
Speaker 1: is five and a half, and then we have a
28:40
Speaker 1: local option of one and a half. Total is seven percent,
28:43
Speaker 1: but we get that local option. But the rest of
28:46
Speaker 1: the sales tax, it's hard to tell how much goes
28:48
Speaker 1: to the state and how much comes back to the city.
28:51
Speaker 1: So our primary source of revenue in the city of
28:53
Speaker 1: Omaha is not property tax for the city, and it
28:56
Speaker 1: is sales tax, followed by property tax, followed by the
28:59
Speaker 1: restaurant tax. And let's let's talk about the restaurant tech
29:02
Speaker 1: someday too. I could spend a whole hour on that.
29:04
Speaker 2: We definitely, we definitely have some emailers about that, and
29:06
Speaker 2: people have called in before. But you're making this really
29:09
Speaker 2: easy on me. This one comes from Jason. What does
29:12
Speaker 2: you think about the new police contract? How difficult is
29:14
Speaker 2: it to negotiate these contracts? And this comes from a
29:17
Speaker 2: soon to retire city employee.
29:18
Speaker 1: It is so hard to negotiate those contracts because number one,
29:23
Speaker 1: the mayor should be representing the taxpayers with a labor contract.
29:28
Speaker 1: The unions represent the unions. But at the same time,
29:31
Speaker 1: the way I looked at it is those unions, those
29:34
Speaker 1: members of those unions are city employees. And you know,
29:36
Speaker 1: it always seems like there's a fight going on between
29:39
Speaker 1: the mayor's office and the labor unions. And I would
29:42
Speaker 1: tell the members of the unions, we're not your enemy,
29:45
Speaker 1: we're your employer. You know we should. What I wanted
29:48
Speaker 1: is a very fair contract for our employees, fire police
29:53
Speaker 1: to civilians, but I also had to look out for
29:56
Speaker 1: the taxpayers. I have not read the new police contract.
30:01
Speaker 1: I've not read it in its entirety, so I hate
30:03
Speaker 1: to but I can and talk about it at a
30:05
Speaker 1: later time, but they are very very difficult to negotiate
30:08
Speaker 1: because there's so many specifics with it. This is a
30:12
Speaker 1: shorter contract. I preferred longer contracts. This is a two
30:16
Speaker 1: year contract, and I preferred the longer ones because it
30:19
Speaker 1: does give you some stability doing the budget because you
30:22
Speaker 1: know what's in that contract. You know what those raises
30:24
Speaker 1: are going to be. Like I said with police, I
30:27
Speaker 1: mean we have nine we budget for nine hundred and
30:29
Speaker 1: six police officers and that's a huge budget for employee
30:33
Speaker 1: and benefits. If you have a longer contract, it gives
30:36
Speaker 1: you some certainty and some stability to look into the
30:39
Speaker 1: future to see where your budget's going to be then,
30:43
Speaker 1: So you know, I do know that one of the
30:46
Speaker 1: things that Mayor Ewing talked over and over and over
30:49
Speaker 1: about during the campaign, because I stood there next to him,
30:52
Speaker 1: is saying I want our police and fire to pay
30:55
Speaker 1: less into their pensions. I don't see where they are
30:59
Speaker 1: paid less into their pensions with this new contract, but
31:03
Speaker 1: I will say this, it's almost impossible to do that
31:06
Speaker 1: because those pensions need to be fully funded. They're still underfunded,
31:12
Speaker 1: and if the employees pay lesson to the pension that
31:15
Speaker 1: means the taxpayers need to pay more, and I wasn't
31:18
Speaker 1: willing to raise taxes or to do that, so I'll
31:22
Speaker 1: be interested to really read through this contract. But they're
31:25
Speaker 1: very difficult, and you know what they should be because
31:28
Speaker 1: you are funding this with taxpayer money, and every budget
31:31
Speaker 1: should be difficult because you're funding it with taxpayer money.
31:35
Speaker 1: You should struggle with them. If you're mayor, I mean,
31:37
Speaker 1: and you start, I will tell you it takes a
31:39
Speaker 1: long time. You start negotiating or planning and developing the
31:43
Speaker 1: city budget in January. It's not approved by the city
31:46
Speaker 1: council until August, so you spend a lot of time
31:50
Speaker 1: developing that budget and getting it just right. Because again
31:54
Speaker 1: I always would tell myself, it's not my money I'm spending,
31:57
Speaker 1: it's the tax payers headed to the library.
32:00
Speaker 2: Like I said before the break, Doug does not like
32:02
Speaker 2: the look of it, and he's not the only one.
32:04
Speaker 2: I think it looks pretty good. I like all the
32:06
Speaker 2: glass on the side of it.
