Latest / Brian Thomas / Smitherman - If you can't budget your own finances, how can you run a city?

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Smitherman - If you can't budget your own finances, how can you run a city? · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: That's foundless careful, better outcomes expect moriusee help dot com.
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  Speaker 1: He's found two seventy five cruiser working with the wreck
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  Speaker 1: but blocks the right leans at Mostellar traffic banks past
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  Speaker 1: seventy five West. Found so over a forty five minute
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  Speaker 1: delay out of Milford to an accident before Love one.
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  Speaker 1: Only the right lane is open. Ingram on fifty five
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  Speaker 1: kros the talk station.
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  Speaker 2: All right, seven to twenty Ken Cober, you just heard him,
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  Speaker 2: Cincinnati FOP president, on the city's eight point one million
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  Speaker 2: dollars settlement with protesters of twenty twenty and new police guidelines.
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  Speaker 2: And I asked can Kober where he laid the blame
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  Speaker 2: for all of this, and he said, the law Department
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  Speaker 2: of the City of Cincinnati. A guy was a vice
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  Speaker 2: vice mayor at the time during the John Cranley administration
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  Speaker 2: and had a lot to do with lawn. Public safety
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  Speaker 2: is with us on the phone to respond to that
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  Speaker 2: and to talk about the city settlement and why it
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  Speaker 2: is hurtful going forward for the citizens of Cincinnati, if
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  Speaker 2: he believes it is. Chris Smitherman, good morning, How are you,
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  Speaker 2: my friend?
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, my friend, how are you doing.
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  Speaker 4: I'm good it's good to talk. It's been quite a while.
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  Speaker 3: It has been as nice to hear your voice, and
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  Speaker 3: I've been listening to your show. You know, I want
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  Speaker 3: to start off with just say Merry Christmas to you.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, And you know, I get a lot of
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  Speaker 3: I get a lot of happy Holidays, and I never
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  Speaker 3: thought I would live to see that even saying Merry
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  Speaker 3: Christmas was controversial at any level.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, uh, I will, I will. I want to stop
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  Speaker 2: you right there, Chris, because and you're right, I say
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  Speaker 2: Merry Christmas all the time, but if you say happy holidays,
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  Speaker 2: Christmas is a holy day and that's where the word
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  Speaker 2: holidays comes from. So what I say if somebody tells
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  Speaker 2: me happy Holidays and instead of Merry Christmas, I say back,
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  Speaker 2: happy Holy Days because it is a holy day.
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  Speaker 4: So that's the way. That's the way I get around that.
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  Speaker 3: You know, Well, that's okay, you know that, and that's
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  Speaker 3: that's awesome. I just you know, from my point to you,
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  Speaker 3: I think wishing you a merry Christmas, and wishing anybody
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  Speaker 3: that I'm talking to a merry Christmas, no matter where
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  Speaker 3: they are, whether they're they're agnostic or atheist or even
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  Speaker 3: another religion because this is my faith and I'm pronouncing that.
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  Speaker 3: You know, people will say people will say Happy Hanukah
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  Speaker 3: to me, you know, and I'm not Jewish. So the
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  Speaker 3: reality is I don't have a problem wishing anybody a
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  Speaker 3: merry Christmas and I and I just know that this
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  Speaker 3: this was one of those small undermining steps because I've
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  Speaker 3: been listening to your show and I really appreciated the
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  Speaker 3: caller who called it and said, hey, the way to
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  Speaker 3: heaven is just accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. Period.
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  Speaker 3: I agree. But it's these small steps that are happening
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  Speaker 3: in our country, like no prayer in the school, you know,
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  Speaker 3: taking God out of the anthem, you know, things like
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  Speaker 3: Merry Christmas. And this is bad to say because these
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  Speaker 3: are things that are being taught to our children. That's
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  Speaker 3: saying Merry Christmas is not being respectful. It's not the
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  Speaker 3: politically correct thing to do. So all I'm pushing back on,
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  Speaker 3: you know, at my tender age is just to say
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  Speaker 3: Merry Christmas to you, and Merry Christmas to anybody who
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  Speaker 3: is listening. And I am very fine with anybody saying
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  Speaker 3: Merry Christmas to me.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, me too. Praise the Lord, Merry Christmas. And
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. If God is an underdog in
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  Speaker 2: this society, my money's on God.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell you that right now.
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  Speaker 2: So don't act like don't act like God's not going
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  Speaker 2: to win, because he always will in this.
