Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mayor Marty Small Sr. Talks Child Abuse Trial & Acquittal, Filing Lawsuit, Health Welfare & Safety Of Atlantic City + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Mayor Marty Small Sr. Talks Child Abuse Trial & Acquittal, Filing Lawsuit, Health Welfare & Safety Of Atlantic City + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up. Every day I wake up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Wake your ass up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Morning, everybody.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: It's DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: The Breakfast Club. Law and the Rose is here as well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: We got a special guest.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: In the building.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Who's been crying the last couple of weeks because of
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: his football team. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the mayor
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of Atlantic City.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: That was so petty.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Mayor Marty Smalls.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you to the Breakfast Club. Yes, sir. To
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: your worldwide audience. And as we say, it's a great
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: day in the city of Atlantic City. Can we say
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: great day?
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Great day.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Are you vegan now or something, man? You look slim.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: You no more Kelsey's? I mean, I'm still Kelsey's, just
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: watching what I'm eating. I got to stay in fighting shape, bro. Absolutely.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Well, the Eagles are banged up a little bit, so
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: he's trying out next week for the Eagles to help.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Well, let me just say this. Let's address the 800-pound
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: gorilla in the room. I got a lot of money
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that's not busy November 8th. And I got a seat
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: next to me with one of my season tickets if
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you want to come to the game. Now, this is
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: in front of the world. Talk to me.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I'm not a gambling man.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You sound like you just tested a cow. So you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: scared to come to South Philly? Just tell the world that.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Nah, I love Philly.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: And I got money that's not busy. I got money
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that's not busy on October 20th when we come to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the garden. All my money's busy.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I got six kids. All my money's busy.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Nah, it's all good.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: We can, you know, throw a little bet on it.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I'm a little mad at it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: We'll talk.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: But how are you doing, man? How's everything?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Man, I'm blessed by the best, man. Life is good.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: The city's good. You know, the family's good. You know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: after all we went through, you know, they say tough
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: times don't last. Tough people do.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: So break down what you had to go through.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: We seen you all over the news at one time.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: And they tried to arrest you. They threw all types
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: of lawsuits and allegations against you.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: So what happened? Break down for people that don't know.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: So it... How I sum it up is my daughter,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you know, went through her first love. And we knew
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the kid wasn't right for her. And sometimes they don't
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: know at the time. And it was a situation where
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: it was a lot of politics behind it. My wife
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and I control over $ 600 million in taxpayers' money with
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: me being the mayor and my wife being the superintendent
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of schools. That's, like, unheard of. And, you know, the contracts,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the jobs... you know, things like that, you know, putting
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: people in position. And they know that they can't beat
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: me in an election. So this was a way to
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: take me out. But the people of Atlantic City stood
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: tall before that thing ever even went to trial when
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I got the most votes ever of any mayor. And
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not bragging about it, but under indictment. And we
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: won re-election for another four-year term. But my daughter was
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: dealing with this kid. Like I said, we didn't like it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: So he was basically in our house without being in
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: our house. He had took an iPad that my daughter
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: gave and he was just recording conversations and it was
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: catching intimate, you know, conversations in the house, conversations with
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: our daughter, nothing where we're like hitting her. So they,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: they charged both me and my wife with child abuse,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: child abuse, endangering the welfare of a child. And for
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: two years, we were drugged through the media as child abusers.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And they talked about having these, quote, 13 audios. But
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: what it was, it was a 50-minute argument in the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: house between me, my daughter, my mother-in-law, my son, my wife,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: went to work early that day. And what they saying
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was on the tape was not on the tape. It
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: was a traditional family argument. I was calm inside. using
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the voice that I'm using now. And I'm like, you know, Jada, like,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you can't talk to me that way. You can't do this.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: My daughter at the time, she was 16. She just
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: turned 18. You didn't have to be calm, though. Like,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that's your child.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: You're disciplining your child and you're raising your voice.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: My parents raised that voice at me. I raised my
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: voice at my kids.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: But I was calm and even the audios wasn't public
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: until trial. And even during the first day of trial
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: on break, the supporters that was in the gallery at
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: a packed gallery every day, they was like, yo, I
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: got so much more respect for you. You didn't yell.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: You didn't hit her, you know, on and on. So
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: they try to sensationalize the case. They said that I
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: hit my daughter upside her head with a broomstick, knocked
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: her out. They made, and they don't know how, it's
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a cultural thing, like how we grow up. My mom
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and family members told me, like, I brought you in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: this world, I'll take you out.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: My mother killed me once. So one of the things
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that they said, which was troubling, and I was nowhere
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: near my daughter inside my house. I was standing by
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: my bedroom door and I drew an imaginary line. I said,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: come across this line and I'm going to earth slam