32:07
Speaker 1: It's got a very very different look. Like I said,
32:10
Speaker 1: the architects, I should look this up. They were either
32:13
Speaker 1: from Sweden or Denmark. It's you will love it when
32:17
Speaker 1: you go inside because it's so light with all of
32:20
Speaker 1: that the glass in there, it's really beautiful inside. But
32:24
Speaker 1: I know what you mean. It has a really different
32:28
Speaker 1: look for the corner of seventy second in Dodge, and
32:31
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are saying, wow, does
32:33
Speaker 1: that really fit how the area looks. But I will
32:36
Speaker 1: tell you when Crossroads is done, which it will be done,
32:39
Speaker 1: there is a new owner of the corner of seventy
32:42
Speaker 1: second in Dodge, the northeast corner, and gonna do a
32:46
Speaker 1: new development there. You know where pet Co is, So
32:49
Speaker 1: once that whole corner gets developed, I think it's going
32:52
Speaker 1: to fit in more with a more modern look of
32:55
Speaker 1: that corner. But yeah, people are iffy about the design
32:59
Speaker 1: of it. I've heard. Do you know that the original
33:02
Speaker 1: design it's changed from the original design. Originally it was
33:05
Speaker 1: going to look and it was even more artsy. It
33:09
Speaker 1: was going to look like an open book, like a
33:11
Speaker 1: book that was opened, So it had kind of a
33:13
Speaker 1: wavy look to it, and the outside change in the
33:17
Speaker 1: architecture as they were developing and designing it. But it's
33:21
Speaker 1: got a real unique look to it. But I think
33:23
Speaker 1: the important part is is you know when you go there,
33:26
Speaker 1: you could park easily there's green space outside, it's beautiful inside,
33:33
Speaker 1: and it's real functional inside, much much better than our
33:36
Speaker 1: old central library that was the Dale Clark and that
33:39
Speaker 1: will be our central library. People are going to love
33:42
Speaker 1: it once they see it. And I have to remind
33:44
Speaker 1: people although this was primarily privately funded, it's about one
33:48
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight million dollar library the city put
33:51
Speaker 1: in twenty The rest is private. It will be a
33:53
Speaker 1: City of Omaha library owned and operated by the City
33:57
Speaker 1: of Omaha with City of Omaha employees.
33:59
Speaker 2: Let's see what Rob has to say about it. Rob,
34:01
Speaker 2: you're here on news radio eleven to ten kfab with
34:04
Speaker 2: Jean's author.
34:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, good morning, good morning. You know, before we get
34:09
Speaker 4: to the library, which I think looks like a stack
34:12
Speaker 4: of books, which is fine, you mentioned this Denise.
34:15
Speaker 5: Powell thing, which I did not know about.
34:18
Speaker 4: Your successor has some people wearing shirts that say our
34:22
Speaker 4: mayor is dope yes or a dope or does dope.
34:26
Speaker 4: I'm not sure where it is, but either way, I
34:28
Speaker 4: don't think just kind of wanted your take on that.
34:31
Speaker 1: I you know what, I find it quite offensive. There
34:34
Speaker 1: was one staffer that is new that was not my
34:37
Speaker 1: staffer that works in the Mayor's office and some of
34:40
Speaker 1: the things she posts I find quite offensive too. The
34:45
Speaker 1: other day she made a comment and said, this is
34:49
Speaker 1: my dope blank mayor and the blank. I'm not going
34:55
Speaker 1: to say it on the air, but it rhymes with bass.
34:58
Speaker 1: Get it my dope like mayor and the parade in
35:02
Speaker 1: north Omaha this summer, she had a T shirt on
35:05
Speaker 1: and was passing out T shirts that said Mayor Ewing
35:09
Speaker 1: is dope. And you know that is a slang that
35:13
Speaker 1: I just don't use. I think it's it's something I
35:18
Speaker 1: would never do. I don't like to use that word.
35:22
Speaker 1: You know, maryor Ewing also wears T shirts that says
35:25
Speaker 1: I am the coolest mayor, and he has quite a
35:28
Speaker 1: few of those. I guess I wasn't a cool mayor
35:31
Speaker 1: because I sure didn't have any of those. Holy cow,
35:34
Speaker 1: I would not do that either. But but I I
35:37
Speaker 1: find using that word. I it's just a slang word
35:41
Speaker 1: dope that I don't use, and I would not want
35:44
Speaker 1: somebody to call me a dope.
35:46
Speaker 4: Mare Well, I concur Chris Jerrem has some T shirts
35:50
Speaker 4: for you, but we won't go into that.
35:52
Speaker 1: Oh that's a that's a day I want to forget.