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  Speaker 3: Battle too, as he always wins. And that's why it's
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  Speaker 3: so important for believers to speak up and say Mary Christmas,
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  Speaker 3: because when we get to those pearly gates, whatever they
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  Speaker 3: look like. I want to be one of those people
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  Speaker 3: that said I made sure that I praised you, that
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  Speaker 3: I didn't water down your birthday. And I was able
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  Speaker 3: to look somebody in the eye who was a non believer,
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  Speaker 3: someone who was a believer, somebody who was in a
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  Speaker 3: different religion, whatever it was, and I was able to say,
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  Speaker 3: and I would say Easter and Christmas. There are arguments
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  Speaker 3: of which one is most important, him rising from the
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  Speaker 3: dead on the third day or his birthday. But at
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  Speaker 3: the end of the day, I wanted to start our program,
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  Speaker 3: and this spleens it by making it very clear, Merry Christmas,
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  Speaker 3: Gary Ja and I don't even have to say Happy
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  Speaker 3: New Year, but Merry Christmas.
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  Speaker 4: No, Merry Christmas is enough. Oh Come Emmanuel, which means
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  Speaker 4: God with us. And that's the point.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Christmas, christ We're going to take a break and
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  Speaker 2: come back and we'll we'll get into some real spleen
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  Speaker 2: vent materials. Man, a Monday spleen vent is in order.
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  Speaker 2: Seven to twenty eight. Well, Chris, I love to say this.
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  Speaker 4: The floor is yours. Well is the be in your
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  Speaker 4: heart this morning?
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you. Brother. Let me say that the
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  Speaker 3: a point one million dollar settlement. I think it's important
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  Speaker 3: for the president of the FOP, for the police department,
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  Speaker 3: and you're listening audience to focus in on the word settlement,
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  Speaker 3: meaning the city didn't have to settle, Gary, Jeff, we
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  Speaker 3: could have gone the trial. If I were the mayor,
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  Speaker 3: I would have gone the trial and allowed a jury
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  Speaker 3: of the city's peers to determine whether those who had
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  Speaker 3: broken windows, thrown urn on police officers, those who broke
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  Speaker 3: the law, someone who shot a police officer in the head,
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  Speaker 3: who had a ballistic helmean on, who would be dead
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  Speaker 3: if they did not have a ballistic helmet on that
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  Speaker 3: I would have taken this to trial. And so this
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  Speaker 3: was a mayor who doesn't have a spleen. This guy
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  Speaker 3: did not stand up because he's playing politics with all
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  Speaker 3: of us. He's looking to his next election. He didn't
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  Speaker 3: want to send the message to those who were protesting
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  Speaker 3: as a part of his base. I'm going to take
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  Speaker 3: you to trial, put you on the stand, and ask
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  Speaker 3: you what you did. So remember this is called a settlement.
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  Speaker 3: The mayor, nor the manager, nor the city solicitor had
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  Speaker 3: to settle anything. You are very correct that the mayor
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  Speaker 3: hit the football like Charlie Brown, he was hiding the
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  Speaker 3: dog on football from us during this election. They knew
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  Speaker 3: that they had already come to the determination of a
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  Speaker 3: settlement and not going to trial to focus on that.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. They should have allowed a jury of
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  Speaker 3: their peers, a jury of the city's peers in southwest Ohio,
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  Speaker 3: to determine whether the riots that were happening in downtown
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  Speaker 3: were legal or not. But what we do is we've
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  Speaker 3: got all these conversations, so we don't want to do
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  Speaker 3: proactive policing. We're not talking about peaceful protesters. We're talking
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  Speaker 3: about people who did things that caused our officers to
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  Speaker 3: arrest them, and they absolutely are being rewarded, period. But
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  Speaker 3: this is about a settlement. You know, This is like
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  Speaker 3: you know, if people get this, like everyday people understand this.
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  Speaker 3: It's like the mayor waking up in his car is
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  Speaker 3: repolled twice once at least in front of city Hall.
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  Speaker 3: This is a guy that doesn't even know how to
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  Speaker 3: manage his own checkbook, let alone the billion dollar checkbook
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  Speaker 3: of the City of Cincinnati. So I'm not surprised that
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  Speaker 3: he would say, I'm not worried about it because we'll
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  Speaker 3: just issue some judgment bonds, kick twelve thousand dollars to
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  Speaker 3: each person, wish them, I don't know, happy holiday, and
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  Speaker 3: keep it moving. But that's what's wrong with city Hall.
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  Speaker 3: And everybody down in city Hall is on the same team.
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  Speaker 3: They will all coach sign on it. There will be
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  Speaker 3: no descent on the settlement, meaning a member of council
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  Speaker 3: could write a descent. I did many descent when I
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  Speaker 3: was a council The mayor can't stop the descent. He
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  Speaker 3: has to put the descent in and attach it to
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  Speaker 3: the vote. You won't have anybody on this council the
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  Speaker 3: dissent on settling the case. Absolutely, a member of councilors
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  Speaker 3: could say this is the wrong decision for the taxpayers.