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: your ass down the steps. They made that a big thing.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: They charged me with terroristic threats. Um, my TSA had
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to get, you know, revoked because of those charges. I mean,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I got it back. You can't threaten your kids with
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: wrestling moves. Right.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: But that's the thing.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: But clearly I didn't mean it. I didn't, I didn't
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: touch it. So, you know, we had to get drunk
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: through the mud. Um, I went to trial first cause
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: they wanted me, um, the, the amount of time that
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: they offered my wife in jail. They told her that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: he's going to give her a five year street. And
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: then before trial, they came to me and said, well,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: all this will go away. You'll get probation, but you
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: got to give up your seat. And that's what it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: was all about. That's what it's all about.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: We forget about, at least to me, in my eyes,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: we forget about the attack on black men that was happening.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I feel like there was a real attack on black men.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And I watched the show when y'all was talking about,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you know, the situation. And that's fair game. It's the news.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't have no problem with it. So
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I went to trial. And on December 18th, I got
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: acquitted on all counts. So they still had my wife
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and the principal, who they said was hiding the abuse and,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you know, to protect us. But that principal is like
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a family member. She's like my wife's sister. She's like
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: my little sister. My kids call her Aunt Mandy. And
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: one of the things that was sensationalizing, you know, really
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: pissed a lot of people off They raided my house.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So they gave the principal and I, we had the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: same exact search warrant. What they did with her, they
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: went to the high school and said, give me your phone,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: give me your Apple Watch, let us search your infotainment
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: system in the car. And this is over an alleged
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: child case. They come to my house in a driving rain.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: We was taking my mother-in-law to the hospital who lived
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: with us at the time. And 20 officers, guns, battering rams,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and more was in my house for hours. And that
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: allowed people to speculate because unfortunately, and I'm not casting
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: any aspersions on anyone, but Atlantic City mayors have had
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: issues with, quote, corruption. So that's what people started to think. Oh, well,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: this is where all the housing authority money is. Oh,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: he got drugs. He got guns. He got this. So
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I called my attorney. I said, nah, this ain't that.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: You know, we're going to have a press conference. And
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: we going to let the people know that this is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: over child matter, that they took laptops, phones, and a
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: note that my daughter wrote, basically saying like, y'all too
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: hard on me. I want to do what I want
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to do. But you know, you're 16 years old. So
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: all of that was all over the news. They had
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: three offices while all the rest of them was inside,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: outside my house with guns, like they protecting Buckingham Palace,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: you know? Then that allowed people to speculate. So then
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: we had that press conference on April 1st, 2024, ironically,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: April Fool's Day, to tell people that this was over
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: child matter. And my attorney said that what they did
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to him, they're going to pay for because they shouldn't
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: have stuck their nose into the small family household. And now,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know, everything is public. You know, jurors were saying
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the same thing, like, what a joke, what they did
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: for us. But, you know, we worship an awesome God.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, and I remember
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: talking to you, you called me to check on me
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and you said, your wife said, this is probably over
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: little boy. And that's exactly what it was. And, you know,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: ever since then, we've been back. The family is back.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: More importantly, my daughter's back home. The relationship is, you know,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: shout out to Jada. She's a freshman at Kane University.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: doing very well, and now.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: You know Dad was right about the guy.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: I was going to say, how y'all fix all that
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: with you and your daughter, but once she find out
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: that it ain't what she think it is.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: That was right. And that's what it was. She, as
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: much as I was rushing it because I took the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: stand in my own defense, and I looked those jurors
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: in the eyes and I said, when I win this case,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm going to get my daughter back. And
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it was rough at first because she was gone for
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: like almost two years.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But she moved out.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: She moved out on her own.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Or the state made her move out?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: No, she moved out. And that's the thing that people said.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: They was like, well, if it was so bad, why
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: didn't DC PNP remove her from the house? then? And
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: then here's the crazy part. And I know y'all are
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: parents in here. Imagine sitting down having dinner with your child. And,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you know, she's talking about the court system and different things.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And she's like, she's not coming to court. And I'm
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: explaining to her, yes, you are. Because she testified against us.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: You know, with the boy and, you know, being in
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: her head and the prosecutors tricking her to testify and
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: on and on and on. And she was like, you know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: she didn't want to come to court that they told
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: her and they like coerced her to say certain things.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: But that was difficult. But again, as as the leader
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: of my household, the leader of the city, I said
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I had to get my daughter back.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: Psychologically and emotionally, how did that impact you when your
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: daughter had to testify against you, even though you know
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: she's being manipulated?