35:56
Speaker 4: Okay, But anyway, going back to the library again, you know,
36:01
Speaker 4: most cities would fall all over themselves if you know
36:05
Speaker 4: one eighth of a library cost of being donated. Here
36:08
Speaker 4: we have seven eighths. And of course there's a downtown,
36:12
Speaker 4: the riverfront. Were people just pounding at your office door saying,
36:17
Speaker 4: shut up and take my money because it seems like
36:20
Speaker 4: it seems like they just handed over money left and right,
36:24
Speaker 4: which I greatly appreciate our philanthropic community. I just wanted
36:27
Speaker 4: you to talk about that in at all.
36:29
Speaker 1: Sure, And you know most of that came from Heritage Foundation,
36:31
Speaker 1: which is one of our biggest you know it used
36:33
Speaker 1: to be the leader of that foundation was Walter Scott,
36:37
Speaker 1: who everybody knows about when he was still alive. But
36:40
Speaker 1: they really had They're great, and they really have. They
36:44
Speaker 1: identify where their focus and where their interest is and
36:48
Speaker 1: they identified when I was still mayor that focus that
36:52
Speaker 1: they wanted to move forward with was the Omaha Public
36:55
Speaker 1: Library System and they wanted to know what they could
36:58
Speaker 1: do to help out. And they did a study and
37:01
Speaker 1: it was not paid for by the city, but they
37:03
Speaker 1: did a study on all of our libraries on what
37:06
Speaker 1: they could do what is needed in the libraries. And
37:09
Speaker 1: one of the things that came out of that was
37:11
Speaker 1: to build a new central library where the Dale Clerk,
37:14
Speaker 1: which was the downtown library and considered the central library,
37:18
Speaker 1: you know, in that study showed that it was you know,
37:21
Speaker 1: it was not functioning well, it was old, it was unsafe,
37:25
Speaker 1: there was a lot of issues with like I said,
37:27
Speaker 1: with safety and being functional. And even the folks with
37:30
Speaker 1: the library and the library director said they wish that
37:33
Speaker 1: we would have a different downtown library or central library,
37:36
Speaker 1: that the Dale Clark just wasn't working anymore. And so
37:38
Speaker 1: we built a new downtown library, made the decision philanthropy
37:42
Speaker 1: made the decision where to put the new central library
37:45
Speaker 1: at seventy second Dodge, because that's really kind of the
37:48
Speaker 1: heart of the town right now. And so they made
37:52
Speaker 1: the decision where they wanted to put it. But and
37:55
Speaker 1: then they worked with me and they worked with the
37:57
Speaker 1: city to say, this is really what we want to
38:00
Speaker 1: focus on. And you know, my goodness, how lucky we are,
38:04
Speaker 1: how lucky we are that we have philanthropy like we
38:06
Speaker 1: do in the City of Omaha that wants to put
38:09
Speaker 1: that much of their money into something like a central library.
38:12
Speaker 1: And also I got to bring up the Riverfront Parks.
38:14
Speaker 1: Four hundred million of private money in our city park downtown,
38:20
Speaker 1: the Riverfront Parks. It's just amazing and we're so lucky
38:23
Speaker 1: that we have that in our community.
38:25
Speaker 2: All of your questions, comments, concerns, your email, your radio talkbacks,
38:30
Speaker 2: we hold onto these. We collect them, so just because
38:32
Speaker 2: we don't get them today, we hold them and we'll
38:34
Speaker 2: get to them a different time. I have a last
38:36
Speaker 2: question today. It comes from somebody who is the host
38:39
Speaker 2: of the Big Show in the afternoon.
38:41
Speaker 1: Oh no, not Chris Baker.
38:44
Speaker 2: And he says, my question, does Jean's hair always look
38:47
Speaker 2: this good? Or is it just a good hair day?
38:49
Speaker 1: Well, it's lucky I have hair, Chris Baker, because I
38:54
Speaker 1: think you are minus a few strands. I'm looking at
38:58
Speaker 1: him right now across the hallways, talking away. He doesn't
39:00
Speaker 1: know we're talking about us right now. But well, hey,
39:04
Speaker 1: thanks for saying that about my hair. Really, you know,
39:06
Speaker 1: I got criticized about my hair during COVID. People were
39:09
Speaker 1: saying that that I was going to beauty salons getting
39:12
Speaker 1: my hair done with the beauty salons were closed out. No, no,
39:16
Speaker 1: I don't do much with my hair. I'm pretty low
39:19
Speaker 1: maintenance type of gal. You know, I get up, wash
39:21
Speaker 1: my hair, I'm done.
39:23
Speaker 2: Hey that's a luxury. That's a luxury. Hey, this is
39:25
Speaker 2: the KFAB comment line. You're a host of the show,
39:27
Speaker 2: Jean Stouth. I'm Peyton Highlocked, producer of the show. After this,
39:31
Speaker 2: we got Clay and Buck until two o'clock and then
39:34
Speaker 2: Chris Baker from two to six. After that, Glenn Beck,
39:37
Speaker 2: this is the KFA B comment line.
39:39
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and thanks for being with us today.