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  Speaker 3: We should have gone the trial. But that's the problem.
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  Speaker 3: I agree with with the with the president of the
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  Speaker 3: FOP that this lies in the heart of our city
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  Speaker 3: solicitor's office. But who's telling the city solicitor to settle
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  Speaker 3: the case. It's the mayor, it's the guy whose car
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  Speaker 3: was repolled. By the way, every elected official, including me,
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  Speaker 3: has to file a financial report to the State of Ohio.
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  Speaker 3: Everybody should be calling in or writing in to Columbus,
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  Speaker 3: to the Ethics Commission asking did this mayor disclose he
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  Speaker 3: had any impairments, any judgments against him when he filed
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  Speaker 3: those reports over the last two years, because he should
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  Speaker 3: have disclosed them to the State of Ohio. Now they're
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  Speaker 3: not going to do a big thing about it. They're
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  Speaker 3: not going to be it's not going to be a bit.
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  Speaker 3: But the bottom line is that these are the kinds
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  Speaker 3: of things that should be on the report, Gary Jeff
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  Speaker 3: because it tells you that our mayor is impaired, Meaning
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  Speaker 3: a mayor that is facing financial issues can be bribed,
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  Speaker 3: He can jeopardize votes, he could move things in directions
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  Speaker 3: in order for him to make get contributions to his campaign,
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  Speaker 3: or bribery, which, by the way, City Hall has experienced
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  Speaker 3: so you want to know that your mayor, that members
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  Speaker 3: of council don't have judgments against them, they're not impaired,
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  Speaker 3: because that means every developer, anybody in the city who's
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  Speaker 3: doing business with the City of Cincinnati knows that this
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  Speaker 3: mayor can't pay his own personal bills. That's why you're
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  Speaker 3: supposed to disclose it to the State of Ohio. So, yes,
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  Speaker 3: I can talk about the eight point one million, is
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  Speaker 3: about the settlement. It's absolutely outrageous. I can say that
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  Speaker 3: John Cranley dide an excellent job in keeping our city
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  Speaker 3: safe during that period of time. And I can also
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  Speaker 3: say that John Cranley never had financial issues. He always
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  Speaker 3: focused on trying to come with a balance budget, and
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  Speaker 3: this mayor continues to fail us. And by the way,
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  Speaker 3: in closing on this segment, we should have known about
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  Speaker 3: those repossessions. We should have known that his cars were
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  Speaker 3: being reposed prior to the election. We should have known
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  Speaker 3: about this settlement prior to the elections. But guess what,
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  Speaker 3: voters election have consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Malfeasans is no stranger and we can keep going for
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  Speaker 2: a few more minutes. Chris Joe tells me we've got
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  Speaker 2: the green light. For more time, if you've got more time.
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  Speaker 2: But malfeasans is no new thing in the City of Cincinnati.
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  Speaker 2: You know by AFTEP pure vall standard, Liz Rogers could
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  Speaker 2: be mayor. I mean after she after she had two bankruptcies,
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  Speaker 2: and they gave her a restaurant at the banks.
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  Speaker 3: So that matter of fact, Look, that was one of
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  Speaker 3: those deals that I voted no on. I got a
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  Speaker 3: lot of pushback by some African American voters in the
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  Speaker 3: City of Cincinnati. But ultimately, let me make it clear,
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  Speaker 3: the city, No, the city didn't get their money back,
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  Speaker 3: which is what we were told. So that's number one,
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  Speaker 3: and there's no one on council that will ever ask
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  Speaker 3: about it. Period number two that the city didn't shut
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  Speaker 3: her down, Gary Jeff, It was the state of Ohio. No,
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  Speaker 3: it was the same issue that she was experiencing in Hamilton,
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  Speaker 3: which is taking your sales tax, not surrendering it to
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  Speaker 3: the state, and then using that to cash flow the
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  Speaker 3: operation of the business. So ultimately they said, hey, when
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  Speaker 3: you collect the sales tax, turn it into us. She
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  Speaker 3: wasn't doing that. They came downtown and put notices on
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  Speaker 3: her doors and change on her door. So to the public.
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  Speaker 3: People were saying, oh man, the city council shut her
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  Speaker 3: down the city. That's not what happened. The state of
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  Speaker 3: Ohio shut that business down for failure to turn over
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  Speaker 3: her sales tax to them. That's it. It's not complicated.
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  Speaker 3: This was a person who obviously had trouble running a business.