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: At that point, she was 18 at that point, right?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 17. It was tough sitting in court and watching
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: your daughter. And it was a dark time in her life. Mentally,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that was a tough time for everybody. But like I said,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: we having dinner one day and she's talking about the court.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: She's not coming. I'm like, Jay, they're going to make
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you testify again. And I said, well, you need to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: really change your thinking. Meaning thinking two days later, I
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: get hit with another charge. Witness tampering. Like you see
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the politics in the game. Witness tampering.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: Oh, because she said to them that y'all had a conversation.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And I said she needed to switch up her thinking.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: They said, well, oh, he told you to change his story. No,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: you actually were telling her she got to come to court. Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: So how did you forgive your daughter after that? Because that's...
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: That had to be difficult.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was difficult, but, you know, we're better
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: for it. You know, everyone, you know, we all went
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: through it. And we all as a family, you know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: forgave each other for what transpired. And like I said,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: my daughter's thriving. As a matter of fact, I'm going
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to go see her after this. I love that. You know,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: she's doing really well. And, you know, she sent me
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: a note one night when she first came home, my
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: first night home. She said, like, Dad, thanks for not
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: giving up on me. Two nights later, it was more detailed.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: And I shared that note when I invited people to
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: our graduation celebration. It's like, okay, what we went through
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: was tough, but this is all worth it. And a
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: lot of females that I grew up with who were
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: in similar situations, they said the same thing. They said, oh,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: she going to be all right. Once she realized, once
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: she wake up and on and on and on. And
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: now moving forward, We got statements from detectives in the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: prosecutor's office that the prosecutor said, this is my big case.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: We at war. And when I take down Marty Small,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be the next New Jersey attorney general.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And we have statements from officers in there saying that
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: they've never seen anything like this, the way that they
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: handled my case. And we also have a statement from
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: my daughter that basically said, and this is when it
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: really hit me. So the day before my swearing in,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I told you I got acquitted December 18th, the day
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: before my swearing in. We went to Macy's to get
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: her an outfit for my swearing in on January 1st
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: for the new term. And she said to me, she said,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I said, it feels so good to be back. How
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you feel? She said, well, dad, I'm not going to lie.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: She was like, I think that you're only doing this
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: because of the verdict. And I looked at her. I said,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you damn right. I said, you want to know why?
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Because they would have put me under the jail. She's like, what?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I said, Jada, they was trying to. She was like, well,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: they ain't tell me that. They told me that, Jada,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: we just want justice for you. Neither one of your
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: parents are going to jail. And my daughter was so
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: sick over having to come to court. They made her
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: come to court. She vomited three times on the day
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: that she took the stand for seven hours. They gave
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: her medicine, which they wasn't supposed to do. And like
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I said, they told her that nothing was going to
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: happen to us. And furthermore, if you don't come, you're
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: going to jail. And here's the kicker. They had 24-hour
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: surveillance around the boyfriend's house. No threat was made to
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: my daughter, no anything. They said they wasn't threatened. My
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: daughter will go to the store. They will follow her.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And the detective said that they've never seen anything like
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: this because even the prosecutor himself tried to paint us as,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you know, modern day gangsters. He walked around with a bodyguard.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You're the top law enforcement official in Atlanta County. And
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: he walked around with a bodyguard because he said the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: smalls are going to get me. So all of this
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: is public. We just put our judgment in. We're suing
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: them for $ 50 million. And, you know, like I said,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: we got a story to tell. And, you know, to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the people in the great city of Atlantic City that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: supported us and rallied beyond us like no other, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: we're forever grateful because, you know, we stand up for
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: our people. We give people opportunities, and they really showed
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: up and showed out for us.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Like you just said, you're suing the prosecutor. Why isn't
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: being found not guilty enough for you?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Nah, because you got to pay for that. Like I
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: was on every major newspaper throughout the country. Y'all know,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: y'all in the media, once it hit the Associated Press,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: it's everywhere. Front page, Atlantic City's mayor, superintendent, you know,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: charged with child abuse when it wasn't no abuse. It
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was just a disagreement, you know. And, you know, listen,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I believe in the justice system. Unfortunately, I've been through
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: some things and came through them every single time. But nah,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: this was next level low. Now you're involving my child.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I agree with you too.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: Also, these allegations can destroy a reputation, even if you're
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: not convicted.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because still to this day, the haters in the
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: blogs and the comments that don't want me and my
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: wife in the position that we are, it's Every day, oh,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: you child abuser. I could be talking about the new
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: football field that I just gave the Atlantic City Dolphins. Oh,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: child abuser. Oh, they still guilty. They this, they that.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So we still got to live with that. And listen,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: how do you get your reputation back? The people of
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Atlantic City saw right through it. You got to pay
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: for that. That verdict came back in minutes, I read. Yeah.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: How do you, because I saw in the lawsuit that
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: you guys say that they were working with Republicans to
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: try and get you out of your seat as well, too.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: So do you name who from the Republican Party exactly
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: they were working with? Is that like a criminal thing
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: that can also be?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, it can be once they dig. We didn't
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: name specifics, but we know who's who. People that's just
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: trying to take us out the seat. And like I said,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: we're doing a great job. My platform... has been first
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and foremost taxpayers. And I looked at the video on
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: my way up here. When I first came on The
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club in 2020, I think it was about January 2020,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I became mayor in October, took the last mayor's place.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I was the city council president. And I talked about
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the different things that I wanted to do. And looking
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: back on it now, October 3rd was my seventh year mayorversary.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And I said the taxpayers are first and foremost. The
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: great city of Atlantic City, under my leadership, Moody's and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Standard & Poor's now has us at investment grade. We
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: had six straight tax decreases. We would have had seven
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: this year, but the state made us raise taxes 2%
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: because we got transitional aid. You know, we're fiscally responsible.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: We're number one in the state in tax decreases since 2020,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: according to DCA's own data, which is Department of Community Affairs.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: We're number one at 13.7%. The youth and seniors are
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: our two most precious resources. We came in and revamped
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the youth program. What we do for recreation, we added
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: youth services, which deals with kids that don't participate in sports.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Our senior services program is so big that Senator Andy
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Kim and his staff wanted to interview our senior staff
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: to say, how can we duplicate what you guys are
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: doing in Atlantic City around the state of New Jersey?
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: People used to criticize Atlantic City for not being clean
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and not being safe. The devil's a liar. We got
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the best public works department in the world. Our police department,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: we got one homicide this year. Crime is down at
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: an all-time low. The shootings are down almost 80%. We've
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: invested in human capital. We invested in technology. We have Axon,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: which we did a five-year, $ 9 million deal that comes
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: with autonomous drones. So we have a shot spotter system, too.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: So if a gunshot is fired, we know where the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: address is. But now, not only that, The drones get
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: there before the officers. They broadcasting live. It's like having,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you know, you see in L.A. where, you know, people
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: getting chased through the yard. We have the drones that
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: go all over the city. And we also have license
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: plate readers. So it doesn't pay to commit crime in
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Atlantic City and the whole city is under surveillance.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: Let me ask you, is Atlantic City busy though, right?
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Because I see with the casinos popping up in Queens
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: and all over New York City now, are people driving
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: down to Atlantic City like what it was before?