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  Speaker 3: You're right. That's another example, and we can give many
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  Speaker 3: examples over the years of the city hall trying to
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  Speaker 3: pick winners and losers. But at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 3: it's rare to have a sitting mayor have their cars reposed. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: and at the same time do a settlement of eight
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  Speaker 3: point one million dollars and tell the citizens that was
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  Speaker 3: our only choice. It wasn't we could have gone to trial.
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  Speaker 3: It is exactly what we should have done.
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  Speaker 2: One point seven million Americans have their cars repossessed on
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  Speaker 2: any regular basis every year in this country.
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  Speaker 4: Chris.
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  Speaker 2: But my question is, and there are so many reasons
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  Speaker 2: why that you know this could be possible, why this
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  Speaker 2: could happen, is what is Mayor Purevoll's salary as mayor.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's pretty I'm guessing around one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 3: five thousand a year. He's probably met in about eight
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  Speaker 3: eight or eight or eighty five hundred dollars every single month,
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  Speaker 3: something that most citizens will never see in their lifetime.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And I guess the navigator maybe was costing him
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  Speaker 2: about five or six hundred a month.
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  Speaker 4: Max.
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  Speaker 2: I understand if somebody has a medical emergency or there's
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  Speaker 2: some issue that just occurs out of the blue. But
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  Speaker 2: because you are careless and mess up an auto pay
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  Speaker 2: for one month, the repo company, the finance company doesn't
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  Speaker 2: come and take your car away. This happened, This had
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  Speaker 2: to happen over at least a three month period. It's
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  Speaker 2: usually ninety days, and they will make every attempt to
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  Speaker 2: contact you in the interim to tell you you are
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  Speaker 2: interrears with your car payment. So he was notified, he
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  Speaker 2: knew about it. It wasn't carelessness. He just didn't pay
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  Speaker 2: for three months, right.
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  Speaker 3: So they at least three months, at least three months,
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  Speaker 3: because it could have been four or five months. And
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  Speaker 3: they knew that with the mayor, right, So you do
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  Speaker 3: know that they were trying to be as costs as
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  Speaker 3: they possibly could be. And so you are so right, Gary, Jeff,
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  Speaker 3: you know, for him to do an interview and act
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  Speaker 3: like this, is a thirty day scenario. He obviously was
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  Speaker 3: not telling the truth. Period, I mean my period.
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  Speaker 2: Even my cable company even gives me as much money
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  Speaker 2: as I'm paying them, and I'm not happy about that,
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  Speaker 2: that's my fault. But my cable company even gives me
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  Speaker 2: a fifteen day grace period to pay my bill and
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  Speaker 2: there's no late fee.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, okay, yes, Think about every citizen out there who's
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  Speaker 3: watching this council raise their taxes right whatever it is,
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  Speaker 3: or advocate for raising their taxes or property taxes, city taxes, fees,
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  Speaker 3: whatever they are.
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  Speaker 2: A brand new fee, brand new feed just went a
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  Speaker 2: new effect in certain places for restaurants and hotels.
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  Speaker 3: That's right. So as we're processing this, the everyday person,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: let's make it real, gets up every day, goes to work,
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  Speaker 3: balances out their checkbook, lives within their budget for forty years, retires,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: then lives on some retirement and social security, and they
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  Speaker 3: still pay their bills. They're paying for their medicine, everything,
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  Speaker 3: and they're never having their car or their house ever Repolle.
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  Speaker 3: This is an example of someone who doesn't know how
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  Speaker 3: to manage their personal finances from a financial planner's perspective
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  Speaker 3: and So this is the reality is we're not we're
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  Speaker 3: again the laughing joke right of the of the state,
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  Speaker 3: and of the county and of the entire country that
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  Speaker 3: we have a mayor whose car is being repolled at
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  Speaker 3: the same time they're advocating to raising our taxes and
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: they themselves are voting to raise our taxes. It makes
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  Speaker 3: absolutely no sense. And then there by the way, look
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  Speaker 3: at the settlement to you, Gary, Jeff, Look for the
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  Speaker 3: fire chief. He's coming up three to five million dollars
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  Speaker 3: for most likely Chief Washington. Look for Chief Fiji. There's
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  Speaker 3: going to be at there. So when we issue judgment
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  Speaker 3: bonds for eight or ten million a city officials, if
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: you're listening to me, you might as well pump it
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  Speaker 3: up to fifteen to eighteen million while you're in the
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: bond market, because you're going to continue to pay out
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  Speaker 3: these kinds of settlements based on the irresponsible decisions that
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  Speaker 3: are coming from the administration.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the money tree will be bare again very soon, Chris.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe they can find another railroad to sell. Uh. Chris
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Smitherman with the Monday Spleen event this morning. Good stuff,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend and Mary.
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  Speaker 3: Christmas, thanks for having me on Merry Christmas
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: To you too, all right, it's seven forty