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, people are still coming to Atlantic City. We still
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: get over 20 million visitors a year. Is it going
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to take a hit? Because people are budget conscious. They're
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: going to say, well, look, I can stay and gamble
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: 20 minutes away versus going to Atlantic City where I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: got to spend a couple of nights. Listen, we always
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: reinvent ourselves. New York competition is real. We're starting to
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: see some of those numbers, but I take what we have.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: We got the beach. We got the boardwalk. We got
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: world-class facilities. We got the best restaurants in the world.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: And you got Marys Small. So why not come to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Atlantic City?
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: I love Atlantic City. You know, I thought I'd be
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: having cheerleading competitions there.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I look forward to it.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know why I'd be having a peace of
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: mind in Atlantic City.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And we're going to keep it that way. And like
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I said, every person that's been shot or every homicide
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: has been solved 100%. And that's unheard of. And that's
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: due to the cameras, the license plate reader, and more.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And what we're doing for businesses, I was at the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: National Convening of Black Marys in Philadelphia. And one year
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I went up there, I said, we don't have a
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: story to tell, but I got a plan. In Atlantic City,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: because it's like a dying breed before casinos. The north
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: side is where all the black business. I'm sure you
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: heard of the club Harlem and all of that stuff.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: You know, those those days are gone. But what we
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: did to put people in position, we invest in our
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: residents education. So we got something called, you know, my
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: slogan is Great Day. It's a great day here in
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the city of Atlantic City. So we have Great Day
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: University where for free we give Atlantic City residents a
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: 20 week credit repair program. We got a financial planning program,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the graduation. One of them is going to happen next week.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: And we gave our black businesses and minority businesses $ 900, 000
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: in free grants. And that was a $ 15, 000 grants for startups,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: for new businesses and more people being able to retain
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: their employees. And we're making a big impact on Bruce weeks,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: who was our economic development director. He was a former,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: City Councilman, you know, he's leading up that along with
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Pam Fields and they doing a great job at, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: giving people their hopes and dreams. And, you know, because
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the problem is with us, access to capital, that's always
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the issue. And we're always looking to point the finger
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: at the other man to say, no, we got to
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: get our shit together. And we are providing those free courses.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: We got a small business academy. you know, for the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: residents of Atlantic City to get the job done.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: If you win this lawsuit, what do you want to
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: happen to William Reynolds? Like, do you just want the
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: financial compensation? You want him to move from office?
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: Oh, no.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, his term is up. He needs to go.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Because number one, he wasn't qualified. He's a political hack.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, he serves at
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the pleasure of the senator, Vince Palestina, and he has
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: senatorial courtesy. But at the end of the day, He
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: was never qualified. He's no more than a fifth-rate municipal
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: court lawyer, and that's where you need to go. Y'all
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: got a nice dispensary, too. Big and Bad. You ever
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: been in there? Oh, yeah, yeah. Really nice. What you
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: be getting? I don't smoke. I never smoke. See, I'm
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a former basketball star, two-time Hall of Fame athlete at
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: my college. Okay. I never smoke.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: That's more college. That's more college.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Wait, hold on. What college was it?
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: College of Atlantic City, I'm sure.
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Please. Yo, this dude is crazy. No, y'all know that.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I'm Stockton University. It's a small school, but where's it at, Tom?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Where's it at? So, it's in Galloway, and we got
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a campus in Atlantic City. Okay. So, but I never
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: smoked a cigarette. I never smoked Black and Miles. I
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: never smoked a celebratory cigar, and I have a lot
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to celebrate in my life. So, yeah, I don't smoke.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: All right, cool.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But shout out to Big and Bad, though.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: That's a nice tree up in there. Okay.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: Cool.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And I say that you was in Atlantic City, but
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I was on my way to Chicago.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, man.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: You got to tap in when you come in.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I really, really do. I always go to Kelsey's or Kimmy's. Kelsey's.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Kelsey's. There's three of us. Two Kelsey's.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Three of them now. Three of them now.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: Okay. But yeah, I was at the, oh my God,
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: not the Borgata, but the very first one that y'all
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: ever built.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Harris.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: What are they doing with that spot? I know they
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: knocked down Trump's hotel. What are they doing with that space?
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Are they building another hotel?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you this, and I'm not going
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to mention their name, but one of the most powerful
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: people in the state of New Jersey has purchased the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Trump Plaza property, them and their partners. I can't name
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: their names because I'm going to let them make that announcement.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: But when I came in, other mayors were just letting
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: it deteriorate. I said, I'm not standing for that because
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: ultimately as mayor of the great city of Atlantic City,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I'm responsible for the health, welfare, and safety. You had
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: literal chunks of concrete falling from the top. I remember
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: a video that someone from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority had,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: because we got the wrestling state championships there, and a
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: 20-foot by 20-foot sheet metal just fell off of it
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and could have created mass fatalities. So we got aggressive.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: We took him to court. Billionaire Carl Icahn, Trump didn't
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: own him. People like, oh, you know, you a Democrat,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: you playing politics. No, I know. I know Donald Trump.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Like I was Donald Trump's councilman when when he was,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: you know, had his casinos in Atlantic City. So at
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, it was about the health,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: welfare and safety. And we taught it. We tore it down.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: to create a fascinating development opportunity because that's the best spot.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: It's literal center city Atlantic City. It's one of the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: things that you don't even need directions for. You say,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: go to Atlantic City Expressway and keep going. You run
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: right in the Trump Plaza. So we tore it down.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: We had all of the late night talk shows because
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: they love my idea. We raised money for the Boys
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and Girls Club. And now someone else is buying it
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and they got big plans for it. And everything. You know,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Atlantic City is always, you know, being counted out. 2012
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: when Sandy came, 2014 with five casinos closed, when the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: state took us over in 2016. And we're always reinventing
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: ourselves now with family entertainment. I remember when I first
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: came here, I said, we don't have family entertainment since then.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: You know, we always had the legendary still pair, but
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: We have the North Beach Mini Golf. We have Dave & Buster's.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: We have the largest arcade on the East Coast. We
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: got the $ 100 million largest beachfront water park in the world.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: So we're really coming up in development. The who's who
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: is coming to the great city of Atlantic City. We
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: have the Audio Enthusiast Project, which I'm trying to get
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: you to buy one of those condos once it breaks
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: ground at Beta Field. That's a $ 4 billion project.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Are they building a racetrack there or something? Yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: It's not. like NASCAR, Indy, Formula One. It's just for
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the people who live there, they can drive their cars
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: around it. We have Kay Hovnanian. We have the Kushners
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: coming in. We have Bart Blasting. We have Brian Zubek.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: We have Mark Colazzo, Keith Groff, Pat Fasano. So Atlantic
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: City is red hot. And if you look at all
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the major publications, we're top 10 in many of them
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: in the country as far as home values and what
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you can get for your money.
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: You know, I want to ask you, when you and
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: your wife were going through your situation, both of y'all
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: facing criminal charges, who's holding the family together?
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I was about to say, yeah. What you mean? Like,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: who's holding the family?
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Like, both of y'all are dealing with criminal charges.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Like, I know mentally, I'm like, who? Listen, we were unbothered. Unbothered.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, like I said,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: it all starts with faith. And that was my slogan
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: for this year with the state of the city. Faith, resilience, redemption. And,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you know, we know what God we serve. We had
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: a loving family. a city that supported us like no other,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and we went to work every single day. And I
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: remember my officer, I'ma give him a free plug, Kerry
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Dunbar is back there. He'll tell you, when I first
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: found out we was charged, we was going to go
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: pick up a silent in Pleasantville. And I just turned around,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I said, oh, they just charged us. I went and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: got my silent, came back to work. The day of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the raid, I had a lot of stuff to do
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: at work. I had to make sure that my wife
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: was okay, mentally. I said, you good? I said, I'll
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: be back. I went back to work. And every day
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: we showed up for the people. And, you know, we
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: said we'll have our day in court. And justice prevailed.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Well, there you have it.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Marty Smalls.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Mayor Marty Smalls, the mayor of Atlantic City. We appreciate
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: you for joining us. Thank you so much, Mayor.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: No problem. The pleasure is always mine. And, you know,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club. We've got a friend in Atlantic City.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And to all of y'all around the world, Netflix and more,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: check out Atlantic City. and always say that please be
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: patient with us because God is not through with us yet.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: And there you have it.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: It's The Breakfast Club. It's May and Marty Smalls. Cool.